Janet was referring to, you know, the moral injury, people pay more and more attention to that, and lets note pretend this only exists on the military side of the equation. Theres trama and disability in the world as well. To me, you might disagree, but, to me, its the commonality here is once something happens in your life, whether its a single event or accumulation of things, but theres some its not just trauma, but something happens that just rattles you down to the bones. What do you do then . Succumb to it or busy trying to recover. Ptsd, civilian or military, one of the guys said, you know, life comes with trauma, and trauma necessarily comes from a sense of recovery. Thats what we do, and to get back to the idea to be careful here because of the notion of perpetuating the stereotype of the imroaken soldier. Thats there are broken soldiers from these wars. Does not mean they are forever broken. Probably most of them, throughout history, will not be, but that does not mean you dismiss this moment as, oh, you know, other wars were tougher. We always had a version of this. You know, people figured out themselves well, we dont have to act as before. We can act with more compassion and understanding than in the past. It became a legal issue in the benefits trial for my son whether we could point to a particular incident that had caused trama, and we could not. There were three possibles of times in trauma, bun one of the symptoms was he would not talk about it, and that is a frequent symptom, and certainly something we learned about in the Second World War that vast numbers of of people coming home from the Second World War were changed, but would not talk about it because thats part of the soldiermans speech, the man of few words. Clearly, what helps is getting them to talk about it. In many cases. You mentioned it was mentioned on this panel bush and theyny, i want to know what they do to prevent the United States from going in another war, particularly ukraine where we contributed to overthrow the government, syria, which is heating up again, and all the other places that we meddle in. What are we doing to prevent this so that we do not have more discussions of this and all these things, under a democrat president , by the way. I wound every what you are doing. To answer the question, i guess, for me, im not politically my roll is not political agent vism, but there is a political element to ptsd in the sense and i think this is where its good to recognize broken soldiers because those suffering are symbolic of all the suffering that went on and sufferings of wars inflighted. Speak. People are now more interested in that because they are being their spouses and children come back with that. So it is an issue that people are wrestling what. I cannot think of many things that would do a better job to keep us out of fighting another stupid war than people treating ptsd. My answer would be that writers write in a way that we try to be activist, those of us, and unlike the journalists, because of my experience. But, you know, your question is a valid one and seems so pitifully small. I donate 25 here and sign a petition there. But what im really doing is writing the story that i went through. We are out of time on the but i think we have time for one quick western. [inaudible question] i am trying to Teach University mathematics to the learning disabled. Ptsd is a tragedy. We dont have a medical diagnosis. The circuits are broken, its tragically not repaired. No medication, no adequate diagnosis. End we have phds, but we do not have medical doctors. The tragedy continues, i am sorry to say. Please thank the panel for coming. [applause] we will all be around afterwards if you have any other questions. [applause] [inaudible conversations] our coverage of the 19th annual Los Angeles Times festival of of books from the university of Southern California will continue now with a panel on feminism. My clock says 1230. So we should get started. Welcome to our book festival. My name is Robin Carrion and i am a columnist who has worked closely online these days. I hope you can check me out at l. A. Times. Com local. Okay. This is the evolution of feminism panel. So that is not what you came to hear, youre definitely in the wrong place. And we have a few housekeeping issues to attend to. Please silencer cell phones. You probably dont need to be told that. There is a book signing following the session so we can continue the conversation with our authors afterwards in signing area number five. Personal recording of these sessions is not allowed. We are also being broadcast live on cspan, fyi. I was supposed to Say Something about earthquake safety and i think the drill is you feel if an earthquake, please leave calmly. [laughter] and put your hands over your head. Okay. I want you also to know that about 10 to 15 minutes before the and we will be taking questions from the audience. There is a microphone set up in one of the isles. We can bring that microphone to you. Let me start with myra macpherson. She is the author and a veteran journalist. She spent many years at the Washington Post writing for their legendary style section. She has interviewed serial killers, celebrities, International Leaders like fidel castro. When she was an infant, she interviewed president kennedy. [laughter] a series that she wrote for Vietnam Veterans led her to write her groundbreaking book long time passing, vietnam and the haunted generation. One of the first looks if not the first to examine the insidious problem of postmatch stress disorder. In 2006 she wrote all governments lie, the life and times of rebel journalists i have stone. And she has also delved into intimate topic. She came to have an inspiring family journey and she witnessed the last three years of a young womans life who died a cant or. Her new book is the scarlet sisters, suffrage and scandal in the gilded age. It is a biography of victoria woodhall enter extraordinary sisters whose escapades in the 1870s might shock even the most liberated contemporary women. Ms. Rags to riches pair was born into poverty. They managed the family snake oil trade literally. Before breaking free of their parents and moving to new york where they became stockbrokers, freelove advocates, suffragettes, and Newspaper Publishers as well. And if you think barack obama and totally clinton our political pioneers, consider this. Victoria woodhall was the first woman to be nominated for president in 1872. Her running mate was frederick douglass. Lord is the as the journalist and cultural critic and a highly regarded teacher in this schools writing program. For many years she was a syndicated political cartoonist based at newsday and is a regular contributor to the New York Times book review in the arts and leisure section and numerous other national outlets. She is the author of the private life of rocket science. A family memoir about aerospace culture. And she became a true literary celebrity after she wrote forever barbie, the unauthorized biography of a doll, which examine how a fantastically sexual doll that was inspired by a erotic knickknack came to a place of honor and meaning in the childhoods of so Many American girls. She argues that barbie was invented by women to teach girls for better or worse what was expected of them. And now she has turned her critics face to another curvy American Icon and her new book the accidental feminist, how Elizabeth Taylor raised our consciousness and we were too distracted by her beauty to notice. So here she argues that taylor was more than just a fine actress. She was an unwitting role model for feminist causes and ideals, whether posing as a boy in National Velvet, or the bluesy and unhappy academic life and who is afraid of virginia woolf. This is all long before she was the first lonely celebrity voice to take up the fight against aids. And i think i also need to know that you are cowriting this for the l. A. Opera about the 110 freeway on its 70th anniversary. And that is talent. Yes, it is. The project is creeping along. [laughter] nancy is a author and expert on women in american politics. She has taught American History and Political Science at columbia, cal state long beach, and is currently teaching a course on women in american politics at occidental college. She has also been a visiting scholar at ucla study is a woman and research on labor and employment. Her books include the we construction of american liberalisms in the 1990s, a social history. She has also written essays for the guardian, the l. A. Times, playboy and rolling as well. She is the kind of source every political journalist or talk show needs in their rolodex and i count myself among those who can count on her for her comments are always right on the money. In her new book delirium, the politics of sex in america, she analyzes the counterrevolution that was unleashed and it is persistent in its is politics. She explores how the christian right has wielded such a debate on feminism and contraception and abortion and of course the fights and the battles still rage on. The sexual counterrevolution has been going on for more than 40 years as he more politically sophisticated. It is no coincidence, she writes that the politics of this and womens rights and marriage has erupted at the moment when the gop is farther right than any other Political Party in American History since the time of slavery. As we have come a long way. Of course, most of us are not smoking cigarettes anymore. I live in venice beach so i can attest to that. Taken together your books present a wonderful chronology of the history of american feminism starting in the late 19th century with a stop in the middle of the last century and an examination of whats happening now. And its fascinating to me that each generation fights a new series of essentially the same battle. Some things really never change. Until we are still fighting about equal pay, the balance between work and home life, affordable childcare, whether or not women can do everything that men can do and now we are discussing the battlefield instead of the race that you are still dismissed as jezebels for claiming their sexuality. And they are still battling for reproductive freedom which is being narrowed all over the country state legislatures intent on making it impossible to get an abortion even if its legal. The wondered if the attribute could start us off by giving a short the fourminute explanation of what exactly inspired you to write your book. And to let this go in order starting with miro. Okay. Before i do that, since you have really covered so much, i would really dislike to quote to quote and have you imagine where they came from. One is the love affair of the community should be left for the people to regulate themselves instead of trusting for legislation to regulate them. This is not an activist talking about the defense of marriage act but this is woodhall in the 1871. And so this was a time when men had total power and there was nothing they could do on her own. But these two actually managed to do it. And the other one is a topical to put a woman on trial for anything, and its considered as a legitimate part of the defense. To make the most searching inquiry into this morality. This is not something we are currently talking about including Domestic Violence and being able to get a fair trial. So the reason is that i got involved is i never thought it would be so rip and read out of on the front page. They were for equal pay for equal work and we saw what happened this last week. The reason i went into it is because in 2008 everyone was talking about the possible wonder team of Hillary Clinton is and oh,. And i started reading this live that said its been done before. There was virginia woodhall is in for douglas. And i was just astonished because i knew about woodhall, but i didnt know they had been as progressive. So then i started reading about her incredible sister and how they pulled themselves out of broad, and how they became not only the richest of the most famous women in america at that time. And i will tell you more about that later. Tell us how you got the idea for your book and why you decided to write it in a. I never thought i would write a book about Elizabeth Taylor. My last book was about the jet Propulsion Laboratory and ive mostly been writing science articles. I found myself stuck in a Vacation Home with a bunch of children. And they really didnt have any idea. She knew her only through joan rivers upon fat jokes from the 1980s. And i was just aghast. And she knew she had some connection to film. Especially the person she had in later life and a leader in that way. So the only thing for entertainment that we have as box sets of Elizabeth Taylor movies. So we thought, okay, it will be a camping night and we started watching chronological orders and we were absolutely blown away not just by the quality of the performances by the on lindsay feminist messages of her movies. And National Velvet she challenged gender discrimination because of her gender and she poses as a male jockey and wins. Exposing the pure bigotry of the exclusion of bigotry and this includes american tragedy. But i will have an opportunity to elaborate on this more. Does basically no pregnant mistress, no american tragedy. So its a woman having a right to her own body. And this includes a possession owned by a man as a spouse or rented as a hooker and she wrote notes on the mayor of her married lovers bedroom. Anyone who is afraid of virginia wolf is about what happens to a woman. And this includes in this includes how women can express herself and her husband is unsuccessful and she cant have children. So i was amazed that i wont gap too long. And this includes my infantile friends and i were not rejecting 21st century ideas and so i started looking in the academy of Motion Picture arts and sciences library. So i latched onto was the content of american movies between 1934 and 1936. They held sway over over every word. The censors had seen this and tried to grind them out. And not the Elizabeth Taylor character, she asked for an abortion and had to be written on this about 12 times. To a degree that these actors had to communicate with telepathy. But suffice it to say that my suspicions were buttressed by the paperless trails left by the censors and the combination of those two things were what led me to produce the book. Thank you. Okay, one day when Hillary Clinton was making her first run for the president day, i had an epiphany. I was going through some of those typical women things, that work and my kid. And i thought, you know, we have experienced them of the biggest transformation in World History in the last 50 years. The revolutions in gender and sexuality and freedom. And i thought maybe there is a connection here. And this revolution and i jotted down this line perhaps that it hadnt been invented, american politics would be different today. And i thought it was a literary device, kind of metaphorical, not literally true. As many of you probably remember, the republicans convened an allmale panel to debate Birth Control. So i really appreciated it and so that is my book, which looks at the last 40 years of history and it has been driving our dysfunction and polarization than driving on insanity. And the real reason is the Republican Party has been captured who believe that sexual revolution, gay the civil rights are a mortal threat to American Civilization may have been politically acting on these beliefs and im not saying that every republican is like this but the factions within the party. Part of it is democrats and liberals who also misinterpreted Public Opinion and the ram stared and allowed a lot of this turning black the clock to happen. So i think that we are seeing a shift in that. But theres a lot of round to make up after use 40 years of rolling back these right. Let me start by asking you a question. You immerse yourself in the early 19th 20th centuries. With seven of them even a word had been coined at that point . In fact i find it kind of upsetting when i see someone calling Susan Anthony a feminist because she was so urgently wanting only the vote. She was a singleminded person all she wanted was a vote from her sisters. And Elizabeth Cady stanton was really quiet a gogetter. She had gone right into the Free Love Movement and all of the rest of the separatist were aghast that the sisters could go on and on in such feminist ways. They were trying to keep it just on the vote in the sisters said if all we do is reelect the same corrupt and dumb white males, theres no reason to get the vote. So they were unbelievably ahead of their time. So when you are talking about the women in this fight, that same flight was going on and it is identical in the mid19th century. So the sisters were so far advanced that grant wanted to put them in the constitution and he said that were not sure he wants as constitution. How about those other two along with them. [laughter] so they were incredibly of front about this. But they is the clergy, takes on a womans worst enemy was a gynecologist. All anticontraception. They were all just fiercely involved in this. And one of the thieves ways of this is that i have covered everything that we have been talking about. I covered Gloria Steinem and the whole movement and we saw the backlash at the time. She was able to convince women that if they had the equal rights and that is that they would end up passing to lose their husbands and their husbands