I’m a trans-masculine, non-binary Writing for Film and Television junior at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. UArts is a visual and performing arts based private university–the very university where well-known social critic Camille Paglia teaches humanities and media studies.
Throughout my otherwise rewarding years here, I have dodged the classes she teaches because Paglia refuses to use pronouns preferred by her students and others. This everyone at the school acknowledges and few defend.
As if this was not bad enough, I started doing more research and found over the years she falsely compares her Italian-American background to the culture of people of color, normalizes pedophilia, and has made multiple derogatory statements against trans folk as well as sexual assault victims.
Camille herself openly identifies as queer, which is awesome. I don’t question her sexuality and gender because her identity is valid, but it’s also exactly why she should not question and inveigh against the chosen identities of others.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Let me be clear: Camille explores liberal topics and ideas brilliantly, but her tendency to layer insensitive opinions onto them seemingly just to get attention makes her a poor teacher and mentor to young people. When anyone counters her views, her defenders bring up the fact that she’s also queer. Her experiences are truly her experiences, but she doesn’t respect the narratives of other’s identity, something that needs to be acknowledged in a campus based on a free exchange of ideas where people are not derided and attacked for who they are. Being lesbian is not a defense against hostility toward people who are not like her particular version of queerness.
Here are just a few of her statements that would make almost any student uncomfortable:
It’s absolutely ridiculous if for a second any university ever tolerated a complaint of a girl coming in six months to a year after an event [sexual assault] If a real rape was committed, go report it to the police.
She also calls trans people a “fashion statement,” and falsely claims you’re not authentically trans unless you have a “genetic issue.”
Watch here:
How dare you, you sniveling little maniac, tell us how to use pronouns…
Watch here:
As a trans person, and survivor of sexual assault, I’m troubled that my school not only tolerates these comments but highlights her regularly to the public at large. On March 21, I happened across college-produced posters in our main classroom building for “Ambiguous Images: Sexual Duality and Sexual Multiplicity in Western Art + Androgyny,” a lecture she would be giving on campus on April 9. This is the moment I knew I had to do something to make it clear her views on trans people were contested by her students.
I went directly to the higher-ups, asking that the event be moved off campus where it would not feel unsafe for LGBTQ students. While I felt that the faculty I spoke to heard what I had to say, no action was taken. I then twice proceeded to email David Yager, president of the university, to express my concerns, asking him to “move Camille Paglia’s lecture on next Tuesday to somewhere off campus… Moving her talk off campus will reassure students that the institution is actually listening to our concerns and triggers.”
Yager never replied.
I made it clear through many social media platforms that the event would poison the atmosphere for trans kids, among others. Through my posts, a following composed of students, student’s family members, alumni, faculty, and non-UArts voices, was born.
Through messages, posts and personal communication, many expressed similar feelings, some of which I quote here:
- I stand with Joseph McAndrew and the UArts community as a sexual assault survivor and ally to trans students. I had Paglia last semester for a liberal arts course and there were multiple occasions in which she engaged in harmful rhetoric.
- This is a problem that is much bigger than UArts. But if we’re going to narrow our scope to the manageable confines of South Broad Street, then yes. Camille Paglia’s mindset is completely antithetical to everything that the University of the Arts should be.
- We will not rest on this until students can feel welcome and comfortable going to this school to receive their education.
I announced I’d be leading a sit-in to peacefully protest the event. By the time April 9th rolled around, we were tired of being brushed aside and dismissed: We were ready to be heard.
The university hired extra security on campus that evening, which created a jarring atmosphere surrounding the already uncomfortable event. This lecture was open to the public, which brought Paglia’s fans onto our campus. As a transgender person, that scared me. I didn’t feel safe knowing that there could be someone in the crowd who despised trans folk since those are the ones she encourages. That fear didn’t stop the 100 plus people who arrived to protest Paglia with signs, buttons, and t-shirts, from sitting calmly in protest on the lobby floor for an hour before the lecture started.
When it started, we had a choice to go into the auditorium or to stay put. I personally felt the need to go in and play my part as the face of this protest, and many joined me. After introducing herself, Paglia went into her lecture and we sat listening to her misgender and use outdated terminology towards past queer folk, such as “pretty boys” and “transvestite.” Even though she was describing us in historical terms, this language is everyday use for her in describing the modern transgender movement for equality.
We were restless in our seats; we whispered, we groaned, we scoffed, but most importantly, we kept it peaceful and allowed her to finish her lecture without interruption. Then, after thirty painful minutes, the fire alarm went off. As the fire alarm sounded, the collective built up frustration busted out. Some applauded, some stood and shouted, some even cursed (I don’t condone the cursing). The alarm was never part of our plan, and no one knows who did it. We were told to vacate the building.
Outside the entrance, around 200 people gathered and chanted, “Trans lives matter, we believe survivors.” As we continued our protest, we were applauded by some, and verbally attacked by others. One faculty member called us “A bunch of idiots who aren’t learning anything,” but another faculty member mixed their voice in with ours. Once safety was established, we were allowed back inside.
Following Paglia’s lecture was a scheduled “talk back” mediated by a non-UArts trans woman who helped keep the conversation going. From the beginning, days before the protest, Paglia refused our invitation to attend, presumably because she doesn’t have any interest in our side of this story. Students addressed their concerns to the only five faculty members who came. They assured us that we are heard, but they offered no solid solutions. We were told to put together a list of concerns and outcomes. We asked if we should demand Camille be fired even though we knew that wasn’t a possibility, then work our way back. We were encouraged to go for the gusto, that way our smaller demands would be easily met.
The next morning, April 10th, the president of our school sent out this email:
Dear students, faculty, and staff,
We are nearing the end of another semester at UArts that has brought with it a diverse range of exceptional courses, performances, exhibitions, events, lectures and conversations, representative of our equally diverse community. At this important time, I would like to take the opportunity to re-affirm the University’s core values and our commitment to rigorous critical inquiry in support of our mission of Advancing Human Creativity.
Our core value on integrity and diversity is clear: we are a supportive community committed to individual and artistic integrity and inclusion. We promote and respect self-expression, a wide range of ideas and diversity in all its forms.
Unfortunately, as a society we are living in a time of sharp divisions—of opinions, perspectives and beliefs—and that has led to decreased civility, increased anger and a “new normal” of offense given and taken. Across our nation it is all too common that opinions expressed that differ from another’s—especially those that are controversial—can spark passion and even outrage, often resulting in calls to suppress that speech.
That simply cannot be allowed to happen. I firmly believe that limiting the range of voices in society erodes our democracy. Universities, moreover, are at the heart of the revolutionary notion of free expression: promoting the free exchange of ideas is part of the core reason for their existence. That open interchange of opinions and beliefs includes all members of the UArts community: faculty, students and staff, in and out of the classroom. We are dedicated to fostering a climate conducive to respectful intellectual debate that empowers and equips our students to meet the challenges they will face in their futures.
I believe this resolve holds even greater importance at an art school. Artists over the centuries have suffered censorship, and even persecution, for the expression of their beliefs through their work. My answer is simple: not now, not at UArts.
The University of the Arts is committed to the exercise of free speech and academic freedom, to addressing difficult or controversial issues and ideas through civil discussion, with respect for those who hold opinions different from our own. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis’ 1927 advice still holds true today: that the remedy for messages we disagree with or dislike is more speech and not enforced silence.
We must at the same time be aware that the freedom to express ourselves carries with it consequences, and we must be mindful of how exercising that right may impact others. While, in general, opinions with which we disagree, or even are offended by, are legally protected, we strongly affirm the importance of respect for others and the value of civil discourse. A university—and a society—is made greater by the variety of voices talking to, rather than at, one another.
This is a unique institution in which students and faculty regularly collaborate across disciplines. We must use that same model of collaboration with others to work on the difficult issues that would otherwise divide us, and in so doing bring us together.
David
Intellectual, yes. Made excellent points, yes. Yager stood by his beliefs, and I need to respect that, and it’s also true his sentiments could be read to include a pointed rebuke to Camille as well as us. Camille talks at, not to. She doesn’t show respect for differing opinions. She’s not open to the “interchange of opinions” or “civil discussion.” (If she were, she would’ve planned on coming to the talkback. She is not a member of this “community committed to individual and artistic integrity and inclusion.” She doesn’t partake in Title IX meetings that could help her understand her own student’s traumas.
Then, a day after that, April 11th, Paglia told her students that she is going to get to the bottom of where this all started, and that, during the protest, she saw signs of “mental illness” in her critics–us.
Not only is Paglia now attempting to shut us down, but she’s also attempting to dilute our voices and victim-blaming yet again by pinning a stigma of mental illness upon us. I want to state: Having a mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of and using it as a tool to put anyone down is ignorant and insensitive.
To no surprise, since going public, her fan base has jumped in to add to our anxieties.
- Shut the fuck up you authoritarian psychopath… Your attempt to silence a real erudite intellectual has filed you Stalinist nitwit.
- You should’ve thought about your infantile temper tantrum before you decided to render yourself terminally unemployed.
- Transgender people belong in mental institutions, not in society and certainly not in a university.
These are quotes from the individuals who endorse Camille Paglia. If she doesn’t think she encourages hate, she should take a second look. The school is now concerned about our safety.
Students around the country are being called fascist simply because they have to fight to be heard. People tell students to debate their professors, but students have little to no room to flex their opinions because classrooms are built on power dynamics. For true debate in a classroom, professors should act as the mediator since they hold the power. When a student does challenge a professor, the professor is the active while the student is the passive. Students then are faced with either being walked over or taking a stand. We don’t want to protest to get our side across, but sometimes we have no choice because the higher-ups feel no responsibility to listen.
Since the protest, I’ve been purposefully misquoted, misgendered, and misunderstood by many in the school community and outside. They question my intelligence, question my family life, and denounce my gender identity and deny my sexual assault. None of this erases who I am or will shut down my voice.
My experience at UArts has been mostly positive. I love my professors, my classmates, and the scripts and films I’ve created, but I cannot sit by as someone preaches hate within these walls.
First, as an activist, I must fight for myself, my people, and the things I believe in. My gender identity isn’t up for debate, and the trauma from my sexual assault has no expiration date no matter what Paglia or anyone else says. My goal isn’t to shut people down and take away their voices, I’m just countering what they say with my experience and my truth.
Second, I pay way too much tuition (around &34k after aid and that’s not including room and board) to attend this university to just sit idly by and allow injustices such as this go unnoticed. I’m balancing classes, projects, work, rehearsals, and activism all at once, and I’m getting tired of being ignored, and I’m not the only one. Queer and POC students fight every day to be heard and respected because if we don’t make ourselves heard no one will listen.
I’m writing this essay for Queerty in hopes to better this school and the community of Philadelphia as a whole. We must work on the micro if we want to make any difference in the macro, so that is what I am doing. I have the privilege and the power to speak up and out for others, and I must use it to its full extent. I grew up in a rural farming community with many people who don’t share my views. I’m the youngest in a very religious household, and I’m the only openly queer person in my entire family. My family and I don’t agree on many aspects of politics, religion, and social issues, but with that said, we still get along and love each other.
I understand and respect the fact that everyone has their own beliefs and views on everything, in and outside of academia. I think these differences make us unique and create mind-opening discussions, but when these opposing ideas are turned inside out and utilized to spread hate, that’s where I draw the line. People keep commenting on how we should debate Paglia, but she leaves no room for it. If we’re going to be a school for all opinions and debates, that means communication must be practiced by all, not just by the student body. Please, no more of these double standards.
People have the right to say what they want, but targeting someone’s gender identities, race, experiences, and traumas, is an attack on the person as a whole, and this isn’t debatable. When this is performed within academic institutions with no opportunity to debate, it stifles student’s growth and creativity and pushes them into a corner through authoritarian intimidation. This mentality leaves students feeling defeated and voiceless, and only one-sided opinions are expressed.
I’ve now had meetings with the president and others, and more are lined up. I do want to see a positive outcome to this situation.
I graduate in a year, and I want to leave this school knowing I did everything I could to make it as accepting as it claims to be for all students who come after me.
Wolfie
Well while I respect your opinion and am sorry that you were once sexually assaulted (I don;t know why that was added unless it specifically happened on campus directly because of LaPaglia.) I don’t see how LaPaglia made the school “unsafe” by lecturing her opinion no matter how off base it is.
She made you feel uncomfortable. yes. But it is impossible to remove every uncomfortable situation from life and sometimes you just have to deal with it head on. You did try with the protest. But again you talk about the “extra security on campus that evening, which created a jarring atmosphere surrounding the already uncomfortable event”. Which in reality were there because of the demands and protest that you brought about.
The younger generation has to stop this “trigger” shit. You don’t like something fine. Then fight it. Don’t ask for it to be removed to shield people. That is not fighting. That is whining. If you threaten to protest expect extra security. Don’t complain about it. FEELINGS ARE NOT FACTS.
You cannot be afraid and fix things that are wrong. You must use your anger and righteous indignation to do so. if the customers at Stonewall were afraid and just complained and whined about being “triggered” that fateful night would never have happened.
You should confront LaPaglia if you disagree with her. Take her class. Face her head on and argue back. Getting thrown out of class for facing her head in is real activism. Being triggered and asking nicely that she be removed is not.
Apolodorus
The thing I find most fascinating about your comments is that you don’t see the irony in
He is fighting. This entire essay is a battle cry, it’s just not one that you understand or want to hear. And while blasting a whole generation for taking their feelings for facts while doing the same, and using capital letters …
Wolfie
The whole article is a whine. Not a fight.
Hdtex
Wolfie is as vile as Paglia. Disgusting.
HmphGay
Harsh, but Wolfie really hits the nail on the head. To Joseph and everyone else in this generation who always seems to resort to this “get them out of my safe zone!” tactic — FIGHT her but do not try to silence her. If you really believe what you’re saying, then Paglia isn’t your enemy/problem, her ideology is. She’s not the target, her fans are. Having her fired or removed from campus merely removes her from your sight, it doesn’t score a victory for you. Why can’t you kids who use this censorship tactic see that?? The problem doesn’t go away by forcing everyone to be nice and respectful of your “safe space”. Better that your enemy is out and visible. Exactly as suggested below, there are innumerable ways to fight her without calling for her to removal. This was a good start. Keep going and keep that urge to censor in check!
ingyaom
I wasn’t following this, either … seems mostly off-track.
iamru2
I think he or she , the writer of this rant, sees some truth in what Paglia’s opinions are, which scares him/her, leading him/her to shut her free speech rights down!! It’s so much easier to deal with complex issues/opinions by banning them!
Brian
This article reads like a parody of snowflake college students. It’s every bad cliche packed into one long whine
DCguy
It did almost sound like a spoof didn’t it?
marion
Couldn’t agree with you more. Identity politics and hypocrisy 101.
Floofster
Imagine if everyone ACTUALLY got what they thought they were entitled to…? Imagine…! These snowflakes will get washed away by the piss-storm that is life.
Kieran
Why not just organize a book burning of Camille’s books?
CurtisIsTheOne
Followed by a parade of women dressed like the “handmaidens in “A Handmaiden’s Tale”
PinkoOfTheGange
The videos barely support the assertion even when taken out of context. But when the context of the talks are known, basically how language changes, they don’t even make sense as part of the argument.
Unless she misgenders a student on purpose this is a lot of nothing but whining.
DCguy
The author seems to have misgendered Paglia to try to make their argument. Paglia doesn’t identify as “Queer” like the author claimed. Paglia identifies as Transgender.
At minimum, the author is guilty of what they accuse Paglia of doing.
DCguy
It looks like the author is trying to “Mislabel” Paglia in the same way they accuse Paglia of doing.
Paglia does NOT identify as “Queer”. Paglia identifies as TRANSGENDER.
Why does the author purposely try to hide that fact? Did they perhaps think it would look less like they were being victimized if this was correctly written as a disagreement within the Transgender community rather than what they did, which was to make it seem as though Trans students were being victimized by an outsider?
Sorry, but complaining about somebody mislabeling you, when you did that exact same thing to them in your article is, at minimum, hypocritical.
Dwik27
I can’t believe that woman is still around. Seriously, I thought she was long dead. Her methodology was dumb-ass toxic back in the 90’s. She’s a bomb-throwing hack, nothing more.
Heywood Jablowme
That may be so, but the flip side is nobody would ever hear of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia if Camille Paglia didn’t teach there. (Or maybe it’s a fictional place?)
inbama
Sadly our own nonsensical ideology has made her sound sane by comparison.
iminheatlikeacat
In what way would it have been unsafe? You may have been uncomfortable and you may disagree with what she says but unless you would be in danger of assault from her I don’t get the unsafe part. (Well, I do, really, it’s “I don’t agree with her views and want to shut her down so I will use the word unsafe in hope the vulnerability holds more weight to my demands”)
Rene Jax
Hello, I am reallly confused. As a TS that claims “As a trans person, and survivor of sexual assault” you are troubled by ppl not believing as you do? The majority of the world’s population does not believe in gender, or think it is right for males to live as women etc. Only a tiny fraction of the 7 billion ppl are even remotely okay with what you’re/we’re doing. Paglia is not the problem kid. living on the fringe of society is the issue, and you have to either grow thicker skin and cope with ppl’s opinions and rejections, or get out of the heat of the kitchen and return to birth sex. You can not legislate everyone in the country and world to love you. This TS life that I’ve led for forty years is not for snowflakes that can’t tolerate words. If you r a survivor of sexual assault, use that pain to become emotionally stronger and capable of dealing with the world the way it is, not whine when ppl don’t love the smell of your farts.
HenryCameron
So basically we have a whole new generation of clueless but know-it-all, totalitarian, (insert-term-of-choice)-queer, non-binary this, non-conforming that, snowflakes whose main accomplishment in life is to find a way to be offended by everyone and everything. I suppose it was inevitable when the gay and lesbian rights movement turned into the alphabet soup of insanity.
DCguy
I still haven’t seen the author, Joseph McAndrew, respond to the fact that they called Paglia “Queer” when she actual identifies as “Transgender”. Was this them not wanting to make it seem like an argument between people within the trans community and instead wanting to make it seem like an outsider was causing the issue?
When the entire article was about midlabeling, misgendering, etc… it seems like a VERY deliberate mistake to label Paglia incorrectly.
Care to explain Joseph?
am
Paglia did for contemporary feminism and LGBTQA+ community more than every student will most probably ever do in her/his life. If you don’t like her, just stop attending her classes.
drp90210
This article mischaracterizes Paglia’s views on feminist and transgender theory and shows that many college students are so self-absorbed in their search identity that they feel privileged to shame and run out anyone who holds opinions different than theirs.
dwes09
It behooves people who are easily “triggered” to either seek professional help in dealing with it, or find some way to do it yourself. There is no assurance of protection from offense or discomfort in this world and a university environment is a good place to learn to cope rather than to forestall contact with the real world.
I am an ex-smoker, i was horribly addicted to nicotine for 40 years, and even after 13 years certain things “trigger” me, especially people lighting up on the street or vaping. I have friends who are in recovery, they either learn to deal with a world full of triggers, of barricade themselves at home. You learn to exercise your volition and strength.
Paglia is an iconoclast. Always had been, and everybody knows it. She is also a “gender theorist” and “social critic”, which means she is not bound to any form of empiricism. Rather than trying to see that her ideas are not shared, the mature tactics are either to ignore her, or counter her arguments with the critical intellectual skills one is supposed to acquire with a liberal arts education. That her words trigger some people is not a real argument, it is a statement about people who allow themselves to be triggered and blame others. If her activities make the campus unsafe it should be possible to document how. If her words simply make people FEEL unsafe, that is on them to deal with.
CurtisIsTheOne
WORD.
IWantAFullBeard
Oh Paglia, putting the ‘b itch’ in Lesbian since 1979.
CurtisIsTheOne
When will millenials (and others) understand that it is NOT the obligation of colleges and universities to protect them from any and all forms of objectionable speech? All this talk about providing a “safe space” reeks of censorship. And if someone does not use your preferred pronoun when told of your preference; this is not hate speech. It is rude, but that is all. And guess what? The rest of the world is probably not going to use your preferred pronoun either, so get real. And while we’re talking about censorship, let’s be clear about 1st Amendment rights. The 1st Amendment is meaningless unless it protects the most objectionable of speech. That means being exposed to words and thoughts you may not like, so don’t be so quickly prepared to label someone as racist or anti-trans unless they actually ARE. And by all means, raise your voice and protest those who hold opposing thoughts but stop wining about your need for “a safe space”.
johnsmart
This post CANNOT be serious. If it is , please just STOP WHINING.
chestersdad
I myself am NB, asexual, among many things. Sexual Personae and other works by Paglia have had a positive impact on my life and helped me to think of my gender dissidence in much broader and eccletic terms. When she speaks of her transgender experiences, I can relate very deeply. For all the preaching of representation, it’s sad to see attempted censorship of a person that I hold dearly as representation for myself. Tumblr gender ideologues are able to publish or speak about whatever they want. Paglia wrote a provocative book about sexuality and androgyny at a time when it was rarely written about. Paglia makes some people feel alienated? Tough. I feel alienated by the rigidity and conformity of thinking in many LGBT+ spaces, but I am an adult, and I choose not to engage.