The Princess at the Window: A New Gender Morality

Andrea Levan is an associate professor and co-ordinator of the Women’s
Studies Program, Thorneloe College, Laurentian University.

The Princess at the Window is another in a series of recent books
criticizing the contemporary women’s movement for being out of touch
with the lives and experiences of mainstream women. Laframboise, a
self-described feminist, directs most of her criticism at Catherine
MacKinnon, Andrea Dworkin, and the American feminists associated with
Ms. magazine—all of whom, in her view, blindly espouse the simplistic
generalization that all men oppress all women. Even if we set aside the
question of whether that is an accurate representation, Laframboise
appears unaware that this particular theoretical approach has been
contested by many other feminists, especially those with socialist,
postmodern, and multiracial perspectives. Also, it is disappointing that
this Canadian writer is so focused on American feminism and appears to
be so ignorant of the Canadian women’s movement. For example, she
repeatedly cites the report of the Canadian Panel on Violence Against
Women as the voice of contemporary Canadian feminism, when, in fact,
that report was repudiated by the National Action Committee on the
Status of Women.

Some of the analysis in this book is at least as absurd and one-sided
as that put forth by the feminists Laframboise criticizes. For example,
she says that the women’s movement is not protesting sexist draft
policies and suggests that perhaps only women should be sent off to die
in order to compensate men for their historical suffering in war. This
proposal shows ignor-

ance of extensive feminist theory on the gen-dered nature of war, the
connection between patriarchy and militarism, women’s participation in
war industries, and the question of women’s entry into military
service. The chapters in which Laframboise develops an anti-censorship
position on pornography include some interesting points, but this case
has been made far more sensitively by other feminists.