SOURCE: Rosen, Jeffrey. “In Defense of Gender-Blindness.” New Republic 218, no. 26 (29 June 1998): 25-35.

In the following review, Rosen traces the development of sexual harassment law, discusses the law's recent challenges, and considers MacKinnon's impact on theories of sexual harassment.

I.

In February, Yale Law School sponsored a conference to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Catharine MacKinnon's Sexual Harassment of Working Women. The Paula Jones trial seemed still likely to proceed on schedule, and there was a tincture of defensiveness in the air as conference participants dismissed the growing chorus of criticism that harassment law was losing its moorings. Andrea Dworkin thoughtfully ridiculed the critics of sexual harassment law as “millions of men [who] want to have a young woman in the workplace to suck their cock.” Jane Larson knowingly declared that “more than one person may have come to orgasm in that White House closet,” and...