EQUAL TIME
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In response to Camille Paglia’s “The Real Lesson of ‘Oleanna’ ” (Nov. 6):
I would feel better about the films “Oleanna” and “Disclosure” if Hollywood had first made a movie dramatizing how sexual harassment disproportionately preys upon women in subordinate positions to their male harassers.
Why is it that when sexual harassment finally hits the big screen in two major films, men are portrayed as its primary victims?
Granted, the issue is sometimes complex and ambiguous, and artists like David Mamet are justified in probing its fuzzier regions. But given the dearth of Hollywood movies with strong female leads and the spate of femme fatale films like “Fatal Attraction” and “Basic Instinct,” the women’s side hasn’t been given equal time.
In fact, I would go so far at to say that the commercial cinema appears to be punishing women for sticking up for themselves.
ROBERT PAYNE
Studio City
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