Nothing Mat(t)ers: A Feminist Critique of Postmodernism

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And you get into trouble when you and other women speak up about patriarchy.
To all the other members of “the Chilly Climate Committee” who wrote the report to
the Department of Political Science, my deepest admiration: Sylvia Bardon, Phyllis
Foden, Nadia Kyba, Denise McCabe, Theresa Newhouse. The eight tenured faculty
(men) have threatened legal action because of this report. Constance Backhouse
sums it up in her letter to us:
The patterns are becoming so predictable. Polite, carefully articulated reports
which describe, with great hesitation some of the features of the
discriminatory landscape on Canadian campuses. Howls of outrage by those
who deem themselves wrongly(!) accused. Demands for retribution against the
brave few who managed to speak about the barriers to full equality. Pressure
upon other women, some of whom succumb, to deny the allegations, to label
the report-writers radical and the contents of the report unfounded. And then
they charge that we run the universities, that we insist on “political
correctness”, that we are the “feminist police”. Our opponents seem to have
turned the world upside down, characterizing everything by its opposite. 1
And indeed, I believe the reputations of universities should depend on their response
to retaliations against those who bring forward studies of discrimination.
Without the energetic support of my two female colleagues, Radhika Desai and
Kathy Teghtsoonian, there could be no hope of change. I hope we will not only
survive but transform the “discipline”! I am also deeply grateful to Angela Miles for
her quality of mind and activism, to Monica Schraefel for voicing outrage, to Margo
Young, Hester Lessard and Anita Braha for their keen sense of justice and legal
expertise.
And thanks to the many who have been supporting us through this particularly
grievous backlash to our “report”: Nancy Adamson, Connie Backhouse, Ellen Balka,
Himani Bannerji, Kathleen Barry, Pauline Bart, Eva Campbell, Centre for Women’s
Studies (OISE), Mary Anne Coffey, Bev Copes, Michele Le Doeuff, Janice Drakich,
Andrea Dworkin, Frieda Forman, Jennifer Fry, Joan Graves, Roberta Hamilton,
Nicole Hansen, Cheryl Harrison, Angela Heck, Tracy Johnson, Didi Khayatt,
Susanne Klausen, Julie Lee, Elizabeth Loughran, Mary Anne MacFarlane, Diana
Majury, Deidre Martin, Joan Mason-Grant, Sheila McIntyre, Cath McNaughton,
Prince Nallo, National Action Committee, Victoria Status of Women Action Group,
Mary O’Brien, Janetta Ozard, Lisa Philipps, Toni Pickard, Matt Pollard, Claire
Porac, Michele Pujol, Stephannie Roy, The “Sisters’ E-Mail Network”(!), Dorothy
Smith, Jennifer Spencer, Christine St Peter, Judy Tyabji, University of Victoria
Students’ Society, UVic Faculty Women’s Caucus, UVic Graduate Students’
Women’s Caucus, UVic Women’s Centre, UVic Poli Sci Women’s Caucus,
University of Western Ontario Women’s Caucus, Jill Vickers, Claire Young,
Jennifer Waelti-Walters, Alison Wylie and many others.
And of course, my mother and aunt and grandmother and sister and niece…
Somer Brodribb,
May 1993
1. Personal correspondence, 11 May 1993.