The Provocations of Camille Paglia

    Terrific profile of the iconoclast Camille Paglia by my friend @EmEsfahaniSmith. Worth a read. https://t.co/tgWqRIdFvD

    — Scott Barry Kaufman (@sbkaufman) August 22, 2019

    I agree that it's a terrific look at her career not the least of which because it stresses how she was always about culcha and not politics.

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    Taking aim at the #MeToo movement, she told an interviewer that it is “ridiculous that any university ever tolerated a complaint of a girl coming in six months or a year after an event. If a real rape was committed, go frigging report it to the police.”

    This is a good example why I dislike Paglia. I partly agree with that quote but there's a total lack of compassion or any understanding of the historical forces that dissuade women from reporting rape.  It's ignorant. In the end I agree that if we as a society want to stop rape it has to start with women reporting rape most of the time. It will be difficult as police ignore and diminish the complaint and shame the victim. But we can't work at changing the legal system if the crimes are not reported. But that doesn't seem to be what she's saying. There's no historical context nor is there any acknowledgement of how the present system treats rape reports and rape victims.


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