ELIZABETH FOX-GENOVESE
Rethinking Sexual Harassment
A
seven-year-old boy bestows an uninvited-or perhaps genuinely
unwanted-kiss upon a female classmate and is suspended from school. A
twenty-something-year-old college man consents to sex with a college
woman, who initiated the encounter, and is suspended from college. What
is wrong with this picture? That both verdicts were subsequently modified
or reversed offers little comfort to those of us who worry about the abuse
of sexual harassment policies and procedures, for, even in the wake of these
and other horror stories, the policies and procedures remain on the books
and, indeed, may arguably be viewed as complying with the law of the
land. Surely each one of us knows at least one sexual harassment story that
has received less national attention but caused no less havoc and misery in
the lives of those it directly touched.
These days, many-and perhaps most of those in this audience-are
coming to suspect that our prevailing sexual harassment policies and laws
demand a fresh look. Recent debates over affirmative action even open the
possibility that some undetermined number of Americans are prepared to
reconsider the entire complex of laws and policies that, since the Civil Rights
Act of 1964, has been assembled to protect the rights and opportunities of
the disadvantaged. With respect to women specifically, Christina Hoff
Sommers, Cathy Young, and Katie Roiphe have forcefully challenged the
assumptions of what Christina Sommers calls "gender feminism" and Cathy
Young and Katie Roiphe ridicule as a cult of victimization. Young and
Roiphe follow Sommers in supporting the concept of "equity feminism,"
arguing that women must claim the rights and assume the responsibilities that
accrue to each individual in a modern democracy. In their view, women who
cling to the status of victim demean themselves and threaten the freedom of
society at large. In this respect, each takes what I would call strong individu–
alist ground: Women who aspire to compete with men for the benefit of our
economy and polity must cultivate independence and self respect-must be
prepared, if you will forgive me, to take their knocks like a "man."
There is much to recommend their position, beginning with a basic
notion of fairness. If you aim for the gold, you mus t be prepared
to
compete
Editor's Note: This essay was originally delivered as a talk at the annual meeting
of the Women's Freedom Network in Washington, DC, October 13, 1996.
