Camille Paglia was a voice for men before the word “misandry” was widely used or even understood. “Freedom,” she says, “in the gender realm means the freedom of each sex to define its history and destiny without blame or harassment.” She acknowledges that men have been “impugned and silenced by feminism.”
Her brand of libertarian feminism stands in clear contrast to the incessant voices of mainstream feminism that demand women be given special privileges without personal responsibility. Men, the mainstream feminists believe, should have responsibility with fewer rights. In her new book, Free Women, Free Men: Sex, Gender, Feminism, Paglia’s collection of essays explores why both sexes deserve and need freedom—and why that freedom is so important.
Paglia is pretty much a household name by now, but for those who have not read her work, she is the University Professor of Humanities and Media Studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She is a regular contributor to Salon and the author of Sexual Personae; Glittering Images; Break, Blow, Burn; Sex, Art, and American Culture; and Vamps and Tramps.
Her new book opens with an introduction about how the book is laid out: the chapters are chosen from her numerous works and include a controversial first chapter from Sexual Personae entitled “Sex and Violence, or Nature and Art,” a piece on Madonna from 1990 in The New York Times, and even her response to a debate
