September 24, 2010

Camille Paglia relives her burst into our consciousness in 1990 with her NYT op-ed about Madonna.



The anti-sex feminists are all gone, she says: "And I'm still here." And so is Madonna.

50 comments:

Chennaul said...

@%#%^#

I can't watch any more of it.

Just because Bush was for something this *warrior* missed perhaps the two biggest "feminist" issues of her time.

Ya Madonna-"the insurgent"...that was the fight worth having.

@$Q#%

Phil 314 said...

Kernels of truth in this but geez!!!

she needs to take her meds (Lithium and/or other mood stabilizers)

(because she spoke positively of Palin, I'm sure this will get play in the conservative world)

Phil 314 said...

This song is dedicated to Camille

Don't you know I'm still standing better than I ever did
Looking like a true survivor,
feeling like a little kid
I'm still standing after all this time

Unknown said...

The best description of Madonna came in a parody of one of her songs - "Neurotic, neurotic, a gay man trapped in a woman's body".

The only people who took Madonna seriously were the same people who were Elton John fans.

Scott M said...

Doesn't she look a bit like Batman's Scarecrow with the mask on?

Chennaul said...

I dunno what the hell is that accent?

She sounds like Doctor Ruth.

Chennaul said...

OK so her parents were Italian-that's probably what I am hearing.

**************

There is this from wiki:

Yale was an extremely genteel place. Camille wasn't genteel. She was so upfront and she wore pants in a very aggressive way.

How the hell do you wear pants in an aggressive way?

traditionalguy said...

Camille spotted Madonna's out going sexuality and made that a standard by which to judge repressed women. That was two extremes for sure. Now Camille implies they cancelled each other out. I agree with Camille that If a prude meets a sexually hot, no holds barred, woman, then the prude will be the one who fades into the background, because no one is ashamed of power...and Madonna used her great sexual power.

Bryan Townsend said...

Madonna has sexual power? Not that I ever noticed! She gives me a pain in the

WV: sinisess

Scott M said...

Madonna has sexual power?

...waning

traditionalguy said...

Yes, Madonna has flamed out from burning the candle at both ends in her 1985 through 1995 salad days. She offered herself to be an idol, and she has suffered the fate of idols. She vainly tried lately to get back her idol power by practicing the Kabbalah system of Jewish witchcraft, but all to no avail.

Known Unknown said...

How the hell do you wear pants in an aggressive way?

Google Image Search: Aggressive Pants Wearing

You're welcome.

Fen said...

DOJ staff refuse to enforce the law if the victims are white.

But lets gab about Paglia and Madonna...

ricpic said...

Sarah Palin will make me relevant again!

Scott M said...

DOJ staff refuse to enforce the law if the victims are white.

But lets gab about Paglia and Madonna...


I tried to goose the situation earlier in the Liz Taylor/Debbie Reynolds thread, to no avail. I even used a pun.

Known Unknown said...

Hey, remember that time you wrote that blog post about the Wiccans?

Yeah?

We should totally do a video about that.

chuck b. said...

I remember reading that article the day it was published, and the pictures of her in the article brandishing a riding crop. Amazing that it was kind of shocking at the time. (Shocking, if you were a college student at a verrry liberal liberal arts university like I was.) Seems like a world gone by.

Irene said...

"All those tyrants, all those puritans, all those prudes. . . withered away. . ."

Music to my ears.

ndspinelli said...

Intellectually honest, fearless, and more energy than a crystal meth head. While she gained notoriety about sexual persona, what I also admire is her view on class. She truly respects and honors blue collar men[and women]. She poked a stick into the smug, elitist eyes of the all the Steinem's in this world. Buona fortuna, Camille.

BJM said...

@Mad

Perhaps the genteel Yalies were frightened by camel toe?

ampersand said...

You call that aggressive pants wearing?

This is aggressive pants wearing


http://hitdanback.com/tag/eldridge-cleaver/

Phil 314 said...

Not trying to hijack but this seems significant to note

American and Canadian Muslims Leaders Defend Free Speech

AST said...

How can we get them both back out of our consciousness now?

Chennaul said...

ampersand-

O....M.....G......

And that about completely synthesizes the thread.

LOL...oy.

Anonymous said...

Who is she?
I've never seen her before
I'm still here?
I didn't know that she was here to start with.
Fe!
I don't like her at all.
Pompous progressive.
She's probably a MARGARET SANGER type

“The most merciful thing that a family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.”
Margaret Sanger, Founder of Planned Parenthood

These FEMALES give Women a bad name

The Dude said...

As soon as I saw "aggressive pants" I knew my class mate Eldridge Cleaver would be mentioned.

I, for one, miss the Puritans. Those guys knew how to live.

WV: schsay - no Puritan would ever schsay.

TheThinMan said...

Is this chick on cocaine? (Is the pope catholic?)

Anonymous said...

Camille Paglia is still around, but unfortunately so is her ego.

And that screechy fast-talking voice... ugh!

I understand why you seek to destroy her, Professor.

Fen said...

The case could damage the Obama administration, says Mr. Lichtman at American University. But he also argues that most Americans understand that the Voting Rights Act was intended to correct gross and historic injustices, not nit-pick along partisan lines.

Mr Lichtam is a professor of History.

I thought the Voting Rights Act was intended to protect our right to vote. Here it is: the right of any black citizen of the United States to vote. Guess I was wrong...

Mr. Lichtam also believes that the Bill of Rights only applies to white people: most Americans understand that the Bill of Rights was intended to correct gross and historic injustices, not nit-pick along partisan lines

Mr Lichtam is a professor of History...

d-day said...

That's not even true that the anti-sex feminists aren't still around:


Christine O'Donnell.

Fen said...

And dont you just love how

threats of violence and voter intimidation at the polls = "nit-pick along partisan lines"

Fen said...

Wow. Its 7:00 EST. Is Ann really going to black out the Coates’ Testimony to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights?

I only see two paths:

1) It strikes too close to her position that one specific racial slur is worse than the others. So I don't expect her to Champion a civil rights cause if the victims are white. "DOJ staff refusing to investigate violations of Voting Rights Act because the victims are white? No biggie, not even on my radar"

2) She has a strong opinion and is vigorously drafting a set of threads for the weekend.

I can't believe its the first choice.

Fen said...

"You can try to force [the Voting Rights Act] to be equal, but it's not," he says. "If these are the worst examples you can find, then, by God, white people in America are pretty safe."

Fen said...

Hey, I just realized I have MORE rights under Sharia than under the US Constitution.

Hmmm.

lucid said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
lucid said...

Camille is hot as hell, including right now at the present moment of her life. I love that photograph of her.

One of the things I have always loved about Paglia is the way she has always fully owned her sexuality. There was none of the coy baloney where a woman dresses to be hot and turn men on and then acts offended if men respond to her in physical or sexual terms.

The coy-sex, how-dare-you-look-at-me-that-way type of feminism is such a con game of the type that entitled, little-girl, traditional women have always played.

Paglia is desirable in a deep and enduring way that defies aging.

jungatheart said...

Fen:
"Wow. Its 7:00 EST. Is Ann really going to black out the Coates’ Testimony to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights?"

3)She's stubborn and doesn't like being scolded. I understand Reynold's called her on it, and ScottM and Tyrone are up-in-arms.

rhhardin said...

Paglia wouldn't be famous for anything except for Sexual Personae.

Which turns out to be her best work, written before theory took over from apt observation.

jungatheart said...

Paglia did write a stirring piece on Palin related to womanhood, motherhood, sexuality, self-sufficiecncy, etc. In Salon, well worth the read.

Althouse, you ever read sexual personae? Anyone?

jamboree said...

What's the obvious irony here? That gaga is obviously the descendant of Madonna, one of the young women that was liberated to be able to handle their own sexuality - or maybe one of the daughters of the wannabes - and what's Camille bitching about now?

That she's talking about her vagina. Doesn't she see the direct line of causality here?

It's just like real exploitative sex - the "revelation" is really only interesting once and it quickly gets old and you move on. That's why people guarded it over the centuries.

Palladian said...

"Althouse, you ever read sexual personae? Anyone?"

I think everyone that endured the ass-end of 80s critical literary theory and the mushrooming of all the various gender (and post-gender!) and gay/queer "studies" departments in the dark, moist areas of universities during that time read "Sexual Personæ". I think it's her only readable piece of writing.

Known Unknown said...

What Eldridge Cleaver wears to prom.

jungatheart said...

Hee-hee:
" departments in the dark, moist areas of universities "

So rh and Palladian 'recommend' it. Cool beans.

Moby's are interesting...how soon did you catch on (assuming he actually is one)? And that Bush avatar does annoy me.

traditionalguy said...

Sexual Persona is an easy read that proves a case about raw sexual forces in women from Greek and Roman pagan traditions. The raw power of nature to reproduce in startling abundance everywhere was an eye opener.Do you remember the joke that "1000 babies are born every minute....someone stop that woman!" Well Paglia affirms procreation as any good Catholic should. She is my kind of academic expositor of great art and literature in Western culture always aimed at life and not death. Death has enough friends these days.

Fen said...

3)She's stubborn and doesn't like being scolded. I understand Reynold's called her on it, and ScottM and Tyrone are up-in-arms.

Reynold's didn't call her out by name, I did. The brackets [coughAnnAlthousecough] are mine.

And I think she's too intelligent to let Pride get in the way on this.

Tomorrow will tell.

jungatheart said...

Thanks, tradguy, I'm looking forward to looking into it.


Links are my friend, Fen ;)

But I take the blame for not double-checking.

Bob Ellison said...

I, too, wondered about the accent. Her Italian parents may have introduced a bit of it, even though Paglia was born and raised in America. "EntrOnce", "sinGer" (hard G), etc. And she says "Antonioni" the way someone from North Dakota would, so there goes the inherited accent theory. In sum, it comes across as affectation.

She seems so fantastically impressed with herself. It's a pity she has to pick up the thing she apparently did in 1990 and wave it about so that we can all come to know how amazing it was. Was it? It doesn't sound like it. Sounds as though she was spouting somewhat randomly, like most cultural commentators.

HT said...

Here where feminism is basically against the law, it does not matter who led feminism in the 90s or the 70s. What matters is where you came from, and who raised you. What matters is if the course of being raised in less than ideal conditions you were able to protect and nurture something oh something maybe like dignity and self-respect so that later it could grow. But really at the heart of it, for me as a woman, is a girl's relationship with her father. And then here where feminism is against the law, are you able to foster enough .... something, I don't know, enough strong bonds between your friends to overcome the natural lack of respect for women that is always in the air in the larger community/society.

HT said...

I saw Camille Paglia when she came to the National Press Club years ago. She was a force of nature. I loved her performance. She just crackles.

Leslie said...

Any strong, intellectual woman with a separate mindset from the post-sixties feminist establish has got to love Camille, however much her bombastic self-regard makes one cringe. She's the most broad-minded, naturally enthused feminist thinker I've ever come across, and if you work in a university setting you know how important that is, even if you're much more afraid of sharia et al. Only when establishment feminists join the cultural fight against the last bastion of male supremacy will we finally turn it on its nasty little head.