"The literary critic Camille Paglia argues that sexuality is by nature aggressive. “My theory,” she says [on page 3 of Sexual Personae] “is that whenever sexual freedom is sought or achieved, sadomasochism will not be far behind.” She attacks feminists who believe that sex is all sugar and spice and that it is patriarchal society that makes sex violent. Sex, for Paglia, is about power; society is not the source of sexual violence; sex, the irrepressible natural force, is. If anything, society is the force that inhibits the natural violence of sex. Paglia is certainly more accurate than those who deny that perversion is rife with aggression. But in assuming that sex is fundamentally aggressive, and sadomasochistic, she doesn’t allow for the plasticity of human sexuality. Just because sex and aggression can unite in a plastic brain, and appear “natural,” doesn’t mean that that is their only possible expression."
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Educators from the United StatesFree speech activistsWomen academics from the United StatesFeminists from the United StatesJournalists from New York (state)
Original Language: English
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Sources
Norman Doidge (2007) The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science. NY:Viking, p. 350
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Camille_Paglia
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Camille Paglia
art historian, writer, literary critic
1947 · United States
338 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Camille Paglia →
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