Free Women, Free Men

February 6, 2017
Feminist and culture critic Paglia is at her feisty, full-throated best in this series of short manifestos that spans her career from her breakthrough 1990 study, Sexual Personae, to the present. Paglia’s remedy for the ills besetting contemporary women is an infusion of her personal brand of “Amazonian feminism,” which combines staunch libertarian principles with 1960s rebellion. She refuses to bow to ideology (“The premier principles of this book are free thought and free speech—open, mobile, and unconstrained by either liberal or conservative ideology”) and is uncompromising in her convictions. Paglia’s sharp tongue and clear vision veer toward forceful assertions and snappy insults as often as practical perspective and common-sense solutions. Her narrative of the major moments of second-wave feminism starts to sound rehearsed by the end, but her stances on date rape, abortion, free speech, sex, art, and the importance of historical perspective are admirably consistent, as is her contempt for university coddling, poststructuralism, women’s studies programs, cults of victimhood, and anything mainstream. Paglia’s adversarial stance and scattered self-applause sometimes obscure the excellence of her prose, which is terse and studded with vivid metaphor. One does not have to agree with her theories about masculinity, femininity, and sex to enjoy Paglia’s bracing intellect and scrappy attitude. Agent: Lynn Nesbit, Janklow & Nesbit.

January 15, 2017
Essays, reviews, and interviews chronicle the career of a self-described "libertarian feminist."Since Sexual Personae (1990), Paglia (Humanities and Media Studies/Univ. of the Arts, Philadelphia; Glittering Images: A Journey Through Art from Egypt to Star Wars, 2012, etc.) has argued relentlessly against what she sees as puerile and uninformed ideas about sexuality, freedom, and gender. The pieces collected here, all previously published, include three sections from her first wide-ranging book on art, decadence, sex, and nature; various newspaper and magazine articles; and a few lectures, interviews, and book reviews. Unfortunately, to read a few is to read them all, as Paglia repeats views that have contributed to her reputation as "abrasive, strident, and obnoxious." She critiques women's studies programs, for example, as "a comfy, chummy morass of unchallenged groupthink." Bereft of grounding in science, the programs began, she asserts, to bring more female hires into academia, by administrators who did not much care about the intellectual content. "Women's studies is a jumble of vulgarians, bunglers, whiners, French faddists, apparatchiks, doughface party-liners, pie-in-the-sky utopianists, and bullying sanctimonious sermonizers," she wrote in 1991. Paglia softened her assessment somewhat by 2008, when, in an address at Harvard, she proposed reasonable reforms for the programs that included science as "a fundamental component" as well as the "writings of conservative opponents of feminism." Essays that touch on biography reveal elements of the author's childhood and adolescence in the repressive 1950s, when her role models were Amelia Earhart and Katharine Hepburn; and that she imbibed "the essence of the Sixties, which is free thought and free speech." With apparent delight, Paglia skewers some icons of the women's movement, such as Gloria Steinem, Helene Cixous ("that damp sob sister"), and Carolyn Heilbrun, reserving praise for Madonna ("the true feminist") and Germaine Greer ("witty, learned, stylish, and sexy"). An album of media photographs suggests that Paglia would like to be described in exactly those terms. Controversial views on women's lives and nature that may appeal to Paglia's fans but not win her many more.

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October 1, 2016

Both feminist leader and feminist dissident, Paglia has shown in books like Sexual Personae and Vamps & Tramps that she can write edgily about gender issues and sell hundreds of thousands of books in the process. This volume collects the best of her essays and carries a fresh introduction.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2017

Paglia (humanities & media studies, Univ. of the Arts, PA; Sexual Personae) is known for her critical views of culture, and the essays contained in her latest book are no exception. Known as a "dissident feminist," Paglia's views on topics considered sacred to feminism have led to tensions between herself and the current feminist establishment. Here, she uses new insight to dissect issues relating to feminism, such as gender equality and the loaded topic of abortion. What is perhaps most impressive about Paglia's writing, however, is the absence of any vendetta against men. In fact, she notes, "It was always the proper mission of feminism to attack and reconstruct the ossified social practices that had led to wide-ranging discrimination against women. But surely it was and is possible for a progressive reform movement to achieve that without stereotyping, belittling or demonizing men." The author eloquently illustrates the dangers of narrowly defining a feminist according to what issues they support. Instead, she argues for feminism to become an umbrella of people with differing political views, sexual orientations, and religions who seek to strengthen women, without the need to demean men. VERDICT Intriguing and thought provoking for readers interested in different perspectives of feminism. [See Prepub Alert, 9/12/16.]--Stacy Shaw, Orange, CA

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.