tising, heroin chic had all but disappeared. Its larg-
est promoter, Calvin Klein, began featuring health-
ier models in advertisements.
Further Reading
Nash, Alanna. “The Model Who Invented Heroin
Chic.”The New York Times, September 7, 1997, p.
H90.
Summer, Christine C., and Peter Doskoch. “Track-
ing the Junkie Chic Look.”Psychology Today29,
no. 5 (September/October, 1996): 14.
Wren, Christopher S. “Clinton Calls Fashion Ads’
‘Heroin Chic’ Deplorable.”The New York Times,
May 22, 1997, p. A22.
Dwight Vick
See also Advertising; Drug use; Fads; Fashions and
clothing; Grunge fashion; Grunge music; Nirvana;
Pulp Fiction.
Hill, Anita
Identification Law professor who accused
Supreme Court justice nominee Clarence
Thomas of sexual harassment
Born July 30, 1956; Lone Tree, Oklahoma
Hill is credited for putting a face on sexual harassment in
the 1990’s and for galvanizing women to vote an unprece-
dented twenty-eight new women into Congress in 1992, the
“Year of the Woman.”
On October 11, 1991, Anita Hill testified before Con-
gress in televised hearings that Clarence Thomas had
sexually harassed her while she was in his employ.
Both Hill and Thomas are African American. Hill’s
testimony came days before Congress was scheduled
to vote on his Supreme Court nomination. Her alle-
gations against Thomas were made public when in-
formation from a Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) interview regarding these issues was revealed.
Thomas was Hill’s supervisor from 1981 to 1983,
when they both worked for the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Hill was vilified
by several white male senators who claimed she had
romantic designs on Thomas, while she was lauded as
a hero by many women for exposing sexual harass-
ment in the workplace. Hill appeared poised and pro-
fessional as she recounted her experiences of being
sexually harassed by Thomas. Thomas vehemently
denied her allegations. Thomas went on to be con-
firmed as the next Supreme Court justice by a narrow
vote of fifty-two to forty-eight.
Hill details her experiences in her 1997 autobiog-
raphySpeaking Truth to Power. Over the course of her
law career, she has served as counsel to the assistant
secretary of the Department of Education’s Office
for Civil Rights (1981), assistant to the chairman of
the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(1982-1983), law professor at the University of Okla-
homa (1986), held a position at the Institute for the
Study of Social Change at the University of Califor-
nia, Berkeley (1997), and became a professor of the
Heller School for Social Policy and Management at
Brandeis University (1997), where she remains.
Hill has taught and written about international
commercial law, bankruptcy, civil rights, and
women’s issues. In 1995, she coeditedRace, Gender,
and Power in Americawith Emma Coleman Jordan.
She is a sought-after public speaker.416 Hill, Anita The Nineties in America
Anita Hill testifies before the Senate on the nomination of Clarence
Thomas to the Supreme Court on October 11, 1991.(AP/Wide
World Photos)