Word: mansnerus
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...great irony is that this situation has given conservative groups a chance to come out strongly in favor of what appear to be women's rights. Laura Mansnerus, writing for the New York Times Week in Review this week, reports that John Whitehead, president of the conservative group that pays Jones' attorneys, argued in traditional feminist language: "Is this judge saying that a man can expose himself to a woman, ask for oral sex and put his hand up her crotch and all the while she is saying no, that a woman would have no recourse in such a situation...
Whitehead is on target. Nominally, there is legal recourse to deal with just such a scenario. The Supreme Court decided in a landmark case in 1986 that hostile working environments constitute sexual harassment. However, at the same time, as Mansnerus argues, the legal language for sexual harassment is vague and flexible and open to political vicissitudes. Judge Wright dismissed Jones' claim in part because of Wright's stringent definition of the offense of "outrage," which Jones claims she suffered. Wright argued that "outrage" is "emotional distress so severe that no reasonable person could be expected to endure...
| 1 |