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AN OPEN LETTER TO
CAMILLE PAGLIA
In anticipation of the speech by the so-called “assassin
of the feminist establishment” at UGA Sept. 23
Dear Camille:
You and I both consider ourselves femi
nists. Even so, that leaves substantial room
for disagreement. As a women’s studies
instructor and a feminist scholar, 1 probably
fit into your category of “pallid, moralistic”
campus feminists (your terminology) that
you routinely attack in popular media.
For me, you fit into that category of self-
labeled feminists that have made careers out
of critiquing what you call the “ideological
excesses” of mainstream feminism. Indeed, 1
often wonder if you question how much of
your fame is about the quality of your ideas
and how much is about the media’s
inevitable attraction to a good catfight.
Certainly, attacks on feminism are more
interesting when they appear to emanate
from other feminists, because they enable
those old myths that women really can’t get
along and that they never really know what
they want. Most importantly, however, they
leave unexumined the
degree to which the pri
mary beneficiaries of
such infighting arc always
feminism’s enemies, who
are delighted to have you
doing their dirty work for
them. That your latest
attack on feminism
appears in this month’s
Penthouse is powerful
proof.
Understand that 1
am not against dissent
in the ranks of femi
nism. However. 1 am
against your rhetorical
device of depicting
yourself as a lone
voice of dissent fight
ing bravely against
the totalitarian forces
of academic feminists. This is a self-
serving fiction on your part. First, you get far
more space in mainstream media that the
feminists you attack. Catharine MacKinnon
has never been profiled in Vanity Fair, or
interviewed Tim Allen about men’s oppres
sion in Esquire. But you have This means
that you have a lot of opportunity to repre
sent the views of feminists however you like.
We rarely get the opportunity to answer
back. You’re no underdog, Camille.
Second, you didn’t invent feminist dissent.
Your ciaim last year in the Chronicle of Higher
Education that no academic feminists “dared
to speak publicly about their discontent”
until you published Sexual Personae in 1990
is patently untrue. The history of feminism
over the last 150 years is a history of dissent,
both internal and external. To assert that no
feminist publicly aired her disagreement with
the movement until 1990 is a blatant erasure
of the contributions of feminists like Audre
Lorde, for instance. The critique of femi
nism’s racism and heterosexism by such
women over the past quarter century has
done far more to advance the movement’s
mission of social justice than anything you
have ever said.
Personally, I’ve seen plenty of dissent as a
member of three different women’s studies
programs. You’re just not looking in the right
places. But that would require that you actu
ally function as a member of the academic
community that you spend so much time cri
tiquing. That community might question
your credentials to speak with such authority
about their shortcomings, something that
1 the mainstream media has never done.
As you depict women’s studies in the
Chronicle of Higher Education, it is dominated
by a cadre of anti-sex moralists out of touch
with “the wisdom of actual experience" in
their preaching about relations between the
sexes. I, and my students, are hardly anti-sex.
However, 1 would venture to say that we are
anti-sexual harassment and anti-sexual vio
lence. We’d rather live in a world in which we
do not have to fend off unwanted sexual
attention in the workplace and in which we
do not have to live constantly aware of our
selves as sexual prey. You might reply that
such an awareness is simply a product of the
“victimology" preached in women’s studies
courses. Have you ever worked as a sexual
assault counselor, Camille? 1 have. No one
had to convince the women I counseled that
they had been victimized. They had “the wis
dom of actual experience.”
In Penthouse, you claim that “the proper
mission of feminism is to encourage women
to take personal responsibility and to
defend themselves
by word and deed
against unwelcome
advances without
running to parental
authority figures for
help.” Indeed, I agree
that a primary func
tion of women’s stud
ies is to provide stu
dents with the knowl
edge they can use to
make their lives better.
But one of those tools
is the law, and to assert
that women’s use of
statutes against sexual
harassment and sexual
assault infantilizes them
is to deny their rights as
citizens.
The law exists to pros
ecute crimes. It recognizes, as you do not,
that the playing field is not yet level. Your
statement that “for every gross male harass-
er... there are sycophants who shamelessly
use their sexual attractions to get ahead” is a
perfect example. Even if it were true, those
are not equal offenses. The former is an
abuse of power; the latter is a ploy to obtain
power. It may be unfair and foolish, but it’s
not exploitative and it’s not illegal.
As always, you oversimplify. That some
women trade on their sexuality does not
mean that no woman can be sexually victim
ized. That some women are sexually victim
ized does not deny all women their sexual
agency. That women’s studies is a project
that recognizes the victimization of women
does not mean that it teaches students to be
victims. I believe that my students can under
stand the complexities of these issues in a
way that you are unwilling to do. You should
have more faith in them.
Of course, if you had that faith, you would
have no fame. Your refusal to understand
what women’s studies and “mainstream femi
nism” are all about is the precondition for
your public existence. Without us to con
demn, your celebrity would vanish. In your
eyes. I’m sure that would be the greatest
injustice of all.
Sincerely,
Bonnie J. Dow
Dow teaches speech communication and
women's studies at UGA. Paglia speaks at 7:30
p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23, at the Tate Center.
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