Having just included some readings from Camille Paglia in my
undergraduate ethics class, as a contrast with essays by Catharine
MacKinnon, John Stoltenberg, etc., I thought I'd offer some
representative quotes from her (these are from her book, _Sex, Art, and
American Culture_) in the context of a discussion about rape--she
condemns "real" rape, but seems to be skeptical about "date rape" and
certain other things many feminists have identified as problems:
"There are sexual differences that are based in biology. Academic
feminism is lost in a fog of social constructionism. It believes we are
totally the product of our environment. This idea was invented by
Rousseau. He was wrong."
"Feminism keeps saying the sexes are the same It keeps telling women they
can do anything, go anywhere, say anything, wear anything. No, they
can't. Women will always be in sexual danger."
"One of my male students recently slept overnight with a friend in a
passageway of the Great Pyramid in Egypt. . . . I will never experience
that. I am a woman. I am not stupid enough to believe I could ever be
safe there. There is a world of solitary adventure I will never have."
"A woman going to a fraternity party is walking into Testosterone Flats .
.. . A girl who lets herself get dead drunk at a fraternity party is a
fool. A girl who goes upstairs alone with a brother at a fraternity party
is an idiot. Feminists call this 'blaming the victim.' I call it common
sense."
"Every woman must take personal responsibility for her sexuality. . . ."
"Sex is a turbulent power that we are not in control of; it's a dark
force. The sexes are at war with each other. That's part of the
excitement and interest of sex."
"My generation demanded no more overprotection of women. We wanted women
to be able to freely choose sex . . . If women break their legs on
mountain bikes, that's the risk factor. I'm
not defending the rapist--I'm defending the freedom to risk rape."
"Feminism, with its solemn Cary Nation repressiveness, does not see what
is for men the eroticism or fun element in rape, especially the wild,
infectious element in gang rape."
"You know what gets me sick and tired? The battered-women motif. . . .
everyone knows throughout the world that many of these working-class
relationships where women get beat up have hot sex. They ask why she
won't leave him? Maybe she won't leave him because the sex is very hot."
Needless to say, many of these statements met with strong reactions from
members of my class.
Ronnie
