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Who is Camille Paglia?

Camille Paglia, an internationally known social critic and author, is noted for her focus on gender issues, media and art. Her books include Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, (1992) and Vamps and Tramps: New Essays.

A good introduction to Paglia is at fluxeuropa. Paglia is a professor of Humanities in Philadelphia. An excerpt from Sexual Personae is available online.

I dont know anything about Irma Kurtz. Do you? She is a agony aunt who writes columns for cosmo

hmm. I was surfing for more Camille Paglia information and I found a speech by Camille at MIT on Crisis in the American Universities.

From what I can tell currently Paglia is a feminist with a difference (italics indicating lack of credibility in my statements). Traditional feminists have eschewed feminity, asking women to stand up against the stereotype of the fairer sex. Paglia seems to prefer women retain their feminity. Paglia claims Naomi Woolf and other contemporary feminists have railed against traditional beauty (and use of female nudes in art) as a sort of heterosexist conspiracy to dominate women.

Camille raises a very valid point in her extempore speech at MIT. An excerpt:

So: aesthetics. Because one of my earliest faculties was my responsiveness to beauty. I think it may be something innate in Italians, I honestly think it may be. There's an art thing, an art gene that we've got. Early on, I was in love with beauty. I don't feel less because I'm in the presence of a beautiful person. I don't go [imitates crying and dabbing tears], "Oh, I'll never be that beautiful!" What a ridiculous attitude to take!--the Naomi Wolf attitude. When men look at sports, when they look at football, the don't go [crying], "Oh, I'll never be that fast, I'll never be that strong!" When people look at Michelangelo's David, do they commit suicide? No. See what I mean? When you see a strong person, a fast person, you go, "Wow! That is fabulous." When you see a beautiful person: "How beautiful." That's what I'm bringing back to feminism. You go, "What a beautiful person, what a beautiful man, what a beautiful woman, what beautiful hair, what beautiful boobs!"

Camille also makes some interesting points about date-rape. She says that women are not taking ownership of their sexuality. Finally a list of Paglia's articles for Salon