Sherven on Feminism
* While I certainly concur with Judith Sherven’s assertion that “sexual harassment cannot ever be eradicated” precisely because it is in the eye of the beholder, I find it astonishing that she deems the desire for a lack of sexual harassment to be “small” and “narcissistic” (Commentary, March 2).
Does she truly believe that employees or students, male or female, whose job security or academic grade are tied to their willingness to endure sexually explicit requests, compliments and outright sexual encounters to be romantic, narcissistic whiners if they are not empowered by their dehumanizing reality, and that they are “dependent” and “squeamish” to raise their voices in protest? Does she believe that to want something better, that to strive to improve an injustice is disempowering? If one were to follow that line of thought, then Martin Luther King’s dream is a whiny fantasy.
She has contrived broad and unsupported generalizations from the most extreme of examples (i.e., the woman who sued a rose-giving co-worker) to make the case that sexual harassment really doesn’t exist.
Oh, the complaining! As a successful, professional woman and the daughter of a clinical psychologist for 30 years, I am afraid for her patients. As long as life isn’t fair (in other words, forever), there will be people courageous enough to point it out in an effort to make life even just a little more equitable for everyone. If that makes me a small, innocent and fragile pansy, so be it.
ANDI ACKERMAN
Los Angeles
* Sherven’s article is right on target.
Time was when a rose, an appreciative glance, a whistle or even a suggestive remark were considered innocent flirtations. If it went further than that a sharp-witted woman could always put a man in his place, without making an enemy, without screaming for help and without a lawsuit.
Before the advent of NOW (National Organization for Women), I did not realize I was unequal. I was one of the first women stockbrokers in the L.A. area with a major brokerage house. I was the “House Broad” in three brokerage houses. I was thrilled by the opportunity to prove myself, despite the fact that I had to run twice as fast as my male counterparts to achieve and despite the smart-aleck remarks from my male confreres. You see, in those days we did not call it sexual harassment or take umbrage at it.
I thought being a woman in a “man’s world” was an advantage and not a handicap. I was hired by management because they thought I would attract more women clients. That ended up not being the case. I had as many male as female clients. I was not a victim. I was the victor. All women in the business world today are victors.
DORIS ESTILL
Los Angeles