Prompted by today’s class discussion, I decided to look into some of Camille Paglia’s work. I was expecting to find some Gloria Stienem-esque academic talking about how tectonic patriarchal forces compel women to empty the dishwasher. Turns out my conception of her writing couldn’t be further off target. She certainly doesn’t seem to think particularly highly of men, but a large part of her work seems to be a reaction against the gender-equity brand of feminist thought that pervaded 70’s, 80’s, and early 90’s. I came upon a list of her quotes and was surprised by their blunt, unapologetic nature. Some excerpts:
Leaving sex to the feminists is like letting your dog vacation at the taxidermist.
Woman is the dominant sex. Men have to do all sorts of stuff to prove that they are worthy of woman’s attention.
Teenage boys, goaded by their surging hormones run in packs like the primal horde. They have only a brief season of exhilarating liberty between control by their mothers and control by their wives.
It is capitalist America that produced the modern independent woman. Never in history have women had more freedom of choice in regard to dress, behavior, career, and sexual orientation.
Needless to say, many Second Wave feminists take issue with such assertions, and view Paglia and her ilk as an anti-feminist reactionary wave trying to muddy the waters.
It would be interesting to hear which of the two schools of feminist thought today’s young women tend to agree with most.