File spoon-archives/marxism-thaxis.archive/marxism-thaxis_1997/marxism-thaxis.9712, message 432


Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 18:35:01 +0000
From: James Heartfield <James-AT-heartfield.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: M-TH: Who's afraid of Katie Roiphe?)


In message <l03102807b0b72192ad10-AT-[166.84.250.86]>, Doug Henwood
<dhenwood-AT-panix.com> writes
>A lot of the campus anti-rape movement that Roiphe & her like kvetch about
>emphasizes self-defense, which seems more like independence than
>vulnerability to me. An old researcher of mine who knew Roiphe at Princeton
>said that the anti-rape organizations sponsored take back the night marches
>and campus emergency telephones. What's victimish about this?
>
>Doug

Sounds like the average law and order campaign to me, except perhaps
that the proponents are younger and trendier. I remember that the
neighbourhood watch ran similar campaigns at the Broadwater Farm estate
after the race riot there. One of the proposals the neighbourhood watch
adopted was that the estate be re-painted with a new coat of white, and
new lights be put in.

Like all law and order campaigns it did generate a certain amount of
solidarity on the estate, for a limited period. But since the basis of
that solidarity is a fear of attack, the danger has to be constantly
restated and emphasised to put new juice into the campaign. In the case
of the Broadwater Farm the external threat was a more generic crime
(with an unpleasant racial twist). In the case of take back the night
marches, the danger of sexual attack has to be re-emphasised.

In British Universities now, sexual relations are subject to complex
regulations known as codes of conduct, which outline acceptable
greetings, socialisation and sexual relations. From the moment that they
attend college students are encouraged to think of sexual relations as a
source of danger. These codes of conduct are not designed to fill young
people with a sense of their own possibilities, but to look upon sexual
partners as potential rapists and killers. It seems a very morbid
message to me. Is it the role of the left now to promote fear and
insecurity?
-- 
James Heartfield


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