Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 14:53:06 -0500
From: Deborah W Kilgore <dkilgore-AT-iastate.edu>
Subject: Re: NY Times article on Riesman


There are certainly other issues that could be argued to be more important 
than some of the ones I describe.  And female intellectuals are most 
certainly active in all the areas you list.  So are male intellectuals.

My beef is the narrow vision of some American intellectual elite that is 
dead or dying, white and male, who apparently are the only ones who do or 
did interpretive research, who apparently are the only ones who do or did 
bring their work to "the people," when in fact there are American 
intellectuals today who are doing the same kind of work, only arguably better.

Now you can argue that a symptom of sociology's decline in status in the US 
is in fact the rise of women into positions of power within the field.  But 
I just don't agree with the implication that all the great sociologists are 
dead.

Deb



AM 5/21/2002 -0700, you wrote:
>Well, if you happen to think "the issues of the age" are "date rape, wife
>battering, the glass ceiling, the second shift, sexual harassment, the matrix
>of domination, etc. etc. etc.," then perhaps these "vibrant" feminist
>sociologists have something to say to you. I have no argument with that; these
>are real concerns to many people. I, however, happen to think "the issues of
>the age," in the US at least, are the health care crisis, homelessness,
>globalization (which, among other things, involves women in Costa Rica working
>for 31 cents/hour to make $150  Liz Claiborne Jackets), global warming,
>corporate corruption (e.g. the Enron/Anderson fiasco), the "Patriot Act," US
>support for right wing oppressive governments abroad, the spread of weapons of
>mass destruction, the drug war (which in reality is more of a war against
>African Americans), former US Presidents getting rich off the arms race, 
>former
>first ladies (one in particular who once said she "hated" Eleanor Roosevelt)
>getting rich off the "privatization" of the US prison system, and the US
>Supreme Court's recent usurpation of the people's right to elect it's
>president. If this make me an "old fashioned white guy," that I submit points
>not to a problem with me or others who share my concerns, but to the
>shortsightedness and shallowness of those who would make the charge.
>
>
>Deborah W Kilgore wrote:
>
> > At 04:43 PM 5/19/2002 -0700, you wrote:
> > >Extremely interesting link. In it, Patterson not only gives a nice capsule
> > >summary of Reisman's career, but points to some very troubling voids in
> > >the American cultural scene, and some even more troubling ways in which
> > >these voids, created by the abandonment of academic social thinkers, are
> > >being fulfilled by the likes of Limbaugh, Schlessinger (a.k.a. Dr Laura),
> > >Oprah, and the rest.
> >
> > Patterson ignores a vibrant community of feminist sociologists who are
> > public intellectuals engaging in the exact kinds of thinking and research
> > that he imagines died with the old white guys.  Feminist public
> > intellectuals have also "[given] the nation a vocabulary" with which to
> > discuss the issues of the age:  date rape, wife battering, the glass
> > ceiling, the second shift, sexual harrassment, the matrix of domination,
> > etc. etc. etc.
> >
> > American women go completely unnoticed in Patterson's old fashioned
> > analysis.  Thank goodness his analysis is not representative of the
> > everyday life of the field of sociology.
> >
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Deborah Kilgore, Ph.D.
> > Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership & Policy Studies
> > Iowa State University
> > N232 Lagomarcino Hall
> > Ames, IA  50011-3195
> > (515) 294-9121, dkilgore-AT-iastate.edu
> >
> > **********************************************************************
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Deborah Kilgore, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership & Policy Studies
Iowa State University
N232 Lagomarcino Hall
Ames, IA  50011-3195
(515) 294-9121, dkilgore-AT-iastate.edu



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