Merle Hoffman Editorial Archive

1994

Death takes the Stage

by Merle Hoffman Nothing focuses the mind like the prospect of death. Contemplating the cessation of being immediately changes priorities. ...

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1994

Not Just Another Packwood Story

by Merle Hoffman All told 1985 was not an unusually dangerous year. There had been a rash of fire bombings ...

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1993

The Text behind that Cover Girl Smile

by Merle Hoffman In the morning that I would be posing for photographers for an upcoming profile in Lears magazine ...

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1993

Sex after the fall

by Merle Hoffman In some ways my personal and political ties with Russia seem to have an uncanny quality -almost like destiny. ...

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1992

Choices: The Road Not Taken

by Merle Hoffman Ionce attended a small social gathering which included a woman who professed great skill in analyzing people ...

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1992

First Ladies, Second Sex

by Merle Hoffman It was one of those defining moments: I am watching the finals of the Miss USA pageant ...

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1991

Isn’t It Enough to Make You Scream?

by Merle Hoffman Ihave this fantasy. It’s a variation on that wonderful scene in the movie “Network,” when the eccentric, ...

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1991

Is Being Female a Birth Defect?

by Merle Hoffman rowing up in Philadelphia in the 1950s was a special kind of wasteland. a time when one’s ...

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1991

“I Am Against Fanatics”: A Dialogue Between Elie Wiesel and Merle Hoffman on Abortion, Love and the Holocaust

The first time I heard it was in Detroit in 1982. The words shot out at me like bullets, creating ...

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1991

“Thelma and Louise Live.”

by Merle Hoffman It is the two outlaw women giving the ultimate “fuck you” to the patriarchy I never really ...

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1990

Compassion and Consistency

by Merle Hoffman I have always had a problem with a style of consistency that demands seeing things in black ...

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1990

Survivors

by Merle Hoffman Iam a child of the holocaust, a survivor of sorts, a kind of surrogate sufferer. I have ...

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1990

Editorial: Arlene Pfeiffer

It was 1984, and Ronald Reagan was in the fourth year of his presidency. The country was awash in the ...

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1990

Living in a land of Sexual Violence

by Merle Hoffman I have an old friend who lives in North Miami. She’s bright, solidly middle class, married and ...

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1989

America’s Most Dangerous Woman?

by Merle Hoffman “It was the prison that had proved the best school. A more painful, but a more vital, ...

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1989

American Fantasies

I am going to miss Ronald Reagan. Miss him in places of personal history and political passion. Miss him in ...

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1989

ABORTION – THE “ISSUE”

It seemed to have happened quietly, quickly, very subtly. It was there, overshadowing everything else, demanding immediate attention – The ...

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1989

More than a Woman’s Issue

by Merle Hoffman “I love your enemies because they drive you to my arms for comfort” -Edna St. Vincent Millay ...

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1988

Women’s Lives Under Padding

by Merle Hoffman learned about paddings accidentally many years ago. It was in a time before my consciousness was raised. ...

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1988

Where are the Troops?

by Merle Hoffman The question came at me from left field. It was raining, cold and very early in the ...

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1988

The Greening of the World: An Exclusive Interview with Petra Kelly, Founder of the West German Green Party and Anti Nuclear Activist

by Merle Hoffman MH: How did you achieve your level of political consciousness and activism? PK: One of my mottos is that ...

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1987

The New Crusaders

by Merle Hoffman have always worn a lot of black, even when it was out of fashion. Perhaps it was ...

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1987

Two Faces of Motherhood

by Merle Hoffman It was the pots and pans that finally activated me. I had followed the case for days ...

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1986

Quiet Heroines

by Merle Hoffman November, 1985 did not come quietly for me. It was a month of immersion in violence and ...

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1985

LOVE AND DEATH ON 86

by Merle Hoffman I am overhearing a phone conversation – the tone of the speaker is intimate – concerned – ...

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1985

Medical E.R.A.

by Merle Hoffman It was Mother’s Day and the son of William Schroeder was responding to repeated questions on David ...

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1985

On The Issues

by Merle Hoffman In the cheaper stores, it’s much more obvious – Sometimes there’s a big sign announcing that everything ...

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1985

A CONVERSATION: The Rev. Beatrice Blair and Merle Hoffman

by Merle Hoffman The Rev. Beatrice Blair has served as Executive Director of National NARAL and as chair of its ...

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1985

FLO KENNEDY and IRENE DAVALL: Forever Activists

by Merle Hoffman With Volume V, On the Issues is pleased to welcome two contributing editors: Florence Kennedy and Irene ...

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1984

Abortion’s silent constituency

by Merle Hoffman She must have been in her mid-40s. The lines and depressions in her face testified to a ...

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1984

Abortion’s silent constituency

by Merle Hoffman She must have been in her mid-40s. The lines and depressions in her face testified to a ...

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1983

Politicized by Henry Hyde

by Merle Hoffman I remember it distinctly the point in time when I became political: it was summer, 1976, and ...

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