I can remember the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings like they were yesterday. I was working at my first post-college job -- at The Orange County Register in Santa Ana, California -- and the men from the sports department were hanging out near my desk when I heard them all going on and on about what a liar Anita Hill was, and how what she was saying couldn't be true -- or shouldn't be listened to -- because she WAITED SO LONG to come forward. I was in my early 20s, but I couldn't help but take these veterans to task, before realizing there was no changing their minds. (I learned young that issues of Republicans vs. Democrats and Men vs. Women were like team sports and no amount of logic or persuasiveness made any difference, so stopped trying.) Watching the trailer for "Anita" took me right back to 1991, and the saddest part of it all is that I don't think the public's understanding of sexual harassment -- or sexual violence -- has changed much at all. Women and girls who get raped are still routinely blamed. The justice system routinely acquits sexual predators. Men who have displayed a history of sexually inappropriate behavior frequently keep their jobs. And lawmakers are still waging a war on women, with Michigan's "rape insurance" being the latest grotesque example of just how misogynistic America is. This documentary looks like a must-see -- and for the love of god, please tell me Virginia Thomas' voicemail message to Anita Hill is finally revealed!
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2 comments:
Still such a deplorable incident since it was so clear that he did it. How bitter is it that that awful man has a job for life determining things that affect us all.
2014? I saw it a year ago at the Cleveland International Film Festival.
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