In a now-infamous 1991 Newsday essay, Camille Paglia wrote that feminism “has put young women in danger by hiding the truth about sex from them.” “In dramatizing the pervasiveness of rape,” Paglia argued, “feminists have told young women that before they have sex with a man, they must give consent as explicit as a legal contract’s. In this way, young women have been convinced that they have been the victims of rape.” (“Convinced.” It’s a potent idea, regularly employed to insinuate a passive misconception of consent, evidence that the victim wasn’t really raped, just persuaded.)
Paglia did not stop there, of course. “Every woman must take personal responsibility for her sexuality, which is nature’s red flame,” she wrote. “She must be prudent and cautious about where she goes and with whom. When she makes a mistake, she must accept the consequences and, through self-criticism, resolve never to make that mistake again.”
Paglia’s essay is an easy...
Carly Lewis is a writer living in Toronto. Her work has appeared in New York magazine, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Maclean’s, and The Walrus. She is a regular contributor to The Globe and Mail.
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