More on the Summers Fiasco
A provocateur might suggest that the
women who pressured the UC Board of Regents to cancel a dinner invitation to Larry Summers have proved Summers' arguments regarding the relative intelligence of women to men—because while those women, who have since gone underground, managed to get the Summers invitation withdrawn, they have also managed to unite both conservatives and liberals in the idea that Summers is a martyr to political correctness.
Conservatives have long pushed that theme, and the UC incident only drives the point home for them.
But now, I think, liberals are using the incident to show that they, too, can be tough on political correctness.
Here's
Susan Estrich, former Dukakis campaign aide, writing on FoxNews.com:
So now [Summers is] back to being a professor, and a smart one at that, and someone with a fair amount to say about education and the economy and political correctness on campus.
But if my liberal feminist friends have their way, he won’t be allowed to say it out loud, at least not at any branch of the University of California.....
What’s liberal about that? Since when is censorship part of the feminist agenda?
The success of the petition drive in getting Larry Summers uninvited to the University of California Regents meeting wasn’t a show of strength for women, at least not in my book, but a sign of weakness, of lack of confidence in themselves and in the Regents and lack of commitment to the academic freedom and open debate that should be at the core of any great University.
Estrich is, of course, correct. The fact that not one of the petitioners has spoken to the press is another sign of weakness. Which just perpetuates another inaccurate female stereotype.....
