Who-Stole-Feminism.-How-Women-Have-Betrayed-Women

114 WHO STOLE FEMINISM?for a Stalinist position. Many faculty are now teaching students thatthere is no objectivity. All is subjective. This is their rallying cry. Allof the literary masterpieces, including the very notion of aestheticquality, are said to be a means of patriarchal control.I then called Professor Lois Erickson, a feminist activist. She explainedwhy the two men I had spoken to would of course be "hostile anddefensive":It is a new era at the University of Minnesota. Our shared reality hasbeen through a masculine lens. I spent a sabbatical at Harvard workingwith Carol Gilligan where I learned to honor the inner femininevoice. Until we can balance the feminine and the masculine, peaceis not possible. For this we need a strong feminist studies department.. . . We have at least three hundred women on campus empoweredby a favorable court ruling. This gives us a strong collectivevoice. Some men and women are threatened because they fear theirfeminine side.Having heard "both sides" of the feminist question at Minnesota, I feltready to tackle the mystery of the Scandinavian studies department. Itturned out not to be a mystery at all—only a disturbing example ofextreme feminist vigilance.On April 12, 1989, four female graduate students filed sexual harassmentcharges against all six tenured members of the Scandinavian studiesdepartment (five men and one woman). The professors were called toDean Fred Lukerman's office, notified of the charges and, according tothe accused, told they'd better get themselves lawyers.In a letter sent to Professor William Mischler of Scandinavian studies,Ms. Patricia Mullen, the university officer for sexual harassment, informedMischler that he had been accused of sexual harassment and would bereported to the provost unless he responded within ten days. Similarletters were sent to the other five professors. Mischler's letters containedno specific facts that could be remotely considered to describe sexualharassment. When Mischler made further inquiries, he discovered he hadbeen accused of giving a narrow and "patriarchal" interpretation of IsaakDinesen's work, of not having read a novel a student deemed important,and of having greeted a student in a less than friendly manner. Two ofMischler's colleagues were accused of harassing the plaintiffs by not havinggiven them higher grades.The plaintiffs had drawn up a list of punitive demands, among them: