Paglia Don't Preach

Kerry Howley | May 6, 2005

Young people are surrounded by a popular culture that is in a very degraded state....I have watched it decline over the last 15 years. Something has gone very, very wrong.

That's Madonna feminist Camille Paglia, speaking yesterday at the American Enterprise Institute and lamenting pretty much everything not-Madonna. In 90 minutes, she offered a litany of impending crises, slammed all pop culture post-1990 (the Web killed it), unveiled the perverse undertones behind the Jackson/Timberlake flap (It's not a bare breast, it's sadomasochism), denounced the Homeric reactionary impulse behind bad Monday Night Football skits, and bemoaned our Web-chained youth ("They no longer want to pick up books!") Luckily, Paglia is fun to watch no matter what the hell she is actually saying.

Watch the whole thing here.
Read Reason's 1995 interview with Paglia here.