A seminal, if troubling, work on Western artistic expression.
Feature image credit: Scribe Publications
In 1990, a little-known art historian by the name of Camille Paglia published an impossibly huge and sweeping history of Western art, seen through a sexual/gender/fetishistic lens. Sexual Personae became an unexpected hit (at least in the academic sense of the word), and sent shockwaves through the corridors of historical, artistic, and feminist academe.
For reasons unknown (and possibly unknowable!), Scribe have decided to republish this work, 36 years after its debut. Does this work speak to our times? Is there a lesson here that we can cling to while the out-of-tune band plays on? I don’t think so. But still … the answer to ‘why republish now?’ may well simply be ‘why not?’
Paglia’s framework for approaching Western art is to pit what she calls the Apollonian against the chthonian: in simple terms, the civilised versus the feral. And although sometimes labelled as feminist, this work is strongly anti-feminist: not in the sense of ‘against feminism’ but more in the sense of ‘feminism’s opposite.’ In Paglia’s theoretical world, feminist cannot prevail because of one thing: sex. In her introduction she states it clearly: ‘Sex is a far darker power than feminism has admitted.’ And in the next paragraph, she states one of her intentions as being to show ‘…how much in culture goes against our best wishes.’ It’s hard to argue with that, although some troubling viewpoints arise as the work moves on.
Divided into chapters which are essentially stand-alone essays, and laid out roughly chronologically, Sexual Personae looks at the visual arts, but also at the literary. In The Birth of the Western Eye, she begins by contemplating the Venus of Willendorf, a small, probably fertility carving from around 30 000 B.C.E. Tellingly, Paglia spends much time describing how unattractive the rounded womanly figure is, even referring to her as ‘bound down by… ropes of flab.’ It seems odd that an art historian cannot place this figure in its temporal context and admit that rounded women were regarded as extremely attractive at the time (and at many times through history, for that matter).
Through 700 pages Paglia takes us on a journey from Nefertiti to Baudelaire to Oscar Wilde. This is a work of breathtaking research and scholarship. And yet it is liberally dotted with ostensible statements of fact which have no support in references or even common academic knowledge, such as some of her comments about Roman emperors which are untrue and come simply from myth. She also often makes sweeping comments about sexuality or gender, again with no scholarly anchor. She regularly defends sexual behaviour which most of us find not just distasteful, but which is actually illegal. Her defence of male behaviour is fascinating. She writes very much in the tone of what we might call now call a ‘pick me girl.’
Brilliant, frustrating, fascinating, exhausting in chunks, shocking, and occasionally quite witty, Sexual Personae is nothing if not thought-provoking. It is certainly worth diving into, or back into, if you have any interest in Western civilisation, art, literature, sexuality, feminism, or just being human. But be warned: This is no beach read!
Reviewed by Tracey Korsten
The views expressed in this review belong to the author and not Glam Adelaide, its affiliates, or employees.
Distributed by: Scribe Publications
Released: August 2026
RRP: $36.99
