Really Stupid GQ Article About Harvard Law School

In February, 1993, my picture was in GQ!


everyone made a big deal about that. it was like, really special.

Unfortunately, the guy who wrote the article, John Sedgwick (who happens to (probably) own the copyright to the article and who (definitely) is not the president of this organization) ... also said some things about me, and about my former school, and about my group of friends.

Noting that, of course, these are only brief excerpts of the article used solely for the purposes of criticizing it, , here's what he had to say (the important parts, my comments, are in bold):

On page 200 of the non-award-winning "Beirut on the Charles" (continued from page 159), Mr. Sedgwick wrote about my friend Elizabeth Moreno:

Of all the writers Robert Arnold publishes in the Record (HLS's reknown weekly), the pseudonymous Alysse Maclntyre gets more letters than anyone, he said, "including myself." Alysse Maclntyre is a little different. In contrast to the overearnest political sermonizing of most of the other columnists, Alysse writes about the campus race-and-gender wars in a humorous, personal vein that ends up getting a lot closer to the truth. In her candor, she provides a glimpse of the students' inner lives. Her second column made her reputation. Why, she wanted to know, wouldn't her Jewish date sleep with her? "I tried everything," she complained. "I suggested that we play 'Ten Commandments.' He could be Moses, I could be the burning bush.... He didn't go for it. What do you have to do to get a guy to slip you the Hebrew National?"

...

Although her column might suggest she is merely a boy-crazy Valley Girl, Moreno is a regular at all campus political events. ... Unlike most activists, Moreno seemed genuinely open to different points of view although that didn't stop her from registering what she called her "knee-jerk liberalism" by sending a swift kick under the table when I ventured an occasional un-PC remark (as when, to my endless shame, I used the term "pussy-whipped" to describe some of the more compliant men on campus). She was pleased to find that Harvard has some intelligent conservatives; she hadn't known such creatures existed. But she has her limits.

okay, folks, here's the first reference to me, me me me me!!!!:

She said that the difference between her and a feminist friend was that her friend will sleep with Republicans and she won't.

I still think that Elizabeth was too prudish about that one!

Still, she does go "Texas two-stepping" with a conservative buddy of hers, a pseudo-Texan who claims to have worked on a ranch but in fact served only as the accountant for it.

And she organized a Thursday-night club to have a few beers once a week in a Harvard Square bar called the Bow and Arrow. One Thursday, she invited me along.

And here's the picture, once again:

Underneath the picture, the GQ editors wrote: (in case your browser and monitor don't provide the crystal-sharp clarity that mine do!): Enjoying some female bonding at the Bow and Arrow, a local tavern, are, from left, Marie-Louise Ramsdale, Elizabeth Moreno and Rebecca Eisenberg. (yep, mom, that's a beer in my hand! sorry, everyone! That's a cigarette there! camel lights, ... had to get my dart board somehow!)

Anyway, john continues:

The Bow, as its intimates call it, is a serious bar, by Harvard Square standards. Years back, it was known as a bikers' bar, and the bikers started just enough fights to keep the number of Harvard kids down. It still has a boisterous, working-class quality. When I arrived, Moreno stood by the bar in a denim jacket; she was knocking back Sam Adamses. She pointed out fellow Harvardians -- "There they are," she said with a wave of the hand, "the cultural elite." From their attire, I never would have guessed. It was only when I heard them argue that I knew they were Harvardians.

Even though all political persuasions are invited, all aren't equally welcome. When Mike Twomey (conservative-guy!) stood next to Moreno, I could sense a force field pushing their bodies apart. And when I chatted with Marie Louise Ramsdale and two of her female friends, I felt that same force field repelling me. The conversation started with dumb-men jokes. "Why do men have no depth perception ?" Ramsdale asked. "Because they're always thinking that this"--she held her hands one inch apart--"is six inches."

my next reference! i'm so proud!!!!

Her Law Review friend Rebecca Eisenberg, in a red lumber jacket, (i love that jacket!) proceeded to rattle off six more, like machine-gun fire. Then she went on about her delight in discovering something called "egg-fusion," which allows procreation without any contribution from men. That led to a harangue about how marriage is outmoded and all the best societies are matriarchies. I felt my irritation building. When she announced her enthusiasm for the feminist writer Naomi Wolf, I curtly replied that I preferred Camille Paglia. That stopped Eisenberg, and she gave me a frozen look. "I can't talk to anyone who likes her," she snapped. "She said that if women were in charge, we'd still be living in grass huts." Then she turned her back on me and strode off into the crowd.

ha! doesn't john make me look cool???? i won't talk to anyone who likes camille paglia? well! i happen to have a crush on a certain boy who loves camile paglia! so, could it be that maybe john was a bit intimidated by my talk of egg fusion? well, it couldn't have been that "machine-gun fire" of dumb-men jokes!

Anyway, john finishes up the article with equally impressive observations:

Many things are distorted at Harvard Law, not the least of them gender relations. As I looked around the Bow, it seemed to me that the women, for all their talk of victimization, were the sexual predators in this ecosystem, and the men the prey. While the women talked openly among themselves about which men they'd go for, the men meekly sipped their drinks, half-hoping, half-fearing that a woman might notice them. Little wonder that the law school is known as a sex-free zone. As Moreno advised incoming students in one Alysse column: "Cherish sex a a fond memory. " She herself has pretty much given up trying to find a man at Harvard Law. "That's what California is for," she told me.

you go, girl!

curious about this john sedgwick character? well, here is what GQ said about him:

John Sedgwlck contributes frequenty to GQ. In the October 1992 issue, he wrote, "Is George Bush a Traitor to His Class?"

you just gotta love john sedgwick.

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