Free Women, Free Men – Sex, Gender, Feminism
by Camille Paglia
Pantheon
$35.95
Free Women, Free Men: Sex, Gender, Feminism
is cultural critic and renegade feminist Camille Paglia’s third essay collection, her seventh book overall. Paglia is a provocative thinker who has polarized both liberals and conservatives since she burst on the scene in the ’90s. At its core,
Free Women, Free Men
is a call to action for defenders of free speech. Paglia sees men and women as equals in nature, and has no patience for male-bashing. She asserts, “if women seek freedom, they must let men too be free.” Paglia is sure to confound, vex, and above all else, make you think.
Free Women, Free Men
consists of several essays or chapters previously published in her earlier collections,
Sex, Art and American Culture
(1992),
Vamps and Tramps
(1994), and adds more recent articles, interviews and illustrations (these are found towards the end). It is entirely possible a whole generation does not know who Camille Paglia is; either they were not yet born during her rise to media stardom in 1990, with the publication of her magnum opus,
Sexual Personae
, or they were too young. Given the current political climate in America, and around the world, there is a resurgence of feminism, making
Free Women, Free Men
timely.
Paglia is not Gloria Steinem, however. And she is not Susan Faludi or Naomi Wolf. Paglia, University Professor of Humanities and Media Studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and armed with a PhD from Yale, refers to herself as a dissident feminist. She is on record for her libertarian views, being pro-pornography, pro-drugs, pro-prostitution, pro-abortion. Yet, she is one of the liberal establishment’s loudest critics.
The book, as declared by the subtitle, zeroes in on sex, gender and feminism, and how Paglia wants to reform these areas of study. Although all her works at times bleed together, you will not see essays strictly on art, literature or pop culture (with the exception of the Madonna and Robert Mapplethorpe essays).
A refreshing piece is “The Stiletto Heel,” a paean to women’s footwear. Yes, Paglia recognizes the shoe’s association with dangerous sex appeal, saying the “stiletto high heel is modern woman’s most lethal social weapon,” and “the high heel as an instrument of sex war can be witnessed in action in a stunning face-off in (Elizabeth Taylor’s 1960 movie)
BUtterfield 8.
” She then goes on to describe in detail real incidents where women, and drag queens, have literally used their heels as dangerous weapons. You won’t read things like this in Naomi Wolf’s
The Beauty Myth
.
One of the few pop culture references comes in the two-pager “What’s in a Picture: Robert Mapplethorpe’s Portrait of Patti Smith for
Horses
” celebrating the photographer’s legendary picture of rocker Patti Smith for her 1975 debut album. It is clear Paglia admires the works of Mapplethorpe and Smith, going so far as to emulate the photo for a magazine cover. “Mapplethorpe’s portrait of Patti Smith symbolized for me not only women’s new liberation but the fusion of high art and popular culture,” she writes.
Paglia’s most controversial essay to date is her article “Rape and Modern Sex War” originally published in
Newsday
in 1991, and reprinted in her first essay collection and now here in
Free Women, Free Men
. In it, Paglia argues that while rape is an “outrage that cannot be tolerated,” women on college campuses must own their sexuality and protect themselves from male lust, which she claims is “aggressive, unstable, combustible.” And if a “real rape” occurs, the crime should be reported to the authorities immediately rather than to university administration. This is where Paglia gets herself into hot water, particularly among feminists and leftists, in that she comes dangerously close to a blame-the-victim mentality. I don’t believe for a moment Paglia is pro-rape as her rivals have accused of her. The essay needs to be read in full context to understand Paglia’s view. I give her points for not shying away from this issue. She could have done all in her power to bury the 25-year-old article, erasing its history and saving her future grief. Going with an all-views-are-welcome standpoint, Paglia could get the same point across with a less harsh tone. Unfortunately for us, Paglia would make a lousy grief counsellor.
Paglia’s ruminations on sex and gender theory has its place in the arts. Her strength is when she takes up her broad sword to defend the arts, as in her 1998 book
The Birds
, a close reading of Hitchcock’s classic. This was followed up with 2005’s poetry study
Break, Blow, Burn
, and
Glittering Images
, a survey of the visual arts sweeping as far back as ancient Egypt all the way up to Star Wars. When Paglia focuses on reforming school curriculum with a back-to-basics approach (classics, arts, literature, history, science), she is at her most earnest. This is not “Camille Paglia” the dissident feminist media warrior; this is teacher Paglia who genuinely cares about the current state of education. As I said above, this book is timely, and I understand Paglia’s crusade in the culture war. However, at times her political voice feels like it’s tossed into the cacophony. While her philosophies on sex, gender and feminism might turn many away,
Free Women, Free Men
still serves as a good introductory text to Paglia 101.
Mark Abbott is a journalist, writer and editor covering arts and culture. He lives in Vancouver.