Feminists at war over 'sex pest' professor

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 2/20/04 | Marcus Warren

[mondonico]

America's most telegenic feminist, Naomi Wolf, has touched off a media firestorm with a forthcoming condemnation of two decades of alleged sexual harassment against women at Yale, her former university.

According to advance "tasters" of the expose, she describes herself as a victim of harassment and names a senior professor as her tormentor.

Her high-profile denunciation of alleged sexual misconduct at the Ivy League university has already drawn a furious response from one of her feminist sisters and another former student of the professor.

Camille Paglia accused Wolf of launching a witch hunt similar to those that swept New England in the 17th century and, in distinctly unfeminist fashion, of exploiting her looks to advance her career.

"It really smacks of the Salem witch hunts and all the accompanying hysteria," Paglia said.

"It really grates on me that Naomi Wolf for her entire life has been batting her eyes and bobbing her boobs in the face of men and made a profession out of courting male attention by flirting and offering her sexual allure."

The professor, who has been described as "destructively seductive", has maintained a dignified silence during the furore. "He has no comment," his wife said yesterday.

Wolf, a former Rhodes Scholar and the author of bestselling books such as The Beauty Myth, is reported to make her allegations in a piece to be published in next week's issue of New York magazine.

Yale has confirmed that she contacted the university with her claims but was told that the two-year statute of limitations for such offences had already passed. She studied there in the early 1980s.

When she asked for an apology for her alleged ordeal, she was told that none would be forthcoming "when there is no finding of wrong-doing".

Her piece is understood to catalogue the experiences of 10 women at Yale.

Tolerance of sexual harassment "is much bigger than one person or one incident and it needs to be addressed", a spokesman for the magazine said.

Sharp-eyed readers of Wolf's work have already spotted a passage from her book Promiscuities in which a professor visits her at home, supposedly to discuss her poetry, but then gropes her between her legs.

"It felt so familiar: this sense of being exposed as if in a slow-moving dream of shame," she wrote. "I could practically hear my own pulse: What had I done, done, done?"

The professor inspires fierce loyalty from many of his students and his learning, warmth and charisma have been described as "overwhelmingly, destructively, seductive" for female undergraduates.

After making her name with The Beauty Myth, Wolf won the status of an international celebrity and is not averse to appearing on middle-brow television talk shows.

A controversial figure, she is an easy target for the likes of Paglia who, in the light of the new allegations, unleashed a stream of vitriol at her fellow feminist. It was "indecent" of her to wait for 20 years "to bring all of this down on an elderly man who has health problems, to drag him into a 'he said/she said' scenario so late in the game", she raged.

"How many books, how many articles, Naomi, are you going to impose on us so we have to be dragged back to your teenage heartbreak years?"

She added: "This is regressive. It's childish. Move on! Get on to menopause next!"

[mondonico]

I went to college with Naomi. Camille Paglia has got her number:

""It really grates on me that Naomi Wolf for her entire life has been batting her eyes and bobbing her boobs in the face of men and made a profession out of courting male attention by flirting and offering her sexual allure."

"It was "indecent" of her to wait for 20 years "to bring all of this down on an elderly man who has health problems, to drag him into a 'he said/she said' scenario so late in the game", she raged.

""How many books, how many articles, Naomi, are you going to impose on us so we have to be dragged back to your teenage heartbreak years?"

"She added: "This is regressive. It's childish. Move on! Get on to menopause next!""

Of course, Paglia's comments were not included in the US media's reports.

[goldstategop]

Camille Paglia is dead-on. Why are feminizts like Naomi Wolf so upset about sexual harrassment? Heck when Clinton did it, it was no big deal to them. They're the the ones who do everything to get men to sexually respond them and when men do they slap them down. I think Ms. Wolf and the rest of them need to grow up and get a life!

[muawiyah]

Naomi Wolf is a big turn-off to any real man.

She'd get more acceptance with sex-change surgery. Otherwise she's doomed to none-night stands with Algore-like automatons.

[.cnI redruM]

>>>>>"It really smacks of the Salem witch hunts and all the accompanying hysteria," Paglia said.

That ranks as the funniest thing I've ever heard a feminist say about another feminist.

[joesnuffy]

Higher learning in America...couldnt get much lower

[Billthedrill]

Camille Paglia versus Naomi Wolf? Intellectually that's a tiger versus a fieldmouse. Not even fair.

[martin_fierro]

The professor, who has been described as "destructively seductive"...

Man, I hate it when I get called that. <|:/~

[SauronOfMordor]

""It really grates on me that Naomi Wolf for her entire life has been batting her eyes and bobbing her boobs in the face of men and made a profession out of courting male attention by flirting and offering her sexual allure."

Naomi's problem is that she realizes that she's no longer a cute young thing. Men will humor a cute young bubblehead, and allow her to think that she actually is an intellectual. When you get past 40, you better have some real intellectual substance, because you will no longer be humored. This is upsetting to Ms Wolf

[mondonico]

"Men will humor a cute young bubblehead, and allow her to think that she actually is an intellectual. When you get past 40, you better have some real intellectual substance, because you will no longer be humored. This is upsetting to Ms Wolf."

I suspect you're right.

[Cicero]

I wonder who this imagined harasser is? I used to have a friend or two in the Yale English department, although that was a while ago. Harold Bloom, maybe? If so, he can take care of himself.

[TheMole]

And now a word from The Observer culture reporter. Naomi Wolf is back in the news. Nearly two decades after graduating from Yale, Ms. Wolf is taking on her alma mater and the patriarchy, in the form of eminent literary scholar Harold Bloom. According to sources at New York magazine and Yale University, in the course of reporting an article slated to run in next week’s issue, Ms. Wolf has been claiming that Mr. Bloom sexually harassed her while she was an undergraduate 20 years ago. Mr. Bloom didn’t agree to be interviewed for the New York magazine story, and he declined an interview with The Observer. Sources close to Mr. Bloom, however, told The Observer that the 73-year old Shakespeare scholar has called Ms. Wolf’s claims a "vicious lie." These same sources also note that Mr. Bloom wrote Ms. Wolf a recommendation for a Rhodes scholarship when she was a Yale undergraduate, a scholarship which she subsequently won. When asked about the Rhodes recommendation letter and how it might bear on Ms. Wolf’s accusations against Mr. Bloom, a spokeswoman for New York magazine, Serena Torrey, said, "I can’t comment on the content of a story that’s not closed." She described the story as "a broader examination of the way that Yale and institutions of higher learning handle incidents of sexual misconduct and harassment." After being contacted about the controversy, Ms. Torrey called back to say that the article may not appear in next week’s issue: "It’s subject to a number of reviews. We can’t be sure when it’s running." Ms. Wolf declined an interview and issued a statement through Ms. Torrey: "My story will speak for itself."

[expatpat]

Yes, women these days tend to wear CFM clothes and then wonder why guys start to act on the invitation.

[ladyjane]

Well at least the old guy is/was after girls. Now the English Department at Princeton - that's quite a different story!

[drhogan]

i used to watch NW on tv shows, and she always acted cute and seductive. i wonder how seductive you have to be to be "destructively seductive"?
is it only bad when guys do it, but ok when cute girls do it?
i hope somebody can report some instances from 20 yrs ago when NW acted seductively destructive. it would make a good article.

[Billthedrill]

You are simply going to have struggle to get used to your destructive seductiveness, your overpowering charisma, your godlike powers of sheer allure. I can tell you, it hasn't been easy for me.

[Dianna]

"It felt so familiar: this sense of being exposed as if in a slow-moving dream of shame," she wrote. "I could practically hear my own pulse: What had I done, done, done?"

Well, for starters, you allowed a professor into your home. That kind of blurs the lines between "professional" and easy lay. Second, if someone really walked into your home and grabbed your crotch, as an adult person, why on earth were you asking yourself, "What did I do?"

I would think, "Why you disgusting filthy pig!" and the smacking around with whatever was handy would commence. But, I'm not a bimbo.

[Bonaparte]

Haven't seen her book, but if Wolf made specific allegations against a named or readily identifiable professor, she could be sued for a lot of money. If she can't show those allegations to be truthful, she will lose.

[Bonaparte]

"Well at least the old guy is/was after girls."

How do you know?

[Erasmus]

You are simply going to have struggle to get used to your destructive seductiveness, your overpowering charisma, your godlike powers of sheer allure. I can tell you, it hasn't been easy for me.

Resisting M_F's charms, I assume you mean.

<]B^)

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

They're the the ones who do everything to get men to sexually respond them and when men do they slap them down.

I think Bill Cosby stated it best:

"Come here, come here, come here....No getaway, getaway, getaway!"