What's your opinion of Camille Paglia?

[hiphopnation]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/paglia/2009/07/08/reader_letters/index.html

This column is maddening!

It's frustrating to me that Salon still publishes this column. Paglia is a controversial figure - or is she just a blowhard? I say this without ever having read one of her books, only columns she authors. May be time to read Sexual Personae :shrug:

[BlooInBloo]

1. Who? Hmmm... Is that the old Cosmo lady?

[CreekDog]

2. She is very eloquent

and extremely insane. :crazy:

[hiphopnation]

7. LOL

that about sums it up, from what I've read of her!

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. She's Obviously Very Educated And Writes Well

and extremely insane.


I remember reading an essay she wrote about how liberating gay male porn was. But what she wanted the reader to take out of it escapes me other then she thought gay male porn was liberating.

[GCP]

42. I don't think she writes well at all

It's like stream of consciousness, what she comes out with.

[MADem]

3. She's happiest when she's complaining. Her glass is forever half-empty. NT

[ProgressiveProfessor]

46. Much like Maureen Dowd

[meegbear]

4. I cannot stand the woman ...

I've tried to keep an open mind with her writings, but to me it comes out as ...

I hate Bill Clinton
I hate Hillary Clinton
I hate Howard Dean
I hate John Kerry
I hate Ted Kennedy
I hate the Democrats in Congress
I hate unions
I support Bush
I support the war
I love Sarah Palin
But don't ever say I'm NOT a Democrat!

She's about as insightful as duct tape.

[hiphopnation]

8. do you read her at Salon?

anywhere else?

[meegbear]

12. Just Salon ...

Been reading her "columns" there for a few years, when her and Andrew Sullivan (another one I can't stand) would have posts a couple times a week.

I don't understand why she has 'credibility' in some people's eyes.

[hiphopnation]

17. Sullivan, though

has pissed me off much less of late. I guess it doesn't hurt that he backed B. Obama. I read him quite frequently but he links to her Salon column way more than I can stomach - that's where I was lead to this latest drivel.

[meegbear]

26. For me, Sully goes back ...

He would write articles in the late 90s about how pharmaceuticals should charge high prices for drugs, while running ads for pharmaceuticals on his website.

He also would write about how immoral Bill Clinton was with Monica, while it was found that he was posting on sites looking for bareback sex so he could get all those "milky loads" (that's his ad - NSFW).

He's a hypocrite; a few years back he was lecturing us about how stupid we were because we didn't support invading Iraq and now he's lecturing us about how stupid we are for supporting it (I was always against it, thank you). Dan Savage did the same thing.

[GCP]

43. "And I love listening to Rush Limbaugh"

Enough said.

[JitterbugPerfume]

5. mad as a hatter?

[Captain Hilts]

6. She's batshit crazy. nt

[Avalux]

9. Angry, angry woman; lots of bluster but not much substance.

As a woman, don't consider her point of view on anything to be of use. :hi:

[closeupready]

10. She is famous for being famous, not for anything she ever accomplished.

I'm not sure why Salon sees fit to give her a column. I certainly would never read it.

And also, she uses big words just to sound smart. It's like, honey, are you overcompensating for being female and not liking that, or what?

[Mrs. Overall]

13. Somehow I ended up friends with her on Facebook (not sure exactly how it happened)--

Want me to leave a nasty message on her wall?

[hiphopnation]

15. i'm new to facbook

is it possible to pee on her wall?

[Mrs. Overall]

19. Seriously, just do a search and invite her to be your friend. She'll probably say yes.

On a positive note, I asked Katha Pollit from The Nation to be my friend and she said yes. Ask her, too.

[hiphopnation]

23. cool

Katha Pollitt called Paglia "the Charles Murray of sex. You know, "There's nothing you can do about it."'<67> Pollitt also accused Paglia of "glorify male dominance".<68>


:bounce:

[Mist]

14. "Sexual Personae" was interesting, but yeah, she's nutz. I think she's extremely

passe now.

[Taverner]

16. Sometimes she's right on, sometimes she's batshit crazy and sometimes she's OK

She's a Libertarian, so I find myself agreeing with her about 33% of the time

[chelsea0011]

18. She is what Ann Coulter would be if we all forgot about her also...a distant memory

[hiphopnation]

21. ...

other gems from her wiki page:

Molly Ivins wrote a scathing review of Sexual Personae in which she accused Paglia of historical inaccuracy, demagoguery of second-wave feminists, egocentrism, and writing in sweeping generalizations. Ivins concluded her review with this passage: "There is one area in which I think Paglia and I would agree that politically correct feminism has produced a noticeable inequity. Nowadays, when a woman behaves in a hysterical and disagreeable fashion, we say, 'Poor dear, it's probably PMS.' Whereas, if a man behaves in a hysterical and disagreeable fashion, we say, 'What an asshole.' Let me leap to correct this unfairness by saying of Paglia, Sheesh, what an asshole."

Betty Friedan said in an interview, "How can you take her seriously? She is an exhibitionist, and she takes the most extreme elements of the women's movement and tries to make the whole movement antisexual, antilife, antijoy. And neither I nor most of the women I know are that way."<63>

Naomi Wolf traded a series of sometimes personal attacks with Paglia throughout the early 1990s. In The New Republic, Wolf labeled Paglia, "the nipple-pierced person's Phyllis Schlafly who poses as a sexual renegade but is in fact the most dutiful of patriarchal daughters" and called Paglia's writing "full of howling intellectual dishonesty."<66>

Katha Pollitt called Paglia "the Charles Murray of sex. You know, "There's nothing you can do about it."'<67> Pollitt also accused Paglia of "glorify male dominance".<68>


:bounce:

damn I miss Molly Ivins :(

[imdjh]

20. geriatric Ann Coulter

[Life Long Dem]

22. It's funny

She was slammed to the mat and knocked out for the count. It's not the first time, and I'd say she hit the mat pretty hard, but very slowly the media has been lifting her up off the mat.

[mitchum]

24. She is wretched, embarrasing...and so last century

[hiphopnation]

30. what does it say about Salon that they give her forum? nt

[cherokeeprogressive]

25. My opinion of her changes at a moment's notice, like everyone else's

Meaning it depends on whether she's bashing or supporting a favorite person of mine today.

[Gwendolyn]

27. Back in the 80s when feminists were burning porn and telling women all sex was rape...

She was dancing in the wind, telling women to enjoy themselves. She had some interesting things to say back then. But she became like the child actor who grows up and can't find a new niche. Sexual Personae was an interesting read, and I appreciate some of what she tried to do in the name of feminism.

[Hello_Kitty]

36. If you equate claiming that rape is inevitable and domestic violence is "hot"

With telling women to enjoy themselves I guess that's your prerogative. I personally thought it was just the old tropes like the double standard and keeping women in chastity belts repackaged as "feminism" but YMMV.

[frebrd]

28. Nutty as a fruitcake!

[rrneck]

29. I thought she was an

arrogant blowhard back in grad school, and there is nothing in this column to change my opinion.

[Berry Cool]

31. She is a fauxminist pompous ass.

That about sums it up.

[ColbertWatcher]

32. Without reading the link? I'd say unmitigated attention whore. n/t

[ContinentalOp]

33. An utter moron -nt-

[blogslut]

34. Not much

n/t

[Hello_Kitty]

35. She's from the Women Suck Except For Me I'm Awesome school of feminism.

I can do without it, and her.

[stanwyck]

39. Nailed it, Kitty. She's a woman hater.

And I say this as one who has read her ramblings for years.
She doesn't like women. She's embarrassed to be a woman.
I feel sorry for her. Really. As a straight female, I can't imagine my life without the women in my life. I love my husband. But the girlfriends I've had thru the years have enriched my life continually with their support, laughter, wit, and love.
The women who can't love other women with respect are so incredibly sad.
That sadness permeates Paglia's blather.

[omega minimo]

37. She's insane.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

38. She is the Alan Keyes of feminism n/t

[stanwyck]

40. Laughing. n/t

[hiphopnation]

47. lmao!!

:rofl:

great one! :bounce:

[GCP]

41. She's the reason I cancelled my Salon subscription

I fucking hate her.

[burning rain]

44. Her shtick of being the person who always says something surprising, bores me.

~

[GreenArrow]

45. funny you should use the term "blowhard"

When I read the title of your post blowhard was the first word that came to mind, followed by narcissist. She's a decadent bore.