I've done my best to avoid this 1990s cultural cataclysm as much as possible. By using extreme caution when opening the newspaper or turning on the television, I've managed to avoid precise knowledge of what revealing detail of presidential anatomy Paula Jones possesses. I'm still confused about why someone would tape telephone conversations with a friend. If I didn't think it would destroy my cultural credentials, I would even confess to not having watched a single moment of the 1991 Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings. On the one hand, we have MacKinnon, for whom sexual harassment is just one more instance of the principle that men unilaterally and everywhere dominate women.
Women are citizens.
On the other hand, we have critics of sexual harassment like New Yorker writer Jeffrey Toobin, who seem to think that the most likely victims of sexual harassment are men oppressed by the law's scrutiny of sexual behavior. In that context, the academic seriousness of the symposium made a refreshing change. Its 72 hours of citations of case law, cautious policy recommendations and illustrative anecdotes erred, in fact, on the side of sobriety. The audience clapped politely. All rights reserved.