A Look Back At How the Media Demonized Naomi Wolf for Accusing Harold Bloom of Sexual Assault
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Literary critic Harold Bloom has died at the age of 89. In some circles, he’ll be remembered for his “love of literature and a relish for its heroic figures” and admiration of writers who were predominantly white and male. But he was also accused of sexual assault by the writer Naomi Wolf while she was a student at Yale in 1983, a revelation that in 2004 was met with vitriol which, in a post-#MeToo world, would be unimaginable.
Wolf detailed the incident with Bloom in a New York Magazine cover story, writing that,
Finally, Bloom suggested that he come to the house I shared with one of his editorial assistants and her boyfriend. At dinnertime. I agreed.
The four of us ate a meal. He had, as promised, brought a bottle of Amontillado, which he drank continually. I also drank. We had set out candles—a grown-up occasion. The others eventually left and—finally!—I thought we could discuss my poetry manuscript. I set it between us. He did not open it. He did not look at it. He leaned toward me and put his face inches from mine. “You have the aura of election upon you,” he breathed.
I hoped he was talking about my poetry. I moved back and took the manuscript and turned it around so he could read.
The next thing I knew, his heavy, boneless hand was hot on my thigh.
I lurched away. “This is not what I meant,” I stammered. The whole thing had suddenly taken on the quality of a bad horror film. The floor spun. By now my back was against the sink, which was as far away as I could get. He moved toward me. I turned away from him toward the sink and found myself vomiting. Bloom disappeared.
These days, the prevailing narrative would be to believe Wolf. Consequences, hopefully, would befall Bloom. Were he still at Yale, he’d (again, hopefully) be fired. Maybe more women would come forward with similar stories. But in 2004, Wolf was not supported for accusing a powerful man who made her life hell. Instead, she was demonized.