JWR Jeff JacobyBen WattenbergTony Snow
Mona CharenDr. Laura
Linda Chavez

Paul Greenberg Larry ElderJonathan S. Tobin
Thomas SowellMUGGERWalter Williams
Don FederCal Thomas
Political Cartoons
Left, Right & Center

Click on banner ad to support JWR

Jewish World Review Feb. 27, 1999 /10 Adar, 5759

Mona Charen

Mona Charen

Cease-fire in war
between sexes?

(JWR) --- (http://www.jewishworldreview.com) SEARCHING FOR THE SILVER LINING to the cloud that is the Clinton era, some are imagining hopefully that the excesses to which sexual harassment law has been put will now cease and that we will enter a new era of harmony between the sexes.

But don't hold your breath. If everyone in America were to read Cathy Young's new book Ceasefire: Why Women and Men Must Join Forces to Achieve True Equality , such an outcome might be conceivable. But then again, when one considers the, ahem, indifference to facts among the feminists -- the chances that common sense will suddenly break out are slim.

Perhaps when the history of our era is written, it will be recalled for the craven obeisance we paid to any and all claims of victimhood. While the initial impulse to side with the underdog is undoubtedly an admirable American trait, the willingness to go overboard -- just as American -- is not.

The feminist slogan "the personal is political" has now metastasized into "everything is political." Take rape shield laws for example. Initially enacted to protect rape victims from the disgusting accusation by their rapists that if they were anything less than virginal prior to the attack, they must have been "asking for it," shield laws have now been dragooned into service of the "violence against women" dogma. Feminist theoretician Katherine MacKinnon believes that feminism requires belief "in women's accounts of sexual use and abuse by men."

No one knows how often women falsely cry rape, but the feminist claim that women are always to be believed is ridiculous. (As is their terror tactic of accusing anyone who notices that women are human, not angels, of being part of an anti-feminist "backlash.") Young cites a Washington Post survey showing that 25 percent of rape reports in Virginia and Maryland during a one-year period were unfounded; many of the "victims" subsequently recanted.

Shield laws can and often do put defendants at an unfair disadvantage. In the case of sportscaster Marv Albert, his sexual history was entered into evidence, but hers, including a history of biting her sexual partners and making false accusations against past boyfriends who had left her (as Albert was about to do), was barred. Unable to mount a defense, Albert had no choice but to plead guilty to misdemeanor assault.

Albert is not a sympathetic figure, but many young men on college campuses who have been caught in the "date rape" net are. A Michigan State student who met a woman at a party and brought her back to his room for sex was convicted of rape -- though she admitted that she had been drinking heavily and both of his roommates testified that they saw the couple together and that she had asked only that the lights be turned off. Is that a rape?

So much of the propaganda that paints women as victims is false that it is exhausting merely to refute it. Girls are not shortchanged by the schools; they are doing better than boys. Women are not neglected by medical science. One example: In 1993, Congress appropriated $39 million for prostate cancer -- which kills 34,000 men annually -- and $400 million for breast cancer -- which kills 42,000 women annually. Women are not always the pathetic victims of domestic violence; in many cases, they contribute to it. And while some women have clearly been harassed sexually at work, other women have used their sexuality to their advantage.

On the whole, Young's plea for a rule of reason in the realm of male/female interactions is welcome. Her extra step of disdaining traditional sex roles in every realm of life, from the military to parenthood, is extreme. Women are not the pathetic punching bags that victim feminism portrays, but biology cannot be denied either. Both the desires of women and the needs of children militate in favor of at least quasi-traditional roles within the family.

Young powerfully challenges the "woman good, man bad" propaganda we've been force-fed for so long. If she errs, it is in neglecting children and their interests. Were it not for kids, her plea for total equality between the sexes might be persuasive. But when children come along, they change everything.

Up

2/23/99:Where were the religious voices?
2/19/99: Depends what you mean by "acting"BR> 2/17/99:As Minn., goes so goes the nation?
2/09/99:Prepare for post-impeachment spin
2/03/99:Teaching morality
2/01/99: What did he say?
1/26/99: The truth about the Peace Process
1/22/99: The vulgar decade
1/19/99: Was Jefferson libeled by DNA?
1/13/99: The backlash picks up speed
1/11/99: Who invented politics of personal destruction?
1/07/99: Shall we dance?
1/05/99: Try him!
12/30/98:The price of virtue
12/28/98: The gift of giving
12/22/98: Party of shame, party of shamelessness
12/18/98: Wag the country
12/16/98: Is this impeachment constitutional?
12/14/98: Republicans find courage
12/09/98: Nappy Hair and other racial slurs
12/07/98: Stranger in a strange land
12/02/98: Dangerous ground
11/30/98: Involuntary fatherhood?
11/24/98: Lies, damned lies, and sex lies
11/18/98: Another victory for cowardice
11/16/98: Separatism plus welfarism equals a dead end
11/10/98: Did conservatism lose campaign '98?
11/06/98: Democrat venality, Republican timidity
11/04/98: Are girls being shortchanged?
11/02/98: Believe the children?
10/28/98: What 'Measure 58' would do
10/26/98: The officers are bailing out
10/20/98: Using Matthew Shepard's murder
10/19/98: The school voucher that saved a family
10/14/98: Are powerful women different?
10/09/98: Can just sex be impeachable?
10/07/98: Repeal Miranda
10/02/98: Understanding the polls
10/01/98: What school texts teach about marriage
9/28/98: Fear of choice
9/23/98: A fork in the road: Bubba's fate and ours
9/18/98: Christianity and the Holocaust
9/16/98: The national dirty joke
9/11/98: Are we in crisis?
9/09/98: Does Burton's sin let Clinton off the hook?
9/07/98: Liar's Poker
9/01/98: One, two, three
8/28/98: Fat and folly
8/25/98: When homework is a dirty word
8/21/98: The unravelling
8/18/98: The wages of dishonesty
8/17/98: Sex, honor and the presidency
8/12/98: Pro-choice extremist
8/10/98: Switch illuminates biology's role
8/05/98: The presumption of innocence and the American way
8/03/98: An American hero
7/29/98: Lock up those who need psychiatric care
7/24/98: Making the military more like us
7/22/98: The 'Net sex hoax... and us
7/20/98: Disappointed by Cosbys
7/15/98: Feelings, not morality, rule
7/10/98: Guns as the solution?
7/8/98: Teacher preacher
7/6/98: The China behind the headlines
7/1/98: What is the First Amendment for?
6/26/98: The Republican city
6/24/98: Poison pen
6/22/98: Clinton: inventing his own reality?
6/16/98: Senator mom?
6/12/98: Wisconsin: a trail blazer?
6/9/98: These girls say no to sex, yes to excellence
6/5/98: Lewinsky's ex-lawyer would feel right at home as Springer guest
6/2/98: English? Si; Republican? No!
5/29/98: The truth about women and work
5/27/98: Romance in the '90s
5/25/98:Taxing smokers for fun and profit
5/19/98: China's friend in the White House
5/15/98: Look out feminists: here comes the true backlash
5/12/98: The war process?
5/8/98: Where's daddy?
5/5/98: The joys of boys
5/1/98: Republicans move on education reform
4/28/98: Reagan was right
4/24/98: The key to Pol Pot
4/21/98: The patriot's channel
4/19/98: Child-care day can't replace mom
4/15/98: Tax time
4/10/98: Armey states obvious, gets clobbered
4/7/98: A nation complacent?
4/1/98: Bill Clinton's African adventure
3/27/98: Understanding Arkansas
3/24/98: Jerry Springer's America
3/20/98: A small step for persecuted minorities
3/17/98: Skeletons in every closet?
3/13/98: Clinton's idea of a fine judge
3/10/98: Better than nothing?
3/6/98: Of fingernails and freedom
3/3/98: Read JWR! :0)
2/27/98: Dumb and Dumber
2/24/98: Reagan reduced poverty more than Clinton
2/20/98: Rally Round the United Nations?
2/17/98: In Denial
2/13/98: Reconsidering Theism
2/10/98: Waiting for the facts?
2/8/98: Cat got the GOP's tongue?
2/2/98: Does America care about immorality?
1/30/98: How to judge Clinton's denials
1/27/98: What If It's Just the Sex?
1/23/98: Bill Clinton, Acting Guilty
1/20/98: Arafat and the Holocaust Museum
1/16/98: Child Care or Feminist Agenda?
1/13/98: What We Really Think of Abortion
1/9/98: The Dead Era of Budget Deficits Rises Again?
1/6/98: "Understandable" Murder and Child Custody
1/2/98: Majoring in Sex
12/30/97: The Spirit of Kwanzaa
12/26/97: Food fights (Games children play)
12/23/97: Does Clinton's race panel listen to facts?
12/19/97: Welcome to the Judgeocracy, where the law school elite overrules majority rule
12/16/97: Do America's Jews support Netanyahu?


©1998, Creators Syndicate, Inc.