Favorite female anti-feminist?
I flip back and forth between Australian anti-feminist Germaine Greer and American anti-feminist Camille Paglia, and at different times I have thought each of them is my absolute favorite female anti-feminist. At least, until I change my mind again.
The case for Germaine Greer: The Female Eunuch was brilliant and truly revolutionary in the 1970s and it remains an excellent read. She is endlessly funny and charismatic in interviews, and who didn't love her in the famous 1971 A Dialogue on Women's Liberation Town Hall with Norman Mailer. I admire Greer's other interests, like her environmental restoration work in Australia---the lady made a rainforest---and her obsession with Shakespeare, which I share. Her book, Shakespeare's Wife, is an intriguing book and directly inspired Hamnet, finally giving us a fair portrayal of Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway. Wherever Greer's interests flow, I'm there.
The case for Camille Paglia: The impossibility of a bestselling book like Sexual Personae also being a huge, 700+ page academic tome on human sexuality and Western literature/art almost always give Paglia the edge (in my mind, at least). I have to admit I also find Paglia's numerous books to be highly readable, much more so than Greer's, and I attribute this to her lifetime of teaching and her understanding of how to hold attention. Paglia's sharp critiques of the education system as well as her commentary on pop culture and society in general is almost always as interesting (or more so) than her literary analysis. I could read Paglia's Salon.com articles for the rest of my life.
What about you? Who is your favorite female anti-feminist? Germaine Greer, Camille Paglia (strange they never really became friends) or someone else? Christina Hoff Sommers? Katie Roiphe? Does Betty Friedan count!? Curious to know what you think.