Camille Paglia Summary

In the article “On Date Rape”, Camille Paglia argues that the reason why women are falling victims of date rape is because they want freedom but do not act responsibly. She says that freedom comes with responsibility which women should take as they are always at a higher risk of being overpowered by men. The responsibility she refers to is being alert and being on the lookout for signs of possible sexual assault. An analysis of Camille Paglia’s “On Date Rape” shows a fallacious argument resulting from personal attacks, hasty generalization, and false cause.

“Feminism has not prepared them for this,” states Camille Paglia in her essay “Rape: A Bigger Danger than Feminists Know.” The “them” in Paglia’s statement is referring to women, and she is discussing the topic of date rape. Susan Jacoby, on the other hand, writes in her article “Common Decency,” that feminism is not responsible for the rising cases of date rape, but that it is the men who are at fault. Paglia’s argument is insightful and accurate, but Jacoby’s writing is flawed and not well-researched. Paglia includes all rhetorical appeals and persuasive techniques, while Jacoby lacks in some departments of persuasiveness and fills the gap with logical fallacies. Comparing both of these papers will help the reader see why

This national best seller can relate to the opinions expressed by Peggy Reeves Sanday in The Socio-Cultural Context of Rape. Sandy investigates the characteristics of a rape-prone, and rape-free society. Jon Krakauer was interviewed by NPR books, where he stated, “The upshot was most rapists walked away without any punishment, any accountability” (NPR 1). The response from Krakauer correlates to Sanday’s research in The Socio-Cultural Context of Rape. Reeves Sanday writings examine, “When men discovered that they could rape, they proceeded to do it” (Reeves Sanday

To elaborate further into Paglia’s text, she feels that men cannot control themselves sexually and they are biologically created to rape women, it is in their nature. She also argues that women are the ones to blame for date rape, women must keep themselves safe by distancing themselves and always being in control. Paglia believes that “women will always be in sexual danger,” and argues that she cannot experience the freedom that a male can experience, simply because she is a female.

“Rape is as American as apple pie,” says blogger Jessica Valenti. She and other feminists describe our society as a “rape culture” where violence against women is almost invisible. According to feminists, films, magazines, fashion, books, music, and humor cooperate in conveying the message that women are there to be used, abused and exploited.(Kitchens, 2015)

In current days, date rape is an obvious risk for modern women. The criminal cases with regard to date rape and robbery are not unusual. In this context, many sociologists, researchers, and even police are warning young females to pay attention to personal safety when going for a party or having a date at night. However, in spite of these good-willed and well-intentioned warnings, there are also some comments and opinions putting forward advices on protecting personal safety for young girls based on the false ground, making their ideas lack of reason and reliability. The editorial, On Date Rape, written by Camille Paglia, is one of these opinions with obvious fallacies and weaknesses in reasoning. There are three most clear fallacies in this article.

On the article On Date Rape, Paglia discussed what contemporary women should think about rape risk. She believes that even though women already won the freedoms, they still need to be aware about rape risks constantly, and keep themselves be safe. Because she thinks today males still are dominant on sex. This is a thought-provoking article. However, even though the author is an authoritative professor, there are still some fallacies and weakness in this article.

During the 1960s, American youth challenged conventional lifestyles and customs. They protested the strong materialism in American society, encouraged new ways of life, and disputed known traditions including sex and marriage. Rape was one of the most serious feminist issues emerging at the time. Women began standing up for their right to behave as sexual beings without being seen as a sexual objects. An analysis of Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates through the historical and feminist lens, suggests that the story is about how teen girls of the 1960s are trying to define their values through the culture

Donna Laframboise and Stevie Cameron have written two very different articles on the topic of gender. Laframboise argues that today’s society treats boys worse than girls. Cameron argues that the poor treatment of women and the relatively high risk of physical danger has shown no improvement from when she was growing up to now. Both Laframboise and Cameron’s articles discuss gender, and the implications that it can have on a person’s life. Cameron displays the strength of her article by exclusively arguing her own point. Laframboise opts to utilize and disprove other’s statements about girls as her proof. Negating other arguments is only an effective tactic when an opposition exists. Arguing ‘who has it worse?’ does not help anyone, and in fact can be detrimental in cases like this. Both articles have their own strengths and weaknesses, but Laframboise hinders her article by prioritizing denying female struggle over substance.

The 1960s was a time when limits were being pushed, when society was changing, and when sexuality and sexual behavior skyrocketed. In Oates’ story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” she illuminates a young teenage girl, Connie, who was 15, how she was exceedingly conceited and self-important as well as naïve and adolescent and inexperienced with life. The writer, Joyce Carol Oates, was born in 1938 and raised during a more conservative and moderate time. Oates was educated and erudite. Though her parents were not well-educated, they were immensely supportive of her education and dream of becoming a literary prodigy. (Showalter, 1994) During the time of the major cultural, societal shift from moderate to more provocative women were becoming more openly sexual, extroverted, and less restrained than woman of earlier decades. Woman began to have more of a voice and privileges emerging from a more patriarchal society. Correspondingly, it was also a time when rapes, murder, violence, and crimes were up rising. Oats, seemingly, read a national magazine article about a serial killer who killed teenagers which motivated this short story (Showalter, 1994). She wanted to bring forth a light about the possible consequences and awareness of naiveite and promiscuity and a lack of a solid foundation in the family home.

The first two fallacies are in the first two paragraphs, being hasty generalizations. Paglia assumes that women in the 1960s understood that there were dangers that came with freedom. The example given was that when the author wanted to “stay at a male friend’s

The hot-button issue of gender inequality in western society exists as an inciting cause in evoking animosity between men and women. Opinion articles, Men -- the new second class citizens by Suzanne Venker and Are males becoming second-class citizens? by Harry Mosley; challenge popular opinion supposing women are the disadvantaged gender in society, and propose rather men have assumed the place as second class citizens(regarding gender inequality) in modern western society. The argument’s of both Venker and Mosley draw on many similar instances to validate their opinions on the issue of growing gender inequality toward men; yet Venker’s ability to successfully employ pathetic appeals in tandem with the use of statistics or specific law and policy, in

“Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to women…” 1 proclaimed radical feminist playwright and social propagandist Valerie Solonas in her infamously misandrist work, “The SCUM Manifesto”. It was through a uniquely aggressive presentation of factual claims and personal sentiments that Solanas was able to undermine American society’s traditional perceptions and understanding of the female gender role in the mid 20th century. Among Solanas’ wildly expressed ambitions for the future within the manifesto was that of the possible formation of SCUM, acronymic for the Society for Cutting Up Men, an organization whose primary purpose was to overthrow the supposedly damaging and oppressive government,

In Camille Paglia’s book, Sex, Art, and American Culture, she writes her opinions about many different topics such as feminism, sex/gender responsibility, education, and gender identity. My focus in this paper will be about gender identity and the summary of her ideas about such a new and fascinating topic. Paglia’s explicit comments are entertaining; she engages the reader with her passion towards this subject. She talks about homosexuality, hormones, and her experiences being lesbian and heterosexual.

In 1990 Judith Butler first published her book Gender Troubles, where she questions gender roles. Butler theorizes that gender, as in male and female, is a type of societal/gender colonialism created to keep people who do not fall within the gender roles from being part of the mainstream society. In her 1999 preface, in which she addresses the impact her book had in the decade since its original publication, Butler expresses the concern she had with the “heterosexual assumption in feminist literary theory (61).” Butler utilizes the works of other feminist philosophers to further demonstrate the inconsistency, and disconnect between fighting for women rights and fighting for human rights. Judith Butler makes an interesting argument on the failure to recognize the spectrum of gender, however, she makes a compelling argument on the use of language perpetuating a patriarchal society.