To All (Michelle and Jonathan in particular) :
The Boston Herald
February 23, 1999 Margery Eagan
It remains to be seen what history makes of Bill Clinton. But one thing is clear: he has made fools of those of us who call ourselves feminists.
This weekend, news broke that Clinton allegedly threw a 35-year-old campaign worker down on a bed, tore off her pantyhose and raped her.
Ho-hum.
That's more or less been the media reaction. Another Clinton sexcapade, especially one 20 years old? Been there, done that. Enough is enough, isn't it? OK, so maybe he did rape somebody. Maybe he raped
10 somebodies. Do we really have to hear from all 10, every single one?
And what's the matter with this alleged rape-ee, this Juanita Broaddrick, anyway? Ms. Broaddrick: you should have hired a PR man to tell you timing is all in the news biz.
We've just acquitted Bill. We're on to new frontiers: The First Cuckold-ette is on the cover of both Time and Newsweek. ''Senate or world stage?'' asks Newsweek's cover. ''Either way Hillary's ready for her own run at history.''
Why not? Bill's done us proud.
Oh poor, poor Juanita, disparaged and disbelieved. Impeachment was January. Now it's February, and we don't care if he raped you, beat you, chopped you up in a million pieces and stuffed you in the White
House freezer. It is over. Don't you get it?
But silly, naive me - I expected more of a reaction to Juanita's plight, or at least some reaction, from organized feminism.
After all, organized feminism, in the image of National Organization for Women President Patricia Ireland, has been on TV almost nightly for two years now arguing that whatever The First Flasher's sins, they
weren't that bad.
Then there was Gloria Steinem's famous pro-Clinton, pro-Monica,
What's-A-Little-Consensual-Sex-Between-Interns-and-the-Boss essay a year ago in the New York Times.
''Like most feminists,'' she wrote, ''most Americans become concerned about sexual behavior when someone's will has been violated; that is, when 'no' hasn't been accepted as an answer.''
I thought perhaps this weekend she'd become concerned herself about the possibility, at least, that her guy's not always keen on the ''no'' end of the deal.
For Steinem, Ireland and most thinking women understand, I hope, what many others do not: that the vast majority of victims (85 percent) do not report rape; that false rape accusations are extremely rare; that
rape convictions are a 50-50 proposition at best and that only 2 percent of rapists who are convicted go to prison.
These figures come via Wendy Murphy, who's represented dozens of sexual assault victims, and from statistics in the 1994 Violence Against Women Act. Clinton, by the way, supported that act and signed it and, no doubt, was heartened by it.
And I guess we're all supposed to be grateful to The Great Prevaricator for that, plus his veto of a bill banning late-term abortions.
What a proud, clever deal we've made, girls. Here's what Bill Clinton's done for us in return: buttressed the case for liars in civil rights sexual harassment suits, as well as for exhibitionist CEOs who troll the intern pool for sex.
Now, just maybe, he's sweetened the prospects for serial sexual offenders because, you know, after the first two or three offenses, we are, frankly, bored.
Sometimes I feel like Alice in Wonderland. Here we are, 1999. A lying, scheming sexual predator president not only escapes ouster but rakes in some of the highest approval ratings in the history of poll
taking.
The next logical step? His wife, from Illinois and Arkansas, becomes the savior of New York by embracing her role as the deviant's doormat. Meanwhile, we tell Juanita Broaddrick to drop dead.
It would appear we have two paths to success, ladies. Shut up and take it. Or lay back and like it.
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