Acknowledging harsh realities

I rarely admire the work of Naomi Wolf, but I found a three-year-old article of hers which I’d like to recommend.

It’s a candid description of an experience which she had during college - one that was inappropriately foisted on her by someone who should have known better. It surely evokes a flinch of recognition from anyone who’s experienced the same. But that’s not why I think it should be read - it should be read because it gives an irrefutable depiction of what happens when college administrations rely on hiding indiscretions behind closed doors, on silencing accusers rather than disciplining offenders.

Wolf takes the time, as I could never do, to systematically speak to the young women who are hurt by her alma mater’s lack of candor. And she, unlike Yale, rises to the occasion and refuses to discard pragmatism for ideology. In her last paragraph, she remarks,

The saddest part? If a Yale undergraduate came to me today with a bad secret to tell, I still could not urge her to speak up confidently to those tasked with educating, supporting, and mentoring her. I would not direct her to her faculty adviser, the grievance committee, or her dean.

I wish that someone had been so honest with me when I was an undergraduate! Instead, I found out the hard way that complaints were unwelcome (and hard evidence moreso).

At least I can take comfort in the fact that mine was a different sort of complaint, not one of sexual harassment - my career might never have recovered otherwise.