No More Nice Girls

February 3, 1992
This anthology collects the book reviews, feminist political essays and fiction that Willis, formerly a Village Voice columnist and now a New York University associate professor of journalism, published during the Reagan-Bush years. The book opens with several works from the early '80s that tediously address psychosexual issues within the feminist movement. Beyond these exercises in anti-misogynist rhetoric, however, lie many outstanding works. In ``Radical Feminism and Feminist Radicalism,'' Willis chronicles the internal struggles, strategies and consequent splintering of the women's movement, while in ``Escape From New York'' she writes nostalgically of her fellow aging radicals and their compromises. In more recent pieces Willis eloquently argues her pro-choice position on abortion and offers a balanced perspective on the racial division within the women's movement. Essays on the issues of parental responsibility in an age of reproductive choice and on the war on drugs demonstrate her ability to communicate strong, rational arguments for emotionally charged liberal philosophies.