Punching Paglia

[Cal McInvale]

In the midst of all this bickering about Camille "Slugger" Paglia, Diana
York Blaine complains:

     I certainly cannot speak for all feminists,

And here all along that's what I thought you were doing.

     but I know much of the frustration about Camille Paglia comes from
     the assumption that she is a feminist because she is a woman.

So do you get frustrated when people assumed that an individual is NOT a
feminist because he is a MAN? I'd guess that you don't. What really makes
feministas irate is that Paglia calls them on things that other people just
blindly and stupidly accept as gospel. (See below.)

     This is untrue.  Many women spout the male party line and get
     mondo approval for it.

Guess I need to pay my dues, cuz I haven't heard anything about a "male
party line." I mean, when I took a shower this morning, I was male... so I
should know a little bit about it... I think...

Y'see, this is what I'm talking about: there is no "male party line," just
as there is no "female party line" or any "black party line." And when
"feminists" say this sort of thing, they open themselves up to the kind of
shots -- cheap or otherwise -- that Paglia takes at feminism.

     She is one of them.  That is her right.

Nice of you to allow her free speech. Very un-feminist of you.

     But don't confuse it in any way with "the radical notion that
     women are people."

Are you asserting that Paglia doesn't believe that women are people? I hope
not; you're already teetering on the proverbial plank.

As if to further the controversy, add fuel to the fire and enter his own
arms into the fray, Chris Stolz offered:

     1)  Paglia turns feminism into a straw man, i.e. imputes to it claims
     which
     it either doesn't make or which aren't representative of most of its
     exponents, and then attacks the straw man (woman?)

Try "Organically-Challenged Biped" instead of "Straw Man/Woman."

And since it's nearly impossible to assert what "feminism" claims, I would
have to clarify this for you -- Paglia takes on the claims of certain
*feminists* (which may or may not compute to being "claims of feminism").

     2)  she is, like her diss. adviser Bloom, fundamentally a monloguist who
     speaks in sound bites and one-liners and doesn't listen to her opponents,
     plus she drinks too much coffee.

Hey, bud... unless your head explodes, there's no such thing as too much
coffee.

And in my experience/opinion, we're *all* monologists, who just happen to
let other monologues cross our paths from time-to-time. Shit, man... the
preferred mode of discourse these days is the monologue. Who the hell cares
what other people think? Get an e-mail address, set up your own web pages
and SPOUT to the world your opinions and ideas. That's what we're all on
this list for, right? I mean, nobody *really* joined this list to learn
more about Thomas Pynchon. (If you did, I suggest you go to the library
instead.)

Finally, Picking On Paglia (for all the trend it's been for these last
coupla years) is about as original and innovative as making age jokes about
Bob Dole. Get off it already.

No cheers...


------------------
cal mcinvale                      entropy specialist
calm at tpdinc.com                   tpd publishing inc.

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