Doris Lessing and Feminism
Richard Brooks reports on Doris Lessing's surprisingly hostile views on feminism, from the 1960s ("The feminist movement of the 1960s wasted so much energy on just talking and forming themselves into groups. I call it the 'Look at my bum' movement.") to the present day ("Look at them on TV, how rude and contemptuous they are of men. I'm shocked by some of the things women say about men's size. It's revolting. I'm against all this man-bashing.").
The Times (Mar 2001)
In a talk at the Edinburgh books festival, Doris Lessing criticizes a "lazy and insidious" brand of feminism that "continually demeaned and insulted" men.
Guardian (Aug 2001)
In what's turning into a full-fledged literary spat, Jeanette Winterson blasts Doris Lessing's recent comments about modern feminism and the relations between men and women.
Guardian (Aug 2001)
Expanding on her highly publicized recent comments, Doris Lessing tells Observer interviewer Barbara Ellen that she's not a feminist and never was: "The thing is, I haven't changed at all. I'm not any kind of traitor to the cause. I've always thought the same way. It's just that, like all obsessively political people, feminists tend to fasten on to someone who they think is one of them. I am always being described as having views that I've never had in my life." Between such polemical pronouncements, Ellen presents a good biographical profile of Lessing and a witty account of their interview session. In a sidebar piece, Kathryn Hughes presents an overview of Doris Lessing's literary career from the 1950s to the present.
The Observer (Sep 2001)
INTERVIEWS
From 1997: Dwight Garner interviews Doris Lessing about, among other things, "the current state of publishing, the trouble with feminism, the death of Princess Diana and how a generation fell out of love with communism."
Salon (Nov 1997)
From 1999: Jonah Raskin interviews Doris Lessing. "At her home in north London, where we met once again to chat, [Lessing] turned her critical gaze almost everywhere she looked -- at feminism, the 1960s, fame, and current fads in spirituality. On the cusp of eighty, she is as fiercely independent as ever."
The Progressive (1999)
