In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution (59 page)

12. Its Name Is Sexual Harassment

Note: Some of the material in this chapter is based on interviews conducted by Dolores Alexander and me for Susan Brownmiller and Dolores Alexander, “From Carmita Wood to Anita Hill,” Ms., January/February 1992 (interview notes in author’s possession).

1
Cornell had created: Author’s interview with Karen Sauvigne, New York, Feb. 13, 1998.

2
Lin Farley established: Brownmiller and Alexander.

3
Meyer, an antiwar activist: Author’s interview with Susan Meyer, New York, Jan. 12, 1999.

4
Organizing for Lesbian Feminist Liberation: Sauvigne; Meyer.

5
Carmita Wood, 44: Brownmiller and Alexander; “Protest Sexploitation,”
Ithaca New Times
, April 13, 1975; “Working Women Form Campaign To Expose Sexual Harassment,”
Cornell Daily Sun
, April 18, 1975; “Ithacan Testifies on Job Sexual Harassment,”
Ithaca Journal
, April 22, 1975.

6
Wood told the story: Sauvigne.

7
First speak-out: transcript of May 4, 1975, speak-out (mimeo) in files of Karen Sauvigne.

8
“The titillation value”: Brownmiller and Alexander.

9
It finally appeared: Enid Nemy, “Women Begin to Speak Out Against Sexual Harassment at Work,”
The New York Times
, Aug. 19, 1975, p. 38.

10
Front-page feature: Mary Bralove, “Career Women Decry,”
The Wall Street Journal
, Jan. 29, 1976.

11
Mary Thom remembers: Mary Thom,
Inside Ms
. (New York: Holt, 1997) pp. 106–108.

12
Second
Times
headline: Ann Crittenden, “Women Tell of Sexual Harassment at Work,”
The New York Times
, Oct. 25, 1977.

13
Farley started a book: Lin Farley,
Sexual Shakedown: The Sexual Harassment of Women on the Job
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978).

14
“I thought my book would change the workplace”: Brownmiller and Alexander.

15
Adrienne Tomkins: Brownmiller and Alexander.

16
“The judge said”: Author’s interview with Nadine Taub, New York, July 23, 1998.

17
Most of the aggrieved women were black: “Digest of Leading Sexual Harassment Cases,” prepared by Karen Sauvigne for Working Women’s Institute (mimeo), Sept. 1981, in files of Karen Sauvigne; see also Catharine A. MacKinnon,
Sexual Harassment of Working Women
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979). Both documents identify race of complainants.

18
Unionizing efforts of Karen Nussbaum: Brownmiller and Alexander.

19
Merit Systems: Brownmiller and Alexander; “9,000 Women in U.S. Jobs Tell Sex Harassment,” Chicago
Sun-Times
, Sept. 26, 1980, p. 32.

20
“First decent methodological study”: Brownmiller and Alexander.

21
“When I came to the Commission”: Brownmiller and Alexander; notes of 1991 interview with Eleanor Holmes Norton in author’s possession.

22
Norton’s 1980 EEOC guidelines: Facsimile of published guidelines in author’s possession; excerpt appears in Laura W. Stein,
Sexual Harassment in America: A Documentary History
(Westport: Greenwood Press, 1999) p. 33.

23
Catharine MacKinnon had learned: Sauvigne.

24
“repressive impositions”: MacKinnon, p. 173.

25
“Inventing special rules of morality”: MacKinnon, p. 173.

26
Her identification with the issue: See Fred Strebeigh, “Defining Law on the Feminist Frontier,”
The New York Times Magazine
, Oct. 6, 1991; Jeffrey Toobin, “The Trouble with Sex,”
The New Yorker
, Feb. 9, 1998.

27
Anita Hill: Anita Hill,
Speaking Truth to Power
(New York: Doubleday, 1997); “Sex, Lies & Politics,”
Time
, Oct. 21, 1991;
The New York Times
, Oct. 12, 14, 15, 1991.

28
Lois Robinson: Excerpt from district court opinion in
Robinson v. Jacksonville Shipyards, Inc.
, in J. Ralph Lindgren and Nadine Taub,
The Law of Sex Discrimination
, 2nd ed. (Minneapolis: West Publishing Co., 1993) pp. 220–221.

29
Oncale: Linda Greenhouse, “High Court Widens Workplace Claims in Sexual Harassment,”
The New York Times
, March 5, 1998, p. 1.

13. The Pornography Wars

1
1970 Presidential Commission report:
The Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography
(Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, Sept. 1970).

2
Miller v. California:
Warren Weaver, “Supreme Court Tightens Rule Covering Obscenity, Gives States New Power,”
The New York Times
, June 22, 1973.

3
Smears:
Hustler
, May 10, 1976;
Screw
, Aug. 27, 1973; Jan. 12, 1976; March 6, 1978; smears of other women in author’s possession.

4
“to pose in the
Hustler
tradition”: facsimile of Flynt’s letter to Gloria Steinem, Feb. 27, 1976, in author’s possession.

5
Snuff:
Leah Fritz, “Why We Had To Picket
Snuff,” The Village Voice
, April 12, 1976.

6
Fled from her battering husband: Author’s interview with Andrea Dworkin, Brooklyn, Aug. 10, 1998.

7
Her first book: Andrea Dworkin,
Woman Hating
(New York: Dutton, 1974).

8
WAVAW spray-painted: WAVAW press release, June 22, 1976, in author’s possession.

9
Manager offered his personal apology:
Rolling Stone
, July 1976.

10
Draft statements of Women for the Abolition: In author’s files.

11
“We did not spend our time”: Author’s interview with Diana Russell, Berkeley by phone, June 23, 1997.

12
Rashly accepted free office space: Author’s interview with Laura Lederer, Arlington, Va., by phone, Oct. 24, 1998.

13
WAVPAM actions:
Newspage
(WAVPAM newsletters) in author’s files.

14
“Dianne Feinstein was mayor then”: Lederer.

15
Plunged nine thousand dollars in debt: Russell.

16
The conference: Conference program (mimeo) and
Newspage
Special Issue: Conference Report in author’s files.

17
Opening address: Kathleen Barry, “Beyond Pornography: From Defensive Politics to Creating a Vision” in Laura Lederer, ed.,
Take Back the Night
(New York: Morrow, 1980) pp. 307–312.

18
Georgia Dullea took: Georgia Dullea, “In Feminists’ Antipornography Drive, 42nd Street Is the Target,”
The New York Times
, July 6, 1979, p. A12.

19
East Coast conference: program in author’s files.

20
Leslie Bennetts:
The New York Times
, Sept. 17, 1979, p. B10.

21
“sea of waving placards”:
The New York Times
, Oct. 21, 1979.

22
Willis review:
The New York Times Book Review
, July 12, 1981, p. 9.

23
“I was horrified”: Author’s interview with Dorchen Leidholdt, New York, Aug. 30, 1998.

24
“I enjoy leathersex”: Pat Califia, “Feminism and Sadomasochism,”
Heresies
, Vol. 3, No. 4, Issue 12, 1981.

25
Months of planning: See Carol Vance,
Pleasure and Danger
(Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984).

26
A pastiche: “Diary of a Conference on Sexuality” (offset) in files of Dorchen Leidholdt.

27
Accusing Adrienne Rich:
off our backs
, June 1982.

28
Lesbian Sex Mafia:
off our backs
, June 1982.

29
Novelist Bertha Harris recalls: Author’s interview with Bertha Harris, Westport, MA., by phone, Oct. 27, 1997.

30
Four reporters:
off our backs
, June 1982.

31
“I think most lesbian feminists were dismayed”: Author’s interview with Carol Anne Douglas, Washington by phone, Sept. 9, 1998. See also Carol Anne Douglas,
Love and Politics
(San Francisco: ism press, inc., 1990).

32
Dworkin invited her new friend: Dworkin.

33
At which Marchiano was to go public: See Linda Lovelace with Mike McGrady,
Ordeal
(Secaucus, NJ: Citadel, 1980).

34
Stated that pornography was “central”: Copy of ordinance in author’s possession.

35
A score of local women: Catharine A. MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin, eds.,
In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997).

36
“I thought it was fucking brilliant”: Author’s interview with Robin Morgan, New York by phone, Sept. 25, 1998.

37
She persuaded Women Against Pornography to contribute: Leidholdt.

38
Split Feminists Against Pornography: Author’s interview with Janet Gornick, New York, Nov. 4, 1998.

39
Donnerstein found Indianapolis coalition “scary”: Author’s interview with Ed Donnerstein, Santa Barbara by phone, Sept. 23, 1998.

40
At the heart of the FACT brief: Nan D. Hunter, Sylvia A. Law, “Brief Amici Curiae of Feminist Anti-Censorship Taskforce” in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, April 8, 1985 (mimeo), in author’s possession.

41
“greatest depth and grasp”: Tribute by Rich on back cover of Andrea Dworkin,
Pornography: Men Possessing Women
(New York: Perigee, 1981).

42
“We Don’t Have to Come Apart”:
off our backs
, 1985, No. 7, p. 22, as quoted in Douglas,
Love and Politics
, p. 198.