Camille Paglia's Bio
All the deets on your favorite critic's personal life.
Basic Information
| Name | Camille Anna Paglia |
| Tagline | "Feminists can pump their fists all they want over how men treat them. I'm more interested in what art can do than being part of the battle of the sexes—that's just so 1970s." / "I just don't get the whole 'beauty is shallow' thing. Beauty is great to look at and has more to say to me than ugly does. Fo sho." |
| Nickname | The Antifeminist; Heir to the Throne of Susan Sontag; Heir to the Throne of Mary McCarthy; the Libertarian Finger-Wagger; Hurricane Camille |
| Sex | Female with every biological implication of that label. Men should act like men, and women should act like women. I don't buy the whole idea of "social construction"— that society makes us behave as men or women—I say, "Born that way." I like to call myself a "lesbian with a male brain" or someone with "permanently ambiguous sexual identity." |
| Home town | I was born in the town of Endicott, New York. We lived all around upstate New York, such as Syracuse and Oxford, where I went to school and my father was studying to become a graduate student. My parents were the real-deal Italian immigrants. Pazzo! |
Work & Education
| Occupation | My first teaching gig was at Bennington College in Vermont—a school made famous by its association with such characters as Bret Easton Ellis and Joan Didion. I later got the hook-up from my former professor/mentor/intellectual equal at Yale, Harold Bloom. I went to fisticuffs with other feminists all the time and had to retreat to greener pastures, doing part-time stuff at East Coast colleges. I ended up at the College of the Arts in Philadelphia, where I teach humanities and media studies. I also try to put a fire under my students, so that they won't turn into lazy, disengaged liberals. (Check out my department page.) I am also a regular contributor to Salon.com, where I spout on such issues as "Real Housewives," Madonna (always), and bloggers. |
| Education | For my undergraduate education, I attended Harpur College (BTW: I was class valedictorian). I then moved on to a little place called Yale University, where I advertised my lesbianism (no one did that back then) and did the whole feminista routine. I was also taken under the wing of that behemoth of literary criticism and unrivaled Shakespeare professor, Harold Bloom, who cultivated in me an unswerving appreciation for the canon. Twenty years after I got my Ph.D, I published my dissertation—the groundbreaking, paradigm-shifting, 700-page doorstop known as Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson. That masterpiece sealed my destiny as one of the supreme thinkers of my generation. |
Beliefs
| Political views | Wow. This question cannot be contained. Let me break this down: I'm a radical Libertarian but a registered Democrat who voted for the Green Party in the 2012 elections. I have found my fellow Democrats extremely disappointing. But even worse than my lazy-minded fellow Democrats are the evil trio of Republicans: Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Dick Cheney. These clowns are madmen just frothing for war. I am very opposed to the Iraq war and think that Obama really blew it by not getting us out of there. And the drones! Don't get me started on the surveillance. Where are our civil liberties? Our privacy? Personal freedom? It's like 1984. I think the state needs to step off when it comes to prostitution, pornography, abortion, suicide, and sodomy. And while I'm at it, I wasn't pleased with the Obama administration—especially that nonsense known as Obamacare. Pull it together, Barack. I honestly think that the administration is a bunch of ninnies. But in the end, I don't think there's much difference between Democrats and Republicans anymore. They're both totalitarian parties. |
| Religious views | Look, I don't consider myself a religious person, but I do take religion seriously—especially when it comes to art. I am an atheist who loves religion. In fact, as I say in Sexual Personae: "God is man's greatest idea." That's the best sentence I ever wrote—in a sea of fabulous sentences (source). A lot of intellectuals like to pooh-pooh religion as a belief system of mindless rubes, but that cynical attitude only reflects on those who express it. Religion is crucial to understanding Western civilization. To really, truly understand Michelangelo, Picasso, Hemingway—even Star Wars—you have to know the Bible. I'll tell you what rejecting religion has gotten us: a bunch of horrible contemporary paintings that have absolutely nothing to say about the deeper meanings of life and the human condition. Get over yourself. You may not find me kneeling in a chapel every Sunday, but I take religion and spirituality very seriously as an intellectual. |
Activities & Interests
| Likes | Pop culture Madonna Barbra Streisand Elizabeth Taylor Rock 'n' roll Marlon Brando Elvis Presley Meryl Streep Beauty Sexuality in all of its forms |
| Dislikes | Whining Feminists Whining feminists Anita Hill Post-Structuralism Academics Surveillance Civil rights violations Puritanical thinking Political correctness |
| Interests | Reading any book in the Western Canon Mocking silly feminists Wearing stilettos Self-promotion Doing interviews Writing op-ed pieces Praising religion but not going to church Rebelling Marauding Drinking |
| Groups | The Anti-Feministas Women Thinkers for Religion Taylor Swift Haters Camille Paglia and the Vamps Porn-Loving Ladies A Class of Her Own Feminists for Beauty The Beauvoirists The Academic Tramps The Hormonists |