The College News 1993-2-18 Vol.15 No. 2 (Bryn Mawr, PA: Bryn Mawr College, 1993)
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Bryn Mawr College Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College Publications, Special Bryn Mawr College News Collections, Digitized Books 1993 The olC lege News 1993-2-18 Vol.15 No. 2 Students of Bryn Mawr College Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy . Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.brynmawr.edu/bmc_collegenews Custom Citation Students of Bryn Mawr College, The College News 1993-2-18 Vol.15 No. 2 (Bryn Mawr, PA: Bryn Mawr College, 1993). This paper is posted at Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College. http://repository.brynmawr.edu/bmc_collegenews/1454 For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE COLLEGE NEWS VOLUME XV:V NUMBER 2 FOUNDED ■ 1914 BRYN MAWR COLLEGE FEBRUARY!FEBRUARY 18,1993 Sex discrimination in the workplace: it happens in the White House too by Emily Bass 1986, when it it was still legal to do so. On February 12, Janet Reno was nomi- President Clinton has spent much of nated. Reno is a prosecutor from Miami the past three weeks trying and failing to and, incidentally, is childless. She has confirm a nominee for the position of already been rigorously questioned on U.S. needs to change United States Attorney General. Thethree immigration issues. If her nomination nominees to date: Zoe Baird, Kimba fails it will not be because of a "Zoe Wood, and Janet Reno, have lent cre- Baird" or "Nannygate" problem. dence to Clinton's promise to build an Zoe Baird violated a law and was held immigration laws administration staff which looks "more accountable for her actions. This in itself by Tanura Rozental for domestic workers that can't be found like America". is fair and unremarkable. But Baird's in the local labor pool. Currently, 15 The nominations have made an im- violation was committed in part to se- Everything in President Clinton's million families are estimated to require portant statement about the legitimacy cure child care, and while critics may campaign seemed to indicate the imme- domestic help and the majority breaks and capability of women in government. squawk about the rich and famous being diate necessity for change. First it was the the law in order to provide suitable care They have also uncovered a mess of caught pinching pennies, the fact is that economy, then the health care system, for their children. Workers seeking low problems, not the least of which is a per- child care is universally scarce. And and now, with the Zoe Baud and Kimba wage jobs are rarely competing with vasive lack of vocabulary about women's whether it is the Baird family, or a family Wood controversies, it is obvious that Americans and, thus, don't affect the issues which will not be solved by an on welfare, it is always the mother's re- the country's immigration laws need to local labor demand or supply. Now that equitable distribution of appointments. sponsibility to confront the challenge. be modified. The 1986 Simpson-Rodino the problem has finally captured national Problems arose with Zoe' Baird, Clin- Twenty years ago, then-Deputy At- bill made it illegal for Americans to hire attention, it seems appropriate to sug- ton's first nominee, when it came out that torney General William Ruckelshaus was undocumented workers. Employer sanc- gest a radical revision of the immigration she had broken the law by hiring Peru- d iscovered to ha ve employed an improp- tions were enforced with the purpose of policies. If United States authorities vian aliens, and had failed to pay Social erly documented woman as household reducing the labor market for foreigners stopped killing and mistreating foreign- Security taxes for them. help. Ruckelshaus's defense was that his and thus limiting the number of immi- ers at the border and granted them legal Then came Kimba Wood, a New York wife had made the arrangements. The grants. However, the new immigration residence, women like Zoe Baud oi judge, whose nomination was heralded story fizzled out. In hearings, Zoe Baird law has by no means achieved its goal. Kimba Wood could focus on their pro- one day and withdrawn the next in a repeatedly answered that her husband With more and more women involved fessional careers without trivial matters head spinning White House turn- around. had done the hiring, and she lost the in their professional lives, American such as nannies and chauffeurs standing Wood was asked to withdraw because nomination. Yes, she should have as- families havedeveloped a desperate need in their way. she had employed illegal aliens prior to set "Namtygate" on page 2 Glen Ridge proves Rape Shield law no shield at all by Arati Vasan add a mildly retarded plaintiff, all-ameri- be stripped away from her and exposed broom stick turned the blame on her, can defendants and kinky sex, there fi- for public scrutiny and mockery. The saying that as a result of her daughter's Two witnesses say that one young man nally is a story. lawyers werequiteshrewd, starting with unhappy and dysfunctional home life held her legs up in die air while the other In reading about the trial in the papers a "reality check" on the true level of her she had an acquired an unhealthy sexual inserted the broom handle into her va- for months now, one is struck by its play- mental capacity, then proceeding to show appetite which lead to the incident in the gina, manipulating it byihe bristle end. ground atmosphere. The seven lawyers how she was nothing but a sexual ag- basement. "The one word I got sick of This was only after she had already been involved in the case resemble little boys gressor who was not only able to give hearing—she's vulnerable," he said, sodomized and raped by a thin plastic all fighting to see who can climb to the consent but actually enjoyed all of the "what did you do about her vulnerabil- baseball bat and a stick. But what hap- top of the monkey bars first. It would acts involved. As one defense attorney ity—you did not warn anybody. You pened that afternoon on March 1,1989 in almost be funny if they were not step- put it, "she has an insatiable need to share part of the blame." One wonders if a family basement recreation room was ping on peoples lives to get there. Almost satisfy herself through sex." he expected the mother to put a sign on only the beginning. The cold and callous no one is doubting the facts of what This was one of many of the highlights her daughter saying "Danger voracious brutality of the incident was only the first happened. Anyone reading about the of the trial, which continued its descent sexual appetite." The lawyer continued of what have been unceasing acts of by saying,..."Bottom line, if it wasn't violation and humiliation. It's a series so "If rape shield laws were seen as a means pf protecting both these boys it would have been others." reprehensible that some would find the One's mind screams out "It does not use of the word criminal too easy, yet the accuser and the accused, perhaps both sides would have matter either way if she did not consent society chooses another name; a rape a vested interest in maintaing them." at that particular time." Yet no one is re- trial. It has displayed all that is vile and ally listening. disgusting not only about our legal sys- trial could spit them out on command. by putting the woman's psychologist on There was a time when it seemed that tem, but the way in which we treat other The question once again surrounds the the stand to relate conversations the two society was waking up to the fact that human beingsand our concern for human age old notion of consent. The prosecu- had had about the victim's impressions women were essentially being raped rights. tion contends that the young woman and feelings about sex. Exact details about twice, once by the offender and then The trial of four young, former high- was mentally incapable of making an her level of sexual experience and her again by the criminal justice system. So school football players from Glen Ridge, informed, consenting decision regard- feelings about them were laid out for the rape shield laws were created in the NJ accused of raping the a foremen tioned ing the sexual acts, and only engaged in public consumption and then eventually latter half of the 7Cs and early 80's. The young woman has quietly yet relent- them out of fear and peer pressure com- turned against her. In his closing argu- laws were designed to prevent an ac- lessly been brought to the public eye in bined with a perverse need for approval ment, one defense attorney said, "In all cuser's past sexual history and sexual the 17 weeks since the trial began some- and affection. my years, I have never heard a woman reputation from being used as evidence time in October. The media interest comes As defense lawyers, their options are acknowledge how tender you have to be and argument in rape cases. Only Utah, not from the acts themselves, abhorrent few but incredibly powerful. Law stu- during fellatio." according to the NOW Legal Defense as they may seem in some eyes, but from dents might say the attorneys did the Probably the pinnacle or nadir of the and Education Fund, does not now have the status of the victim.