SOURCE: DeVries, Hilary. “Through the Eyes of a Founding Feminist.” Christian Science Monitor (5 June 1984): 31, 34.

In the following negative review, DeVries describes Femininity as an expression of outmoded feminist militancy.

As one of the intellectual founders of the women's movement, Susan Brownmiller knows times are tough for feminists.

Not only has the Equal Rights Amendment failed repeatedly in recent years, but many women of the new generation openly disown the militancy that characterized feminism's formative years.

At the same time, a recent spate of books written by such movement founders as Betty Friedan and Germaine Greer have been greeted with nothing short of critical catcalls for selling out their original radical ethic. Ms. Brownmiller's own new book, Femininity, a none-too-charitable look at the Western feminine aesthetic, has earned the charge of being simply outmoded militancy.

As a veteran journalist and the writer of Against Our Will, a documented study...