Ellen Willis 1769964 208603399 2008-04-27T20:52:36Z 82.69.32.201 /* Bibliography */ {{Infobox Person | name = Ellen Jane Willis | birth_date = {{birth date|1941|12|14}} | birth_place = [[Manhattan]], [[New York, New York]] | death_date = {{death date and age|2006|11|9|1941|12|14}} | death_place = [[Queens]], [[New York, New York]] | occupation = [[Journalist]] | spouse = [[Stanley Aronowitz]] }} {{TOCright}} '''Ellen Jane Willis''' ([[December 14]], [[1941]] &ndash; [[November 9]], [[2006]]) was an [[United States|American]] political [[essay|essayist]], [[journalist]], and [[pop music]] [[music critic|critic]]. ==Biography== Willis was born in [[Manhattan]], and grew up in the boroughs of [[the Bronx]] and [[Queens, New York|Queens]] in New York City<ref name=nyt-obit>Margalit Fox, [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/10/arts/10willis.html?ex=1320814800&en=7df5ac657f731a9e&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss Ellen Willis, 64, Journalist and Feminist, Dies], ''New York Times'', November 10, 2006.</ref>. Her father was a police lieutenant in the [[New York City Police Department]].<ref name=nyt-obit/> Willis attended [[Barnard College]]<ref name=nyt-obit/> as an undergraduate and did graduate study at [[University of California, Berkeley]], where she studied [[comparative literature]] for a semester but left [[graduate school]] shortly afterwards {{Fact|date=February 2007}}. In the late 1960s and 1970s, she was the first pop music critic for ''[[The New Yorker]]'', and later wrote for, among others, the ''[[Village Voice]]'', ''[[The Nation (U.S. periodical)|The Nation]]'', ''[[Rolling Stone]]'', ''[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]'', and ''[[Salon.com|Salon]]'', as well as ''[[Dissent (magazine)|Dissent]]'', where she was also on the editorial board. She was the author of several books of collected essays. At the time of her death, she was a professor in the journalism department of [[New York University]] and the head of its Center for Cultural Reporting and Criticism.<ref name=nyu-bio>[http://journalism.nyu.edu/faculty/willis.html Official page] on the site of the Department of Journalism, New York University, accessed 7 July 2007</ref> She lived in [[Queens County, New York|Queens]] with her husband [[Stanley Aronowitz]] and her daughter, Nona Willis-Aronowitz. On [[November 9]], [[2006]], she died of [[lung cancer]].<ref name=nyu-bio/> ==Writing and activism== She is also known for her [[feminist]] politics and was a member of [[New York Radical Women]] and subsequently co-founder in early 1969 with [[Shulamith Firestone]] of the [[radical feminism|radical feminist]] group [[Redstockings]].<ref>Ellen Willis, "Radical Feminism and Feminist Radicalism", 1984, collected in ''No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays'', Wesleyan University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-8195-5250-X, p. 117–150, especially p. 119, 124.</ref> She was one of the few women working in music criticism during its inaugural years, when it was by and large a male-dominated field. Starting in 1979, Willis wrote a number of essays that were highly critical of [[Anti-pornography movement#Feminist objections|anti-pornography feminism]], criticizing it for what she saw as its sexual [[puritanism]] and moral [[authoritarianism]], as well as its threat to [[free speech]]. These essays were among the earliest expressions of feminist opposition to the anti-pornography movement. Her 1981 essay, "Lust Horizons: Is the Women's Movement Pro-Sex?" is the origin of the term, "[[pro-sex feminism]]".<ref>Ellen Willis, [http://villagevoice.com/specials/0543,50thewill,69320,31.html Lust Horizons: The 'Voice' and the women's movement], ''Village Voice'' 50th Anniversary Issue, 2007. This is not the original "Lust Horizons" essay, but a retrospective essay mentioning that essay as the origin of the term. Accessed online 7 July 2007. A lightly revised version of the original "Lust Horizons" essay can be found in ''No More Nice Girls'', p. 3–14.</ref> She was also a strong supporter of women's [[abortion rights]], and in the early 1980s was a founding member of the [[pro-choice]] [[street theater]] and protest group [[No More Nice Girls]]. A self-described [[anti-authoritarian]] [[democratic socialist]], she was very critical of what she viewed as [[social conservatism]] and [[authoritarianism]] on both the political [[Right-wing|right]] and [[Left-wing|left]]. In cultural politics, she was equally opposed to the idea that cultural issues are politically unimportant, as well as to strong forms of [[identity politics]] and their manifestation as [[political correctness]]. In several essays and interviews written since the [[September 11 attacks]], she was cautiously supportive of the idea of [[humanitarian intervention]] and, while opposed to the [[US invasion of Iraq]],<ref>Ellen Willis, [http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=529 Ellen Willis Responds], ''Dissent'', Winter 2003. Accessed online 7 July 2007.</ref> she was critical of certain aspects of the [[anti-war movement]].<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20051223222129/http://journalism.nyu.edu/faculty/files/willis01.pdf why i'm not for PEACE],<!-- unusual capitalization in the original --> ''Radical Society'', April 2002, p. 13–19; copy formerly posted on Willis's NYU faculty site was archived on the [[Internet Archive]] 23 December 2005. Accessed online 7 July 2007.</ref><ref>[http://leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio_1.html#030327 March 27, 2003 broadcast], Doug Henwood's radio archives, ''Left Business Observer''.</ref> Coming from a [[Jewish]] background, Willis also wrote a number of essays on [[anti-Semitism]], and was particularly critical of [[New anti-semitism|left anti-Semitism]]. Occasionally she wrote about [[Judaism]] itself, penning a particularly notable essay about her brother's spiritual journey as a [[Baal Teshuva]] for ''Rolling Stone'' in 1977.<ref>Ellen Willis, [http://www.aish.com/spirituality/odysseys/Next_Year_In_Jerusalem3_Part_1.asp Next Year in Jerusalem], originally published in ''Rolling Stone'', April 1977.</ref> Willis saw political authoritarianism and sexual repression as closely linked, an idea first advanced by psychologist [[Wilhelm Reich]]; much of Willis' writing advances a Reichian or radical [[Freudian]] analysis of such phenomena. In 2006 she was working on a book on the importance of radical [[psychoanalytic]] thought to current social and political issues.<ref name=nyu-bio/> ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==Bibliography== ===Books=== * {{cite book | author = Willis, Ellen | title = Beginning to See the Light: Pieces of a Decade | publisher = Knopf : distributed by Random House | location = New York | year = 1981 | isbn = 0-394-51137-9 | accessdate = 2007-11-10}} * {{cite book | author = Willis, Ellen | title = Beginning to See the Light: Sex, Hope, and Rock-and-Roll. 2d ed. | publisher = Wesleyan | location = Hanover | year = 1992 | isbn = 0819562556 | accessdate = 2007-11-10}} * {{cite book | author = Willis, Ellen | title = No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays | publisher = Published by University Press of New England [for] Wesleyan University Press | location = Hanover, NH | year = 1992 | isbn = 0-8195-5250-X | accessdate = 2007-11-10}} * {{cite book | author = Willis, Ellen | title = Don't Think, Smile! : Notes on a Decade of Denial | publisher = Beacon Press | year = 1999 | isbn = 0-8070-4320-6 | accessdate = 2007-11-10}} *Willis, Ellen & Echols, Alice. ''Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America 1967-1975'' co-authored with [[Alice Echols]] ==External links== {{wikiquote|Ellen Willis}} *[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/10/arts/10willis.html?ex=1320814800&en=7df5ac657f731a9e&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss "Ellen Willis, 64, Journalist and Feminist, Dies"] by Margalit Fox, ''[[New York Times]]'', November 10, 2006. * [http://www.nyunews.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/11/10/45541b82efbdb "Journalism professor, activist dies at 64"] by Josh Burd and Nick Brennan, ''[[Washington Square News]]'', November 10, 2006. * [http://dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=756 "A Remembrance of Ellen Willis"] by Susie Linfield, ''[[Dissent (magazine)]]'', Winter 2007. * [http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061127/ellen_willis "Ellen Willis, 1941-2006"], ''The Nation'', November 10, 2006. *[http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-willis15nov15,1,5931964.story?ctrack=1&cset=true "Ellen Willis, 64; radical critic targeted foibles wherever she saw them, on the left or right"] by Jocelyn Y. Stewart, ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', November 15, 2006. * [http://nyobserver.com/20061120/20061120_Suzy_Hansen_media_newsstory1.asp "Remembering Ellen Willis, Rock �n� Roll Feminist Superhero"] by Suzy Hansen, ''[[New York Observer]]'', November 20, 2006. * [http://www.sevendaysvt.com/nc/columns/poli-psy-psyche/2006/ellen-willis-1942-2006.html "Ellen Willis, 1942-2006"] by [[Judith Levine]], ''[[Seven Days (newspaper)|Seven Days]]'', Novemer 22, 2006. * [http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid28507.aspx "My Ellen Willis"] by Michael Bronski, ''[[The Boston Phoenix]]'', November 30, 2006. * [http://www.popmatters.com/pm/features/article/9305/sex-hope-and-rock-and-roll-a-conversation-with-ellen-willis/ "Sex, Hope and Rock and Roll: A Conversation with Ellen Willis"] by Chris O'Connell, ''[[Pop Matters]]'', January 8, 2007. * [http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2006/11/ellen-willis.html "Ellen Willis Remembered"] ''The Common Ills'', November 11, 2006. ===Essays by Ellen Willis=== * [http://journalism.nyu.edu/faculty/willis.html Ellen Willis NYU homepage] – includes links to numerous essays. * [http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=716 "We Remember Ellen Willis"], ''Dissent'', Fall 2006. – links to her essays for ''Dissent''. * [http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/willisletter.html "Ellen Willis's Reply"], 1968. * [http://fair-use.org/ellen-willis/women-and-the-myth-of-consumerism "Women and the Myth of Consumerism"], ''[[Ramparts (magazine)|Ramparts]]'', 1969. * [http://www.villagevoice.com/specials/0543,50thwillis,69282,31.html "Hell No, I Won't Go: End the War on Drugs"], ''Village Voice'', September 19, 1989. * [http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Political/Radical_Left.html "We Need a Radical Left"], ''The Nation'', June 29, 1998. * [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4196/is_19990321/ai_n10501975 "Monica and Barbara and Primal Concerns"], ''New York Times'', March 14, 1999. * [http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/11/06/willis/index.html "Vote for Ralph Nader!"], ''Salon'', November 6, 2000. * [http://www.wpunj.edu/newpol/issue31/willis31.htm "The Democrats and Left Masochism"], ''[[New Politics (magazine)|New Politics]]'' #31 (new series), Summer, 2001. * [http://www.bostonreview.net/BR27.5/willis.html "The Realities of War"] (A response to [[Elaine Scarry|Elaine Scarry's]] “Citizenship in Emergency”), ''Boston Review'', October/November 2002. * [http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:Py_JpVbNdLoJ:www.thenation.com/doc/20040705/forum2 "Can Marriage Be Saved?: A Forum" (II)], ''The Nation'', June 17, 2004. * [http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/1124.html "The Pernicious Concept of 'Balance'"], ''[[The Chronicle of Higher Education]]'', September 9, 2005. ''Note: scroll down page.'' * [http://www.maxinegreene.org/pdfs/WillisPaper.pdf "Commentary on Maxine Greene's ''The Dialectic of Freedom''"] ===Reviews and critiques of Ellen Willis=== * [http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020819/reading20020808 Review of ''Beginning to See the Light''] by [[Liza Featherstone]], ''The Nation'', August 8, 2002. * [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1252/is_18_126/ai_56918041 Review of ''Don't Think, Smile!''] by Eugene McCarraher, ''[[Commonweal]]'', October 22, 1999. * [http://weeklywire.com/ww/11-29-99/boston_books_1.html Review of ''Don't Think, Smile!'' and interview with Ellen Willis] by Michael Bronski, ''Weekly Wire'', November 29, 1999. * [http://web.archive.org/web/20041016004838/http://www.sfbg.com/lit/march00/smile.html Review of ''Don't Think, Smile!''] by Marcy Sheiner, ''[[San Francisco Bay Guardian]]'', March 29, 2000. * [http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010312/letter Bully in the Pulpit?] (Discussion of Ellen Willis "[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010219/willis Freedom From Religion]"), ''The Nation'', February 22, 2001. * [http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/pen-l/2003w12/msg00083.htm "Open Letter to Ellen Willis"] by Louis Proyect, ''PEN-L'' (internet mailing list), March 25, 2003. ===Interviews=== * [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6467648 "Ellen Willis, Feminist and Writer"], ''[[Fresh Air]]'', November 10, 2006 (originally broadcast February 14, 1989). (page links to [[RealAudio]] audio file) * [http://leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio_1.html#030327 Interview with Ellen Willis and others on ''Implicating Empire''] by [[Doug Henwood]], ''[[Left Business Observer]]'' (radio), March 27, 2003. (page links to [[MP3]] audio) {{DEFAULTSORT:Willis, Ellen}} [[Category:1941 births]] [[Category:2006 deaths]] [[Category:American feminist writers]] [[Category:American Jews]] [[Category:American music critics]] [[Category:American music journalists]] [[Category:American political writers]] [[Category:American pro-choice activists]] [[Category:American socialists]] [[Category:Barnard College alumni]] [[Category:Feminist scholars]] [[Category:Lung cancer deaths]] [[Category:New York University faculty]] [[Category:People from New York City]]