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

THE GENDER WARDENS 271Commission on Women found in Ms. Stumhofer's favor: Goya's paintinghas been removed.It does not take much to chill an environment. Chris Robison, a graduatestudent at the University of Nebraska, had placed on his desk a smallphotograph of his wife at the beach wearing a bikini. Two of his officemates, both female graduate students in psychology, demanded he removeit because "it created a hostile work environment." 48 1 talked withMr. and Mrs. Robison, who told me that at first they thought the womenwere kidding. But then the offended office mates made it clear to Mr.Robison that "the photo conveyed a message about [his] attitude towardwomen" that they did not approve of.The department chair, Professor John Berman, took the women's side,warning that female students who came into the office could be offended.Mr. Robison removed his wife's picture from his desk, telling the localnewspaper, "I cannot risk the very real consequences of putting the photoup again."The charge of offending by creating a hostile or "intimidating" environmentis now being made with great frequency, and, almost always, thoseaccused retreat, for they know they cannot depend on support from thosein authority. Never mind that such a charge usually creates a hostile,intimidating, or "chilling" environment of its own or that they could haveused less confrontational ways of dealing with an uncomfortable situation—such as calling the buildings and grounds department to have an unwantedpainting removed. Making a case of it puts everyone on noticethat feminist sensibilities, no matter how precious or odd, are not to betrifled with.The "hostile environment" created by those who are hypersensitive toevery possible offense is no longer strictly an academic phenomenon. Weare beginning to see it in the museums, in the press (witness the BostonGlobe with its "Women on the Verge"), and in many a workplace, wherethe employers are practicing defensive suppression of innocent behaviorin fear that it could be considered harassment by litigious feminists.For the time being, however, the "chill" of rectitude is still most intenseon the modern American campus, where cadres of well-trained zealotsfrom the feminist classrooms are vengefully poised to find sexism in everycranny of their environment. One of the precious and fragile things thatwither in the hostile and intolerant climate of feminist rectitude is artisticcreativity.The attack on art by self-righteous students has begun to cause alarmin quarters that are usually sympathetic to gender feminist concerns. LizaMundy, writing in the Fall 1993 issue of Lingua Franca, reports on the