Unwanted Advances: Sexual Paranoia Comes to Campus

by Laura Kipnis

It’s long been true of mainstream American feminism that the most supposedly radical factions have been closet conservatives, dedicated to recycling the most conventional versions of feminine virtue and delicacy.

The critic Roland Barthes has a theory of what he calls the “punctum,” a small detail in a photograph that grabs you in an intense way that you don’t necessarily understand.

Let’s pause to note that “third-party complaints” are permissible under Title IX.