It’s on the stands–Naomi Wolf’s article in New York magazine accusing 73-year-old Yale Shakespeare scholar Harold Bloom of having sexually harassed her as a student lo these 20 years ago. (See The Other Charlotte’s Wicked Witch Day: Naomi Wolf and Omarosa, Feb. 20.) Unfortunately, the article isn’t up on NY’s website yet, but as soon as it appears, we at InkWell promise to provide a link. Meanwhile, libertarian Catholic blogger Kathy Shaidle has e-mailed me to suggest a a reason for Naomi’s bizarre accusation, which included trying to file a formal harassment complaint with Yale (only to be told that Yale’s statute of limitations expired some 18 years ago). Kathy’s theory (shared by me): Naomi has lost it.
Kathy writes:
“Did you catch her on the Dennis Miller panel a few weeks ago? She and David Horowitz had a bizarre run-in. He turned on his stool to face her while she was making a point and she snapped, ‘Don’t try to shut me up!’ He looked flabbergasted: ‘What did I do?’ ‘It is all in your body language,’ she snapped again, indicating his movement in his chair. In the voice you’d use when foolishly trying to reason with a child or young teen, he replied, ‘But Naomi, during the commercial break, you instructed me to face you the next time you spoke. I was trying to do just that.’
“A few minutes later, she pulled some women’s studies freshman stunt, whining about ‘when a woman would get to say something on this panel?’ When the former San Francisco (is it Willie Brown??) made some lame comeback, like, ‘Well, you sure are a woman all right’, looking her up and down in an admittedly no-class way, she said, and I quote, ‘That’s actionable!!'”
Interestingly enough, the U.K. Guardian reports a similar instance of television-connected bizarro behavior by Naomi last year:
“Last year Ms Wolf consulted her lawyers after doing an interview with the TV presenter Ali G who told her that if women had equal rights at work, ‘they’ll want them at home’ as well. She claimed she had been used for racist humour.”
Kathy speculates:
“I am convinced she is on some kind of medication, or just off some kind of medication. Or, more likely, she was just acting like so many University-Trained Professional Feminists I’ve met in my life.”
So the big question remains:
Is Naomi Wolf off her meds? Or is she on too many meds? We welcome speculation from our readers.