{{short description|American lawyer and writer|bot=PearBOT 5}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2015}} '''Wendy Kaminer''' (born December 28, 1949) is an American lawyer and writer. She has written several books on contemporary social issues, including ''A Fearful Freedom: Women's Flight From Equality'', about the conflict between egalitarian and protectionist feminism; ''[[I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional|I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other Self-Help Fashions]]'', about the [[self-help]] movement; and ''Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety''.
==Early life== Kaminer graduated from [[Smith College]] in 1971. She earned her [[Juris Doctor|J.D.]] degree from [[Boston University Law School]] and practiced law as a staff attorney for the [[Legal Aid Society]] and in the office of the [[Mayor of New York City]].<ref name=Bio1>[https://archive.today/20071117132310/http://www.aclusc.org/Page/WendyKaminer.html American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina]</ref>
==Activism== ===Anti-pornography movement and anti-censorship movements=== In the late 1970s, Kaminer worked with [[Women Against Pornography]], where she advocated private consciousness-raising efforts and opposed legal efforts to censor [[pornography]]. She contributed a chapter to the anti-pornography anthology, ''Take Back the Night'', wherein she defended [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]] freedoms and argued the dangers of seeking legal solutions to the perceived problem of pornography. She opposed efforts by [[Catharine MacKinnon]] and [[Andrea Dworkin]] to define pornography as a civil rights violation. She critiqued the pro-censorship movement in a 1992 article in ''[[The Atlantic]]'' entitled "Feminists Against the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]]."<ref>Kaminer, Wendy [https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/199211/feminism-censorship Feminists Against the First Amendment], ''[[The Atlantic]]''</ref> An ardent free speech advocate, she is currently a member of the advisory board of the [[Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression]].
Kaminer, a self-described equality or "individual rights feminist", was an early opponent of late 20th-century "protectionist" [[feminism]], reflected in the movement to censor pornography, and of the "difference" feminism associated with [[Carol Gilligan]]. She critiqued "Feminism's Identity Crisis" in an October 1993 cover story for ''The Atlantic''.<ref>Kaminer, Wendy [https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/199310/kaminer-feminism "Feminism's Identity Crisis"], ''[[The Atlantic]]''</ref>
===ACLU=== Kaminer was a member of the board of the [[American Civil Liberties Union]] of [[Massachusetts]] from the early 1990s until June 2009. She was a national board member of the [[American Civil Liberties Union]] from 1999 until her term expired in June 2006. In 2003, during her tenure on the national board, she became a strong critic of the ACLU leadership and was centrally involved in a series of controversies, including the attempted ouster of the executive director, that culminated in a highly publicized effort to prohibit board members from criticizing the ACLU.<ref name=huffingtonpost>[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wendy-kaminer/how-the-aclu-lost-its-bea_b_24857.html How the ACLU Lost its Bearings]</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.thenation.com/article/aclu-v-aclu/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140103100601/https://www.thenation.com/article/aclu-v-aclu/ |archive-date=2014-01-03 |title = ACLU v. ACLU |magazine=The Nation |date = January 18, 2007|last1 = Sherman|first1 = Scott}}</ref> In 2009 she published a book on her experience and views, called ''Worst Instincts: Cowardice, Conformity and the ACLU''.
As of 2018, Kaminer still comments on the ACLU and what she believes is the appropriate relationship between protecting civil liberties and civil rights.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2018/06/26/the-aclus-divided-heart/ |title=Opinion | The ACLU's divided heart |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=2018-06-26 |access-date=2021-12-23}}</ref>
==Writings== Kaminer, a former [[Guggenheim fellow]], has published seven books in addition to ''Worst Instincts'', including her landmark{{citation needed|date=May 2017}} 1992 critique of self-help and the recovery movement, ''I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other Self-Help Fashions''. She has also written extensively about irrationalism, spiritualism, and the intersection of religion and politics in America, the subject of her 1999 book, ''Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety''. Her feminist writings include her 1990 book, ''A Fearful Freedom: Women's Flight from Equality'', reviewing the historic conflict between equality and protectionism for women and exploring the legal and social pitfalls of protectionism. A former legal aid attorney, she is a staunch critic of the death penalty and the criminal justice system, the subject of ''It's all the Rage: Crime and Culture''. She is also the author of ''Free for All: Defending Liberty in America Today''; ''True Love Waits: Essays and Criticism''; and ''Women Volunteering: the Pleasure, Pain, & Politics of Unpaid Work from 1830 to the Present'' (1984).<ref name=bio2>[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wendy-kaminer Bio: The Huffington Post]</ref>
==Personal life== On November 17, 2001 Kaminer married longtime companion Woody Kaplan.<ref name=married>{{Cite web |url=http://elsa.photo.net/kaminerkaplan.html |title=Secular Wedding Vows: Kaminer/Kaplan Wedding |access-date=February 21, 2008 |archive-date=February 20, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080220012206/http://elsa.photo.net/kaminerkaplan.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Kaplan, a former real estate developer, founded the Civil Liberties List (a political action committee) and was a full-time political and civil liberties activist. Kaplan was president of the [[Defending Dissent Foundation]] and chaired the advisory board of the [[Secular Coalition for America]].<ref name=kaplan>{{Cite web |url=http://www.secular.org/adv_board/wkaplan.html |title=Secular Coalition for America |access-date=February 21, 2008 |archive-date=March 24, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080324011401/http://www.secular.org/adv_board/wkaplan.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Kaplan died on August 3, 2023 <ref>{{Cite news |author=Bryan Marquard Globe |date=August 27, 2023 |title=Woody Kaplan, an activist 'unafraid to stand up for the unpopular,' dies at 80 |newspaper=The Boston Globe |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/08/27/metro/woody-kaplan-an-activist-unafraid-stand-up-unpopular-dies-80/ |access-date=2023-12-19 |language=en-US}}</ref> Kaminer is herself a member of the Secular Coalition advisory board.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.secular.org/bios/Wendy_Kaminer.html |title=Secular Coalition for America Advisory Board Biography |access-date=May 24, 2010 |archive-date=March 7, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170307104446/http://www.secular.org/bios/Wendy_Kaminer.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
== References == {{reflist|30em}}
==External links== {{Wikiquote}} * [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wendy-kaminer/ Wendy Kaminer], blog at ''[[The Huffington Post]]'' * [https://www.theatlantic.com/wendy-kaminer/ Wendy Kaminer] at [[The Atlantic]] * {{C-SPAN|39351}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaminer, Wendy}} [[Category:1949 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:20th-century American women lawyers]] [[Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers]] [[Category:20th-century American women writers]] [[Category:21st-century American women lawyers]] [[Category:21st-century American lawyers]] [[Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers]] [[Category:21st-century American women writers]] [[Category:American Civil Liberties Union people]] [[Category:American civil rights lawyers]] [[Category:American feminist writers]] [[Category:American political writers]] [[Category:American women essayists]] [[Category:Anti-pornography feminists]] [[Category:The Atlantic (magazine) people]] [[Category:Boston University School of Law alumni]] [[Category:Feminist studies scholars]] [[Category:American free speech activists]] [[Category:Jewish American non-fiction writers]] [[Category:Jewish American feminists]] [[Category:Jewish American women writers]] [[Category:American secular Jews]] [[Category:Smith College alumni]] [[Category:21st-century American Jews]] [[Category:American women human rights activists]]