Phyllis Chesler

Phyllis Chesler (born October 1 1940) is an American writer, psychotherapist, and professor emerita of psychology and women's studies at the College of Staten Island (CUNY). She is known as a feminist psychologist, and is the author of thirteen books, including the best-seller Women and Madness, and the recent publications The Death of Feminism and The New Anti-Semitism.

She has organized political, legal, religious, and human rights campaigns in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East.

Personal life

Chesler was born in New York State to Jewish immigrants. In the early 1960s she was briefly married to an Afghan fellow student and lived in Afghanistan. She credits her Afghan experience as inspiring her to become an ardent feminist. According to Chesler, her problems began when she and her new husband arrived in Afghanistan. She was forced to give up her U.S. passport upon arrival, losing her American citizenship in the process. With it, she gave up all rights, and ended up a virtual prisoner in her in-laws' house, the target of cruelty and abuse by several members of the household, who felt she was soft, and ill-treatment by her new husband, from which she had no legal recourse. She attempted to flee, but was repeatedly rebuffed by the U.S. Embassy, who no longer recognized her as a citizen. After a few months of this, her father-in-law helped her, sick with untreated hepatitis, get back to the U.S., on a tourist visa. She currently lives in Manhattan, New York City. Phyllis Chesler claims in several of her books that in the late eighties in New York City, she was crossing a busy street and was struck down by a car. She claims that her injuries were life threatening and that she required several surgeries. There is no record of such an accident occuring and many critics believe that Chesler has fabricated the whole thing. Phyllis Chesler has told far right wing Jewish organizations that the accident was no accident and that a neo Nazi/Palestinian conspiracy was committed against her. She has told other audiences that Adolph Hitler was driving the car that ran her down. Whether she means this to be taken seriously or it is some sort of black humor it is unclear. Phyllis Chesler was raised in a far right ultra orthodox Jewish home. Her mother would not tell her the facts of life and considered the female body to be unclean and sinful. Chesler has indicated that she had her first menstrual period at the gym in school. She was sure that she was bleeding to death and the other girls taunted her and called her names. Her mother punished her when she got home for having 'the curse'. Some analysts believe that some of Chesler's writing has been influenced by her fundamentalist Jewish upbringing. Chesler has had nothing but negative venom towards the father of her son. She has mentioned in many of her writings that the father of her son was never in his life and that her son 'quietly' took her last name.

Feminism

Chesler taught one of the first Women's Studies classes at Richmond College (which later merged with Staten Island Community College to form the College of Staten Island) in New York City during the 1969-1970 school year. During the same year, she co-founded the Association for Women in Psychology. During her time at Richmond College, she established many services for her female students. Because of her, self-defense classes, a rape crisis center, and a child center were developed. She is one of 5 co-founders of The National Women's Health Network, with Barbara Seaman, Alice Wolfson, Belita Cowan, and Mary Howell, M.D., and is a charter member of the Women's Forum. She was an editor-at-large and columnist for On The Issues magazine. She left the magazine 'On The Issues' after a major falling out with Editor-In Chief Merle Hoffman. Chesler has made it a big part of her writing career to attack other female writers. In the publication 'On The Issues', Chesler wrote an article entitled 'Wolf In Sheep's Clothing'. This was supposesed to be a scholarly analysis of feminist author Naomi Wolf. It ended up as most Chesler articles tend to be just a mean spirited attack on Dr. Naomi Wolf. Chesler appeared on the O'Reilly Factor a few years ago and berated feminists and women in general. Chesler often counters any critique of her ideas by calling the person who dares to challenge her as being 'antiSemitic' and part of the antiZionist conspiracy. She has disparaged African Americans, gays and lesbians and transsexual people. In many of her books she has endorsed the ideas of the late John Money and Richard Green. She agrees with their ideas concerning the intersexed and accepts the mutilation of boys who have lost their penises in medical accidents being raised as pseudo girls.

"New anti-Semitism"

Chesler has recently become known for her campaign against what she considers to be a "new anti-Semitism". She has written about this concept in her book The New Anti-Semitism: The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About It (2003).

Chesler's book was strongly criticized by Norman G. Finkelstein in Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History. Finkelstein writes that Chesler "barely disguises that alleging a new anti-Semitism is simply the pretext for defending Israel", noting that she devotes eight pages to "A Brief History of Arab Attacks against Israel, 1908-1970s" but says nothing concerning Israel's actions against Arabs. Finkelstein also lists errors and apparent errors in Chesler's book, including her reference to "Arab lands such as ... India" and her description of Buddhist Aung San Suu Kyi as a Muslim intellectual.

Chesler discussed her book in a 2007 interview with the Kahanist Jewish Defense League. She reiterated her belief that "anti-Zionism is the new anti-Semitism", and made statements critical of Islam and multiculturalism. Among other things, she was quoted as saying "It’s easy to say, yes, the Muslims are against everyone who is not a Muslim. And it’s true. That’s part of what jihad is about, that’s part of the history of Islam. [...] Here’s the thing. The West, and that means Jews and Israelis, would like to lead sweet and peaceful lives. We’re up against an enemy now that is dying to kill us, that lives to kill, and that at best merely wishes to impose on the rest of us its laws and strictures." Chesler also called for Jews to make alliances with Christian Zionists such as Pat Robertson, and said that she would no longer criticize Israel's occupation of the West Bank.

Books

• Women and Madness (1972)
• Women, Money and Power (1976)
• About Men (1979)
• With Child: A Diary of Motherhood (1979)
• Mothers on Trial: The Battle for Children and Custody (1986)
• Sacred Bond: The Legacy of Baby M (1988)
• Patriarchy: Notes of an Expert Witness (1994)
• Feminist Foremothers in Women's Studies, Psychology, and Mental Health (1995)
• Letters to a Young Feminist (1997)
• Woman's Inhumanity to Woman (2002)
• Women of the Wall: Claiming Sacred Ground at Judaism's Holy Site (2002)
• The New Anti-Semitism. The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About It (2005)
• The Death of Feminism: What's Next in the Struggle For Women's Freedom (2005) ISBN 1-4039-6898-5

References

• Finkelstein, Norman G. Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2005. ISBN 0-520-24598-9

External Links

Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution from the Jewish Women's Archive

Further reading

• Chesler's website
• Feminista! v1n12 - Letters to a Young Feminist: An Interview with Phyllis Chesler
• "Women and Badness; Phyllis Chesler: prominent second-wave feminist—and neocon", by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow, Village Voice