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rebus's review against another edition
0.25
Pure drivel from a pseudo-intellectual. One of the worst slogs I've ever been through. So glad the 90s are over.
leelulah's review
1.0
This is a scam. It's not smart, and it's not good in the slightiest. It's just Camille Paglia rambling. If you can tolerate this, good for you. I will not torture myself. I stopped at the first 100 pages. She's a LOT like Jordan Peterson, making baseless psychological claims and yet, these get taken as truth by illiterate people.
She's also heavily Freudian and contradictory. This book is borderline male worship. If that sounded like a radical feminist complaint to you, think of the disgusting ways in which she worships pedophilia, abortion, pornography and the nauseous feeling she gets and spreads about the pregnant body (saying pregnancy itself is solipsistic and devilish).
She even gets away with saying men are potential rapists, and there is nothing you can do because rape, as terrible as it is, is part of nature. And the talks about how man is superior just because of his genitalia. For a self professed homosexual, she is absolutely obsessed with penises. And I was told that this woman defended values! (I know she doesn't). I get the idea that many people get blinded by the psychologist discourse and don't even process what they're reading.
I'm nauseated at her selective reading of history, literature, paganism and Christianity to support things that don't make sense. Rationality and rationalism aren't the same and neither are exclusive to men. Among the women of tragedy she just took out the ones that stood because of being evil, and from there she concluded that men are afraid of women, particularly their mothers. Antigone didn't count as an upholder of law and reason, apparently! (luckily, I don't think she'll ramble about Madonna here, but I was dreading the moment as she goes back and forth to make "poignant" contemporary commentary).
She's quick to laud capitalism because it gave women the possibility to think like men and write obnoxious books, perhaps she should reflect on this sentiment a bit more for how much it describes her and this book in particular. For all her oppositon to transvestites, transsexualism or however you call it, she seems to endorse it a great deal so as long as it retains "shamanic" qualities. If men think this woman 'gets' them, then I'm truly sorry for them.
She's also heavily Freudian and contradictory. This book is borderline male worship. If that sounded like a radical feminist complaint to you, think of the disgusting ways in which she worships pedophilia, abortion, pornography and the nauseous feeling she gets and spreads about the pregnant body (saying pregnancy itself is solipsistic and devilish).
She even gets away with saying men are potential rapists, and there is nothing you can do because rape, as terrible as it is, is part of nature. And the talks about how man is superior just because of his genitalia. For a self professed homosexual, she is absolutely obsessed with penises. And I was told that this woman defended values! (I know she doesn't). I get the idea that many people get blinded by the psychologist discourse and don't even process what they're reading.
I'm nauseated at her selective reading of history, literature, paganism and Christianity to support things that don't make sense. Rationality and rationalism aren't the same and neither are exclusive to men. Among the women of tragedy she just took out the ones that stood because of being evil, and from there she concluded that men are afraid of women, particularly their mothers. Antigone didn't count as an upholder of law and reason, apparently! (luckily, I don't think she'll ramble about Madonna here, but I was dreading the moment as she goes back and forth to make "poignant" contemporary commentary).
She's quick to laud capitalism because it gave women the possibility to think like men and write obnoxious books, perhaps she should reflect on this sentiment a bit more for how much it describes her and this book in particular. For all her oppositon to transvestites, transsexualism or however you call it, she seems to endorse it a great deal so as long as it retains "shamanic" qualities. If men think this woman 'gets' them, then I'm truly sorry for them.
shawnwhy's review
5.0
this is a pretty comprehensive survey of wastern art and its portrayal of MAsculine(calculated, hard edged, methdical, protruding) characteristics and its counterpart ( of nature, soft, swamp-like, consuming) most of the interesting characters in literature are a combination of both, which the author calls Androgim repeatedly. the interesting concept that the feminein will consume one and take one back to nature if not for the aggressive masculine forces is very interesting. nature vs culture is a repeted theme here.
sherri22's review against another edition
4.0
I remember I had to read this book or at least some chapters for a college course and I came away from it by not liking and refusing to finish it. Fast forward several years, and this book again has come up on a “course reading list.” The past me is trying to conceive the present me, not to read this book. Well, I have grown since the past me, and I found that just because you didn’t like it then, you might like it now.
A great quote by Anthony Burgess expresses how I felt both times I have tried and succeed in reading this book. Sexual Persona is a fine and disturbing book. It seeks to attack the reader’s emotions as well as his/her prejudices. It is very learned. Each sentence jabs like a needle.”
Even though I have grown from my first encounter with this book, I still have a long way to go to completely understand everything in this book. I can appreciate how much time and research went into this book. Camille did an unbelievable job. Some chapters were easier for I knew the literature she was going into depth with, and some of the comparing literature/art. A main comparison she pulls from throughout the entire book The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spencer. Her approach throughout Sexual Persona is to combine disciplines from literature, art history, psychology, and religion.
I think this book would be great to keep returning to, especially if you need an in-depth look on a piece of artwork or a work of literature to an individual.
A great quote by Anthony Burgess expresses how I felt both times I have tried and succeed in reading this book. Sexual Persona is a fine and disturbing book. It seeks to attack the reader’s emotions as well as his/her prejudices. It is very learned. Each sentence jabs like a needle.”
Even though I have grown from my first encounter with this book, I still have a long way to go to completely understand everything in this book. I can appreciate how much time and research went into this book. Camille did an unbelievable job. Some chapters were easier for I knew the literature she was going into depth with, and some of the comparing literature/art. A main comparison she pulls from throughout the entire book The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spencer. Her approach throughout Sexual Persona is to combine disciplines from literature, art history, psychology, and religion.
I think this book would be great to keep returning to, especially if you need an in-depth look on a piece of artwork or a work of literature to an individual.
tree_star's review against another edition
1.0
There is a reason I am still trying to force my way through this book. If only I could make it past the author's fear/disdain of her own gender...
spookywillard's review
5.0
One of the best books I have ever read. Not because I agree with half the sh!t she says, but because she has the audacity to speak her mind with no inhibition. Paglia writes with such conviction and compelling prose that it sucks you right in. Boring control-freaks move along, you will not enjoy this ride.
teathoughtsandreads's review against another edition
0.5
awful misogynistic bio-essentialist bulls hit wrapped up in a “woke intellectual” novel
theyoungveronica's review
3.0
I read this book a while ago, counting in book-time (As in 6 or 7 books ago—temporally, not too long ago).I can't articulate my thoughts on this titan of a book as of now. I know I loved reading it as well as I know that I disagreed with most of its primary assertions.
Also,
I have a strange desire to physically fight Camille Paglia.
I'm a waif, so I definitely would not hurt her. She simply seems like she would be a fun person to wrestle.
(Paglia in a video: "I'm in an in-your-face feminist", during which she accuses feminists of being puritanical and orders them to 'go read a book, go to an art store, go look at a painting, Caravaggio, Michelangelo, go look at Greek art!')