_______________ ASK CAMILLE: HARVARD'S DATE-RAPE IDIOCY BY CAMILLE PAGLIA (03/17/99)
	Camille Paglia's irreverent attitude toward my elite college reflects not only her misjudgments but demonstrates her proclivity to confuse political correctness with judiciousness. As the published facts indicate, no consent was ever established and the male student clearly ignored the woman's protests. He admitted in court and in other documents that he pressured her and forced her to do something he knew she didn't want. Essentially, society's message to myself and other men has always been that all one has to do is to persist and persist for sex, regardless of a woman's state of mind or her continual rebuffs. We (men) are seldom taught to respect a woman's sexual autonomy because our culture condones the aggression of men and favors the passivity of women. It is Paglia's unfortunate consent of these attitudes that disenfranchises women by vilifying them among the general public and keeping them from obtaining adequate justice in our legal system. If anyone would like to read the disturbing facts about rape and rape law, read "Unwanted Sex: The Culture of Intimidation and the Failure of Law " by Stephen J. Schulhofer. In spite of anti-PC rhetoric from pundits like Paglia, I have learned for myself the second tragedy that confronts women after they are raped: a society that is not willing to believe them. Paglia knows that rape is not and has never been understood as an indisputable crime unless the victim was a dead woman or had a gun held to her head. If we were to blindly support Paglia's exhortations, we would be stuck in an even greater morass of injustice than already exists. I am proud of Harvard for its courage to adjudicate in the face of expected misunderstandings by the general public. -- Franklin W. Huang Cambridge, Mass. Camille Paglia may as well have used the time-worn excuse that what she was wearing provoked him, therefore she deserved it. The fact that she was drinking and was alone in the room with him does not make it open season for his libido. As a so-called "equity feminist," Paglia's lack of support for this young woman's claim shocks me to the core. In an age where one in six women has been raped, and countless others hold silent, her cold and pointed finger is directed at me as well. Sure she should have gone to the police, sure she should have been smarter that night, sure it was a mistake to spill her ordeal to the school that should be reviewing expulsion only after a trial. But let me ask Paglia this: Has nothing ever caused you such fear? And if not you, ask around. Someone you know has a story to tell. -- Karen Cameron Boyden Camille Paglia did a nice job in ripping the Harvard longhairs for their craven dismissal of the poor kid who fucked his friend while they were both drunk. Damn but we have our work cut out for us -- those of us who would like to see the university regain its niche as a forum for intelligent, dynamic pursuit of truly important social and intellectual issues. Glad Paglia's in the fray. -- Bill Toddmancillas Communication Studies Professor California State University, Chico I do get a kick out of Camille Paglia. First, she believes Paula Jones' harassment charges against President Clinton, not to mention the recent 20-plus-year-old rape accusations. While Jones' lack of flowers on Secretary's Day strikes a chord with Paglia, a clear example of sexual assault at Harvard, in which the offender was convicted and would be required to register as a sex offender if he chose to live in Cambridge, receives no such sympathy. Has Paglia ever considered that the young woman involved may now be pregnant or infected with a disease, perhaps one that is deadly? Has she considered the emotional trauma of unwanted sexual intercourse while unconscious, perpetrated by someone trusted? I guess not. -- Karla Sorenson Lowell, Mass.
	N E X T+P A G E+| Disgusted with Silicon Valley stereotypes; Hitchens' detractors ignore the facts