July 18 • 2019 5
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M

axine Berman was an open 
book. And she wrote more 
than one, apparently.
Twenty-five years ago this month, 
Momentum Books published The 
Only Boobs in the House Are Men: 
A Veteran Woman 
Legislator Lifts the 
Lid on Politics Macho 
Style by the sitting 
State Representative 
from the 36th District 
(Southfield).
Last year, two 
months after Berman’
s 
death, her niece and 
nephew published her novel If You 
Seek A Pleasant Peninsula after find-
ing the 500-page manuscript among 
their aunt’
s belongings.
I didn’
t really know Maxine 
Berman. Even if I did, I couldn’
t top 
the eulogies by her niece — who 
followed strict instructions to play 
the Michigan fight song through the 
loudspeaker — or by Rabbi Steven 
Rubenstein of Congregation Beth 
Ahm who facilitated her bat mitzvah 
when she was age 60, though not her 
dog Garp’
s bark mitzvah. (You can 
watch the video of her funeral on Ira 
Kaufman Chapel’
s website.)
But I’
ve read (most of) both of 
her books and that time we’
ve spent 
together has helped me understand 
what it’
s like to make your voice 
heard in a struggle that’
s bigger than 
yourself; to be ferocious and vul-
nerable; to persist critically without 
becoming cynical; and to master the 
minutiae of your present reality in 
order to make major change possible.
Maxine’
s words are nearly as pow-
erful as the deeds she describes. She 
waded through political muck, facing 
down wanton misogyny in pursuit of 
progress over 14 years in office.
Whether from her directly or via 
Bree Linden — a protagonist alter 
ego she may never have intended us 
to meet — Maxine’
s voice reflects, 
refracts and resonates:
“I was a naive first-term legislator 
with what I thought was a simple, 
straightforward bill, which only 
required doctors to hand patients a 
brochure explaining all the options.
”
Maxine opposed term limits 
because she knew the learning curve 

of legislating — and 
because she anticipated 
that term limits would cut 
against the hard-fought 
gains women had made 
growing their presence 
and power in Lansing. 
(She was not term limit-
ed, mind you.)
“Rumor has it that 
Tom Ridley’
s trying to 
screw me out of chair-
ing reapportionment. 
I’
m just trying to get in 
shape for the big fight, 
if there is one.
”
Bree Linden’
s fic-
tional fight over redistricting is 
more dramatic than Berman’
s, but 
not much. Both Bree and Maxine 
fought tooth and nail to lead a vital 
process, the product of which was 
ultimately usurped. 
“Few other organizations can strike 
fear in the hearts of elected officials 
like Right to Life does. Their methods 
aren’
t pretty; persuasion is not their 
long suit. They simply threaten politi-
cal death.
”
Many of Berman’
s “wins” came 
in the form of fending off direct 
assaults on women’
s reproductive 
rights. As appalled (if sometimes 
amused) as she was at the flagrant 
contradictions of the religious right, 
she knew that reason was no substi-
tute for resources.
 
“He liked Bree Linden. He was 
also mildly afraid of her. Bo Hasker 
was never quite sure how to deal 
with the women of his caucus whose 
numbers, though small, were grow-
ing. Bree Linden was very much in 
the leadership of that group, but he 
could joke with Bree, drink with her, 
relate to her.”
How do you pry your way into an 
institution built, from the framed pic-
tures on the wall to the length of the 
bathroom breaks, to keep you out? 
Instinctively and incrementally, with 
enough torque to make sure it doesn’
t 
slam shut in the faces of those who 
would follow.
“Most important, the vast majority 
of women bring a different perspec-
tive on government … the perspec-
tive of the unempowered. Since 
the public generally views itself as 

unempowered in its relationship to 
government … we are far better able 
to identify with their standing, to listen 
to and understand their needs, to just 
remember that they’
re there.
”
Maxine was in the scrum, year 
after year, as women made progress 
inches at a time. Still, she managed 
to tease out the nuances of being 
a marginalized group that makes 
up 51 percent of the population, of 
being lumped together in spite of 
political diversity, of pursuing power 
without letting power become the 
point. 
“First, he came after the poor, and you 
did nothing — because you are not poor. 
“Then he came for the arts, and you 
did nothing — because you are not an 
arts organization.
“And now he has come after you. 
Who, pray tell, do you think there is 
left to protest?”
In her letter to the County Road 
Commissioners titled “Governor 
Engler’
s Theft of Local Road Funds,” 
Maxine spoke to a vicious cycle she 
fought in office and as a private cit-
izen — making groups fight over 
crumbs while shrinking the resources 
necessary to create public goods.
Finally, a quintessential and essen-
tial line of Maxine’
s invoked by Rep.
Jeremy Moss, a successor to “the ol’
 
Berman seat,” that would only be 
diluted by posthumous mansplaining:
“Throw me to the wolves, and I will 
return leading the pack.
” ■

Jewfro
The Life and Times of 
Maxine Berman

Ben Falik
Contributing Writer

ABOVE: A pre-election page from the Nov. 4, 

1988, Jewish News

