READING TIE IN

Reading tie in:

In reading Where the Girls Are by Susan Douglas I had noticed a reference to Camile Paglia on page 244,…the reason Camile Paglia has become such a media darling, despite an ego the size of Australia and two books that don’t make a lick of sense, is that she loves to trash feminists-or at least her caricature of feminists. Hmm. This is a glittering generality. I think Paglia, instead ,wants a healthily dialogue, one free from rash opinions. Socratic dialogue promotes critical thinking , free and independent thought. When deployed you don’t necessarily have the win friends and influence people scenario. I have read Paglia’s Sexual Personae and it is admittedly a controversial book. When reading the following review, one senses original thought, which strays from the rest of the pack. She has been a free thinker for several years. Paglia comes from humble working class Italian roots, my background as well. She doesn’t fit in with the well oiled eastern establishment intelligentsia. This is a true feminist, one who thinks on her feet and demolishes the strongholds of group think:

The ability to infuriate both antagonists in an ideological struggle is often the sign of a first rate book….Paglia is a gifted writer …an admirably close reader with a hard core of common sense…her book is as intellectually stimulating as it is exasperating –The New York Times book review.

An excerpt from Pages 2, 3 of Sexual Personae…

Modern liberalism suffers from unsolved contradictions. It exalts individualism and freedom. On the other hand, it expects government to provide materiality for all, a feat manageable only by an expansion of authority and a swollen bureaucracy. In other words, liberalism defines government as tyrant father but demands it behaves like a nurturant mother. Feminism has inherited these contradictions. It sees every hierarchy as repressive, a social fiction; every negative about woman is a male lie designed to keep her in her place. Feminism has exceeded its proper mission of seeking political equality for woman and has ended by rejecting contingency, that is, human limitation by nature or fate.