Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS

Even though she hasn’t even been buried yet, feminists, aided by the mainstream media, are already attacking that late conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly, who died on September 5 at the age of 92.

The culture of life lost a true heroine on Monday with the passing of Phyllis Schlafly, a constitutional lawyer, activist and Roman Catholic who devoted her long career to fighting for life, the family, and traditional values. One of her greatest accomplishments was the launching of a successful campaign in 1972 to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment being promoted by radical feminists that would have made abortion a constitutional right. Schlafly also founded the Eagle Forum and the Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense Fund where she remained active until her death.

In spite of her stellar accomplishments, feminists have tossed aside all semblance of common courtesy and are busily publishing “hit pieces” designed to malign Schlafly’s name. And all of it is being done with the full consent of the mainstream media (of course).

Writing for Breitbart, Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D. cites one of the more egregious pieces, published by Mic and entitled “8 Worst Things Phyllis Schafly Ever Said About Women’s Rights”.

As the list proves, Schlafly is still being vilified by feminists for her highly successful STOP ERA campaign which led to the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment in the early 70’s.

Author Sarah Harvard says one of Schlafly’s “worst” remarks ever was a comment that “the ERA proposal to fund abortion and provide rights to gays and lesbians were reasons to oppose the legislation.”

Labelling her “the face of anti-feminism,” Harvard attacks Schlafly for calling out the iniquities and abuses of the feminist movement in the United States.

“There is a war on men, and [feminists] are very open about it,” Schlafly once said. “They don’t conceal it; they brag about it. You read all of their material — they’re always saying they want to abolish the patriarchy. They said that husbands are not necessary in a marriage, they’re not necessary in raising children.”

As Dr. Williams points out, “What Schlafly intuitively understood was that the American feminist movement had betrayed women themselves, and that many women did not identify with the shrill, angry mob that proposed to speak for them.”

Schlafly also turned the tables on the feminist idea that abortion was “liberating” for women, saying that it was ultimately demeaning and dishonorable.

But Mic’s derogatory piece was just one of many posted about Schlafly since her death two days ago.

As Bill Donohue of the Catholic League points out, the mainstream media is also piling on with disparaging headlines such as this one by the Associated Press: “Far-Right Activist, Author Phyllis Schlafly Dies at 92.” The article calls Schlafly’s best-selling book, A Choice Not an Echo, “a manifesto for the far right,” noting that she founded the Eagle Forum, an “ultraconservative group.”

However, when radical feminist Betty Freidan died ten years ago, the Associated Press noted death of the founder of the National Organization for Women with the headline: “Feminism Pioneer Betty Friedan Dies at 85.” It applauded her book, The Feminine Mystique, saying, “Few books have so profoundly changed so many lives as did Friedan’s 1963 best seller.”

The New York Times didn’t miss its chance to bash Schlafly, citing her death with the headline: “Phyllis Schlafly Dies at 92; Helped Steer the United States to the Right.” It goes on to describe her as a “polarizing figure” whose moral ferocity was reminiscent of “the ax-wielding prohibitionist Carry Nation.”

Compare this to the Times’ fawning headline marking Betty Friedan’s death: “Betty Friedan, Who Ignited Cause in ‘Feminine Mystique,’ Dies at 85.” She was remembered as a “feminist crusader” who “permanently transformed the social fabric of the United States and countries around the world.”

Of course, none of these articles bother to mention that Friedan was a communist sympathizer whose luggage once burst open in an airline carousel to reveal magazines depicting women in extreme bondage. She also defended former President Bill Clinton’s behavior during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, calling his accusers “dirty old white men” who were “trying to use sexual issues wrongly.”

To be fair, some articles also left out a few salient points about Schlafly too, such as how her successful STOP ERA campaign was due to the fact that the majority of American women agreed with her.

As Donohue so succinctly summarizes, “Phyllis Schlafly was a courageous and principled woman. That she is still enraging the adversarial press is a tribute to her legacy, and another blot on the profession of journalism.”

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