[...]
Paglia
does not sleep with men — but she is, very refreshingly, in favour of
them. She never moans about ‘the patriarchy’ but freely asserts that
manmade capitalism has enabled her to write her books.
As for male/female relations, she says that they are far more complex
than most feminists insist. ‘I wrote a date-rape essay in 1991 in which
I called for women to stand up for themselves and learn how to handle
men. But now you have this shibboleth, “No means no.” Well, no.
Sometimes “No” means “Not yet”. Sometimes “No” means “Too soon”.
Sometimes “No” means “Keep trying and maybe yes”. You can see it with
the pigeons on the grass. The male pursues the female and she turns
away, and turns away, and he looks a fool but he keeps on pursuing her.
And maybe she’s testing his persistence; the strength of his genes…
It’s a pattern in the animal kingdom — a courtship pattern…’ But for
pointing such things out, Paglia adds, she has been ‘defamed, attacked
and viciously maligned’ — so, no, she is not in the least surprised
that wolf-whistling has now been designated a hate crime in Birmingham.
Girls would be far better advised to revert to the brave feminist
approach of her generation — when women were encouraged to fight all
their battles by themselves, and win
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