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Hypocrites and Barking Harlots: the Clinton-Lewinsky Affair and the Attack on Women

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Hypocrites and Barking Harlots: the Clinton-Lewinsky Affair and the Attack on Women William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice Volume 5 (1998-1999) Issue 1 William & Mary Journal of Women and Article 3 the Law December 1998 Hypocrites and Barking Harlots: The Clinton-Lewinsky Affair and the Attack on Women Christina R. Wells Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmjowl Part of the Law and Gender Commons, and the Law and Politics Commons Repository Citation Christina R. Wells, Hypocrites and Barking Harlots: The Clinton-Lewinsky Affair and the Attack on Women, 5 Wm. & Mary J. Women & L. 151 (1998), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmjowl/ vol5/iss1/3 Copyright c 1998 by the authors. This article is brought to you by the William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository. https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmjowl ESSAY HYPOCRITES AND BARKING HARLOTS: THE CLINTON- LEWINSKY AFFAIR AND THE ATTACK ON WOMEN CHRISTINA E. WELLS* Given the status of the participants, the nature of the scandal, the potential political ramifications, and the melee accompanying the recently-released Independent Counsel's report, the unrelenting media coverage of the Clinton-Lewinsky affair is unsurprising. Wallowing in the libidinous transgressions of this country's most powerful leader would prove almost irresistible to a citizenry practically obsessed with sex. Of course, this coverage has provided the President's critics with an unending platform from which to call, depending upon their point of view, for his (a) apology, (b) resignation, or (c) impeachment. Many of the President's detrac- tors, however, have not limited their criticism to his actions. Rather, they have included within their castigation women who still support the President-apparently on the theory that such women are hopelessly stupid or naive (women in general) or outrageously hypocritical (feminists in particular).' As a woman and a feminist, I am tired of it. The notion that women cannot support the President without somehow leaving their principles or intellect behind is simply absurd. Such an idea is also dangerous. At its core, much of this criticism is rooted in and reinforces outmoded notions regarding the role of women in the public and political realm. If successful-and there is reason to fear * Associate Professor, University of Missouri School of Law. Thanks go to Kent Gates, Tracey George and Chris Guthrie for their valuable (and often humorous) insights and comments on this essay. I am also indebted to Tom Huffman who provided superb research assistance under a deadline that could only be considered onerous. 1. A survey conducted the day after the President's public admission of the affair revealed that 68% of women polled approved of Clinton's job performance and believed that he should remain in office although they disapproved of his behavior. See Susan Feeney, Many Women Back Clinton, Polls Indicate, DALLAS MORNING NEWS, Aug. 25, 1998, at 1A, available in LEXIS, NEWS Library, DALNWS File. Polls taken after Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr released his report indicate little change in attitudes regarding the President. See Richard Benedetto, Public Opinion Still Supports the President,USA TODAY, Sept. 14, 1998, at 6A, available in LEXIS, NEWS Library, USATDY File. This essay is not an attempt to criticize those women who do not support the President. Everyone is entitled to her beliefs. Rather, this essay simply attempts to debunk the unfair attacks implying that those women who do support President Clinton are unprincipled and irrational. 152 WILLIAM& MARY JOURNAL OF WOMEN AND THE LAW [Vol. 5:151 that it will be, given the public's already ambivalent attitude toward feminism and the women's movement 2-the denunciation of women's reactions to President Clinton may damage women more than any other recent anti-woman movement.3 This essay defends against the wholesale castigation of women who support the President. It reveals that such criticism is wrong and unfair. Specifically, it demonstrates that the critics have unreasonably characterized women's responses to Clinton as hypocritical or extremely naive, rather than as examples of astute political decision-making. The essay further exposes the sexism underlying the critics' arguments, revealing that stereotypes regarding (1) women's role as the keeper of morals and (2) women as non-political or non-rational beings are at the heart of much of the criticism. By reinforcing these stereotypes, the critics pose a greater danger to women than the original scandal itself. I. THE FALLACIES IN THE CRITICS' ARGUMENTS A. Is It Sexual Harassmentor Consensual Sex? One of the most frequent arguments, leveled at feminists in particular, focuses on women's failure to denounce (or to denounce loudly) President Clinton's relationship with Ms. Monica Lewinsky as sexual harassment. It has always been a "core value" of the feminist approach to sexual harassment, we are told, "that a powerful executive who engages in casual sex with a subordinate- no matter how consensual it may seem-has crossed the line into sexual exploitation, if not legal sexual harassment."4 Feminists who label the Clinton-Lewinsky affair as "consensual," then, are 2. See Wendy Kaminer, Feminism's Identity Crisis,ATLANTIC MONTHLY, Oct. 1993, at 51, available in LEXIS, NEWS Library, ATLANT File. 3. One commentator, for example, has argued that the Clinton-Lewinsky affair demonstrates a need to "restor(e] some sanity" to overreaching sexual harassment laws. John Leo, It's Time for Doomsday, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REP., Sept. 28, 1998, at 14. For a survey of recent anti-woman movements, see generally SUSAN FALUDI, BACKLASH (1991). 4. Cynthia Tucker, Feminists Abandon Monica Lewinsky for PartisanAgenda, ATLANTA J. & CONST., Aug. 23, 1998, at 5G, available in LEXIS, NEWS Library, ATLJNL File; see also Ginia Bellafante, Feminism: It's All About Me!, TIME, June 29, 1998, at 54, 56 (criticizing feminists Gloria Steinem and Susan Faludi for claiming that President Clinton's actions with Ms. Lewinsky were not sexual harassment); Dan Egan, Hatch: Polls Won't Dictate Decision on Impeachment, SALT LAKE CITY TRIB., Aug. 30, 1998, at Al, available in LEXIS, NEWS Library, SLTRIB File (discussing Senator Orrin Hatch's criticism of feminists for describing Clinton's relationship with Lewinsky as consensual). 1998] HYPOCRITES AND BARKING HARLOTS reneging on their principles. 5 As is often the case, this attack on feminism overlooks an obvious fact about the movement: feminists are not a monolithic unit. Pull down from the shelf any textbook on feminism and the law and you will find many different definitions of sexual harassment,6 ranging from feminists who agree with the above-quoted proposition to those who believe that adults at different levels of a hierarchy can and should be allowed to enter into consensual relationships.7 Such disagreement is common in any movement that is at least partly scholarly in nature. For example, in the free speech area, scholars disagree substantially on whether the regulation of hostile environment sexual harassment violates the First Amendment.' Disagreement arises not because scholars are fickle but because any legal field heavily imbued with social and policy concerns is subject to various interpretations. Interestingly, some prominent male champions of free speech rights argue that regulation of workplace harassment poses few First Amendment problems.9 Yet, nobody accuses them of abandoning their principles-nor should they. Feminists, however, are not allowed such latitude. It is simply assumed that our refusal to 5. See Heather R. Higgins, Is Sexual Harassment "Only About Sex?," WALL ST. J., Sept. 15, 1998, at A22; Leo, supra note 3, at 14; James Taranto, Who's A Hypocrite-and Who Cares?, WALL ST. J., Aug. 4, 1998, at A18; Tucker, supra note 4, at 5G. 6. See, e.g., MARY BECKER ET AL., FEMINIST JURISPRUDENCE: TAKING WOMEN SERIOUSLY 714-18, 746-69 (1994); KATHERINE T. BARTLETT & ANGELA P. HARRIS, GENDER AND LAW 495- 558 (2d ed. 1998). 7. The topic of consensual sex within hierarchical structures comes up most often in the context of faculty-student relations, with scholars taking different views of such relationships. Compare Sherry Young, Getting to Yes: The Case Against Banning Consen- sual Relationships in HigherEducation, 4 AM. U. J. GENDER & L. 269 (1996) (declaring that, unlike children and mental patients, university students have the capacity to give consent to sexual relations with professors), with Robin L. West, The Difference in Women's Hedonic Lives: A PhenomenologicalCritique of Feminist Legal Theory, 3 WIS. WOMEN'S L.J. 81, 109- 11 (1987) (arguing that a ban on academic sexual harassment is consistent with liberal feminist beliefs). 8. Compare Kingsley R. Browne, Title VII as Censorship: Hostile-Environment Harassmentand the FirstAmendment, 52 OHIO ST. L.J. 481 (1991) (asserting that Title VII regulations act to censor workplace speech), and Eugene Volokh, Comment, Freedom of Speech and Workplace Harassment,39 UCLA L. REV. 1791 (1992) (arguing that regulation of hostile environment sexual harassment violates the First Amendment), with Suzanne Sangree, Title VII ProhibitionsAgainst Hostile Environment Sexual Harassment and the FirstAmendment: No Collision in Sight, 47 RUTGERS L. REV. 461 (1995) (arguing that free speech jurisprudence does not preclude regulation of workplace harassment), and Rodney A. Smolla, Rethinking FirstAmendment Assumptions about Racist and Sexist Speech, 47 WASH. & LEE L. REV. 171, 186-87 (1990) (arguing that workplace speech is "transactional" in nature
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