Adrienne Rich, R.I.P.

poets.org

Poet, essayist, and feminist icon Adrienne Rich has died from complications resulting from rheumatoid arthritis. She was 82-years-old:

She came of age during the social upheavals of the 1960s and '70s and was best known as an advocate of women's rights, which she wrote about in both her poetry and prose. But she also wrote passionate antiwar poetry and took up the causes of the marginalized and underprivileged. (source )

I first encountered Rich as a poet in a dude-centric 20th century American literature class over a decade ago. It wasn't until I started my self-styled "feminist education" (my small school did not offer a formal feminist studies class) that I began to see her work as fundamental to the feminist ideology I was trying to absorb. On her blog, Tiger Beatdown's Sady Doyle said of Rich's essay, "When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision":

If you’ve ever done feminist cultural criticism, if you’ve ever read it, if you’ve ever written on a feminist blog, if you’ve ever considered that “entering an old text from a new direction” or knowing the writing of the past (or of the present) “not to pass on a tradition but to break its hold over us” might be essential to you — and it is; despite all the jokes about feminists complaining about sitcoms on Tumblr, it still is and always has been — take a moment, read this (poorly transcribed) essay, and consider who we’ve lost, if only for a moment.

Despite all the praise and tributes that are rolling in this morning, I think it's irresponsible not to mention Rich's association* with Janice Raymond, whose book, The Transsexual Empire, remains one of the most polemic -- and transphobic -- works of the second-wave feminist era. Raymond cites Rich in the acknowledgements section of her book:

“Adrienne Rich has been a very special friend and critic. She has read the manuscript through all of its stages and provided resources, creative criticism, and constant encouragement. Her work, and her recognition of my work, have meant a great deal to me in the process of this writing.” (source )

To further confuse things, I learned via a commenter on Feministe's tribute to Rich that she's also thanked in Leslie Feinberg's Transgender Warriors.  So here's the question I ask: at what point do someone's faults outweigh her achievements? And is ardent praise irresponsible in light the deeply woven transphobia of second-wave feminists? I think you can have both: acknowledging the problematic and giving praise when it's justified.

* I've found no other evidence of transphobia, except for Raymond's citing. I haven't -- nor do I have the time to -- comb through the entirety of Rich's own work, but I think it's still important enough to note.