WOMEN, CULTURE, AND POLITICS

A veteran radical's feisty views from the barricades. Davis (Women, Race, & Class) has lost little enthusiasm as a political activist. This collection of mostly 1980's essays, lectures, introductions, and articles makes clear her unflagging adherence to a militant politics forged on the front lines of a Sixties radicalism that time (and yuppiedom) have all but erased. The vocabulary is strident and dogmatic: ""monopoly capitalism,"" ""homophobia,"" racism, sexism--the enemies haven't changed, and neither has Davis' thinking on them. She writes without acknowledging recent shifts in Marxist theory of world revolution, and invokes, almost quaintly, the need for a ""people's culture"" to reverse class and racial bias. She is fresher and more interesting on feminist issues; in ""Women in Egypt: A Personal View,"" she minutely exposes the implications of female castration in Arab cultures, while an essay on Winnie Mandela's autobiography dramatizes what Davis elsewhere proselytizes by personalizing the politics of racism. Davis is weakest on home-grown contemporary issues. She praises the politically ""subversive"" lyrics in rap music while ignoring their blatant misogyny, and sounds disarmed and conventional as she tosses sensational statistics at the Reagan Administration to indict its policies towards blacks and women. Old wine newly bottled, these pieces shed more heat than light. Still, Davis' longevity of commitment is impressive, and her integrity here will inspire many.