_______________ THE CLINTON CRISIS (02/02/98)
	With President Clinton's approval rating soaring, it seems that sexual harassment charges now make a man appear all the more charming and sophisticated. Our president is accused of everything from exposing himself to a former Arkansas state employee to setting up cushy job offers in exchange for silence from a White House intern. If these accusations are true, it shows a pattern of harassment that only a few years ago we would call outrageous. But now with a wink and a nod, the strides made by Anita Hill are forgotten. The truth, whatever it may be, is unclear for the moment. But in the meantime, columnists and spin doctors are currently portraying bosses who use employees for sex as skillful seducers with a European sensibility. If the American public can swallow that, then all women are brought to their knees. The police chief wants the young rookie to give him a blow job under the station house desk? Ooh-la-la, how French. The school principal expects sex from the young teacher in exchange for tenure? Ahh, the art of seduction. The fast food manager wants a quick hand job from the former welfare mom, who's desperate for employment? What a stud. Hillary's stand-by-my-man spin doesn't relieve our Commander-in-Chief of his accountability. The Arkansas judge's dismissal of the connection between the Lewinsky affair and the Paula Jones case doesn't overrule our need for the truth. But while we wait for the truth to emerge, please ask your writers to stop equating sexual harassment with virility. -- Maureen Costello
_______________ REVIEW OF "THE HOUSE GUN" BY PETER KURTH (01/30/98)
	A critic with no gifts will always play this kind of possum "Maybe I'm just not hip enough for the room, but ..." and then go on to tell you that he/she is in fact the hippest of them all. Peter Kurth pulls this bullshit sleight-of-hand when he says of Nadine Gordimer, "Doubtless I'm too superficial for a writer like this." This sentence in and of itself proves his point. I am no great fan of Nadine Gordimer's -- indeed, some of Kurth's criticisms made sense to me up to that point. But this is just lazy, reactionary writing. And do we really need to hear any more whining about the deconstructionists? Do we really need to lump together as poseurs all writers who are suspicious of conventional narrative? Walter Kirn recently made similar gestures in his review of Mason-Dixon -- "Maybe I just don't get it, but ..." Is this what has become of literary criticism, this school of I-May-Not-Know-Much-But-I-Know-What-I-Like? If that's the best you can do, it's no wonder that standards keep slipping and the literary conversation keeps deteriorating. -- Andy Markham
_______________ TONYA'S TRIALS BY JANE MEREDITH ADAMS (02/02/98)
	Why oh why should we feel any sort of sympathy for Tonya Harding? She is lucky she didn't have to go to jail. While she may claim she knew nothing about the attack on Nancy Kerrigan until after the fact, there is evidence to suggest that, indeed, she did. As for the supposed "double standard" of forgiving male athletes who commit crimes: Last I heard, O.J. Simpson hasn't exactly been welcomed back to Monday Night Football, and there are many places where he is booed and jeered. True, he isn't in jail, but it's ridiculous to say that sports fans have "forgiven" him. And Pete Rose is not going to be in the baseball Hall of Fame any time soon. I think this is another case of people seeking out double standards that aren't really there. -- Dave Platt The minute Harding was banned for life from skating in any meaningful venue, she knew that there was no hope. As soon as the skating world applied its double standard of punishment, taking away forever the activity she loved and was really talented at, in her own mind, and in the minds of the public, there would be absolutely no return. Wouldn't that make one extremely despondent? It was complete confirmation that the skating world had never approved of her background, her lifestyle, her lack of "breeding." Let's face it, she was not an "ice princess" from Society. Her life would be turned around if the elitist skating authorities were to accept their responsibilities, rescind the dreadful double standard "death sentence," officially state that she had paid her debt to the skating world and now was welcome back. She has been treated far more cruelly than most men would have been. -- Delmont B. Gould SALON | Feb. 4, 1998

R E C E N T L Y+| EDUCATION IN THE ETHER BY VICKY PHILLIPS

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