Washington University students and faculty are in an uproar over the decision to award anti-gay, anti-feminist Eagle Forum fossil Phyllis Schlafly an honorary doctorate at its May 16 commencement ceremony. A Facebook group created to protest the move has over a thousand members.
Mary Ann Dzuback, the director of the women and gender studies department at Washington University agreed, said it was “grossly inappropriate” for the university to honor Schlafly with a degree.Steve Ralls of PFLAG National:“She’s spent her entire career speaking against women in the workforce and for them remaining in the home,” Dzuback said of Schlafly, who rose to prominence during the successful campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s.
…The university issued a statement Sunday defending its decision, saying it — like many other universities — chooses to honor those “who have become a part of the broad public discourse on vital issues of the times.” The statement cited other controversial figures, such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, whom the school has honored.
PFLAG and our St. Louis chapter are proud to join those on the ground in Missouri and call on school officials to do the right thing and, as executive director Jody Huckaby said today, “find a more suitable person to applaud.”Steve also points out some of Mother Schlafly’s winning cultural touchstones:
On California’s SB-77, to protect GLBT students: The legislation “represent[s] a repudiation of 2,000 years of Christian moral teaching on human sexuality, marriage, and the family. The result is that California’s schools are now promoting behaviors and lifestyles that are physically and spiritually dangerous for children.”
On the idea of any protections for GLBT youth: “The bottom line is, don’t count on the courts to protect public school students from being subjected to the promotion of homosexuality.”
On sexual harassment laws: “Sexual harassment on the job is not a problem for virtuous women.”
Yeah. I think they could locate someone who isn’t terminally frozen in the dark ages.
35 Responses to “Mother Schlafly to receive honorary doctorate”
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I’m a Wash U student that’s graduating this week; you’re right, we’re all pissed.
Wash U also brought Alberto Gonzales to campus a few months ago and paid him 30 grand (plus 5 grand for security).
It’s insane.
Dude, if you consider her stance on working women, even Schlafly shouldn’t want Schlafly to speak.
‘The university issued a statement Sunday defending its decision, saying it — like many other universities — chooses to honor those “who have become a part of the broad public discourse on vital issues of the times.”’
So, where’s the honorary degree for Fred Phelps?
I’m a Wash U alum (School of Fine Arts, ‘81), and a few years ago they renamed the art school for Sam Fox. You know, the swiftboat financier. I’m not sending them another dime.
What the fuck?
Seriously.
Who the hell decided this was a good idea? And why is she accepting a degree when she should follow her advice and be in the kitchen serving her menfolk?
Oh, that’s right, servitude is for other women. Since she admits women suck, men like her.
She’s evil. A Serena Joy who’s never faced the real consequences of her oratory.
I just don’t get this “let’s invite the most outrageous commencement speaker we can find” trend at colleges. Northwestern’s law school is currently in an uproar over plans to feature Jerry Springer at commencement. While not as poisonous as Schafly, Springer certainly has contributed nothing positive to American life.
Controversy is all very well in its place, but commencements are supposed to be celebrations. Why subject the students, who have done a lot of work and paid a lot of money to graduate, to someone who is guaranteed to piss a lot of them off?
Did she get her husband’s permission to both speak and receive a faux educational degree?
I think ironically-named freshman Rachel Wisdom doesn’t understand the meaning of the word “tolerant”.If you tolerate intolerance, you aren’t tolerant anymore.
It gets better: Their commencement speaker this year is Chris Matthews.
Clearly someone thinks commencement is French for “pandering bullshit artists”.
Schlafly’s speech will probably be pretty interesting though… something along the lines of thanking the university for the degree and urging the female graduates to not focus *too* much on supporting themselves or advancing in their careers, because men don’t like smart women, and they really shouldn’t be working in the first place….
Exactly Ms Kate- because this is what a real woman should be doing…
“Did she get her husband’s permission to both speak and receive a faux educational degree?”
He died a long time ago, and she keeps his stuffed corpse around for the company.
It’s really creepy when she has conversations with him, doing her own voice and his too.
Norman Bates would understand…
Isn;t this the school where the basketball coach said something tolerant, and the local Catholic bishop went all balistic over it?
She’s developed quite a career for a woman who is opposed to women having careers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllis_Schlafly
I’d forgotten this little nugget of information:
Shit, louise!
Duggars having another baby!
Why are these folks on TV all the time? Jim Duggar is starting his own FLDS cult.
I’m a BA in Biology, ‘81 alum and I haven’t been impressed with the choice in commencement speakers at all, once they even had Bob Hope, which horrified my informant, a Philosophy professor at WU at the time………..
Unfortunately, WashU will now have to endure the onslaught of OH NOEZ!!11!! LIBRUL ACADEMIA!!11!! if they do the right thing and disinvite her.
Of course, when Al Gore speaks at Carnegie Mellon these same people are livid (there was a freeper thread on this a few weeks ago.)
Jesse Jackson may be “controversial” but that means something different than Schlafly being controversial. Jackson because he insists that black people are fully human. Schlafly because she insists that women aren’t. Those are pretty much completely opposite reasons for controversy, really. That kind of conflation only reinforces racist and sexist garbage spewing from the right, and whatever moron came up with that comparison should be fired for gross incompetence.
Caren, I understand the baby will be named either Jellyroll or Jackrabbit…
This wonderful Classic Bloom County cartoon regarding Pyllis Schlafly came around on the guitar just this week…
Reagan’s Little Dumpling…
I have a post about this up at Crooked Timber:
http://crookedtimber.org/2008/05/08/schlaflys-honorary-degree-a-travesty-of-a-mockery-of-a-sham/
It’s a highlight reel of Schlafly’s career-long wingnuttery. Honestly, there’s not a single wingnut conspiracy theory, nor a single wingnut idea or cause — from racism to anti-Semitism to misogyny to “intelligent design” to yay! for the atomic bomb — that she hasn’t touched.
These two posts are also highly recommended:
http://ourfuture.org/blog-entry/crash-eagle
http://ourfuture.org/blog-entry/clipping-eagles-wings
That reminds me, we almost had Little Ricky (Man on Dog) Santorum as the commencement speaker at my graduation - luckily either enough people spoke out against the idea or (more likely) his speaking fee was too high for my small liberal arts college.
What do the people of VA Tech think of Schlafly, who suggested that the syllabi in the English department were responsible for Cho’s rampage?
,i>I just don’t get this “let’s invite the most outrageous commencement speaker we can find” trend at colleges. Northwestern’s law school is currently in an uproar over plans to feature Jerry Springer at commencement. While not as poisonous as Schafly, Springer certainly has contributed nothing positive to American life.
Bitter Scribe, I recommend listening to the This American Life episode Leaving the Fold. The first story is about Jerry Springer’s life before he was a talk show host. To whit, he was a progressive city councilor and mayor. It does a pretty good job of showing a different side of the guy.
Such colorful names and faces. My large state school hasn’t yet succumbed to such pandering - this semester’s commencement speaker is some chemical engineer with 14 doctorates already. He’ll put the whole damn crowd to sleep with his intellectual fact-based science. No rhetoric for this fellow!
Which is the way it should be - all of us are tired this week after finals.
Is this why administrations see fit to honor these gas-bags? They’re just damn tired of watching the undergraduates and emeritus staff nod off in the middle of the ceremony?
If it were my school, I’d attend graduation, and I’d spit on her in the memory of my late mother. She would be proud of that!
Technocracygirl: Bah. Whatever good tendencies Springer may have shown early in his life, he’s long since subsumed them as the host of that freak show he calls a TV program.
What’s worse from my POV is that he’s very much aware how worthless his show is, and puts himself down for it every chance he gets. To some, that’s charming self-deprecation; to me, it’s just pathetic.
Oh, louise, louise, louise, you make me forget my pending likely to be unfortunate grades for this past semester…
I’m remarkably dull and normal (?) in real life. Well… maybe not.
“Louise” is the side with a sense of silliness… all Geminis are multipersonality, you know, and can talk enough for 2 people. Hence the “twins”!
Hang in there, teac… and let me know later on how you do. Will keep fingers crossed for ya!
Thanks, sweets. Aries, here, for whatever that’s worth!
That explains so much; my younger kid is one also and while our squabbles are fantastic, we’re also quick to cool down, be reasonable and be best pals.
If ya need to bitch about classes, hit me over at andiparkinson@gmail.com… always got a sympathetic ear.
Check your email!
So Paula Jones isn’t virtuous? Who knew?
Mike Ess;
What’s really scary is when she dresses up like him, and then grabs a butcher knife and sneaks into the showers of women who aren’t virtuous…
“What’s really scary is when she dresses up like him, and then grabs a butcher knife and sneaks into the showers of women who aren’t virtuous…”
Well, somebody’s gotta do it…
I hate Phyllis Schlafley.
I’m not proud of that, because I try my best not to hate anybody, no matter how much I may disagree with them. But…I fucking hate this misogynistic, homophobic hypocritical mummified corpse of talking entrails. She makes me wanna pretend to be Richard Widmark and act out the most famous scene from “Kiss of Death”, with her in the wheelchair.
I do hope some alumnus gave Big Bucks to WU for WU to invite Phyllis Schlafly. I’d rather see a local nephew (I think) be the speaker - Tom Schlafly, successful businessman - he runs a microbrewery in the town of Anheuser Busch.