National Review Online’s Stanley Kurtz recently wrote about an incident that occurred at a Health and Human Services-sponsored conference at which Christina Hoff Sommers was silenced and then rudely dealt with by panel members because she dared to suggest that the effectiveness of government programs that target boys and girls would best be determined by statistical studies of the effects of those programs.
The conference in question was devoted to “Boy Talk” — a program sponsored by the Center for Substance Abuse and Prevention which is designed to reduce drug use among boys. Sommers was delivering a speech which she had been invited to give when her comments turned to discussion a similar initiative for girls called “Girl Power.”
Sommers intended to discuss whether or not there is any valid evidence that “Girl Power” actually reduces drug use by girls, when she was informed by Center for Substance Abuse and Prevention official Linda Bass that her speech was now finished. Bass later claimed that Sommers had went over her allotted time, but Kurtz obtained a video of the conference which disputes this claim. According to Kurtz, on the video Bass never mentions that Sommers has gone over the time limit, but instead insists that discussion “Girl Power” is off limits and then simply orders her to end her speech.
Even Jay Wade, a psychologist who also appeared at the conference, told Kurtz that Sommers’ speech was ended not because she was over any time limit, but because CSAP didn’t want anyone criticizing “Girl Power.” And Wade is hardly a person likely to be sympathetic to Sommers. In fact, while Sommers and Bass were discussing whether or not Sommers speech would continue, Wade lost his temper and told Sommers, “Shut the fuck up, bitch” at which point the assembled crowd at the conference erupted in laughter.
Ah, nothing like a good, rational consideration of the issues at hand.
Source:
Silencing Sommers: Clinton holdovers have their way with HHS. Stanley Kurtz, National Review Online, December 5, 2001.