Abstract

The Chador Hits Cyberspace

In October 1997, the library board in Loudoun County, Virginia, voted to equip all library computers with software supposed to prohibit adults as well as children from viewing "pornography and obscene material" on the Internet. A preoccupation with self-esteem, assumptions about female fragility and mistrust of free speech have elasticized the concept of sexual harassment: Outside the courtroom, it can be stretched to cover virtually any situation in which a woman is allegedly offended or discomfited by a man. Feminist campaigns against pornography and questionable forms of harassment, like sexist speech, have always flirted with the double standard and its underlying notions of femininity. Loudoun County library officials say that attacking "pornography" and "sexual hostility" is apparently supposed to insure that nothing in the library will make women feel vulnerable to rape.