"The feminist establishment wanted people to be like stupid, submissive, noisy parrots", she's written, which includes hewing to a straight political line on issues. "I spent the whole of my activist career compromising myself, my individuality, and my sense of right and wrong in order to belong."
The desire to stamp out individualism and dissent among feminist groups makes for a very small ideological tent. Bruce was pressured to resign as president of the Los Angeles chapter of NOW when she made public statements critical of the overwhelming focus on race in the O.J. Simpson trial, to the exclusion of the issue of violence against women. It seemed a reasonable position for a women's organization to take, but NOW national president Patricia Ireland believed it "blotted NOW's otherwise impressive record of committed activism in the fight for racial justice and equality" and was insensitive to "people of color". All this from an organization focused on the right for women to be "heard".
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