Help Me Find the Accusation of Misogyny in the Time Article on C.S. Lewis, Don v. Devil

[Steve Hayes]

Help Me Find the Accusation of Misogyny in the Time Article on C.S.
Lewis, Don v. Devil

Two recent references have created a bit of a puzzle for me which I
hope you can perhaps make clear for me. Both in Mary Stewart Van
Leeuwen’s A Sword Between the Sexes: C.S. Lewis and the Gender Debates
and the edited volume by Carolyn Curtis and Mary Pomroy Key, Women and
C.S. Lewis: What His Life and Literature Reveal for Today’s Culture
(2015), the authors point to a claim of misogyny against C.S. Lewis
that dates to 1947. The claim is rooted in letters from the period
like this one:

“Yes, the Time article was ghastly: but I suppose no one of sense
believes such things. I wouldn’t hang a dog on a journalist’s evidence
myself. Who said I disliked women? I never liked or disliked any
generalisation” (C.S. Lewis to Margaret Fuller, 8 Apr 1948).

I was reading these two books concurrently, and each time the
reference occurred, I set the book down, a bit puzzled. I had read the
Time article from 8 Sep 1947, titled “Don v. Devil” with a cover title
that said “Oxford’s C.S. Lewis. His heresy: Christianity.” The
reference would be kind of interesting.

Source: https://t.co/Xkod18HyZr

[Paul S Person]

On Thu, 10 Jan 2019 21:00:38 +0200, Steve Hayes

Post by Steve Hayes
Help Me Find the Accusation of Misogyny in the Time Article on C.S.
Lewis, Don v. Devil
Two recent references have created a bit of a puzzle for me which I
hope you can perhaps make clear for me. Both in Mary Stewart Van
Leeuwen’s A Sword Between the Sexes: C.S. Lewis and the Gender Debates
and the edited volume by Carolyn Curtis and Mary Pomroy Key, Women and
C.S. Lewis: What His Life and Literature Reveal for Today’s Culture
(2015), the authors point to a claim of misogyny against C.S. Lewis
that dates to 1947. The claim is rooted in letters from the period
“Yes, the Time article was ghastly: but I suppose no one of sense
believes such things. I wouldn’t hang a dog on a journalist’s evidence
myself. Who said I disliked women? I never liked or disliked any
generalisation” (C.S. Lewis to Margaret Fuller, 8 Apr 1948).
I was reading these two books concurrently, and each time the
reference occurred, I set the book down, a bit puzzled. I had read the
Time article from 8 Sep 1947, titled “Don v. Devil” with a cover title
that said “Oxford’s C.S. Lewis. His heresy: Christianity.” The
reference would be kind of interesting.
Source: https://t.co/Xkod18HyZr

Just a suggestion ... but, by outlawing sex in heaven, some women
might have felt slighted. This, of course, depends on some women
regarding their role as entirely sexual. Alternately, it could be that
they read his statement as endorsing that idea. But this is all very
fuzzy.