A mixed bag of feminisms
Bodyjamming: sexual harassment, feminism and public life
Edited by Jenna Mead
Vintage, 1997. 296pp., $19.95 (pb)
Review by Carla Gorton
Bodyjamming is a collection of essays written in response to Helen Garner's representation of the Ormond College sexual harassment case in her book The First Stone.
Jenna Mead, who edits the collection and has written a lengthy introduction, counselled the women complainants throughout the Ormond College case. In The First Stone, Mead was split into six or seven different characters, allowing Garner to imply that a feminist conspiracy obstructed her research for the book.
Bodyjamming, which refers to the sticky feeling in your stomach when you're being sexually harassed, is divided into three Â鶹´«Ã½ in line with the book's subtitle.
The first article in the sexual harassment chapter is by one of the Ormond College complainants. It is a clear, well-written piece which comments upon the media-generated hype surrounding the case and Garner's book. It asks, "Why does it seem necessary to emphasise that at the heart of this case lies the principle that a person in a position of responsibility should not abuse that position?
"It is disturbing that this fairly simple proposition, which argues that a person who is the head of a residential college should not sexually harass the students under his or her care, seems to require stating and defending. In a situation where the head of a college has the power to refuse accommodation, financial support and employment, he or she is able to seriously affect the lives of students to their benefit or detriment. Sexual harassment is symptomatic of an approach to other people that is widely recognised (theoretically at least) as inappropriate and exploitative."
As Jenny Morgan, another contributor to this chapter, argues, sexual harassment itself disappeared from the agenda, to be replaced by a "puritanical, vengeful and 'afraid of life' feminism". Morgan's essay explores issues surrounding the definition of sexual harassment and argues for a legal and descriptive framework which emphasises "rights" rather than arguments based on "morals".
Other contributions deal more directly with The First Stone. Journalism lecturer Matthew Ricketson critiques Garner's claim that her book is "reportage", and Foong Ling Kong comments upon Garner's attempts to shift the focus away from structural inequality.
The feminism chapter contains two fictional pieces on body image and eating disorders; a comment on the ACTU's organising works program and young women; a "poststructuralist, Lacanian, Nieztschean, Deleuzian analysis" of Garner's dismissal from Fitzroy High School in the early 1970s; and a reflection by Ann Curthoys on the fragmentation of feminism.
Kaz Cooke and Judy Horacek have a humorous look at the age-old issue of "she asked for it" in the final chapter on public life.
Mark Davis explores the "victim feminism" phenomenon and the neo-liberal agenda, Mead puts academic Meaghan Morris on a pedestal and Natasha Stott Despoja bemoans the lack of mentors while taking a swipe at the August 19, 1996, "riots" at Parliament House against the Liberal government's industrial relations legislation.
Bodyjamming is definitely a mixed bag. Mead treads a contradictory path of trying to uncover the cause of "moral panic" surrounding The First Stone while simultaneously praising Catharine Lumby's Bad Girls: the media, sex & feminism in the '90s, which claims that feminism is totalitarian and patronising toward young women.
The contribution which stood out for me was that of the Ormond College complainant, which served to assert again that sexual harassment is not about sex or "eros" but about abuse of power and the oppression of women.