Debating Sexual Correctness

A glance here, a flirtation there, a moment ofmisunderstanding. Have the new rules of feministpolitics gone too far? Since Katie Riophe’s bookThe Morning After helped spark anational debate over the politics of date rape, themedia has focused on controversial sexual behaviorof all kinds. Proponents of what has come to becalled sexual correctness contend that we live in aculture where date rape, pornography, and sexualharassment are simply facts of life that demand anew sexual standard. Opponents argue that theseclaims are born out of a victim mentality they seeas pervasive in the modern feminist movement thatthreatens to rob women of the gains of sexualfreedom. As the successfull Dell titleDebating PC did in 1992, DebatingSexual Correctness brings together some ofthe best known and most important voices in thisdebate. From the editorial pages of magazines asdiverse as The New Republic andGlamour, The New YorkTimes and Playboy, thecountry’s most thoughtful social critics define ordebunk this very controversial notion of sexualcorrectness. Katie Roiphe, Camille Paglia, NaomiWolf, Andrea Dworkin, Catherine MacKinnon, and SusanFaludi are only a few of the writers in thisprovocative anthology that looks at a highly chargeddebate that has encompassed a nation.