Sexual Personae -

: Paglia posits that men created civilization as a defensive "Apollonian" response to the overwhelming power of women and nature.

Paglia's story of Western culture is defined by a central conflict between two ancient Greek forces: Sexual Personae

: She argues that "sex is a far darker power than feminism has admitted," suggesting that whenever sexual freedom is achieved, darker rituals like sadomasochism are never far behind. : Paglia posits that men created civilization as

In the shadow of the 1990s, a 736-page tome titled Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson burst onto the academic scene like a dionysian storm. Its author, , set out to prove a provocative thesis: that beneath the thin veneer of Western civilization lies a dark, roiling ocean of primal nature that Christianity never truly tamed. The War of the Gods Its author, , set out to prove a

In Paglia's view, art is the battlefield where these forces meet. From the regal, rigid beauty of to the internal, explosive poetry of Emily Dickinson , she traces how artists have attempted to trap the "Dionysian" within "Apollonian" forms. A Provocative Worldview