"Alysse MacIntyre" Shocked, Amused Law Record Readers

Three years ago, the number one use for the Harvard Law Record was "lining bird cages," says Elizabeth A. Moreno, who graduated this month from Harvard Law School.

But that was before Moreno gave artistic birth in the Law School newspaper to "Alysse MacIntyre," a persona whose weekly column has shocked and amused students and faculty for the past two and a half years.

Moreno has used witty, irreverent commentaries to criticize and poke fun at the Law School's political and gender dynamics. The columnist prides herself on her bluntness.

"It strikes me in all aspects of life [that] there's what we think, and there's what we're willing to say," Moreno says. "It often amazes me that we all know what we're thinking but no one will actually say it. I was really committed to saying what I thought people were afraid to say."

Until a recent article in GQ magazine which revealed Moreno's identity as the famed Alysse, few knew that Moreno was the author of the acclaimed column.

But now, Moreno can openly join her fans in crediting the column with having introduced a dose of much-needed humor to the Law School's overly serious, heavily politicized environment.

Moreno's critiques, however, steer clear of slapstick approaches and stay with harsher evaluations, with references to Dean Robert Clark as "Mein Dean" and Law School men as "dateproof to the bitter end."

At "Beirut on the Charles," as the GQ feature termed the Law School, there seems to be little room for weak voices, moderate opinions and diluted reactions.

And debate over Moreno's brain-child is no exception. Though her fans adore her, the sentiments of her foes are just as intense. The assertion that her MacIntyre column is well-read and well-written is probably the sole point on which Moreno's readers concur.

Third-year student Andrew Greenblatt describes Moreno's writing as "quick, incisive social commentary--reality sugar-coated with enough humor that you swallow it before you realize what it is, and then it's too late."

But many view the column as medicine they'd be better off without--and they consider Moreno a quack.

Some say that "Alysse" writes only about two issues: politics and sex.

Fellow Law Record columnist and third-year student Rich Wareing classifies Moreno's work into two categories: the "I hate Bob Clark" columns and the "I hate men" columns.

But Moreno disputes the dichotomy that Wareing and others draw between her pieces on sex and her pieces on politics.

"I think that writing about female sexuality is still political," she says. "Especially writing about female sexuality for women's sakes and not as subjugated to men in any way--not even necessarily directed at men."

"Even when she writes about gender, I think it's very political," Greenblatt says.

Such politics show their face in the several columns in which Alysse details the use of vibrators among Law School women whose distaste for their male counterparts has led them to seek battery powered satisfaction. One of the pieces was accompanied by a drawing of a vibrator.

Third-year student Daniel S. Drosman, however, says the commentary about male-female relationships is "not political," that it's "just her own bitterness enshrined in the paper." Drosman says such claims of political underpinnings are "a sham explanation for the vibrator, an after-the fact justification."

Wareing also says he doubts the political intentions behind what he describes as Moreno's "vulgarity."

"[Moreno] would say that all of life is political, the personal is political--something along those lines. But that's just an excuse to say what she wants," Wareing says.

This is not to say that Wareing objects to the column in principle. Rather, he insists that "some weeks, it's absolutely hilarious." What Wareing does take issue with is Moreno's once-hidden identity.

While Moreno insists that Alysse is a character, others say the pseudonym is nothing more than a protection device, allowing Moreno to express her radical views under a shelter of anonymity not granted to other Law Record writers who broach controversial topics.

"Part of expressing your opinion is being a grownup and putting your name on it," Wareing says. "It's duplicitous to say, 'I want all the benefits but don't want to suffer the effects of the fallout.'"

Third-year student and Record staffer Bob Daut draws an analogy between the MacIntyre column and "your made-for-TV movies based on drama," saying that both are "chroni-calization[s] of reality."

"If exaggerations are based on fact and mere hyperbole, it's not a character," Daut says.

Greenblatt, who used to date Moreno, can attest to the fact that there is at least some correspondence between the lives of Moreno and the fictional MacIntyre. He says he has identified several less-than-complimentary references to himself in the columns, but he claims it hasn't bothered him.

"She sees the funny side of things that happened in our relationship, both good and bad," Greenblatt says. "To the extent that I have seen things I have done become grist in her mill, I think it's funny."

Besides, he says, "any guy who's going to read Alysse MacIntyre and get offended is exactly the kind of person she's talking about."

Michael Twomey '85, also graduating this year from the Law School, says he enjoys the humor in Moreno's columns. "When you start objecting to parody, you deserve to be parodied," he says.

Professor David Wilkins '77, deemed by Moreno herself as "the fashion plate of the Law School," says those with serious criticisms of the column are missing the point.

"I always interpreted [the column] as a way to get away from the depressing, fierce political debates of the law school," Wilkins says. "I'd hate to see [it] be a part of that. What made it refreshing is that it tried to get away from the heavy-handed political squabbling that goes on among students and faculty and everyone else here."

As Moreno graduates today, she will be abandoning her post as a primary Law School fun-poker. The writer herself will work next year in the Los Angeles office of a New York-based law firm.

But "Alysse" fans need not mourn the loss of Moreno's brand of pointed wit. Several weeks ago, the writer got a call from "a national magazine," to which she may contribute a similarly-styled column.

But Moreno says she will not drop her other career plans even if the column gains widespread popularity, for her style and approach preclude her from become a columnist full-time.

"I write about what I hear people talk about," Moreno says. "My writing really depends on interacting with people--if I were just sitting home all day in front of the computer terminal and not talking to people, I would have nothing to say."