Is There Room for Conservative Sexual Values?

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Last month, many students were surprised to learn their college or university had been contacted by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights for failing to discourage a campus culture in which sexual assault was a serious problem. Leave it to the Weekly Standard to ruffle feathers, specifically Harvard government professor Harvey Mansfield (Harvard was one of 55 schools chastised by the government). Mansfield blames feminism for insisting on a radical equality between sexes which, rather than asking men to behave more chivalrously, legitimizes a kind of flagrant sexuality among women.

What’s the Big Idea?

If your grandfather published a book about his dating habits, it might read something like Mansfield’s prose. Reading the conservative professor is like listening to a juke box and sipping on malted milk. Mansfield is nostalgic for the double-standard days when sexual adventurism among women was more shame worthy than among men. “In return for women’s holding to a higher standard of sexual behavior, feminine modesty gave them protection while they considered whether they wanted to consent. It gave them time: Not so fast! Not the first date! I’m not ready for that! … To win over a woman, men had to strive to express their finer feelings, if they had any.”