Next book in my Daily Book Excerpt. Onward into my ‘cultural commentary’ section.
Next book is Sex, Art, and American Culture: Essays
This is a collection of her essays. The topics range from: Madonna, to date rape, to academia, to Elizabeth Taylor, to drag queens, to multiculturalism, to Cleopatra…You know. Typical Camille. Pop culture, ancient culture, and politics all mixed up into one pot. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t …. but even when it doesn’t work, I love Camille. I’m reading her new book on poetry now, and it’s terrific.
The following excerpt is from her essay “The Strange Case of Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill”, which appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, on Oct. 21, 1991.
Amen, Camille. At the time, I remember hearing Bonnie Raitt at some concert, give a shout-out to Anita Hill … and blah blah blah … Like: what exactly did this woman do that I should clap and cheer for? Be a “victim”? First of all: I will NEVER cheer because someone is an honest to God victim. I’ll sympathize, but I will not fucking cheer. But I’m not so sure she even WAS a victim. Listen Anita, sweetheart: there are plenty of us women out there who flat out don’t tolerate shite that makes us uncomfortable, and we address it AT THE TIME. (Ahem.) If you were uncomfortable at his joking (and I’m with Camille: if you can’t handle joking like that, then that’s YOUR problem) … then it’s your responsibility to say: “That makes me uncomfortable.” And 9 times out of 10, someone will stop if you say that.
Ah, whatever. I just didn’t get the “YAY FOR ANITA HILL” bandwagon, even way back then … and kept thinking: “Wait a sec … please … someone tell me … what exactly did she do? Besides put up with something in silence and NOT lose her job – hell, she got promoted – and then emerge 10 years later to complain about it? And I’m supposed to idolize her … why??”
Nope. Didn’t buy it. Give me a chick who is actually willing to lose her job, and stand up for herself, over that noise any day.
Take. Responsibility. For. Yourself.
Thank you.
This has been a public service announcement, brought to you by Red.
Here’s the excerpt.
EXCERPT FROM Sex, Art, and American Culture: Essays
The sexual revolution of my Sixties generation broke the ancient codes of decorum that protected respectable ladies from profanation by foul language. We demanded an end to the double standard. What troubles me about the “hostile workplace” category of sexual harassment policy is that women are being returned to their old status of delicate flowers who must be protected from assault by male lechers. It is anti-feminist to ask for special treatment for women.
America is still burdened by its Puritan past, which erupts again and again in public scenarios of sexual inquisition, as in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. If Anita Hill was thrown for a loop by sexual banter, that’s her problem. If by the age of twenty-six, as a graduate of the Yale Law School, she could find no convincing way to signal her displeasure and disinterest, that’s her deficiency. We cannot rely on rigid rules and regulations to structure everything in our lives. There is a blurry line between our professional and private selves. We are sexual beings, and as Freud demonstrated, eroticism pervades every aspect of our consciousness.
Hill woodenly related the content of conversations without any reference to their context or tone. The senators never asked about joking, smiles, facial expressions, hers as well as his. Every social encounter is a game being played by two parties. I suspect Hill’s behavior was complioant and, to use her own word about a recent exchange with a Thomas friend, “passive”. Judging by her subsequent cordial behavior toward Thomas, Hill chose to put her career interests above feminist principle. She went along to get along. Hence it is hypocritical of her, ten years later, to invoke feminist principle when she did not have the courage to stand on it before. For feminists to make a heroine out of Hill is to insult all those other women who have taken a bolder, more confrontational course and forfeited career advantage.
