Debating Sexual Correctness

Book excerpt: A glance here, a flirtation there, a moment of misunderstanding. Have the new rules of feminist politics gone too far? Since Katie Riophe's book The Morning After helped spark a national debate over the politics of date rape, the media has focused on controversial sexual behavior of all kinds. Proponents of what has come to be called sexual correctness contend that we live in a culture where date rape, pornography, and sexual harassment are simply facts of life that demand a new sexual standard. Opponents argue that these claims are born out of a victim mentality they see as pervasive in the modern feminist movement that threatens to rob women of the gains of sexual freedom. As the successfull Dell title Debating PC did in 1992, Debating Sexual Correctness brings together some of the best known and most important voices in this debate. From the editorial pages of magazines as diverse as The New Republic and Glamour, The New York Times and Playboy, the country's most thoughtful social critics define or debunk this very controversial notion of sexual correctness. Katie Roiphe, Camille Paglia, Naomi Wolf, Andrea Dworkin, Catherine MacKinnon, and Susan Faludi are only a few of the writers in this provocative anthology that looks at a highly charged debate that has encompassed a nation.