To print this page, select "Print" from the File menu of your browser salon.com > Letters May 28, 1999 URL: http://www.salon.com/letters/1999/05/28/harassment Letters to the Editor We face street harassment every day; should the dean have been busted for computer porn? - - - - - - - - - - - - Too sexy for my shirt BY DEBRA DICKERSON (05/21/99) Ow! Debra Dickerson has just twanged my most painful nerve ending. I always hesitate and reconsider when putting on anything short, tight or remotely revealing: If I dress for the warm-weather season, males of all colors, shapes and sizes will think it's open season ... on me. No wonder I don't like summer. Unless I have someone to accompany me, preferably a man or a large dog, I don't dare dress to keep cool. What's a girl to do? Ignore them, my mom said; holler insults back, says dad. No matter what I do, I'm in danger of worse and more of exactly what I never wanted in the first place. Short of wearing a nun's habit, there is nothing I can do to prevent it. Street harassment doesn't confirm my attractiveness; it confirms only one thing: my low opinion of strange men. Why should I smile at someone who has given every indication of wanting to attack me? I have been treated like this since the day I sprouted breasts, and I am sick of it. It's as if being visibly female, alone and independent, is some sort of crime. Should there be a law against street harassment? Yes, definitely. And about time, too. Listen, guys: You may like "titties," but we don't like dickheads. And if a law is what it takes to stop you from acting that way, I'm all for it. -- Sabina C. Becker Cobourg, Ontario Sexual harassment is a form of intimidation by men who resent their own subordinate position. In a way these guys are saying to each other, "Hey, I might be a menial worker but at least I'm above these women." Manual laborers take orders all day; what they want is to see passerby women blush and smile, two unconscious gestures of subordination. The construction workers think twice about sexually harassing their female co-workers nowadays because they could get fired for it. That's only possible because of how women fought for the right to sue companies for sexual harassment. But if companies are held responsible for the on-the-job behavior of their employees toward other employees, I don't see why companies shouldn't be held responsible for their employees' workplace behavior towards non-employees. -- Tony Filanowski Dickerson's article highlighted the contradictions of this country's social trends. We glorify behavior that's insulting and dehumanizing to women because it's "politically incorrect," which is considered good. To not be sexist is "politically correct," and that's bad. It's even considered oppressive. So the men who are confronted for harassing women on the street are victims of politically correct oppression. To stop men from harassing women would violate the new social norm. And demonstrating decent, civilized, respectful behavior toward women will put a man in the position of violating current social laws. -- Suzanne Henry Austin, Texas Dickerson's article on street harassment reminded me of an article I read on racial harassment. The writer pointed out that white people in general, and white liberals in particular, tend to widely underestimate the prevalence of racist comments -- because the one group of people who almost never hear racist comments are white liberals. No one is likely to direct a racist comment at them because they are white, and no white racist is likely to share a racist comment with them because it is presumed they wouldn't approve. Similarly, as a man who wouldn't dream of calling out my sexual desires/thoughts to a random passing woman, I virtually never see/hear the street harassment that you describe. Its only through the experiences of my wife that I really grew to have any idea of just how prevalent and potent this sort of harassment is. This type of harassment is symptomatic of our generally sexist culture. As a sex-crimes prosecutor for a district attorney's office in Northern California, I am constantly reminded of the depressing frequency of sexual assault (almost always by "friend"/family/boyfriend) and (even more alarmingly) of the extraordinary mental gymnastics jurors will go through to decide that this "nice young man" couldn't really be guilty. -- David Angel Porn, the Harvard dean and tech support BY "RICHARD HEMINGWAY" (05/21/99) I am a contract computer support technician for a large company and see no problem with the professor being turned in. The computer was university property. Period. He did not own it. He did not pay for it. It was paid for with university dollars, and therefore any restrictions the university sees fit to put on its use are legally and ethically binding. Additionally, the university has a duty to prevent liability and promote adherence to university policies. What if it was child pornography, and the technician was a woman? What if it was white supremacist propaganda promoting hate crimes, and the tech was African-American? What about the rights of the technician and the potential liability of the institution? It seems obvious to me the correct course of action was taken. He did not own the computer; he should have had no expectation that anything he put on it belonged to him or was private. -- Jeff Holsinger Dallas Having been in the tech support area for more than 20 years, I've literally seen it all when it comes to stored data. Confidential memos between top execs, performance reviews, payroll information and highly personal e-mail messages were all viewable from the privileged system manager's account in the days of mainframes and dumb terminals. As Hemingway's article points out, today's end users have a false sense of security; privacy lasts for as long as it takes to connect to the network. But hey, so what? Why should I, as a network custodian, care about anyone's fetish, romance or personal taste? Is there a difference between how an employee spends a spare moment on the Web and how they might spend that time making a personal phone call, talking to a colleague, or reading a magazine? I have never used or abused any of the confidential information I came across in the course of doing my job. Having a privileged account with the keys to the network security is just that -- a privilege. Any tech that violates that privilege is just another narc for the man. -- Steve Sloan Impeachment's legacy BY ANTHONY YORK (05/21/99) Susan Carpenter McMillan would deny to other women a right she employed on her own behalf (an abortion). We have seen similar behavior from Clarence Thomas: Once he was on the Supreme Court, we saw what his actions were on behalf of African-Americans. We can expect the same on behalf of women from Susan Carpenter McMillan. -- Jeanette Huettner Out of the darkness BY PATRICIA WEAVER FRANCISCO (05/24/99) Francisco writes, "When I speculate about the psyche of the rapist, I never imagine this rush of pleasure in aggression and dominance." Francisco shouldn't be so quick to apply her experience to that of all other women. Susie Bright, for one, can easily tell you that she has experienced what Kalven speaks of. So can I. So can millions of women, not all of whom are professional dominatrixes. Yes, women are trained by society to think of themselves as docile, "nice" critters -- by both mainstream society and the Dworkin-Mackinnon "women are purer/nicer/kinder/less 'sex-obsessed' than men" crowd -- but guess what? Testosterone is the chemical behind sex drives, both in men and women. It's also behind aggression and assertive behavior. Poor Kalven, when he talks of forgoing looking at openly erotic pictures of women, falls for the Dworkin-Mackinnon anti-sex programming that deeply taints feminist thought, confusing naked bodies with exploitation. (And yes, I too, like Francisco, have been raped. It's not as if I'm a callous little twit who has never Been There and so has no right to talk on the subject.) The whole concept of rape and sex and love is tied into issues of power and trust. Love involves giving oneself to someone, male or female, freely and without reserve. Rape involves taking another's essence without their consent. Avoidance of discussing rape -- or worse, discussing it only within certain frameworks that do not permit disagreement (Francisco's desire to hear Kalven's voice seems to have ended abruptly when he said something she vehemently disagreed with) -- ensures that rape will, like any other taboo subject, hold an abnormally large power within our psyches. -- Teresa Huberty Minneapolis Love's labors lost BY SEAN ELDER (05/22/99) There were actually three albums after "Forever Changes": "Four Sail," a brilliant and wonderful stripped-down pop album; "Out There," a double excursion that has some questionable moments (a drum solo in an acoustic folk song? Whatever) but is generally really good; and "False Start," which includes "The Everlasting First", Lee's collaboration with Hendrix. The later Love, much like the later Byrds, is a greatly underappreciated band that in many ways surpassed its earlier incarnation. They were more consistent and were better musicians. Elder's article would have been a great place to right the injustice that has been done to the later band. "Forever Changes" may not even be Love's best album -- many Love fans, myself among them, would give the nod to "Four Sail," currently out of print. -- John Howard salon.com | May 28, 1999