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

44 WHO STOLE FEMINISM?'Moreover, we cannot help noticing that French's contempt for men isaccompanied by a strong bias in favor of women: "While men strut andfret their hour upon the stage, shout in bars and sports arenas, thumptheir chests or show their profiles in the legislatures, and explode incredibleweapons in an endless contest for status, an obsessive quest forsymbolic 'proof of their superiority, women quietly keep the worldgoing." 6Resenter feminists are convinced that men generally take every opportunityto exploit women and that they often delight in humiliating themphysically and mentally. "Given the prevalence of rape and given thesocio-cultural supports for sexual aggression and violence against womenin this society, perhaps we should be asking men who don't rape, whynot! In other words, we should be asking what factors prevent men fromabusing women in rape-supportive societies." 7That is the view of DianaScully, author of Understanding Sexual Violence.Recently several male students at Vassar were falsely accused of daterape. After their innocence was established, the assistant dean of students,Catherine Comins, said of their ordeal: "They have a lot of pain, but it isnot a pain that I would necessarily have spared them. I think it ideallyinitiates a process of self-exploration. 'How do I see women?' 'If I did notviolate her, could I have?' 'Do I have the potential to do to her what theysay I did?' These are good questions." 8Dean Comins clearly feels justifiedin trumping the common law principle "presumed innocent until provenguilty" by a new feminist principle, "guilty even if proven innocent."Indeed, she believes that the students are not really innocent after all.How so? Because, being male and being brought up in the patriarchalculture, they could easily have done what they were falsely accused ofhaving done, even though they didn't actually do it. Where men areconcerned, Comins quite sincerely believes in collective guilt. Moreover,she feels she can rely on her audience to be in general agreement withher on this.The idea of collective guilt may sound like the theological doctrine oforiginal sin, but in Christianity, at least, it applies equally to all humanbeings. Racists and gender feminists are more "discriminating."In the spring of 1993, nine women students, who were taking a coursecalled "Contemporary Issues in Feminist Art" at the University of Maryland,distributed posters and fliers all over the campus with the names ofdozens of male students under the heading "Notice: These Men Are PotentialRapists." The women knew nothing whatever about the bearers ofthe names; they had simply chosen them at random from the university