Paglia: "Is Coulter truly oblivious to her gender weirdness?"

[jefferson_dem]

Ohhhhhhhhh *snap*...

"...Third, satirists who play on gender themes need some whiff of self-knowledge, or they look ridiculous. Is Coulter truly oblivious to her gender weirdness? It's no coincidence that words like "tranny" and "transvestite" clog the anti-Coulter blogs."

:rofl: :spray:

and there's more at ---> http://www.salon.com/opinion/paglia/2007/03/14/coulter/index1.html

[NYCGirl]

1. I didn't get farther than the first page, where Paglia says Fox is necessary to

combat the "liberal" media. Anyone that deluded is irrelevant.

[jefferson_dem]

3. Yeah Paglia is quite wacky, a walking self-contradiction in her own right.

But her take on Coulter is ... too tasty.

[NYCGirl]

5. You mean that Coulter is a "high-profile feminist role model"?

I don't think so.

[6000eliot]

33. Paglia's nuts alright, but she's not oblivious to her own gender weirdness.

[bryant69]

2. Yeah it's a shit article - Camille Pagila is a big Rush Limbaugh fan

And it shows.

"Hillary didn't help herself with her over-the-top sermon at the First Baptist Church in Selma, Ala., two weeks ago. Her aping of a black Southern accent from the pulpit was so inept and patronizing that it should get a Razzie Award for Worst Performance of the Year. At times, it approached the Southern Gothic burlesque of Bette Davis chewing up the scenery in "Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte." Does Hillary Clinton have a stable or coherent sense of self? Or is everything factitious, mimed and scripted (like her flipping butch and femme masks) for expediency?"

If you want to read what Catty People who pretend not to like Republicans while putting them in the White House, go ahead and read Pagilla.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[lancdem]

4. Yep, I'm no fan of hers either

:thumbs up:

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

32. Right wing tripe

Go to the Daily Howler (www.dailyhowler.com) where we learn that Hillary used the accent while reading something written in a dialect............but the Hill haters forget to mention that and make her look as though she's posing. Then this piece of work repeats the talking point.
For the record, I am not a Hillary fan or foe. Just interested in fair and full disclosure in the meida. :)

[Plaid Adder]

6. Paglia's just pissed off because she's yesterday's Top Bitch.

Paglia made her name in the 1980s by doing in an academic setting what Coulter is making a lot more money doing now: talking shit in public that most people would be embarrassed to be overheard saying in prviate. Oh, and providing the patriarchy with a spokeswoman willing to tell everyone that actually, women don't really want any of this liberty or equality bullshit, and she must know, right, cause she's a woman.

Alas, Paglia's act, outrageous as it was by 1980s standards, is no longer intellecutally and morally bankrupt enough for the degraded tastes of today's right-wingers. Paglia, for all her other problems, has some intelligence, can sort of construct an argument along with her abuse, and at least can claim to be well-read; she also still thinks poetry is important, something which certainly makes her an outsider in today's the-only-book-I-need-is-the-Bible conservative scene.

It makes perfect sense to me that Paglia hates Coulter for having replaced her as the patriarchy's favorite female antifeminist shill. After all, you can argue that if invective is an art, Paglia was the better artist. Coulter's shtick excels Paglia's only in its unbelievable crudity. Coulter's success proves that you don't need a functioning brain or an intact psyche to do the job Paglia thought she was so boss for doing 20 years ago. That's gotta sting.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[stanwyck]

10. Perfect. Maybe a Coulter/Paglia

death match is in order. At least that would give the horny freepers the girl-on-girl action they crave. Well, any action, actually. Poor guys.

[NYCGirl]

11. Except that she actually ADMIRES Coulter — her only problem with her is

that her books are "shoddily constructed". She calls her smart and a role model for feminists — and says about her Edwards "joke" (it is the last part of the first paragraph that the OP referenced):

John Edwards got publicity for the wrong reason two weeks ago when Ann Coulter bizarrely called him a "faggot" at the Conservative Political Action Conference. What could have been a good joke at the expense of p.c. Hollywood misfired badly first because that old chestnut of a schoolyard insult makes no sense whatever when applied to Edwards, whose only peccadillo is a dandy's overinvolvement with his hair (see John Travolta's romancing his hair on the way out to the disco in "Saturday Night Fever"), and second because Coulter had no business turning an event highlighting Republican presidential candidates into a forum for her one-liners. Doesn't she have enough personal gigs for that? It was especially embarrassing for Mitt Romney, who cordially introduced her. Third, satirists who play on gender themes need some whiff of self-knowledge, or they look ridiculous. Is Coulter truly oblivious to her gender weirdness? It's no coincidence that words like "tranny" and "transvestite" clog the anti-Coulter blogs.

Coulter is a smart woman with formidable energy, and whether liberals like it or not, she is a high-profile feminist role model in her appetite for aggressive debate. But Coulter seems to be regressing rather than growing intellectually and sharpening her analytic skills. She evidently leaves no room in her life for study and reflection. I take books seriously (which is why I left the scene for five years to write "Break, Blow, Burn") and thus hold against Coulter the part she has played in the debasement of that medium. Her books may rake in millions but won't last because they are shoddily constructed. Coulter should be using her syndicated column for her topical opinions but her books for more considered contributions. "Godless," for example, which intriguingly postulates the quasi-religiosity of contemporary liberalism, should have stimulated wide discussion but was so thrown together and full of holes that it was easy to dismiss and went unread outside her core audience.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/paglia/2007/03/14/coulter/index1.html

[Plaid Adder]

I don't know if admiration is what's going on there.

At least not admiration of Coulter. If you look closely, what's happening is that Paglia admires the aspects of Coulter that she sees as mirroring La Paglia's own good qualities (she also sees herself as a "high-profile feminist role model," God help her, for engaging in "aggressive debate") and then spends the rest of her time attacking Coulter for not doing what Paglia does herself (note the subtle book plug). The ultimate message is: "*I* should be the queen of antifeminist punditry!"

With Paglia as with Coulter, it's always all about her.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[NYCGirl]

16. That's true, it is always about Paglia. NT

[rodeodance]

17. says C. is a role model for feminists !!! oh my gawd!!

[Book Lover]

21. Only in the same way Thatcher was a role model for feminists

In other words ... not.

[LostinVA]

14. BINGO n/t

[Bridget Burke]

15. I liked "Sexual Personae: Art & Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson"

In fact, I thought a sequel was on its way.

However, Paglia found it easier & more profitable to churn out angry reviews & contrarian essays. Who reads large tomes dealing with myth, legend, literature, society & psychology? Well, I do. But most Fox watchers don't.

Your analysis is spot on.

[July]

19. You've nailed her shtick, PA.

I read some of her early stuff, but it was hard going. She'd be completely silenced if she had to leave references to herself out of her articles. You're right that she has some strengths, but, jeez --wish I could get an academic post with half-assed arrogant ranting like hers.

"So boss" -- love it!

[Nikki Stone1]

22. Plaid Adder, HAD to comment on your choice of words:

"After all, you can argue that if invective is an art, Paglia was the better artist."

Loved this.

Having read and watched Paglia through the 80s and early 90s, I have to agree.

[orwell]

23. Good call...n/t

[ReadTomPaine]

27. This belongs in your journal for posterity's sake.

Perfectly stated.

[sendero]

30. Exactly...

... Coulter is nothing if not an updated Paglia.

[HamdenRice]

7. I used to have a close friend who was a transsexual

We had long talks about how difficult it was for her growing up. How from the age that she was playing house with her brothers and sisters, she knew that she was the "mommy" and not "daddy." How she was hounded out of high school. How lucky she was to have a supportive family, but how so many of her sisters became homeless, drug addicted or dead. How the gay community sometimes tolerates having them around for entertainment, but has done little to spend their political capital on the T part of the so called LGBT alliance.

Just a few weeks ago, the star of the British reality TV series about a transsexual, "There's Something About Miriam," was beaten almost to death and thrown out of the window of her fourth floor apartment. Miraculously she survived.

Transsexuals are not gay men in drag or silly confused clowns. They are people born with a woman's brain in a man's body or vice versa, and the most advanced science is demonstrating that what they have been telling us all along is true.

I for one have had enough of the "Man Coulter" and "trannie" comments. Transsexuals are the last minority group in America who it seems it is still perfectly acceptable to mock and denigrate.

[Plaid Adder]

8. I have to say I'm sick of it too

For all the reasons you mention and some others having to do with people here resorting to the standard assholic tactic of attacking a woman's gender identity just because they don't like what she has to say. It's not any more right when we do it to them than it is when they do it to us, but that doesn't seem to bother most of the Coulter-haters.

As I always say, you don't HAVE to be a man to be a raving, hatemongering, abusive, self-deluded imbecile.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[Taxloss]

9. Hear hear. n/t

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

12. Same here. It's not funny and it's very offensive.

It's sad to see such intolerance on a "liberal" board.

[LostinVA]

13. I wish I could nominate this post

Maybe you could start a thread with this as an OP. I mean it.

[JackBeck]

18. K & R for your post.

I have met many who have either transitioned or are in the process of transitioning. Transphobia in the gay community is kind of our dirty little secret. Too many times, both in politics and in our community, the "T" still struggle to find a place at the table. At the organization I work at, we are trying to create a module about HIV and the trans community. Sadly, there is very little research being done that focuses on this aspect of the community.

[jefferson_dem]

20. Thanks for sharing. I apologize if my OP offended any of my DU friends.

That was not my goal and not who i am. I guess, sometimes we can get swept away by our disdain for Coulter-types...and miss the bigger picture.

Cheers.

[JackBeck]

24. I wasn't offended.

This has brought about an interesting discussion on Paglia/Coulter and the transgendered.

Personally, I wrote off Paglia years ago when she theorized that Madonna has set back the women's movement 25 years.

[Neecy]

25. yeah....

She has a bizarre obsession with Madonna. I always got the feeling that she thought if she wrote about her enough she'd get noticed by her - I don't think that ever happened :)

Paglia wasn't a terrible academic when she stuck to her subject, but her social commentary is contradictory and usually just meant to shock. That's what sells books these days.

[Plaid Adder]

26. She wrote a Godawful article on Coleridge's "Christabel"

which Bloom unforgivably included in one of those anthologies of critical pieces about X literary text that he churned out. Decent enough basic premise--Geraldine is a lesbian vampire--but at least at that point in her career she had no idea how to actually justify it. It was just assertions from one end to the other, sans evidence or elaboration. OK, it was probably something she wrote as a graduate student...but even so, it was startling.

_Break, Blow, Burn_ is supposed to be good. I haven't read it, but I did unbend my hatred of all things Paglia long enough to get it as a Christmas present for someone. I would not purchase _Godless_ for my nearest and dearest even if it was the only thing on the wish list.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[Neecy]

29. oh, Bloom loves her...

He mentored her early on at Yale...not something to be terribly proud of.

[Lex]

28. Coulter's NOT weird because of how she looks but because of

the hateful crap she says and writes.

She is descpicable--but all the reasons are for the hatefulness she spreads.

[ComerPerro]

31. its true that she really shouldn't be quick to throw around insults about sexual identity

considering her adam's apple...

Whats that saying about people in glass houses?