THE STANDARD READER
The Standard Reader Books in Brief I Can Fly: The R. Kelly Story by Kim L. Dulaney (Unique Expressions, 32 pp., $13). His poor mother. What else is there to say after learning that singer R....
...Choppy editing and a scarcity of footnotes indicating original contexts (congressional testimony, The Phyllis Schlafly Report) are frustrating...
...The claim that American women are downtrodden and unfairly treated is the fraud of the century," Schlafly wrote in her first salvo against ERA...
...Prior to I Can Fly's original release in 1998 (the title comes from Kelly's 1996 hit "I Believe I Can Fly," whose message of self-divinity is quite popular in elementary schools), the singer had already settled one civil action, accusing him of having sex with a fifteen-year-old whom he encouraged to participate in group sex...
...Feminist Fantasies isn't really about feminism—it's about tax law and child care, pornography and pop culture, education and national defense...
...It goes without saying that any man who's been arrested for child pornography (and now faces various civil suits alleging statutory rape) should no longer be considered a proper subject for a children's book...
...In this sense, Phyllis Schlafly is a victim of her own success...
...In fact, a lady will probably never hiss or boo at all...
...She occasionally repeats herself, but always makes her case as few opponents of the feminist lobby would dare...
...Why should we lower ourselves to 'equal rights' when we already have the status of special privilege...
...But they want a professional woman of thirty to be able to consent at midnight and then change her mind two days later and prosecute her erstwhile friends for criminal rape...
...a lady will not...
...But she hasn't hesitated to include along with her dissection of policy initiatives and day care data more light-hearted lobs at feminists: "A feminist will hiss and boo you if you use the terms 'girl' or 'lady...
...David Skinner Feminist Fantasies by Phyllis Schlafly (Spence, 256 pp., $27.95...
...So one learns from I Can Fly, the inspirational children's book based on the rags-to-riches tale of the self-described "R&B thug...
...At one time, ERA was a mere three states away from ratification...
...And on women in the military: "America is fortunate that the warrior culture has survived thirty years of feminist fantasies and that some men are still macho enough to relish the opportunity to engage and kill the bad guys of the world...
...Not that Kelly was ever general-audience material...
...Nor is the book's existence justified by Kelly's music: Its mood and lyrics range from sappy to filthy, and they alone make him an unfit role model...
...Between this bust and his arrest last June in Chicago, the thirty-six-year-old performer faces sixty years in prison...
...Lila Arzua...
...Mainstream political discourse has more or less relegated radical feminist groups to taking on created controversies such as the all-male membership at Augusta National Golf Club...
...Put it this way: No child should know anything about R. Kelly...
...What else is there to say after learning that singer R. Kelly, arrested twice in the last two years on kiddie-porn charges, credits dear old mom with his success in life...
...This came just days after R. Kelly's arrest in Florida on twelve counts of child pornography for possessing images of himself "involved in sexual conduct with a minor...
...In 92 pieces written from 1972 to 2002, Phyllis Schlafly confronts the left-wing assaults on women and families with arguments built from logic, statistics, and wit...
...On statutory rape and date rape laws, she writes: "The feminists' double standard is fascinating...
...They want a girl of twelve or thirteen years to be able to consent so her seducer can go scot-free...
...And much of the material seems dated— America's flirtation with universal day care and an Equal Rights Amendment is essentially over...
...But maybe that whole flying thing will come in handy when he's locked up...
...In her 1986 post-mortem on that failed legislation, Schlafly presents six reasons for its ultimate failure, but skips the most significant: her own efforts to change the nation's mind...
...Recently, Unique Expressions, the publisher of I Can Fly, confirmed that it would be republishing the book...
Vol. 8 • February 2003 • No. 22
