Donovan, Patricia

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UB Law Forum Volume 11 Number 1 Spring 1998 Article 48 4-1-1998 McCluskey Attacks Fear of Feminism Patricia Donovan Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/ub_law_forum Recommended Citation Donovan, Patricia (1998) "McCluskey Attacks Fear of Feminism," UB Law Forum: Vol. 11 : No. 1 , Article 48. Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/ub_law_forum/vol11/iss1/48 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Alumni Publications at Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in UB Law Forum by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law. For more information, please contact lawscholar@buffalo.edu. UBLAW FORUM Spring /99!1 108 McGluskey attacks fear of feminism BY PATRJCV\ D ONOVAN ··· ··························· ······ ······ Alegal scholar in the University at Buffalo Law School has strongly cri~ci.zed al lega~ions that pro-femm1st press bms produces a sense of victimiza-tion in women whose lot has improved dramatically in the past 30 years. In fact, Martha A. McCluskey, asso-ciate professor of law at UB, maintains that despite protests to the contrary, the mainstream media have not gone far enough to shed light on the Jaws, beliefs, practices and behaviors that sup-port the ongoing oppression of women in Amercian society and abroad . "Media, Feminism and the Law" (Oxford University Press, 1997), a new book McCluskey edited with Martha T. Fineman, professor of law at Columbia University, explores several popular redefini tions of feminis m. Written by 23 scholars from Jaw and othe r disciplines, it explores how lawyers, courts and leg-islatures, together with the popular media, have produced myriad changes in women's lives for good or ill. Individual essays address portrayals of feminism in the media; feminism, law and popular culture; and how gender is "essentialized" or reduced to a fixed characteris tic separate from such factors as race, class, age and sexuali ty. As its title suggests, the book looks at how feminist legal scholars have rewritten and reinte rpre ted laws to increase protection against domestic vio-lence, sexual har assment and economic inequality. Beyond that, however, the authors demonstrate that the success and failure of these legal struggles often have depended as much upon talk shows and soap operas as upon thP courls and legislatures. In an articl(· titled "Fc;;ar of Feminism," McCluskey responds to crit-ics in the popular press who warn that media s tories of women's suffering pe r-petuate outdated stereotypes of women as weak and vulnerable. Such critics publicly allege that women have made tremendous legal and social gains and that feminist "male-bashing" has made men the real victims of gende r crime and abuse. "I acknowledge that the re have been significant advances for woman in many areas," McCluskey says. "It is absurd, however, to suggest, as some have, that fem inists ignore these gains -gains they themselves produced -or to insist that woman's social , economi-cal, medical and legal problems have been solved. "To suggest that feminists are 'pro-ducing' woman-victims by continuing to talk about date rape. financial depriva-tion, domestic violence. sexual harass-ment and other forms of male abuse of women ig nores reality,'' she says. "In fact," McCluskey adds. "despite some progress, despite 25 years of mas-sive e fforts by feminists to redress the victimization of women, we continue to face pers istent gende r-based inequality in law and fact. "Furthe rmore," she says , "those women who continue to protest unfair treatment are often critic ized by men and women alike who are uncomfortable with anyone who insis ts on equal treat-ment." She calls for men and women "to reject the double standard that views women who complain about abuse of male power as whiners, manipulative liars or as weak and dependent." She contrasts the negative treatment of women's complaints with the popular media's sympathy for men who com-plain about abuse by feminists . The media often uphold these men as brave defenders of such individual r ig hts as free speach and due process. "The message often played out in media of all kinds is that women must choose between power and protection." McCluskey says. ··we can be s trong. we are to ld. only if wert-main silent and keep our problems private. Men, on the other hand, especially economically priv-ileged white heterosexual men, can have it both ways - their demands for public protection are taken as a sig n of their power and responsibility." McCluskey uses date-rape policies as an example. Critics claim, she points out, that stiict date-rape policies "infan-tilize" women by assuming that women cannot resist offensive male advances on their own. "If this is so," she asks, "then the U.S. military's strict anti-gay policies infantalize soldiers in assuming they couldn 't resist the mere mention of a comrade's same-sex desires." She points to the Anita Hill allega-tions of sexual harassment by Clarence Thomas as another example of the dou-ble standard applied to women. "If Hill should have quit her job in the face of offensive sexual harassment, d " as many of her critics have suggeste , • McCluskey asks, "then why shouldn 1 strong , smart men respond to unde-served charges of sexual harassment ? r feminist abuse by quitting theirs? Or, m the case of universities, by switching col-leges?" This double standard , says . McCluskey. excuses men's fear s of femi-nist harm as natural and reasonable, while condeming women's fears of male harm as hyterical or devious .. "Innumerable media stones wan~ that feminist concerns about oppreSSIVe male power nm to exaggeration and excess," she says. "The child's kiss, the compliment, the offhand jol~e: th~y say, are turned by maniacal femlmsts mto a sexual harassment charge. "But where ar e the comparable sto-ries warning against excess and exag-geration in the concerns expressed by heterosexual white males about oppres-sive feminist power?" she demands .. "Where ar e these real-life 'Feml-nazis' and 'feminist thought police' who supposedly keep men in te rror on ~am­pus and in the workplace, threatenmg the end of heterosexual romance. or even the end Western civilization?" McCluskey calls for the rejection of stereotypes - "not just those of tough men and weal< women. but of tough, autonomous individuals and weak, irre-sponsible victims. Mutua and Scales-Trent are honored by black law students Two UB Law faculty members, Makau Mutua and Judy Scales-Trent, received awards from the regional National Black Law Students Association (NBLSA) for their commitment to educating students of color. The awards were presented on Saturday, Feb. 7, during a dinner highlighting the 30th annual regional convention of the organization, hosted by the UB chapter and attended by some 350 law students from the Northeast. NBLSA, through its 210 college and university chapters, advances educa-tion, development and g rowth of African -American law students. Mutua, associate professor of law, received the Thurgood Marshall Award recognizing his continued commilment to the education and training of law stu-den ts of color at UB, as well as for his extensive expe1ience in international law. He is co-director, with UB Professor Claude Welch, of the university 's Human Rights Center and of the Baldy Center Prog ram on Human Rights. Formerly, he was associate director of Har vard University's Human Rights Program. Mutua has conducted numerous human rights, diplomatic and rule-of-law missions in Africa, Latin America and Europe. Scales-Trent, professor of law, received the Barbara Jordan Award for Faculty Excellence, recognizing her commitment to educating law students of color and her teach ing methods and impact on the education of UB Law stu-dents. She is the author of "Notes of a \<\l'hite Black Woman" and is continuing research comparing racial purity laws in the U.S., Nazi Germany and South Allie a. She earned a law degree fTom N01thwestern University and has served as an attorney for the Appellate Division, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and special assistant to general counsel and commissioner of the EEOC. • judy Scales-Trent and Malwu Mutua UBLAW FORUM Sprillfi 1998 109 

McCluskey Attacks Fear of Feminism

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McCluskey Attacks Fear of Feminism

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