ewourna Volume 24, Number I
The magazine about Yale and New Haven
The Last Bastion Wolf's Head Confronts Coeducation
Inside: Trudeau Talks The Murder of a Police Informant
September 6, 1991
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TheNewJournal Volume 24, Number 1
September 6, 1991
STANDAJUDS _________________________________ 5 About Thls Issue 27 Book Review: The Feminine Mistake ... By Cathy Corman 34 Afterthought: Journalism Under Fire ... By Melissa Turner page 36
FEATURES---------------------------------6
Special Feature: Ask the Impertinent Question ... an ~cerpt of Garry Trudeau s 1991 Class Day R~rks.
16 The Last Bastion: Wolfs Head Confronts Coeducation ... By Katherine McCarron. OfYaks elite ucret societies only Wolf's Head stili ~eludes womm. The tkbate raging within comes to a head this October. page6
20
Words That Killed: The Murder of a New Haven Police Informant... By Erik Meers. Police money fieds the dru_g habits ofNew Haven informants. Will the cops buy testimony at the cost of human lift?
PROFILES 12
page 16
Rosa DeLauro: Scaling Capitol Hill... By Jennifer Pitts. New Havens Congresswoman holds tremendous power for a newcomer to Capitol Hill. But she claims to wield it on behalfof "ordinary mm and womm. , Beaury as the Beasr...By Kathy Reich. For years people judged Naomi Wolfby her beauty, not her brains. Shes not willing to take it anymore-and she doemt think other women should, either.
page 27
Cover Design by Annette Kirchner-Cover Phoro Counesy of Manuscripts and Archives, Sterling Memorial Library
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(Vol..._ 24, Number 1) TIN Ntw }ttiiTNII is publisMd five times during the school year by The Ntw Joumal at Yal~. Inc.• Post Office Box 3<432 Yak Station, New Havm, 06520. Copyright 1991 by The Ntw journal 11 Yale, Inc. All rights reserved. Rq>roduaion either in wbok or in part Without wncren pun>lSSIOn of the publisher and c:ditOr-m<hief 1$ prorubtred. 11m mapzinc 1$ publis.hed by Yale Collese student:>. and Yale University is not rcsponsibk for tts contentS. Ekvcn rhousand copies of each usue are dismbuted &ee to member> of the Yak University community. TIN Nnu jttiU'NII is printed by Turley Publications of Palmer, MA. Bookkeq>tng and billing KV>CeS ar~ provided by Colman Bookkeeping of New Haven, cr. Office address: Calhoun College. 189 Elm Sueet. G850-Carpenay Shop. Phone: (203) 432-1957. Subtcn!'nons are avaiW>Ie to~ outside the Yak community. Rata: One year, $18. Two years. $26. TIN New }tt"rNII encourages Inters to the editor and comment on Yak and Ntw H>ven o«ua. Wntc to Jennofff Pttl$, Editorials, 3432 Yale Station, Ntw Haven, CT 06520. AI linters for publiauon must tnclude address and signature. The New jttiU'NII ~the right to ed11 :allletton for publicaoon. SEPTEMBER
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SEPTP.MBF.R
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1991
ABouT THIS IssuE
I
n our lead piece, Garry Trudeau exhorts Yale students to ask the impertinent question. «I would argue that that's the whole point of a university," he says. «It is a sanctuary where disputatiousness should not only be tolerated, it should be cherished." The New journal strives to live up to Trudeau's advice and sound the depths of the community in which we live. Our articles this month take you from Capitol Hill to New Haven's Kimberly Square. Do the New Haven Police sacrifice lives to fight the drug epidemic? Our look at the 1987 murder ofPatty Konesky has made us wonder whether police payoffs to informants unecessarily endanger their lives. Should Wolf's Head continue to exclude women? In our article about Yale's last all-male secret society, we ask whether women would improve Wolf's H ead or destroy it. Has Yale ever really accepted women in its midst? Two articles about Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth examine the theory that traditional institutions still view women as outsiders. It may seem in this issue that women get most of the press, but The New journals scope encompasses all of Yale and New Haven. We write about the vibrant community that surrounds us, through profiles, opinion pieces, and good old-fashioned investigative reporting. You too can get in on the action. The New journal is looking for writers, designers, photographers, artists, computer whizzes, and born salesmen for our business staff. Join us at our organizational meeting on Tuesday, September 1Oth at 7 p.m. in the Calhoun College Foord Lounge. We want to hear your ideas. -JGP
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THE NEW jOURNAL
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Ask the Impertinent Question Garry Trudeau
6
THE NEw jouRNAL
SEPTEMBER
6,
1991
Last May. Garry TrtH-kau (DC 70), social critic and creator of the cartoon Doonesbury, ushered the class of1991 into the real world. Whik George Bush and his attendant helicopters, secret service agents, and protesters furnished some competition, Trudeau's speech carried the Commencement weekend. Because so many ofour readers could not be among the thousands on Old Campus for the chaos and circumstance of 1991 Commencement Exercises, we excerpt the following from Trut:kau's Class Day Remarks:
s
ean Kagan, Distinguished Faculry, Parents, Friends, Graduating Seniors, Secret Service Agents, Class Agents, People of Class, People of Color, Colorful People, People of Height, The Vertically Constrained, People of Hair, The Differently Coiffed, The Optically Challenged, The Temporarily Sighted, The Insightful, The Out of Sight, The Out ofTowners, The Eurocentrics, The Afrocentrics, Afrocentrics with Eurail Passes, The Eccentrically Inclined, The Sexually Disinclined, People of Sex, Sexy People, Sexist Pigs, Animal Companions, Friends of the Earth, Friends of the Boss, The Temporarily Employed, The Differently Employed, The Differently Optioned, People With Options, People With Stock Options, The Divestiturists, The Deconstructionists, The
D
SEPTEMBER 6, 1991
THE NEw JouRNAL
7
'Td Like to speak to you today about questions, "said Garry Trudeau to. the graduating ofclass 1991.
Home Constructionists, The Homeboys, The Homeless, The Temporarily Housed at Home, and God save us, The Permanently Housed at Home: In the spirit of the new plurality, I thought I'd begin today by trying to offend all of you all at once, in lieu of my usual practice of offending small, informal groups as I go along. If I have inadvertently left anyone out, I naturally apologize for my insensitivity. I'd like to speak to you today about questions. About pertinent questions and impertinent questions. And where you might expect them to lead you. Of course, a lot of noise is part of the bargain. Outrageous declarations and accusations will invariably fill the air. But I would argue that that's the whole point of a universityit is a sanctuary where disputatiousness should not only be tolerated, it should be cherished. The university in this country has always been ahead of the curve-a subversive, trendy, noisy 8
THE NEW JOURNAL
harbinger-a permanent California of burning analogy does violence to both the mind. reason and history. Indisputably, there That the national media have are ideologues on campuses today shown such concern of late about the (what vanguard was ever rife with state of civility on American campuses moderates?)-but they are found in says more about the moral fatigue of. abundance on both sides of current middle-aged editors than the decline disputes (as the media would rediscovof tolerance on the quadrangles. Not er if they checked their own clip files that civility isn't a desirable social of only two years ago). virtue-it is-but new ideas will The fact is, most of the new advocates for change are not the scary crealways seem unruly and overstated, will always seem impertinent. When ations currently haunting the public imagination. Many have made valuthe founding fathers conceived of the First Amendment, it was not their able and positive contributions to uniintention to guarantee the right of any versity life. Moreover, what has been speaker to a respectful and tolerant overlooked is that the traditionalists audience. (Indeed, at the time, such and the mulciculturalists have been coaudiences were rare.) Rather, they sim- existing on most campuses for years. ply sought to protect the speaker from None of which is to downplay the the censure of his government. natural tension that exists between the What's lacking in the media's curtwo. No doubt each of you at one time rent outcry is a sense of proportion. or another has felt intimidated by the We are not talking about anything struggle for the moral high ground. even remotely resembling a militant No one likes to be called a sexist. And imposition of conformity in campus what makes these epithets so difficult life. New York Magazinls Nazi bookto refute is that they seem to contain SEPTEMBER
6, 1991
More than a tobacco store within them an implied immunity from the burden of proof. Don't believe it. Reverse prejudice does exist, an<:{ it must be engaged as forcefully as the bigotry that is its progenitor. To say that something is a black thing, or an Asian thing, or a female thing, and the outsiders wouldn't understand is to argue against the whole rationale of your liberal arts education. Whether one studies Greek drama, Mayan architecture or 20thcentury Chinese politics, the whole point of your inquiry is to endeavor to see the world as others have perceived it. One's remoteness from the experience only argues for its enhanced value as a means for enlightenment. The white scholar who rules out a career in African history or the black scholar who feels pressure not to study and teach Shakespeare cheats not only the self but a future generation of students who might be infected by his or her passion. When a distinguished black playwright argued in the N~ York Tim~s last year that a film of his work could only be made by a black director, he confounded his admirers. Never mind that the presence of women characters in his work made him vulnerable to his own logic-he seemed to have forgotten that the very task of fiction is about trying to characterize people who are not the author. Indeed, this is an essential truth of all art, not only in the creation of it, but in its subsequent appreciation. The need to empathize--and to share that empathy-is what makes learning and teaching. It is what drives the study of what we consider the classical canon of any culture. The good intentions of the young have always defined university life. Indeed, generations are characterized by their common moral debate. The indignant media mandarins might do well to remember that P.C. was alive and well during their years in college too. It wasn't called that thep, but the campus liberation and anti-war moveSEPTEMBER
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1991
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ments of the late 60s had their own protocol and agenda- their own appropriate behavior. People who were not against the war were imperialists; people who withheld their support from the Black Panthers were racists; people who went to classes were, curiously, fools.
Ill)
y advice to you: make a break for it. Take off. Cut your own swath. Ask your own impertinent questions. It won't be easy. The current struggles on campus suggest that the yearning for moral commitment is as intense as it's ever been, but that the generation with no rules, the generation that grew up in the rubble of smashed idealism, fallen heroes and broken marriages is deeply suspicious. The columnist Ellen Goodman has speculated on why apartheid and the soup kitchens emerged as the causes of choice on campus; they offered, she says, stark, unambiguous clarity of purpose. But Goodman also believes that micro inevitably evolves into macro; that to be involved leads to decisions between larger, if more imperfect options; that many of you will take risks, make mistakes, and become citizens in spite of yourselves. The best your college education can do for you now is remind you that it's one thing to be ~elf-absorbed and quite another to be self-aware. With the uncertainties of the future bearing down on you, you need to assess your commonalities. You need to say how you would treat other people, and how you would have them treat you back. It comes down to a matter of being open, of seeing. It comes down to a matter of remaining intrigued enough by life to welcome its constant renewal. In short, it comes down to the impertinent question. From those of us floundering out here in the real world, to those of you preparing to enter, may I just say, welcome-we need you. Thank you and good luck. SEPTEMBER
-
6, 1991
Last year the Columbia Scholastic Press Association ranked TN] among the top nine college magazines in America. Work for Th~ Nm~ journal and follow in the footsteps of staff members like these: Jack Fuller, now editor of the Chicago Tributu, Anne Applebaum, now Warsaw bureau chief for the London lndepmdmt and Tlu Economist, and StephenWeisman, now Tokyo bureau chief of the N~ l'Drk 1imes. COME TO THE ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING: DATE: Tuesday, September 10, 1991 TIME: 7pm MANNER off the wall and flamboyant PLACE: C~houn College's Foord Lounge in the basement of emryway A
1111
Rosa DeLaura: Scaling Capitol Hill jennifer Pitts
nly eight months into her first term as New Haven's congressional representative, Rosa DeLauro has made a reputation for herself as a professional, not a newcomer to be coddled. "Rosa is clearly the best prepared person to represent her district of anybody I've seen in the dozen years I've been here," says Representative Sam Gejdenson (D-Connecticut), one of DeLauro's most ardent supporters. DeLauro spent 11 years in Washington, first as an aide to Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut) and then as director of several political organizations. Her time away from the district may have hurt her in the eyes of some constituents-during last year's campaign, her opponent labeled her a "radical out-of-town feminist." But the political experience she gained has served her well on the Hill. Colleagues note her eloquence on the floor as well as her involvement in a number of congressional groups. In addition to the requisite two committees, DeLauro belongs to several ad hoc groups, including the women's caucus, the urban caucus, and the Fair Trade task force. And she won a plum assignment when House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Missouri) appointed DeLauro to his "message group." The 15-member group formulates the Democratic position on key issues. At the start of the 102nd Congress, DeLauro's confident opinions and her obvious ease on Capitol Hill set her apart from the crowd. New members normally use their first few weeks to learn the maze of hallways that snake under Hill buildings and to establish contact with senior members of the House and Senate. Most of the other 44 "freshmen" struggled to find their sea legs as they debated the ethics of war. "We were sworn in on January third, our offices opened on the seventh, and we immediately began a discussion of whether or not we were going to war,"
0
12 TH£ N£w JouRNAL
DeLauro recalls. "The war set the tone for the entire term." DeLauro wasted no time on office administration. She leapt into action with a nationally broadcast speech against the use of force in the Persian Gul£ Despite the divisiveness of the issue, DeLauro feels the war united Congress as few issues can. "It was an extraordinary discussion," she says. "The vote on whether to use force caused the same kind of anguish for people who had been there a matter of days and for people who had been there 40 years." While she admits that no subsequent debate has carried the weight of the war vote, DeLauro welcomed the return to domestic issues. "This year we've debated issues of particular interest to me, like health insurance and reform of the health care system," DeLauro says. "It's a new debate, but
'1t serves women across the country well that someone as highly respected and as able as Rosa is also a woman. " there are bills on the table, and Congress is going to move on this in the next couple of years." DeLauro aims to represent the middle class and the working poor. She wants more progressive taxes and health care, and she supports her words with action. Her first major piece of legislation, the Middle Class Tax Relief Act, champions those she refers to as "ordinary men and women." The bill provides tax breaks for all taxpayers in the 15 and 28 percent brackets-under her bill a family of four earning $30,000 would save a third of their taxes. DeLauro plans to make up for the lost revenue by taking on the upper class. The bill includes a tax hike for top corporations S£PT£MB£1t
6, 1991
..
and a "millionaire's surtax" levied against people making more than $290,000. Democrats have noticed DeLaura's novel ideas. "When Rosa presented her bill she had the rapt attention of the Democratic caucus," says Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California). Senator Dodd already has included parts of DeLaura's bill in his own Senate legislation. Though her bill won't pass on its own, it may well factor into a Democratic proposal. Anxious to make their mark, many new representatives try to pass a bill to prove their effectiveness in Congress. Few bills pack the punch of DeLaura's, however. At one conference, while DeLaura discussed her proposed tax cuts, Larry LaRocco (D-Idaho) wanted to authorize silver medals for the soldiers of the gulf war. De~uro leaves such bills to other freshmen. ; DeLaura also wields clout as a defender of abortion rights. Her pro-choice credentials ~e in handy when Rep. David Bonior (D-Michigan), who opposes abortion, needed a powerful voice to second his nomination for Majority Whip. DeLaura's seal of approval reassured reluctant prochoice colleagues and helped swing the election. "It serves women across the country well that someone as highly respected and as able as Rosa is also a woman," says Rep. Pdosi. "Rosa is one of the reasons we will increase the number of women in Congress." While politics remains a man's game, DeLaura has worked hard to earn women a place in government. In 1989 she directed an organization called EMILY's List, which promotes Democratic, pro-choice women running for congressional office. EMILY's List, short for "Early Money Is Like Yeast-it makes the dough rise," identifies viable candidates, provides funds, and teaches them how to run their campaigns. "There are only 29 women out of 435 representatives, and only two women in the Senate," DeLauro says. "At this rate we'll see parity in maybe the next 400 years." SEPTEMBER
6,
1991
"Other politicians parukr to the whims ofthe day. Rosa sets her course with her heart," says Senator Chris Dodd ofDeLauro.
hough women are still underrepresented in polics, DeLaura never lacked. a female role model. Her other Luisa, whom DeLaura calls her main inspiracion, has served New Haven as an alderwoman for 25 years. In the predominantly Italian neighborhood where DeLaura grew up, her kitchen table served as a center for political debates and constituent concerns. Before the death of her father, Ted, in 1971, the community dubbed him "Mayor of Wooster Square" for his longtime position as alderman of the ward. In the mid-60s, several years out of Marymount College, DeLaura returned to New Haven to work with a grassroots group called the Community Action Institute in the Hill district. There she met her mentor, New Haven THE NEw jouRNAL 13
activist Frank Logue. DeLauro spent the next ten years working for Logue, who became New Haven's mayor in 1976. As the mayor's executive aide, DeLauro achieved a high administrative rank at a time when women were virtually absent from appointed office. The position provided essential experience for her work .in Washington. "You have to get an understanding of what local government is all about," she says. "That's where the rubber meets the road."
DeLauro claims to represent the middle class and the working poor. DeLauro earned a reputation in Washington for brains and political savvy when she served as chief of staff and campaign manager for Senator Dodd from 1980 to 1987. After leaving Dodd's office, DeLauro stayed in Washington to work for several advocacy organizations. Connections she formed on the Hjll proved one of her most valuable assets. "In a legislative body, a lot of how you get things done has to do with interpersonal relationships," she says. "If people know you and trust you, there's less to learn when you get to Congress-you can move that much more quickly." With support from Washington politicos, DeLauro entered the race for New Haven's congressional representative in November 1989. Called the "consummate political organizer," she quickly eliminated her Democratic opposition with an unmatched talent for fundraising and a surname that spelled ability to many New Haven voters. "She's a very talented politician from a formidable political family," says David Mayhew, Yale professor of political science. Her Republican opponent Tom Scott, a young state senator from 14 THE NEw jouRNAL
Milford, had ten years in elective office and a relish for heated confrontations. A better speaker than DeLauro, Scott repeatedly proposed debates that she declined. One of the few radio debates DeLauro granted disintegrated into chaos. As Scott shouted "Yo u're an extremist and a radical, Rosa," DeLauro shrilled back, "Just relax, Tom, just relax!" In an attempt to stem the fury, the mediator, WELl's Steve Kalb, turned off the candidates' microphones. Their increasingly antagonistic speeches reduced the candidates to conventional black-and-white positions on conventional campaign issues. Scott opposed gun control and abortion; DeLauro favored defense spending cuts and universal health insurance. As the New Haven Register wrote during the onslaught, "Ask Rosa DeLauro and Tom Scott the time of day and you'll probably get two different answers." Despite a considerable campaign treasury and support from Washington bigwigs like former House speaker Tip O 'Neill, DeLauro edged out Scott by only 7000 votes and four percentage points-the smallest margin in the state. While many say the Democratic machine that has run New Haven for years is rusting, DeLauro captured more than three times as many New Haven votes as Scott. The city's support sent her to Washington. But the majority of the district's voters live in the suburbs, where Democratic candidates must struggle for enough votes to win. DeLauro sqeaked by last November, and her challenge next year will be to convince suburban voters that she speaks their mind.
men, Rosa stood out," says Gejdenson, who belongs to the group that awards committee assignments to freshmen. "In almost every instance, she was among the top vote-getters." DeLauro made a judicious step when she chose Government Operations, a watchdog over federal waste and abuse. The spot may pave her way to more important financial committees such as Appropriations and Ways and Means. "Government Operations has access to a great deal of information," says Rep. Pelosi, who served on the committee before moving onto Appropriations. "Like Appropriations it covers a very wide jurisdiction."
''You could_just see that compared to other freshmen, Rosa stood , out. Gejdenson sees DeLauro as the promise of the Connecticut delegation. "One of the disadvantages of a small state, especially one with the high turnover we've had, is that it's very hard to build up a powerful operation," he says. But Gejdenson believes that soon, perhaps next year, DeLauro will win a spot on the influential Appropriations Committee; she would be the first Connecticut Democrat to do so in many years. "I tried twice myself, and lost to people from more powerful states," he said. "But having somebody of Rosa's ability makes up for our lack of seniority. My only hope is that she stays here for a long time."
T
o prove her efficacy to her constituents, DeLauro lobbied hard to land committee assignments that would benefit her jurisdiction. She won her two first choices: Government Operations and Public Works and Transportation. "You could just see that compared to other fresh-
jennifer Pitts, a senior in Calhoun College, is editor-in-ckiifof TN]. SEPTEMBER
6,
1991
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The Last Bastion Wolf's Head Confronts Coeducation Katherine McCarron
16
THE
New JouRNAL
SEPTEMBER
6,
1991
- - - - - - - - - . j l•l ehind the locked doors of Wolf's H ead, Yale's last allmale secret society, members have waged a civilized debate over coeducation for the last 22 years. While Skull and Bones broke ranks with its governing board last spring and forced coeducation upon its unwilling alumni, Wolf's Head prefers to act by consensus. This October, the society will vote again on coeducation, perhaps for the last time. To address the issue of admitting women to Wolf's Head, the Board of Governors established an internal committee on coeducation in the mid-1980s, which polls the membership at large with annual questionnaires. Though the committee periodically changes members, the current board is weighted in favor of men who graduated before Yale went coed. This year the six-man committee includes members from the classes of '45, '53, '54, '59, '75, and '90. As one ofYale's ten elite senior clubs, Wolf's Head initiates 15 men from each junior class on the last Thursday in April. Rumors abound about Wolf's Head tap rituals-on initiation weekend, the old members induct the taps in their Egyptian artifact-laden "Hall" and give each new member a name that traces back to the original group. Tradition dictates that the delegation meet every Thursday and Sunday in the windowless building on York Street, as it has since 1883. Like Yale itself, Wolf's Head thrived for over a hundred years on the money of its usually white alumni. However, much has changed at the Hall since then. Today the society, like the university, seeks diversity. Blacks, Jews, and gays have joined the ranks of the institution-Wolf's Head even installed ramps in the early 80s ro make the Hall wheelchair accessible. D espite these strides, at a coed Yale, diversity without women is a contradiction. Alumni worry that admitting women would ruin the unique Wolf's H ead experience. The crux of the debate focuses on personal histories, during which each member shares his most intimate thoughts in an environment of privacy and confidentiality. A growing number of members feel that women are necessary to make the experience more than just male bonding. But for many alumni educated in single-sex schools, personal revelation can only occur in the all-male setting. "The experience as I recall it of bonding and sharing your innermost thoughts-! don't see that happening in a coed environment," said Thomas Sargent (BK '58), who attended Yale in the days before coeducation and spent his preparatory years at an all-male school. "There
B
SEPTEMBER
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would be embarrassment and holding back." Appropriately, one of the earliest advocates of coeducation at Wolf's Head was the man who helped bring women to Yale. In 1968, Sam Chauncey (DC '57) rook a two-year leave of absence from his position as the secretary of Yale College to hammer out the details of admitting women. As a champion of Yale's coeducation, Chauncey thought he could usher Wolf's H ead into the new age. C hauncey raised the issue every year when the delegations invited him to the Hall to speak at alumni dinners. He brought the d ebate before the Board of Governors at their quarterly meetings and needled alums on the faculty. His work resulted in two votes on coeducation-one in the mid-70s and one ten
"The experience ofbonding and sharing your innermost thoughts-! don 't see that happening in a coed . , envtronment. years later-but both failed to muster the necessary twothirds majority to pass. " It's hard to ask people who aren't used to being radical to go out and risk th eir necks," Chauncey said. "I worked at it for ten years and failed miserably." For most alums, poeducation just is not a burning issue. Despite lobbying Hforts from both sides, a majority remains indifferent. "Coeducation is probably a huge issue to the the 30 percent or so who are in favor of it and the 10 percent who are vehemently against it," said Christopher Forster (TC '54), the president of the Phelps Trust Associarion,Wolf's Head's corporate name. "That leaves 60 percent of the membership who don't feel as strongly." For those who want coeducation, the society's failure to admit women is an embarrassment. Yale's Presiden t Benno Schmidt, a Wolf's Head alum, refuses to enter the Hall or attend any of the society's functions because of the all-male policy. "Wolf's Head sets a stinking example for the rest of the undergraduates at Yale, which prides itself on liberal values of inclusion ," Chau ncey said. " I don't like the idea that we have a discriminatory institution in our midst." THE NEW jOURNAL
17
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Chauncey's argument hits home with the younger members of Wolf's Head. Many believe that if the society wants to attract its first-choice taps, it cannot continue to exclude women from its ranks. Paul Saint-Amour (PC '91} turned down the tap because Wolfs Head would not admit women. "I can't imagine why you would be less inclined to tell the story of your life in front of women," he said. "What better way to work out the complexities between the sexes than in a coeducated environment?" However, a small alumni faction still holds fast to the traditional line. They maintain a legalistic defense reminiscent of other all-male organi-
zations-they claim a private club reserves the right to determine the makeup of its membership. So far their point of view has prevailed because single-sex proponents held most of the leadership positions in the organization in the past. Opposition at the top and indifference among the membership have kept Wolf's Head from admitting women. "I'm sur~ that the majority of the members believe it should be coed. But they aren't willing to take the time to fight the leadership." said Chauncey, who quit Wolf's Head in disgust after the failure of the 1984 vote. Even the President of Phelps Trust has opposed _coeducation. "I SEPTEMBER
6,
1991
have not been in support of coeducation," Forster said. "I was definitely against it 15 years ago, but my support has warmed up over the years." Although Foster's views may have changed, single-sex diehards like Tom Sargent still have the ear of the Wolf's Head leadership. In a heartfelt letter to Forster [reprinted at right], he recalls his Wolf's Head experience with nostalgic fondness. As the father of two boys and a girl, Sargent wants to preserve the all-male experience at the Hall for his sons, and would like to see his daughter join an all-female club. "I'd definitely like my son to be a member of an all-male society. It would be an experience he wouldn't get anywhere else," Sargent said. "Some of my classmates who were in other senior societies [that have gone coed since they graduated] said that in the coed environment, the experience was lost." Sargent hesitates to break with the past. Without experiencing coeducation personally, he fears the unknown for Wolf's Head. "To coeducationalize the experience would change it," Sargent said. "Not necessarily for the worse-it would just be different. " Many of the older alums are happy with the way Wolf's Head is. They do not want to concede Yale's last male bastion. But recently, pressure to admit women has increased dramatically. Skull and Bones was not the only society considering coeducation last spring. Wolf's Head voted on admitting women last year too--but its proposal failed. The Bones decision has forced the issue again this fall. Forster believes that times have changed at Yale, and that coeducation now stands a better chance of passing than it has before. With their ballots this October, members will receive a recommendation from the committee on coeducation. The committee decided against the usual method of including four "position papers" to spell out a spectrum of arguments. "I think people SEPTEMBER
6,
1991
really know the issues by now," Forster said. "We just want to make it as simple as possible." The details of the recommendation are anyone's guess. "Basically the committee is in support of coeducation," Forster added. "Obviously, there are degrees of opi~-
The following letter, to the president of Phelps Trust, is reprinted with . the permission of both parties.
uWolf's Head sets a
From my son, now a sophomore at Yale, I am following with great interest the •problems• at Skull & Bones. When and if we are the last to be all- male, the pressure to conform will escalate geometrically. There is an obvious role and need for an all-male experience like we all shared at the Hall. The pressures to conform are great in college, and the egalitarian spirit will never be quite the same as during this phase of life; however, the experience of Wolf's Head would never be the same either in a heterosexual environment, much to the detriment of the delegation. The setting, the mood, the ambience, the camaraderie of the individuals would all be the different . And •different• is the operative word here. Thus will pass, once and for all, the opportunity for young men to share their innermost thoughts, aspirations, fears and dreams with each other in a unique and supportive environment. They don't know that yet, but some day at least some of them will. And it cuts both ways, which is why I would favor separate delegations as the ultimate •solu tion• to the coed issue. The trend of the voting of the Association's membership, coupled with being the last of the societies to be all male, means that very soon Wplf's Head will join all the others at Yale and conform . In my view much will be lost by the Yale men and little gained by the Yale women other than to change the Wolf's Head experience from what it was to something entirely different.
stinking example for the rest ofthe undergraduates at Yale." ion, but the committee is in agreement." Before Sam Chauncey resigned from the Hall, he proposed a "last resort" coeducation package that would have doubled the size of the tap class to include 15 men and 15 women. Chauncey suggested that the men and women meet separately once a week. Then half the men and half the women would meet together on alternate Sundays. Ironically, Tom Sargent resurrected the major points of the plan earlier this year. "If the push to conformity is so great, then perhaps the way around this is to have two delegations and to share the building," Sargent said. "They could meet separately for the personal histories and comingle at other events." Such a compromise disappoints hard-liners on both sides of the coeducation issue. It satisfies neither the passion of those who see the issue as an unambiguous fight against discrimination, nor the equally intense feelings of those who do not want their successors to miss the benefits of the hallowed "all-male experience." -
Dear Chris Forster:
Kathain~
McCarron, a unior in Calhoun Co/kg~. is a managing ~ditor of Yours in W.H.S., P. Thomas sargent, ' 58 TNJ. THE NEW jOURNAL 19
Words TheM Erik Meers
19.,
a majo' bus<. Colton faced up w ni
the loss of his bar. The week after the lawyer that he knew Konesky had Still, Patty continued as a regular stopping to gossip with Phil, was on to her. The day of her with Phil Colton's son Murray, a b
garbage truck driver. That Phillip's umil closing. Patty as he took out The next morning, dugout a few blocks from ree boys found Patty's mutilated body. The boys ran in shock to Pepe's Market, where Barbara Pepe heard the news...They told me that there was a lady dead up the street at the ball field. All
recalled ...They said her eyes we.rcA:.nled out.,. ·ves found di symbol for police body. Neighborhood
their mouths shut. police investigathl~6~reelks after the mwder. ca~linued unabated. Some had thrown her out death. The Kimberly newspaper c:ldivery ;a.•l.h~ After the New unofficial invesriga.,.,.,..,·,""' Rumon persistwithout~ the
aw~ldl>n, the
of dae ~·:@: career as infOrmant. TWICC-c1iiJf and .....~•~u• cookies at Pepc-s Market, always stopping to tell the day's news. Pepe remembers Patty the day before "She was filling me in on some gossip. Su car pulled up. and she
. sPiilTiC'IIrr<o,;eSkY"··d th.,,
::=~:~~ :h.,.
r..
=~:~:::
Patty was a regular at Don Phillip's [nternational Cafe. The owners son stands convicted ofher murder.
take them somewhere.' She went away for ten minutes, came back, and kept gabbing as if nothing unusual had happened." Street-wise and quick-witted, Patty learned to survive in the violent Kimberly Square area. When she moved there in 1986, many knew her as the only woman living alone in the neighborhood. She boasted of the time she broke a beer bottle over the head of a man who tried to pick a fight with her. Patty thought she could take care of herself. No stranger to hard times, Patry became pregnant with her only child at 15. She left her son Michael with
her mother, ~ho ¡raised him in Branford. Eventually Michael decided that he needed to meet Patty. "When I turned 16, I just wanted to find out who my mother was and why she didn't take care of me." He tracked down her address. When he went to Patty's house, a plain woman with straggly brown hair answered the door. "I asked her, 'Is Patty Konesky home?' She said 'No.' I told her to tell Patty that her son was here. She started crying.'' Michael moved in with his mother for a month but rarely saw her. He would come home from work to a vacant apartment, Patry already off to the bars for the night. "One day I came home and she wasn't there. The locks were changed on the door," he said. Michael moved back to his grandmother's, occasionally writing and visiting his mother. Three days before Christmas 1986, Patty called her son to ask if she could move in with him. With two roommates, Michael didn't have space and reluctantly said no. That was the last Michael heard from her. Frustrated by the gridlock in his 8 mother's case, Michael opened his own investigation. "When I asked the New Haven Police what was going on with the case, they looked at me as if I should be telling them," he said. Michael walked the Kimberly Square
streets searching for leads. On "the first anniversary of the murder, Michael called New Haven reporters to revive interest in the case. The media jumped on the story. Local TV and radio newscasts regularly featured segments on the unsolved "dugout murder." They noted that of the 23 murders in New Haven in 1987, police had solved 22. Only Patty Konesky's case remained without a lead. The New Haven Register called her murder the most grisly crime of 1987. Pressure mounted on the police to find a suspect. When the state offered a $20,000 reward for tips on the Konesky murder, Michael roamed
f
Murray Colton 22 THE NEW JouRNAL
State penitentiary at Somers SEPTEMBER
6,
1991
Thr~~ boys found Party Kon~skys
body in this baubaU dugout on january 13, 1987.
through the Kimberly Square area posting signs with Patty's picture. The first break came two weeks later, when police arrested a friend of Patty's on prostitution charges. During routine questioning, Janice Tourangeau, a 40-year-old Kimberly Square regular, told police that she saw
Even the police didn 't believe Tourangeau s story but they took what they could get.
agely, Tourangeau said she fled the scene. Tourangeau worked as a prostitute on Kimberly Square to support her heroin habit. Far from the ideal witness, she was a product of the same drug culture as Patty. "Most of our informants tend to be involved with some criminal activity,,.. said Lt. Waring. "You can't know about crime unless you're close to it." Though Tourangeau conceded that she came forward for the reward money, she told police that she didn't really need it because she could hustle $2000 a week on the streets. At first, the police didn't believe her story. But it was the only ~
Phil Colton's son, Murray, and a second unidentified man attack Konesky in the dugout. Tourangeau claimed that on the day of the murder she had begged Patty to let her in on a drug deal. When they met around midnight outside Don Phillip's, Patty told her to hide near the Kimberly Field dugout, a well-known drug den, and join her after she clinched the deal. From her view, behind a bush across the field from the dugout, Tourangeau claimed she saw Patty and Murray talking. Suddenly they both rose, and Murray struck Patty on the face. A second man sprung from behind the dugout and hit her from the back. As the men kicked Patty savSEPTEMBER
6,
1991
.
"
lead in the murder, a.nd the police took what they could get. Once Tourangeau broke Kimberly Square's collective silence on the case, two new witnesses told the police that they had seen Patty walking with Murray in the direction of Kimberly Field at around midnight the night of the murder. A friend.of Towrangeau's claimed that the next night while watching a report about an unidentified woman murdered at Kimberly Field, Tourangeau had blurted out "that's Patty Konesky." Testimony by Murray Colton's exgirlfriend, Mariana Foster, proved more damning still. Colton had taken ~ Foster to Don Phillip's on a date, beaga ging that he owned the bar. When he ~ conceded that he was only running the bar until his father finished serving time in prison, Murray explained, "Some bitch dropped a dime on my father-we took care of her, she got hers." But cracks developed in the prosecution's case when a friend of Tourangeau's told police that they had been together that night, and Tourangeau couldn't have seen the 8 dugout murder. Jackie Boyles claimed that she and Tourangeau went on a heroin binge that day, partying at the Fremont Hotel all night. Despite the contradictory testimony, the state forged ahead in Murray Colton's pros-
f
March 1989
THE NEW JouRNAL
23
ecution. The trial opened in the spring of 1990. With the conflicting stories of Tourangeau and Boyles, the jury voted 9 to 3 to convict Colton, but without the requisite unanimous ver-
Police don't mind fe~ding an addict as long as they can bring down a dealer. diet the judge declared a mistrial. A second prosecution began in the fall, with similar evidence presented by both sides. The second jury came back with 9 to 3 vote to acquit. The prosecution knew they had to win the third trial because the state wouldn't foot the bill for a fourth. New attorneys represented both sides. The state prosecutor, Jim Clark, believed that he could get a conviction with the right jury and additional witnesses. But Murray Colton's new lawyer, Ken Rosenthal, seemed equally determined to show the weakness of the state's case, based on the questionable testimony of Janice Tourangeau. Defense attorney Rosenthal aimed to destroy Tourangeau's credibility with the jury. During his cross-examination, Rosenthal hammered questions at Tourangeau until she burst into tears. He demanded to know why she hadn't called for help or told her story until after the state offered the $20,000 reward. "I felt guilty for a long time for not calling anybody," she said, sobbing on the stand. In excruciating detail Rosenthal portrayed Tourangeau as a conniving heroin addict and prostitute willing to do anything to get the reward money. "Their case rises and falls on the testimony of this ad mined liar, this prostitute, this junkie," Rosenthal told jurors. Rosenthal's hardball tactics to discredit the informant seemed more like character assassination than defense. Prosecutor Clark attacked the local 24
THE NEW jOURNAL
media for publicizing Tourangeau's "ancient history." Reportedly, she suffered bouts of depression because of the intense media scrutiny during the three Colton trials. The N~w Havm Advocau ran a cover story reporting that Tourangeau was suicidal during her testimony in the first trial. "Janice ¡ Tourangeau came forward and all the press wanted to do was trash her background, instead of looking at the person who helped us get a vicious killer off the streets," said prosecutor Clark. New witnesses called by Clark salvaged Tourangeau's reputation. Herbert Lee, a renowned forensic scientist, told the court that his blood splaner analysis bore out Tourangeau's claim that two assailants attacked Konesky and that the victim lay on the ground for most of the attack. Most significantly, Lee's testimony con-
Mich~l Kon~sky h~lp~d poliu
firmed that Konesky's skull fractures were consistent with kicks to the head. "Everyone knows that Konesky was stabbed 248 times. Tourangeau's story doesn't mention knives. If you wanted to frame someone for this murder your story would have knives in it," said prosecutor Clark. Lee displayed 24 color slides to illustrate his analysis in court. Michael Konesky bolted from his seat in the courtroom twice during the slide show. "It was the most difficult part of the trial. To see someone stabbed 248 times, enlarged on a projection screen, is the most disgusting thing you could see in your life. Let alone that this person was my mother. It made me sick." But the testimony of Murray's own father devastated the defense case. Phil Colton claimed that he and his son had been estranged since his drug
track his mothn-'s kilkr a.fur th~ir uarch stalkd. SEPTEMBER
6, 1991
conviction and that Konesky's role in "I just thought it was the last thing I his arrest wouldn't have led Murray to had to do-to confront my mother's kill her. He also told the court that enemy," Michael said. He told Phil after closing Don Phillip's on the night that his son had received 50 years-a of the murd~r, he and Murray had ' life sentence. M ichael turned and driven together to the house of walked away as Phil yelled, "Are you Murray's ex-girlfriend. Neither father happy now?" The question reverberatnor son mentioned the story to police before the first tria!: Phil's testimony stretched the limits of believability. "I don' t trust almost anything Phillip Colton said in the trial after he said his name, " said prosecutor Clark. "If J:l you're estranged from your father you don't get into a car with him in the middle of the night to see if your ex- ed for Michael. During the three trials, he busied himself with aiding the prosgirlfriend may be home." Phil Colton's credibility crumbled ecution, but with Murray Colton in altogether after Jackie Boyles, the key jail there is nothing more he can do for defense witness, revealed that he had his mother. "I don't think you can ever offered her money for helping his son. get over a murder in your family. She told the court that she feared There's always a hole that will never be Colton-he cruised by her house sev- filled," Michael said. In May, a judge awarded eral times daily and propositioned her on the street while she hustled. Few Tourangeau $16,000 for her role in believed Phil when he denied ever Murray Colton's conviction. meeting Boyles. "The problem in our Prosecutor Clark believes that she case is that the jury didn't like Phil deserves the reward for risking her life. Colton. They thought he was lying," "Janice Tourangeau is the good citizen said defense attorney Rosenthal. Still, here. We always say, 'I wish someone the defense expected at least one juror would get involved. Why don't they?' would prevent Murray's conviction. To It's because they're scared to death," everyone's surprise, the jury arrived at Clark said. Tourangeau told the court a unanimous guilry verdict after only that she hoped to escape the drug world that killed her friend Patry-she three hours. wanted to start a new life. But by July, police saw efense attorney Rosenthal casts Murray Colton's convic- Tourangeau hustling, back on the tion as the culmination of a streets of Kimberly Square. Friends witch-hunt by the New Haven Police, report that Tourangeau spent most of desperate to find someone to blame the $16,000 on heroin, as Patry once for the murder. " I think in cases of had used her police rewards. While murder there's a tendency to believe informants like Patty Konesky and that the system is doing the right thing Janice Tourangeau help the state con-that someone has been apprehend- vict criminals, the New Haven Police ed," said Rosenthal. As Colton's continue to dose their eyes to the dev..,. lawyers prepare his appeal, Murray sits astation their money wreaks. in the state penitentiary at Somers waiting for a hearing that isn't likely before next spring. After Murray's sentencing, Michael Konesky ventured back to Pepe's Market in Kimberly Square, Erik Meers, a junior in Branford Colleg~. is a managing ~ditor ofiNJ. Phil Colton's favorite afternoon haunt.
"H ow informants use their reward money is none ofour business.
D
SEPTEMBER
6,
1991
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PROFILE
Beauty as the Beast Kathy Reich
our years at Yale left Naomi Wolf (BK '84) with something of an identity crisis. "It's a co-ed institution but a male culture," she says. "There's a willful excising of women from the literary and historical record at Yale." Wolf saw women excluded everywhere--from the statues around campus, from the ranks of tenured faculty, from Donald Kagan's course on Classical Greece. "H e left women out of antiquity," she claims. "It's like they were never there." Wolf worked hard to earn a place in Yale's academic tradition. She graduated with honors as an English major and won a Rhodes Scholarship for good measure. She thought she'd made it in the Ivy League world. She thought she'd be accepted as just one of the brains. She was wrong. One evening at Oxford a male student casually remarked that she'd won the Rhodes only because of her looks. "I talked to other women Rhodes Scholars,
F
c7 never suggested theres something wrong with adornment, with looking good. " and they'd all had the same experience," Wolf says. "I began to realize that mine was not an isolated experience, but that this was systemic. This is the way men relate to intelligent women. In male centers like Yale and Oxford, we're always being asked to apologize for power with beauty." The incident so rankled Wolf that she abandoned her doctoral dissertation for two years to immerse herself in research about women and beauty. And in the end, she became convinced that a conspiracy exists to keep women enslaved to beauty, away from the corridors of power. "The conspiracy acts as hypnosis to keep women from confronting material issues," she claims. Wolf depicts that conspiracy in Th~ &auty Myth: How lmag~s ofB~auty Art> Used Against WOmm. She contends that during the 1960s, when women asserted their indepen26 THE NEw j ouRNAL
dence and found an identity outside the home, society had to create something new to keep them subjugated. While society has always valued a woman's beauty as her most precious asset, the trend persists today in more subtle, yet d estructive, ways. "The beauty myth has gotten more dangerous over the centuries," Wolf claims. "What makes it different from corsets or foot-binding is that we're supposed to be free now." Accord ing to Wolf, the diet and cosmetics industries gave birth to the modern beauty myth, which flourished in the new image culrure of television, videos, and glossy fashion magazines. She claims that the beauty myth has devastated affluent women in the United States and Europe. "In cultures whe re material constraints like poverty keep wo m en down, the beauty myth is tangential," she says. "Where women get rich, something has to keep them from acting rich." By fo rcing women to pursue an unattainable ideal of beau ty, American society robs them of their time and energy, stalling the women's movement. "Activism takes energy and self-esteem," Wolf says. Wolf, who nearly died of anorexia when she was 13 years old, found writing The Beauty Myth cathartic. "It was an incred ibly liberating experience," she says. "Bright young women in our culture are always made to feel that their achievements are not enough, that they can't base their identity solely on their will and hard work." W o lf's ideas evidently have struck a nerve among women. H er book, published this spring, hit the bestseller lists in bo th the United States and Britain, .and its 28-yearold author has become a media star. Ms. magazine excerpted her work, and Tim~ analyzed Wolf in a full-page profile before her book even hit the stores in the U.S. In a few short m o nths, Th~ Btauty Myth topped the heap as one of the most tal ked-about femin ist polemics since Betty Friedan's Tht hminint Mystiqut. "Much of what she was saying didn't sound new to me, but for younger women ir may have come as a fresh revelation," says Yale history professor Cynthia Russett, who once taught Wolf in a course {continued on pagt 28) SEPTEMBER.
6,
1991
BooK REVIE w - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - -
The Feminine Mistake Cathy Corman
Th~ B~auty
Myth: How lmagu of B~auty Ar~ Uud Against
W&mm. Naomi Wolf. William Morrow, 348 pages. $21.95.
asting themselves in Senator Lloyd Bentsen's role at the 1987 vice-presidential debates, book reviewers across the land have stared down Naomi Wolf and told her that they know Betty Friedan- and she is no Betty Friedan. Like Dan Quayle (the target of the original remark), Wolf (BK '84), author of the recently published feminist polemic Th~ &auty Myth, begs the comparison. Recalling Friedan's unhappy homemaker in the 60s blockbuster Th~ F~minin~ Mystiqu~. Wolf writes that in the 80s "the gaunt, youthfu l model supplanted the happy housewife as the arbiter of successful womanhood." Just when women managed to break down professional and personal barriers, a male-dominated, anti-feminist culture manufactured new obsessions to keep women from enjoying their hard-earned jobs, salaries, and sexual freedoms. Feminism has stalled, Wolf argues, because young women, exhausted from simultaneously overachieving at work and battling fat and wrinkles at home, lack the energy to demand equal pay or affordable childcare. Just as their mothers had to overcome exhortations to wash whiter whites, these young women in the 90s must overcome media-induced pathological obsessions with body size and shape. Reviewers, including playwright Wendy Wasserstein (MFA '76) and Friedan herself, have belittled Wolf's attempt to equate the policicizacion of beauty with women's oppression, or what Friedan called "the problem that has no name. " What is this talk of dimpled flesh and low selfesteem, reviewers seem to ask. Haven't we got better things to worry about? Writing for the Los Ang~iuTim~s, Wasserstein echoes these sentiments. Wolfs argument, she writes, is interesting but ultimately "not earth-shaking"and it cerrainly can't hold a candle to Th~ F~minin~ Mystiq~'s potential to spark a revolution. ¡ (contin~d on pag~ 31)
C
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6,
1991
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(continu~d from pag~ 26) on women in America. " I was really surprised at how much it was discussed-it was a publishing event." Not all of the media hype has favored Wolf. Critics charge her with hyperbole, especially in comparing the -eating disorders epidemic to the Holocaust. Older feminists have criticized the book for lacking originality. Author Susan Brownmiller discussed the same themes in her book F~mininity, written nearly two decades ago. "When I read The B~auty Myth in galley proofs, I had a very personal reaction to it, because I felt like I'd written it before," Brownmiller recalls. "But I didn't disagree with anything she said, and it's always nice when someone new says things over again and adds a new perspective to the issues." Other critics attack Wolf for ignoring women's role in perpetuating the beauty myth. "I probably should have devoted more rime ro that," Wolf admits. "Women have always been used to police other women-it's standard-issue patriarchal practice. But everyone is blaming women right now. I wanted to get away from that." By far the most stinging criticism of Th~ B~auty Myth has come from Betty Friedan, the mother of the 1960s women's movement, who attacked Wolf as anti-beauty. "As a good old feminist," Friedan wrote this spring in Ailur~ magazine, "let me say categorically that I do not believe... feminism requires turning your back on love, men, marriage, children or even the frivolous desire to adorn and attract." Friedan's criticism both surprised and confused Wolf. "I just wish she'd attacked me fo r a book I'd written," Wolf says. "I never suggested there's something wrong with adornment, with looking good. I don't hate beauty. The bad part about the beauty myth is not when a woman puts on eyeshadow. The bad part is when she gets or loses a job because she puts on eyeshadow. The bad part is when she feels invisible without it." SEPTEMBER 6. 1991
Wolf attributes part of Friedan's criticism to a generational gap among feminists. "The difference between the 1960s and now is image culture," she says. "That's a material force in our lives, and it's something women like Betty Friedan can't understand." Indeed, Wolf and her theories are riding a wave of popularity among young women. AcrdSs the country, as she speaks at schools, appears on talk shows, and grants interviews to newspapers, women confess their beauty nightmares to her. "Probably two-thirds of the journalists who have interviewed me admitted they once had an eating disorder," Wolf says. "I get letters saying 'You saved me from having a face-lift,' or 'I was just able to eat my first meal in three years with your book propped in front of me."'
Wolf claims that her book has affected not just individuals but also society as a whole. In Th~ Beauty Myth she takes aim at the false claims of the -cosmetics industry; two weeks after her book appeared, the Food and Drug Administration announced a crackdown on such advertising, after turning a blind eye to it for 40 years. "And images of women in magazines are starting to change," Wolf says. "I think the editors of women's magazines are having their consciousness raised." Wolf hopes that the controversy she has engendered will provoke a "third wave" of feminism among young women in America-and among young men. "I don't target male sexuality or men, just men in institutions," she says. "I think men can do a lot to dispel the beauty myth.
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Advertisers are feeding women a line, saying that this concept of beauty is all men want. The more men distance themselves from the beauty myth, the better off we'll all be." But ultimately, Wolf wants women to free themselves. ''I'm hoping that speaking up will make it easier for thousands of women to speak out across the country. I certainly don't think I'm alone. But we're up against something insidious on college campuses, where women's struggle has been marginalized into women's studies and women's centers." Wolf finds the problem particularly acute at Yale. Because coeducation occurred so recently, she charges that women's lives and concerns fall victim to indifference and neglect. "Women are still only five percent of the tenured faculty," she says. "Yale sits passively by while one-fifth of its women starve themselves. The institution welcomes our brains but rejects our bodies." Wolf continues to fight for the day when Yale and all of society accept women for themselves. She is trying to finish her dissertation-on how male and female writers use concepts of beauty in 19th century English literature. But she hopes to start a young feminists' forum for the New York Times. She has solicited articles from women like screenwriter Callie Khouri, author of Thelma and Louise. Wolf hopes that high-profile, self-possessed young feminists will break down the stereotypes of 60s feminists and launch a new movement of their own. "There's room in feminism for a plurality of viewpoints, from separation to assimilation," Wolf says. "If women don't like the way feminism is being defined, they should take it back for themselves." ..,.
Kathy &ich, a junior in Pierson Colkge, is a managing editor ojTNJ.
.............__ SEPTEMBER 6. l99l
(continuedfrom page 27) Reviewers, I think, have missed two important points in their energetic efforts to demonstrate just how far short Wolf falls of Friedan. First, they have overlooked a shortcoming that The Feminine Mystique and The Beauty Myth share-one that makes Naomi Wolf an excellent candidate to fill Betty Friedan's pumps. Second, they don't give Wolf enough credit for try-
ing to start a "third wave" of feminism, even if she is misguided in her assessment of what might spark that wave. As to the similarities between The Beauty Myth and The Feminine Mystique, both books call for a renewed commitment to feminism bur make their cases by examining the plight of elite, educated women. Any revolution that either of these books spawns probably will exclude a broad THE NEW jOURNAL 31
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segment of the population. Friedan's "problem that has no name" was a problem for herself and other well-educated, upper-middleclass white women. After World War II, these women were stuck at home in
Wolfdraws on her trauma to reach women who have a college degree in one hand and Slimfost in the other. the suburbs raising children full time. Friedan called on them to get back to work, to find careers, and to derive self-esteem a'n d pleasure out in the wide world. While her argument struck a deep chord in these women (and got her out of her own house to write the book), it had little resonance for the vast majority of working-class women who longed to spend time at home with their children. Friedan's analysis sparked a vibrant women's movement that gave birth to the National Organization for Womenbut it was a movement that has long been criticized for its neglect of issues of class and race. Like Friedan, Wolf bases her argument on personal experience. While she addresses work, women's magazines, religion, plastic surgery, and sexuality in The Beauty Myth, her inquiry focuses on eating disorders. Halfway through the book, Wolf discloses that at 13 she suffered a life-threatening bout of anorexia nervosa. "Who is obliged to make reparations to me for the thought abandoned, the energy never found, the explorations never considered?" she writes. "Who owes me for the year-long occupation of a mind at the time of its most urgent growth?" While Wolf tries to turn her demand into a generalized call to arms, she risks calling only those who have had similar experiences-other
elite, educated women. While sociological experts believe that eating disorders plague a wide-ranging segment of the population, Wolf writes in an endnote that, "90 to 95 percent of anorexics are young, white, female, and disproportionately middle- and upper-class." Wolf draws on her trauma to reach women with a college degree in one fist and Slimfast in the other. Shaping her compla int at the beginning of the book, Wolf writes that "the affluent, educated, liberated women of the First World, who can enjoy freedoms unavailable to any women ever before, do not feel as free as they want to." This may be true, but as a rallying cry for a "third wave," it runs the risk of creating yet another women's movement out of tune with many women. Which leads me to the second point reviewers have overlooked. Certainly worries about body image appear to be insignificant when juxtaposed with crises like rape, incest, poverty, and poor access to medical care. But I think Wolf is correct in concluding that none of those wrongs can be righted until young women see themselves in a positive light as a distinct and powerful group with a selfdefined agenda-no matter what that agenda may be. At a time when the federal government seems to delight in turning a blind eye to women, it is incumbent upon yQung women to revive the feminist movement. How they do that should be left to them, not to Friedan's cohorts. To what kind of movement could the beauty myth give birth? Wolf asks readers to accept themselves as they are, to enjoy their bodies-cellulite, stretchmarks, and all. She wants them to focus on beating up the system that generates such destructive images of women, rather than beating up themselves. A vague prescription, I think, and not one likely to bring about a comprehensive, all-encompassing third wave, but an important precondition nonetheless. ~
SEPTJ!MBEil 6, 1991
..
W
ile I feel compelled to efend Wolf's ideas, much emains to criticize. The book is wildly uneven, a sociological mishmash of random data and razorsharp, first-person observations that a devoted editor might have streamlined into a focused tour d~ fora. Unimpeded by such an edicor, Wolf lumbers along, bolstering her arguments with strings of unsurprising statistics gleaned from contemporary newspapers and magazines. The over kill of Wolf's scaciscics leaves me positively dizzy when she explains that women work twice as hard as men. Does she really need to offer no less
In the 80s, cthe gaunt, youthfol model supplanted the happy housewife as the arbiter ofsuccessful womanhood. " than cwo dozen unrelated bits of informacion to convince me that most men don't do housework? In an effort co keep the statistics under control, Wolf cries to sweep facts and figures into tidy piles, each of which she labels with a cutesy catchphrase, making her prose sound perilously like the ad copy she repudiates. The most irritating-Iron Maiden , Beauty Back.Jash, Professional Beauty Quotient, Church of Beauty, and The One Stone Solution-serve as vacuous signposts. I have a hunch that the phrases serve as a kind of internal shorthand for Wolf, but they only confuse readers, who constantly have to refresh their memories as to what these phrases mean. The catch phrase that troubled me most was the Beauty Mych , itself. Three hundred and fifty pages of text from scare co finish, and I still do not understand how Wolf's paradigm SEPTEMBER
6. 1991
works as myth. In the popular press, writers use "myth" interchangeably with "lie" (as in: it's a myth that women derive more sexual pleasure from men with large penises). On one hand, Wolf doesn't use the media's definition of myth-and yet, she doesn't employ a more traditional, academic definition either. Although she makes passing reference in an endnote to myth theorist Bronislaw Malinowski and says several times chat the Beauty Myth tells a story, the story itself remains unclear. Women are told (and Wolf never makes clear by whom) the "lie" that success and power belong to the beautiful, which these days translates as young and rail-thin. Like Susan Brownmiller's "femininity," the Beauty Myth is a powerful cultural construct that shapes women's sense of themselves. Wolf does a good job of describing how women consume that construct, but she never explains how the construct is produced. Her inability to explain cultural production carries over to the final pages of the book, when she asks readers co make a "new myth"-to redefine beauty in healthier, more realistic terms. Although she writes that women can "provoke" a mass culture by becoming bored with standard images of beauty, she offers little in the way of concrete suggestion as to how to bring about this provocation. One possibility, communal nakedness, struck me as positively nutty. Who really knows what it would take to "provoke" a whole new culture? Wolf doesn't have the answer, but maybe that's not so important. I hope, even if she doesn't provoke a new culture or a third wave, she'll at least have provoked readers' anger at a misogynistic culture.
Cathy Corman is a frulanu r~porur and a third-y~ar graduau stud~nt in Ammcan Studi~s.
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JournaliSm Under Fire Melissa Turner
t took more than a month for mi dreams to reflect my life in the Philippines. It didn't matter what I'd seen or done in those dramatically nc:_w surroundings; I could count on old friends to accompany me in my dreams at night. Every time I fell asleep, vivid scenes would feature the cast of family and friends I had left in the States. When the Philippines finally did seep into my mind, the comforting and familiar plots of my dreams changed long before the characters did. I moved to Manila in October, 1989. I had been an infrequent visitor in the past, my travels there never lasting more than a few weeks. This time I planned to stay a while. Perhaps three years, maybe longer. Having worked as a reporter in Washington since I left Yale, I couldn't tell whether I was becoming disenchanted with covering the ¡ federal government or with journalism itself. I hoped that the new environment would feed my curiosity and boost my waning enthusiasm. In any case, I was looking for an adventure. As it turned out, I came home from the Philippines only four months after leaving. In many ways, I felt as if I had never gone away. Nothing appeared to have changed in my absence; I was not a Rip van Winkle returning to an unrecognizable home. Nevertheless, I no longer fit comfortably into the space I had occupied. The short trip had given me an opportunity to reflect on my life, and as I continue to be shaped by the decisions I made in Manila, I always will be reminded of the importance of those brief months. The experience is why I am not now reporting in a newsroom, but sitting in a lecture hall in my first week of medical school classes. A peculiar culture thrived in Manila. Prominent national newspaper editors and political columnists gathered several times a week to gossip with former politicians and military leaders who remained well-connected and
I
34
THE NEW jOURNAL
SEPTEMBER
6,
1991
powerful. Invited to some of these informal and innocuouslooking assemblies in popular hotel coffee lounges, I heard casual speculation about upcoming plans to overthrow the civilian government by military coup. Media-crazed individuals aggressively sought interviews with me. They believed they would inherit power after the government fell and their reputations would improve if the foreign, and in particular the U.S., press rook their ideas seriously enough to print. Although at times the attention I received as a reporter \\ as distasteful, I generally enjoyed the advantages that came with my srarus. My U.S. press credentials gave me authority to ask questions of people generally inaccessible to the public, while my Filipino heritage, fam ily, and friends gave me intimate access to the culture. The combination helped me both as a foreign correspondent and as I tried to learn about the country in which my mother was raised. The dual allegiance, however, later undermined my success as a journalist.
Did my role as an observer satisfY me? Did my career reflect my values? Just four weeks after I heard rhe first rumors of military rebellion, thousands of frustrated soldiers staged a violent coup that came perilously close to overthrowing President Corazon Aquino's government. I watched from my bedroom window at dawn one morning as World War II vintage 'Iora-Tora planes flew over che military base across the Street from my uncle's house, dropping their earth-shaking loads on the burning buildings beneath them. Pleased to have something \vorthwhile to report on, I updated my editors in the Scares every hour by phone. I thou ght I had an important role in a dramatic event. Renewed attacks brought modern jet bombers and vigorous SEPrHtBlR
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anti-aircraft gunfire. Confrontations between rebel- and government-controlled tanks d estroyed office buildings across the highway. Figh ting grew fie rce and killed dozens of civilians. U.S. warplanes criss-crossed over the city to show support fo r the Aqui no government and to i n timidate the mutineers. New to war, I couldn't i magine when o r how it would end. Like a child who believes that she will always emerge u nscathed fro m dangerous p redicamen ts, I observed th e even ts w ith some detach ment. T he sense of security that came with bei ng a U.S. newspaper reporter added to my perception that I was i n vu l nerable. Despite irs proximity, the war remained a distan t notion to me. I could have been watching a movie. Little by little, however, the movie-like veneer of my experience d issolved. My frightened young cousins began crying; my aunt and her mother prayed aloud for the fighting to stop. Because battles had been waged before in my relatives' m iddle-class neighborhood during other coup attempts, my uncle recog-
filled narrow residential streets; they toted machine guns, rode tanks, and cleaned howitzers. Overwhelmed by the sigh t, I walked among the troops but couldn't b ring myself to speak to them. I felt like a visitor on another planet. Although the coup was put down. after one week, it left an indelible impression on me. I felt embarrassed
by my earlier cavalier reaction to the uprising. War and its accompanying uncertainties were no longer remote concepts. By the ti me I could sleep again, even my dreams had absorbed the chaos and instability surrounding me. In them, friends and family from home split into hostile gangs that ran through the streets, senselessly hunting each other down. Terrified and help-
I heard casual speculation about upcoming plans to overthrow the civilian government by military coup. nized that rhe fighti ng this rime would nor end by nightfall. We packed our bags and left. When we returned three days later, we fou nd o u r neighbo rhood ra nsacked. Rebel troops and government forces both had used it as their headquarters. Some houses had been destroyed and looted, their windows b roken and walls riddled w ith bullet holes. Dried pools of blood marred kitchen floors. Government soldiers 36
THE NEW jOURNAL
Young childrm liv~d in a squalid squattn-l camp
n~ar M~lissa
Turnn-'s hom~. SEPTEMBER
6,
1991
less, I would scream at them to stop. I awakened before I could imagine the violence. As the immediacy of the coup dissipated, the turmoil encouraged strange new anxieties to gnaw at me. The fact that I could not have full control over my life had made itself abundantly clear to me for the first time. Events far beyond my reach could drastically change the course of my
Some houses had been destroyed and looted, their windows broken and walls riddled with bullet holes.
'
9
alf-heartedly reporting, I explored Manila with new eyes. Several million too many people inhabit the huge metropolis; they jam its streets 24 hours a day with buses, cars, bicycles, jeeps, motorcycles, horses and buggies, and ri,ckshaw-like carriages pulled along by boys and men riding bicycles. As I walked, all manner of vehicles clotted the humid air with grayishgreen soot. Hundreds of thousands of flimsy homes made from corrugated tin, cardboard, used tires, and discarded plywood lined all the ma~or thor-
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stable existence or, for that matter, could end it. An obvious truth, though I had previously given it little thought. Questions more typical of mid-life crises now occupied me. Did my role as an observer satisfy me? Did my career reflect my values? If I were to die tomorrow would I feel that I had pursued my true interests? Would I have made positive contributions to society, or neutral ones? This small dose of the world's chaos convinced me of the importance of making my ephemeral life meaningful and purposeful; it inspired me to try even harder to shape it.
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497-9800
The newest look in ey:eglasses on campus 'is the
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just b~hind Sterling Library NC(t Door to Toads Monday-Thursday llam-2am •Beer, Wine Fridayac Satutday I lam-2:30am •DessertS Sunday llam-2am
WITH THIS COUPON BUY ONE LARGE PIZZA TO GO, GET ONE LITER COCACOLA PRODUCT FREE! (while supplies last) 38 THE NEW JouRNAL
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oughfares. Behind them, often, lay fetid open sewers that overflowed during the rainy months. Whole communities shared single running faucets; water splashed me as I passed bathers sponging themselves off only a few steps away. There were other sidewalk perils. Deep, stinking holes were left in the pavement by missing manhole covers, stolen and sold to be melted down. Half-naked toddlers crouched on the street curb to relieve themselves in the gutter. Filthy and malnourished children banged on car w indows at stoplights to ask airconditioned passengers for money. I could not ignore these sights. I had seen such extreme poverty before, but I never had considered it, b eyond a vague int~IIectual sense, as part of my world. This time I let it affect me. Walking through the streets in Manila, I found it relatively easy to regain a perspective on my life--easier, anyway, than I think it would have been had I continued to work 12 hours a day behind a desk with a computer. Against this backdrop I decided to leave journalism and enter medicine. Lacking a compelling reason to go to medical school after my senior year in college, I had put aside my childh ood plans to become a doctor. But those expeditions through Manila rekindled my interest. They served as a dramatic reminder of the great needs that exist in worlds outside my own sheltered one, and of the importance of trying to respond to them. Now, 18 months after returning to the States, I still feel inspired to embark on a new career that I believe will be of greater help to those who are in need. I will consider myself fortunate indeed if m y life continues to reflect my dreams of Manila. M~lissa
Turner (TD '87) was ~ditor-in chU:fof TN] bifor~ working as a n~s pap~r r~porur from 1987 to 1990. Sh~ is now a first-year medical stud~nt at johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. SEPTEMBER
6.
1991
Yale Symphony Orchestra ~~~
Admisswn: s2..oo PRIDAY OCTOBER 11 Ravel D~tplmis ~ ChltJi H.C. Band Omemt~ for Orchestr•- U.S. Prnn~ R. Schumann Symphony No. J
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1991-1992 SEASON PROGRAM
OCTOBBR31
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DECEMBER 6 With tlu Yllie ~m &uui Sttavinslcy Rite DfSP'!"t
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