Dear Amy,

I just read an article put out by the Independent Women's Forum, titled "Take Back the Campus,". Where did they get such false information? How are they able to produce such malicious lies? I feel so many different emotions towards this article, and this group, but mostly anger. What should I do? Should I write them a letter? I am worried that some young woman will get a hold of this information and it will be their first and only introduction to feminism. Do you have any advice???

Thank you,

Brandie Burrows

Dear Brandie Burrows,

You are right to be concerned about the Independent Women's Forum. For years they have been peddling faulty information, making issues out of things that simply aren't issues. They are also manipulative in how they make themselves out to be a greater, more powerful force than they really are. For instance, given all of their media attention, you would assume they have a massive, growing constituency. But it really amounts to a few hundred or thousand women, certainly not 10s of thousands.

There are several articles highlighting this issue, including a great article in Ms. Magazine by Susan Jane Gilman, a few in the Village Voice by Jennifer Gonnerman and in Extra, a publication of FAIR, by Laura Flanders. I can send you the first one if you send me your mailing address. Any time you read more things by them, you can respond directly to them to correct their inaccuracies.

Also, you can let your friends/colleagues, etc.. know to be aware of them and their antics.

Thanks for speaking up

- Amy