The Messages Women Send

Rucker devalues the gains women have struggled to achieve in recent years by reducing them to the same old double standard: couched in terms of “equality of responsibility,” she asserts that women must be more equal than men and hold themselves to higher standards than men or suffer the consequences.

Rucker suggests we should return to the “old values.” Apparently her rose-colored glasses have clouded her ability to recall that rape, sexual harassment and gender discrimination against women have been facts of life, often institutionalized, since the dawn of time. The difference is, in the “good old days,” women were forced to suffer in silence and were powerless to fight back. Today, we can and do fight back. And for this, Rucker accuses us of extorting concessions and special treatment. Same old song, different arrangement: If a woman is harassed or worse, she must have asked for it.

Rucker wonders why women’s groups are so angered by her position. Simple. They understand that if women today were still bound by the “old values” Rucker yearns for, Rucker herself would not have her prestigious career, would not enjoy the right to vote and would most certainly never have the opportunity to publish the misguided piece of twisted logic that appeared in The Times.

ANITA M. MANGELS

Laguna Beach