The controversial feminist Ca(r)mille Paglia

January 15, 2014
The third wave of feminism brought in many new feminists with controversial opinions on the state of the world. Today we will be looking at Camille Paglia. Paglia is known for her strong views on modern culture and feminism. Margaret Wente, Canadian “The Globe and Mail” columnist calls her, "a writer in a category of her own... a feminist who hates affirmative action; an atheist who respects religion" and "a Democrat who thinks her party doesn't get it."

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Paglia graduated from Binghamton University in 1964. She was class valedictorian but also prided herself on being controversial and a prankster. Camille Paglia went on to do a graduate degree at Yale University where she also boasts of being the only open lesbian there between 1968 and 1972. Paglia disagreed with Rita Mae Brown another feminist of her time. However, she was inspired by Susan Sontag, a writer filmmaker and political activist. Since Paglia was herself a radical feminist she appreciated Sontag’s also radical challenge of male dominance.

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In an article written in The Wall Street Journal by Bari Weiss she is quoted as saying, “Politically correct, inadequate education, along with the decline of America's brawny industrial base, leaves many men with "no models of manhood," she says. “Masculinity is just becoming something that is imitated from the movies. There's nothing left. There's no room for anything manly right now." The only place you can hear what men really feel these days, she claims, is on sports radio. No surprise, she is an avid listener. The energy and enthusiasm "inspires me as a writer," she says, adding: "If we had to go to war," the callers "are the men that would save the nation."

She goes on to say, “By denying the role of nature in women's lives, she argues, leading feminists created a "denatured, antiseptic" movement that "protected their bourgeois lifestyle" and falsely promised that women could "have it all." And by impugning women who chose to forgo careers to stay at home with children, feminists turned off many who might have happily joined their ranks… More important, Ms. Paglia says, if the women's movement wants to be taken seriously again, it should tackle serious matters, like rape in India and honor killings in the Muslim world, that are "more of an outrage than some woman going on a date on the Brown University campus."

more at link:
http://www.examiner.com/article/the-controversial-feminist-carmille-paglia-part-1

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-controversial-feminist-carmille-paglia-part-2

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-controversial-feminist-carmille-paglia-conclusion


wiki bio:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Paglia