Feminist hypocrisy

Rendezvous With Destiny
By Daniel Waldman

It's good that Bill Clinton, LAW '73, likes his women a certain way. You know the type: short skirts, poufy hair, and too much mascara. That way, when it comes time for the Bimbo Patrol to slander them, it's much easier. Yes, once again our frat boy president has messed up--and this time, he's messed up big. So big that it threatens his political survival. So big that once again the Bimbo Patrol must be called on to save him.

Ironically, this time, feminist icon Hillary Clinton, LAW '73, will lead the Bimbo Patrol in its dissection and vilification of Monica Lewinsky, as the President's supporters try to paint Lewinsky as a slutty vixen, obsessed with sex and the President. The war of words has already begun.

Representative Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) has said of Lewinsky, "That child has serious emotional problems. She's fantasizing. And I haven't heard that she played with a full deck in her other experiences." Reports have leaked out of the White House that Lewinsky often wore short skirts to work, was obsessed with the President, and was nicknamed "the stalker."

Ironic, isn't it? The same movement which has spent years trying to debunk the notion that if a woman dresses provocatively or has a dirty past, "she deserved it," has let the Clinton White House get away with this very thing.

Ironic, yes. Surpising, no. A double standard has long existed in American politics. If you support the feminist agenda on abortion, day care, maternity leave, and other such issues, how you treat women in private is not public concern. However, if you disagree with their agenda, watch out.

In perhaps the most famous he said/she said incident in U.S. history, Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas, LAW '74, of sexual harassment 10 years after the fact. And while Hill admitted that after the alleged harassment had taken place, she still followed Thomas from one federal agency to another, called him repeatedly after leaving Washington, invited him to visit her in Oklahoma, and sent him a wedding card, we were told by feminists that she could not possibly be making these charges up--that charges such as these were self-legitimizing. Women don't make these things up. And how dare anyone look at her background, sexual history, or motives? After all, she was the victim and should not be put on trial.

Then, on the day that Senator Bob Packwood (R-Ore.) was accused of sexual harassment, before any evidence was in and before he had a chance to respond, hundreds of feminists had gathered outside of Capitol Hill to demand his immediate resignation.

So where are the feminists now, as Lewinsky and Jones are put on trial? Isn't using the most powerful office in the world to curry sexual favors from a 21-year-old intern serving under you a case of sexual harassment? How about summoning an employee to your hotel room, and then dropping your pants?

Where are they as Clintonites slander Lewinsky as a slutty vixen, who "wore short skirts," and the news media interviews ex-boyfriends who tell us that "she liked kinky sex?" Where were they when James Carville referred to Jones as "trailer park trash" and Gennifer Flowers as "trash for cash," when the President's lawyer Bob Bennett compared Jones to a dog, and when Clintonites wrote up a talking points memo to discredit Kathleen Wiley?

They're silent. The same women who have spent 30 years debunking the "he's a stud, she's a slut" stereotype are silent. And the hypocrisy is deafening. If only Clinton were a conservative Republican. If only Jones and Lewinsky were elite, liberal, Yale Law graduates, maybe feminists would care.

Or perhaps I'm just being cynical. Maybe feminists believe that Flowers' claims and the tapes of her and the President talking about the affair are fake, that Clinton had Jones brought to his hotel room for innocent reasons and she is lying about what happened there, that Wiley is fabricating a story about Clinton groping her and placing her hand on his crotch and saying "I've always wanted to do that," that Lewinsky lied for over 20 hours on tape about their relationship, and that it is normal for White House interns to visit the White House 37 times the year after they leave. Maybe they believe that Clinton's and Vernon Jordan's attempts to find a job for Lewinsky were unrelated to her then-impending deposition, and that it is normal for the President of the United States to give gifts to, and have an emotional relationship with, an unremarkable 21-year-old White House intern.

Somehow, though, I doubt it.

So, one more innocent woman will be sacrificed so that women can have abortion on demand, free child care, and federally mandated maternity leave. Feminists beware, though. The long-term survival prospects for a movement with as few principles as our current president are not good. Today's hypocrisy will haunt you in future battles.

Recent Herald Columns by this Columnist:
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• Why private life is a public concern, 1/30/98
• New Haven needs a new approach, 1/16/98

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