Timehost: Welcome everyone. Many of you may have read or seen this week's TIME magazine cover story. It's about feminism, and its author, Ginia Bellafante, makes the argument that feminism has "gone Hollywood." We're going to be talking about feminism, where it is now, and where it's going, and to do that, we're now joined by Ginia Bellafante and feminist author Phyllis Chesler, author of the groundbreaking study "Women and Madness", and more recently, "Letters to a Young Feminist." Welcome to you both.
Sckanaday asks: What is the big threat Ally McBeal poses to old school feminists? I'm amazed at the backlash against a young, well-educated woman with choices who opts to live by her own agenda, not someone else's! Isn't that part of what feminism has stood for?
Ginia Bellafante: I think feminism worked long and hard to erase stereotypes of women as neurotic incompetents unconcerned with matters of public life. Ally McBeal, in my humble opinion, is helping undue [undo] that work.
Phyllis Chesler: I agree with her. And I would say that if Monica Lewinsky goes to law school and continues to behave in the same fashion, she will turn into Ally McBeal -- obsessed with men and sex and love and short skirts, and not with children being beaten to death in their own homes and not with women losing child support. These are not Ally McBeal's fantasy concerns. So I agree with Bellafante on this.
Read the full Transcript: Is Feminism Dead
