Camille Paglia Quotes

A collection of quotes by Camille Paglia.

Camille Paglia is a renowned American feminist academic and cultural critic. She was born on April 2, 1947, in Endicott, New York. Paglia is best known for her unorthodox views and provocative analyses on topics such as feminism, sexuality, art, and popular culture.

She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1968 and went on to pursue graduate studies at Yale University, where she obtained her Master of Philosophy degree in 1971, followed by a Ph.D. in English Literature in 1974.

Paglia gained popularity and controversy with the release of her first book, "Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson," in 1990. In this groundbreaking work, she explores the representation of gender and sexuality throughout history, challenging mainstream feminist perspectives and advocating for an appreciation of the male sexual impulse.

Throughout her career, Paglia has been a professor at several prestigious institutions, including Bennington College, Yale University, and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where she has taught since 1984. She is respected for her assertive and candid style, often engaging in lively debates with other intellectuals and scholars.

Paglia continues to be a prolific writer and public speaker, often sharing her insights on controversial topics in essays, interviews, and lectures. Her work has had a profound impact on the fields of feminism, gender studies, and cultural criticism, making her an influential figure in contemporary intellectual discourse.

Madonna remains the most visible performer on the planet, as

Madonna remains the most visible performer on the planet, as well as one of the wealthiest, but would anyone seriously say that artistic self-development is her primary motivating principle? She is too busy with Kabbalah, fashion merchandising, adoption melodramas, the gym, and ill-starred horseback riding to study art.

Does art have a future? Performance genres like opera, theat

Does art have a future? Performance genres like opera, theater, music and dance are thriving all over the world, but the visual arts have been in slow decline for nearly 40 years. No major figure of profound influence has emerged in painting or sculpture since the waning of Pop Art and the birth of Minimalism in the early 1970s.

Within the U.S., the Obama presidency will be mainly measure

Within the U.S., the Obama presidency will be mainly measured by the success or failure of his economic policies. And here, I fear, the monstrous stimulus package with which this administration stumbled out of the gate will prove to be Obama's Waterloo.

The junk-bond era has also spawned something that calls itse

The junk-bond era has also spawned something that calls itself New Historicism. This seems to be a refuge for English majors without critical talent or broad learning in history or political science. To practice it, you must apparently lack all historical sense.

Science History Talent

Love for all means coldness to something or someone. Even Je

Love for all means coldness to something or someone. Even Jesus, let us recall, was unnecessarily rude to his mother at Cana.

Far from poisoning the mind, pornography shows the deepest t

Far from poisoning the mind, pornography shows the deepest truth about sexuality, stripped of romantic veneer.

Charisma is the radiance produced by the interaction of male

Charisma is the radiance produced by the interaction of male and female elements in a gifted personality. The charismatic woman has a masculine force and severity. The charismatic man has an entrancing female beauty. Both are hot and cold, glowing with presexual self-love.

Beauty Love Man Self Force

The unhappy truth is that male homosexuality will never be f

The unhappy truth is that male homosexuality will never be fully accepted by the heterosexual majority, who are obeying the dictates not of bigoted society or religion but of procreative nature.

Truth Nature Religion Society Majority

All the genres of philosophy, science, high art, athletics a

All the genres of philosophy, science, high art, athletics and politics were invented by men. But by the Promethean law of conflict and capture, woman has a right to seize what she will and vie with man on her own terms.

Men Politics Art Science Philosophy Man Rights Willphilosophy

My generation of bossy, confident, baby-boom women were some

My generation of bossy, confident, baby-boom women were something brand new in history. Our energy and assertiveness weren't created by Betty Friedan, unknown before her 1963 book, or by Gloria Steinem, whose political activism, as even the Lifetime profile admitted, did not begin until 1969.

Because most of my career in the classroom has been at art s

Because most of my career in the classroom has been at art schools (beginning at Bennington in the 1970s), I am hyper-aware of the often grotesque disconnect between commentary on the arts and the actual practice or production of the arts.

Music never dies. Do we really need another Madonna tour? Do

Music never dies. Do we really need another Madonna tour? Does she have to compete with women performers 25 years her junior?

I say the law should be blind to race, gender and sexual ori

I say the law should be blind to race, gender and sexual orientation, just as it claims to be blind to wealth and power. There should be no specially protected groups of any kind, except for children, the severely disabled and the elderly, whose physical frailty demands society's care.

And what do Democrats stand for, if they are so ready to def

And what do Democrats stand for, if they are so ready to defame concerned citizens as the 'mob' - a word betraying a Marie Antoinette delusion of superiority to ordinary mortals. I thought my party was populist, attentive to the needs and wishes of those outside the power structure. And as a product of the 1960s, I thought the Democratic party was passionately committed to freedom of thought and speech.

Because of my own family's service (in the U.S. Army, Navy,

Because of my own family's service (in the U.S. Army, Navy, and Massachusetts and New York National Guard), I am a strong supporter of the military and do believe that there are just wars.

Younger women have no problem in reconciling beauty with amb

Younger women have no problem in reconciling beauty with ambitions as a professional woman.

A lesser complaint: hair extensions. There are moments on 'A

A lesser complaint: hair extensions. There are moments on 'All My Children' when half the women actors, young and old, seem to be afflicted by android Barbie creep. All those thick swatches of lifeless strands clustering lankly round ladies' necks! Like orange tanning spray, this is a fashion fad that should be put out of its misery.

Rule of art: Cant kills creativity!

Rule of art: Cant kills creativity!

In an era ruled by materialism and unstable geopolitics, art

In an era ruled by materialism and unstable geopolitics, art must be restored to the center of public education.

American policy seems to be wed to a perpetual state of war.

American policy seems to be wed to a perpetual state of war. Why? History shows that the world will always be in flux or turmoil, with different peoples competing for visibility and power. The U.S. cannot fix the fate of every nation.