Sorry, Camille Paglia: Feminism Is the Best

Thing That Ever Happened to Men.

作者: Page, Cristina

資料來源: Time.com. 12/20/2013, p1-1. 1p. 1 Color Photograph.

文件類型: Article

主題術語: *Working mothers

Feminism -- Social aspects

Father-child relationship

Men -- Social conditions

作者提供的關鍵字: camille paglia

feminism
perfect man

人物: Paglia, Camille, 1947-

摘要: The article discusses writer and activist Camille Paglia's views regarding feminism
and the societal roles of men and women as of December 2013, focusing on women's
liberation and the treatment of female employees in the workplace. According to a
study conducted by the University of Michigan, children's time with their fathers
increased significantly only in families in which the mother works outside the home.
Paglia's article "It's a Man's World and it Always Will Be" is also examined.

全文字數: 1050

ISSN: 0040-781X

入藏號碼: 93324825

Sorry, Camille Paglia: Feminism Is the Best Thing

That Ever Happened to Men 

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節:
Feminism
Keywords: feminism; camille paglia; perfect man

Camille Paglia
Sexuality

Females

Children

Family

Men today are what feminism has always pined for and worked toward -- and the happy
surprise is that men wouldn't want to go back either
Camille Paglia's perennial skewering of feminism is now so near tradition it deserves its own
greeting card. This year, in her article entitled, " It's a man's world and it always will be," Paglia
argues that men have and always will be the shapers of society while women have and always will
play only a supporting role. She even claims men are responsible for women's liberation -- assigning
them near full credit because they invented "labor-saving devices" that "liberated women from daily
drudgery." While bestowing this honor, she makes no peep about the likes of Margaret Sanger or the
well-known "women's movement" and their role in saving women from the daily drudgery of, say,
unintended pregnancy. While neither is delightful, when wagering on which women needed more
freedom from -- unchecked pregnancy or manual dish cleaning -- my money is on Sanger.

(MORE: It's a Man's World, and It Always Will Be)

Paglia claims that feminism is set on "stereotyping, belittling or demonizing men." Yet the research
on men suggest their lives have improved immeasurably as a result of feminism. By all
appearances, feminism has been the lead designer of the modern man who is not only the product
of feminism but arguably the greatest beneficiary of it, too.

Women's ascent into the workplace has not diminished men but has freed up space in the family for
a more involved father -- a position more fulfilling than any at the office. A two-decade length study
conducted by the University of Michigan found that children's time with their fathers increased
significantly only in families in which the mother works outside the home. With women sharing a
larger stake in providing economically for the family, men have stepped up their investment in
nurturing. Generation X and millennial Dads are the most involved generations of fathers in history
and they report being much happier as a result of it.

(MORE: Flawless: 5 Lessons in Modern Feminism From Beyoncé)

Studies show that if offered a promotion or more flextime to spend with the family, most men chose
family. A study of more than 1,110 working fathers revealed that the desire for more "family time" is
widespread, with 82% of full-time working men saying they would choose this. With women's near-
equal presence in the workplace today, men no longer have to shoulder the full economic burden of
supporting the family. As a result, they have more career freedom and can pursue dreams and leave
stifling work environments.

Today, men relish having wives, women colleagues, women friends and daughters who are true
intellectual equals. They are less concerned with surrounding themselves with women who are
"projecting sexual allure and even glamor," areas Paglia suggests women should focus their
energies on to get ahead. Indeed, ambition, success and earning power seem to be the most
alluring features men look for in women today. A recent study found a whopping 76 percent of men
said having a partner without a job was out of the question, while 45 percent said they wanted a
woman who earned a serious amount of money. This is a quantified phenomenon too; the Brookings
Institution discovered marriage rates are rising for top female earners and declining for women in
lower earning brackets.

Success, equality, ambition and independence are the qualities men find most attractive in women
these days. Men's choices fly in the face of Paglia's trippy predictions like this one: "After the next
inevitable apocalypse, men will be desperately needed again! Oh, sure, there will be the odd gun-
toting Amazonian survivalist gal, who can rustle game out of the bush and feed her flock, but most
women and children will be expecting men to scrounge for food and water and to defend the home
turf." Men today want to marry, breed with, hire and raise that Amazonian survivalist gal --
suggesting she's not that odd at all.

(MORE: Let's Face It: Michelle Obama Is a Feminist Cop Out)

And last, but certainly not least, one of the most transformative freedoms we can thank women for is
sex without unwanted consequences. The modern man enjoys an active sex life with multiple
partners before marriage and after. Marriage is not determined by unintended pregnancy or the rush
to have sex as it most often was in the '50s. Men embark on a much more leisurely path to marriage;
settling in with a more thoughtfully chosen partner much later in life as a result of the campaigns
women have waged and won. Sex in marriage is also more fun, fulfilling and less fraught with life-
altering risks. It's also worth mentioning that family planning is a cornerstone of the critical work of
stabilizing nations in the developing world. So, thank you to women for coming up with a solution for
that, too.

Paglia wants the reader to accept that men and women are different and that men have skills more
practical for the past, our present and the future; they are the construction workers, the road
builders. Basically, her argument is that they can lift heavy things. It seems this is the most
demeaning of characterizations. Feminism has long been charged with pitting women against men,
a verse Paglia seems to sing today as a solo. In fact, it's she -- most exemplified in her piece -- who
stokes the coals of resentment between the sexes. But the facts, and our daily lives, prove that
men's and women's freedom is intertwined. Our differences are less pronounced and more
compatible than in the days in which women were indentured servants and men were strangers
acting as authoritarians when home. Men today are what feminism has always pined for and worked
toward -- and the happy surprise is that men wouldn't want to go back either.
MORE: Pantene Is a Voice for Women? Hardly

Cristina Page is author of How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America: Freedom, Politics and the
War on Sex .

PHOTO (COLOR): Busineswoman: Getty Images

~~~~~~~~

By Cristina Page

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