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Feminist author assails peers for 'heterophobia'

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By Joyce Howard Price
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

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A longtime feminist charges that "heterophobia" -- which she defines as "fear and antagonism" toward men and heterosexuality --is driving much of today's sexual-harassment law and policy.
     Daphne Patai, author of the new book "Heterophobia: Sexual Harassment and the Future of Feminism," says the roots of heterophobia lie in "extremist" feminist literature, with which she became familiar when she was a professor of women's studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
     "Somewhere along the line, the feminist criticism of patriarchal institutions derailed into a real, visceral, and frightening antagonism toward men and a consequent intolerance toward women who insist on associating with them," she writes.
     In her book, Ms. Patai says "heterophobia" is the engine behind "some truly dreadful" sexual-harassment laws and policies she says are sweeping the nation, on college campuses and in the workplace.
     "Sexual-harassment legislation is an instrument by which the micromanagement of everyday life is being undertaken. The real aim is to change the relations between men and women in a fundamental way," she writes.
     Ms. Patai, who is married, put it this way in a telephone interview Friday from her Amherst home: "Feminist literature promotes the image [of heterosexual sex] as [a practice involving] a predatory male and an innocent female victim. . . . There are feminists who write that heterosexuality is unnatural and some who argue that even having consensual [heterosexual] sex is not right, as women are lying to themselves" about enjoying it.
     Ms. Patai, now professor of Brazilian literature at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, says such thinking dominates what she calls the "sex-harassment industry" and is incorporated into legal decisions.
     Some feminists agree that heterophobia exists in the women's movement but insist that it's not prevalent.
     "There is definitely an academic feminist contingent for whom that line of thinking is primary," said Martha Burk, director of the Center for the Advancement of Public Policy and editor of Washington Feminist Faxnet.
     "But these people do not represent the feminist movement any more than Gary Bauer [a social conservative who is a Republican presidential hopeful] represents all churchgoers," Ms. Burk said.
     She added: "The opinions of these more radical people, such as Andrea Dworkin, are on the fringe. . . . The most active contingent [in the feminist movement] are those working for socioeconomic change, not those debating in ivory towers about who's on top."
     Ms. Burk dismisses Ms. Patai's assertion that heterophobia is a driving force behind much of the sexual-harassment legislation now on the books.
     "Sex discrimination and sex harassment were the genesis of those laws," she said.
     Ms. Patai identifies feminists such as Ms. Dworkin, Catherine MacKinnon and Adrienne Rich as some of the "male-bashing" feminist extremists whose views are showing up today in efforts designed to stamp out sexual harassment.
     "Their agenda is strange and represents a minority of feminist thinking, but it's had a disproportionate effect in the law," she said.
     Writing for the journal Sexuality and Culture, Ms. Patai says the claim of "feminist extremists" that "heterosexuality is a social construct oppressive and inimical to women has gone from being a marginal view within feminism to an idea that is implicitly manifest in public policy and judicial decisions."
     She says sexual harassment is an ambiguous term that can mean "anything from a look to rape: unwanted touching, looks, jokes or repeated invitations." Particularly on college campuses, she says, careers are being destroyed, "typically with no due process."
     Ricky Silberman, chairman of the Independent Women's Forum, which had Ms. Patai as a guest speaker in September, said in the IWF newsletter, Ex femina, that the author showed how radical feminists have "latched onto sexual harassment as a means of bringing men to heel."
     Gloria Allred, a feminist whose Los Angeles law firm handles more sexual-harassment lawsuits than any other in the country, said the cases she and her partners take generally involve "more serious conduct" than sexual bantering in the workplace.
     But she argues that sexually explicit language alone can constitute sexual harassment if it's "continuing, severe and creates a hostile workplace."

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