Mad Bad & Had

I found this chapter to be extremely interesting; it actually held my attention the entire time and I finished it in under an hour, nice surprise.

The scenario depicted reminded me of another: a Lifetime movie (I know, I know) about a sophomore college girl (pretty, outgoing, well-liked) who was raped by the star football player. The college both attended was solely concerned with football; creating the best players, the best team, etc. She pressed charges and took him to court. Needless to say, she wound up looking like a psycho while the guy walked away, went back to playing football, went back to his same pattern of sex life.

There are a lot of tie-ins I have between this movie and this chapter. The first is on page 130 "Sen. Heflin: [to Anita Hill]: Now, in trying to determine whether you are telling falsehoods or not, I have got to determine what your motivation might be. Are you a scorned woman?" A similar question was proposed to the female in the movie. She was asked if she had been feeling down about herself, her dating life, her sex life. I feel this question is extremely private and also the woman looks wrong in no matter what answer she gives. If she says 'yes' she's basically done, they made their point. If she says no they might assume she's just saying that to avoid embarassment or to make herself look stronger. So either way, it is a no-win situation for the female.

On page 131 "Many stereotypes of women, black and white, are invoked without explicit examination: women as liars, fantasizers, hysterics, and malleable dupes. Typically, Hill is damned if she conforms to one of these stereotypes and damned if she doesn't (because if she doesn't, she's not good --i.e., normal --woman)." This is true even out of the courtroom. My boyfriend is in a fraternity and I frequently hang out with him and some of his brothers. They talk about girls and how they are all psycho, make stuff up, lie and are stupid (literally). The male being has been trained through generations to have this masculine mindset about the female gender. A man is not a 'true man' unless he believes these suppositions. Men assume they are stronger and more dominant in every aspect of being. It is wrong to stereotype attitudes toward any person, any gender, any race or culture. What determines a feeling? Many people have different interpretations on words. To hold someone to a certain feeling is biased because that is how one personally views how that feeling is portrayed and expressed by another. It's all presumption and assumption, and isn't it wrong to make pre-judgmental decisions on another based on words?

On page 131 "Thus when Thomas makes long speeches telling his audience how life is, and who he is, and what everything means, the audience considers this normal, since he has become an honorary member of us for these proceedings." In the movie, whatever the star football player said was right. He was a strong, powerful athlete, well-respected and liked by his coaches, fellow teammates, and friends. How can anyone accuse him of being a rapist, of doing anything wrong or immoral? When people state qualifications it is hard for the audience to view the bad things charged against them because the accused is seen as intelligent, worthy, a powerful individual who could or would never take a part in acting deviant. People's mindsets and opinions become morphed based on what are deemed 'acceptable' or 'respectable' qualifications or merits.

This is quite long. I have many other tie-ins but I will save them for class discussion.