Paglia, Camille (1947– )

US writer and academic. An opponent of women's studies, she believes that the great accomplishments of Western civilization have been achieved by men as a result of the male determination to conquer nature. This is set out in Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990). She became professor of humanities in the University of Arts, Philadelphia, in 1984.

She was born in Endicott, New York. Self-assertive, combatively verbose, and combining paeans to rock stars with an erudite surface dazzle, Paglia quickly became popular with the media. She celebrates the glamour of women and their difference from men in such books as Sex, Art, and American Culture (1992) and Vamps and Tramps (1995).