Very good piece from my colleague Michael Berube on his resignation of the Paterno Chair, mainly because it manages to parse the difference between the local and national insanities involving the entire Penn State situation, and because it reminds us once again that sexual crimes are almost always generators of deeply conservative hysterias.
Remember Satanic Ritual Abuse? The panic behind the panic was about more than one daycare center: the folks who screamed loudest were in their own estimation bravely fighting the takeover of America by secular feminists dedicated to the overthrow of both capitalism and the nuclear family. In one case, the crime was imaginary, in the other, unfortunately, not, but the cultural reflex is going to be what the culture is able to give back.
Yes. Jane Gallop made this point in Feminist Accused of Sexual Harassment, but of course it just got ignored in the excitement about ladies having sex outside of marriage.
There’s something I don’t understand about Berube’s article. Why did he resign the chair? His entire argument was that Joe Paterno should not have been the locus of the controversy. If his reason for resigning was to end his association with something bearing Paterno’s name, there would be a contradiction. Perhaps I am not reading carefully, but I don’t think he actually sets out his reasoning, in the course of a very long article.