Sunday, June 27, 2010

Paglia on Sex...

I thought this was interesting, though I haven't even begun to examine whether I agree with it or not. At first read, it passes my plausibility test though.
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  1. BerchmansJuly 10, 2010 at 4:17 PM

    That's weird -- I just read the essay this afternoon. I thought it was interesting too -- but on further reflection, I find that I disagree with most of it.

    Actually, to be nice, let me say what I like about it -- I think the discussion about rock/blues music, as well as the declining standards of flirtation and foreplay in Hollywood scripts was intriguing.

    But I disliked how she talks about males needing to "neuter themselves" in the workplace, which doesn't seem all that true (given that males still dominate the workplace in pay and management positions -- at least pre-recession). It seemed like a potshot at sexual harassment laws, which I'm willing to bat for as a policy. Also, I didn't take to the dismissals of women who defer pregnancy for work, or the nostalgic pining for days when men and women knew their essential, gendered roles in culture (i.e., big man brute hits on coy woman).

    There's also the difficult racial/class politics in the essay, like the note that African-Americans and Latinos enjoy "healthy silhouettes" and more revealing Victoria's Secret lingerie. There's nothing wrong with pointing out that different cultures may have different standards of beauty, but in the context of a piece on white middle-class values, implying that black people are more salacious and booty-ful made me cringe (since it echoes a historical discourse of the supposed lustiness of blacks).

    But it's interesting stuff. Need to think more about it.

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