DMITRY SHLAPENTOKH
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We then proceeded to discuss American feminism. They ultimately
concluded that the Amcrican Left had begun with attacks on the restric–
tiveness of American culture, and had ended up espousing a philosophy
that places more restrictions on sexual beha vior than the previous one,
so that sexual harassment has emerged as one of the major threats for
male members of academia, government, and big business.
Many East Europeans from new member countries or from countries
seeking membership in the alliance supported the West Europeans' vision
of America as a rcpressive society. A Romanian delegate remarked that
Amcrican mcn had bccomc so timid that they couldn't even give a bou–
quet of flowers to a girl for fear of being accused of sexual harassment.
We stopped talking when one of the conference organizers stood up
and proclaimed that Croatia had finally joined NATO. "This is like the
first kiss," he said. "There is no way back." At that moment a young
Croat and his girlfriend joined our table. He responded to the announce–
ment defiantly, "You know, we in the Balkans are politically incorrect.
That is why I could never live in America. Political incorrectness is in our
blood. We bcat our wivcs." His girlfriend smiled beatifically.
My Croat friend in many ways conveyed the ideas of other Euro–
peans at the confcrence. "Yes," they seemed to be saying, "We Euro–
peans are part of NATO. Yes, we accept American leadership because
the United Statcs is just too powerful to ignore. Yet this does not mean
that Americans can control us completely. You Americans can live in a
culture wherein its mcmbers are spying on each other and controlling
people's private lives. You can make 'sexual harassment' a cardinal
crime which will drivc people mad. You can enjoy creating committees
to explore the nature of 'eye contact' between professors and students
and divine thc appropriate scholarly teaching gaze from the inappropri–
ate lust-riddcn gazc. You Americans can do all of this and make your
country an Orwcllian world comparable to Stalinist Russia. You can
even ca
II
yourscl vcs frce. Yet, we Europeans will never follow you, even
though we listcn to your music and wear your blue jeans."
In the minds of my Bled acquaintances America had a Messianic
drive, a wish to transform Europe into another edition of the United
States and to deprive Europeans of their essential liberties.
Most confcrcnce participants were still apprehensive about Russia,
especially thosc from small countries in
its immediate
proximity, which historically have had a bad relationship with it. But
this image did not prcdominate, because Russia is now weak. Like its
European counterparts, the country was found to have positive
cha racteristics-thc Russia n people were rea Ily "free." The di fference,
