300 Years & Counting 1H KILLS - On The Issues Magazine

fronted by a woman far more formidablethan a Bimbo."Indeed, there is even recognition thatthe Bimbo is also an advertising strategy.According to the Wall Street Journ al"advertisers are finding their portrayalsof women just aren't 'politicallycorrect' anymore." Now a few are takingthe first tentative steps to redefinewomen in advertising. Old MilwaukeeBeer still hasn't given up on its muchmaligned bikini team but AnheuserBusch has launched a new campaignfeaturing women as "real people ratherthan sex toys." Real people? — who'sdeciding?Hill, Bowman and Washington inhabitanother new configuration of thefemale — that of the Accuser. The Accusermay be a Good Girl or Bad. Mostoften she combines both qualities, butjust by becoming an Accuser she stepsoutside of the patriarchy and the traditionalGood Girl roles. She becomes theultimate "whistle blower." Her definitionand acceptability depend on herpast history, her socio-economic level,her race and her class.Hill stood on the divide between goodand bad. A feminist heroine to many,she remains an enigma whose motivesand character are still in question. Acover story in American Spectator entitled"The Real Anita Hill", by DavidBrock, assembled evidence that Hill isweird, a radical feminist, at least mildlyincompetent and, of course, that shelied about Clarence Thomas, bell hooks[as she styles her name], discussingHill in Z magazine, says that ratherthan presenting her testimony as afeminist victory, it was the absence ofeither a feminist analysis on Hill's partor a feminist response that "made thisspectacle more an example of femalemartyrdom and victimization than aconstructive confrontation with the patriarchalmale domination."hooks thinks her long silence on Thomashappened because Hill was actingas a "dutiful daughter," another variationof the Good Girl. "Hill never trulyconfronted the patriarchy because herdiscourse never stood outside of it. Shewas, to the end, a daughter of the system."Hill believed that the system wouldwork for her — that she could tell herstory of disrespect and abuse and havethe Senate Judiciary Committee offer acollective rebuke. She did not predict,foresee or expect that the racial spectreof a Black man lynched was to prove afar more powerful bonding tool than anyaccusation any woman could makeagainst a "brother." The system worked.It worked to insure that any threat to itstotems and agenda were to be removed,eliminated or destroyed. The tactics usedon Hill were traditional and historic. Arecapitulation and redefinition of theGood Girl/Bad Girl themes, but now tothe mix of sexuality and masochismthere was added a bit of the psychiatric;the myth of female madness along withthe spectre of witchcraft. The only thingHill was not accused of was having intercoursewith Satan in an open field ona Sabbath night.Hill has now entered the vaulted stateof celebrity and has made the transitionto media star with talk show appearances,interviews and magazine covers."ACCUSER"[Anita Hill]She remains for some the heroine, others,an example of the long-sufferingBlack woman, and still others will alwaysregard her as a woman who soldher honor for her ambitions. But shewas, and will always remain, first andforemost Thomas' "Accuser."During the Thomas hearings therewas much talk of a "lot of anger outthere." The country went through a consciousness-raisingsession about sexualharassment, money flowed into the coffersof the National Organization forWomen (NOW), and there were publiccries for more women in government.Since Washington and Bowman, morerape victims have stepped forward andwomen now have role models (realwomen) for standing up to the system—ambivalent and imperfect as these symbolsmay be.56 PHOTO RICK REINHARD/IMPACTVISJAISON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992