Camille Paglia debated Jane Flax on the topic of “Gender Roles: Nature or Nurture?” at American University earlier this month. Paglia, often described as a “contrarian feminist” took the position that the roots of gender differences are biological and essential rather than social and contingent. Her open statement is available here.

I like pretty much everything that Paglia writes–even though I disagree with lots of her conclusions–and I especially liked the fact that she tended to blame a lot of the nonsense behind rejecting gender essentialism on Rousseau, who I like to blame for basically everything that’s wrong with modern Western liberalism.

In any case, give it a read.