THE O.J. Simpson test is certainly one expression of just just just how domestic physical violence haunts American culture. Is «Gone utilizing the Wind» another? Particularly, did Rhett Butler rape or, less offensively, ravish Scarlett O’Hara?
The debate started a years that are few in scholastic journals and also the lecture hallway between two feminist philosophers — one of these Christina Hoff Sommers, who’s got since outraged many feminists with her book «Who Stole Feminism? exactly How ladies Betrayed Women,» posted year that is last. The argument inside her guide — that feminism is dominated by those that look for to persuade the general public that American ladies «are maybe maybe perhaps not the free animals we think our company is» — is foreshadowed into the dispute over Margaret Mitchell’s Civil War saga.
In the event it was missed by you, the debate has resurfaced once again. Listed below are excerpts. TOM KUNTZ
From a message offered fall that is last the American Enterprise Institute by Ms. Sommers, a co-employee teacher of philosophy at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., and reprinted in the present dilemma of The United states Enterprise:
Until 1989, I happened to be a educational feminist in good standing. My essays had been contained in feminine anthologies. I became invited to feminist seminars. My courses had been cross-listed with ladies’ Studies. I went afoul regarding the establishment that is feminist I published an essay within the Chronicle of Higher Education that said something politically wrong in regards to the famous staircase scene in «Gone utilizing the Wind.»
«a lot of women,» we wrote, «continue steadily to benefit from the sight of Rhett Butler holding Scarlett O’Hara up the stairs in a fate undreamt of in feminist philosophy.»
We designed that to be both lighthearted and a warning that is serious feminist theorists had been away from touch with ladies. But, my remark incensed users of the Society for ladies in Philosophy. . . . At a gathering associated with culture the feminist philosopher Marilyn Friedman would read a paper showing for good exactly how my views had been treasonable to females.
The paper by Ms. Friedman, connect teacher of philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis, starred in the Journal of personal Philosophy (Fall/Winter 1990):
Sommers’ remark that Scarlett O’Hara’s rape by Rhett Butler is just a fate undreamt of in feminist philosophy is . . . just stunning. (remember that Sommers doesn’t utilize the word «rape» here — one of the many omissions inside her writings.) A good moving knowledge of feminist philosophy reveals that rape is barely undreamt of with it. Rape, needless to say, isn’t a dream; it really is a nightmare. Any style of intimate violence can involve coercion, intimidation, degradation, real punishment, battering, and, in extreme situations, death.
The fact of rape is rendered hidden because of the numerous novels and movies, such as «Gone with all the Wind,» which romanticize and mystify it. They portray the rapist being a handsome guy whoever domination is enjoyable during sex, and portray women as very happy to have unique intimate alternatives and refusals crushed by such males.
In a culture by which these types of betrayals are routine, it really is no real surprise that this scene arouses the libido of some guys. The title of Richard Speck, to simply take an example, can remind us that most rape is not the fantasy that is pleasurable in «Gone aided by the Wind.» To place the idea graphically: would «many women» still swoon over Butler’s rape of O’Hara when they knew he visit the website urinated on her behalf? When you are the target of the rape, there isn’t choice that is much how are you affected.
To which Ms. Sommers reacted in a message during the exact same gathering, and reprinted in identical journal:
At enough time we made the remark, I happened to be unacquainted with a novel that features since come right into my fingers called «Scarlett’s ladies: ‘Gone because of the Wind’ and its particular feminine Fans.» The feminist author, Helen Taylor, really did a study of females who read «Gone With the Wind» or saw the film asking them whatever they thought occurred between Rhett and Scarlett . . .:
» T he greater part of my correspondents (and I also agree) recognize the ambiguous nature of this encounter and interpret it as being a scene of mutually enjoyable rough intercourse . . . Undoubtedly most of the women that reacted to me saw the episode as erotically exciting, emotionally stirring and profoundly unforgettable. Handful of them referred to it as «rape.’ » . . .
Some people might find Friedman’s perverse insistence on rape simply stunning. Well we too believe it is perverse but I’m not stunned. We read a serious complete great deal of just what the sex feminists compose. And I also have discovered they more often than not interpret a text in a manner that puts the absolute most construction that is humiliating ladies’ experiences with males. The gender feminist «subtext» of almost anything discussed gents and ladies within the patriarchy is rape, prostitution, debasement. . . .
Rebutting Ms. Sommers’s rebuttal of her rebuttal, Ms. Friedman published a write-up when it comes to issue that is same of log:
Think about the scene that is important . . . From the moment of Rhett Butler’s first look within the novel, their real power is emphasized: their large size, effective create and extortionate muscularity. . . . O’Hara and Butler sooner or later marry, but their relationship is not even close to blissful. . . . Butler warns : «I’m riding you by having a slack rein, my animal, but try not to forget that i am riding with curb and spur simply the exact same.» Whenever O’Hara expresses her aspire to haven’t any more kiddies, clearly implying they quarrel that she wishes no further sexual relations. States O’Hara, «we shall secure my home every evening.» answered Butler, «Why bother? If i desired you, no lock would keep me out.» This appears in my experience like a threat that is verbal of. Could it be just my own «humiliating construction» to notice it therefore?
The controversial intimate encounter develops after having a ingesting bout for which Butler becomes progressively more violent and intimidating. . . .
» ‘Observe my arms, my dear,’ he stated, flexing them. . . . ‘we could tear you to definitely pieces if it would take Ashley out of your mind with them with no trouble whatsoever and I would do it. However it would not. Therefore I think I’ll eliminate him from the mind forever because of this. I’ll put my arms, therefore, for each part of the mind and I also’ll smash your skull out.’ » . among them such as for instance a walnut and which will blot him . .
Then your paragraph that is fateful
«He swung her off her foot into their hands and began up the stairs. Her mind had been crushed against their upper body. . . . He hurt her and she cried out. . . . Up the stairs, he went within the darkness that is utter up, up, and she had been crazy with fear. . . . He stopped unexpectedly in the landing and, switching her swiftly in the hands, bent over her and kissed her having a savagery and a completeness that destroyed sets from her brain however the dark into which she ended up being sinking plus the lips on hers.» . . .
Because of enough time Butler extends to penetration that is genital O’Hara is intimately stimulated. Whether or perhaps not that produces her a prepared participant is just a further debatable point. Although I would argue for the negative), the narrow notion of rape does not apply automatically since it is debatable. But, I prefer the definition of «rape» in a wider feeling, by which it relates to any really intimate sexual contact which can be initiated forcibly or up against the might regarding the receiver. Maybe . . . we must relate to this wider idea as «sexual domination.» . . .
Yes, O’Hara becomes stimulated because of the encounter. That is just what some feminist theorists have actually objected to: she becomes stimulated when you’re that is sexually dominate . . .
Inside her own terms of recollection the following early morning, as authored by Margaret Mitchell, O’Hara is «humbled,» «hurt,» and «used . . . savagely.» O’Hara, this indicates if you ask me, has a far more legitimate knowledge of her own experience than does Sommers. . . .
To not be outdone, Ms. Sommers reacted into the log the following springtime:
In her go that is second at Friedman changed her tune in what did occur. She not any longer compares Rhett Butler to Richard Speck and she acknowledges that the «narrow idea» of «rape» may well not use. . . . Therefore Friedman insists that also whenever «no» turns to «yes,» a rape has occurred. . . . She now finds by herself into the position of conceding into the macho male the thesis that is sexist ladies just like the notion of being raped (into the «wider sense»).
