Edition: U.S. / Global

Campus Journal; Fireworks and Dazzle At Panel Talk on Beauty

Published: December 9, 1992

For a Princeton student, the scene must have been jarring.

On a stage normally occupied by tweedy professors lecturing about Keynesian economics, four women -- Linda Wells, editor of Allure magazine; Alisa Bellettini, producer of MTV's "House of Style" fashion program; Cindy Crawford, the top fashion model, and Camille Paglia, the author of "Sexual Personae" -- sat under the blaze of television camera lights Saturday and discussed beauty.

For nearly an hour and a half, as an MTV crew filmed the seminar for the "House of Style" program, the four women defended America's beauty industry to a Princeton audience that was partly star-struck, partly hostile and partly intrigued.

The discussion, entitled "The Power of Beauty, the Beauty of Power," concluded a weeklong series of lectures on women in the media. Saturday morning, Naomi Wolf, author of "The Beauty Myth," lectured to a smaller audience in the same room, criticizing magazine photographs of "surgically augmented" models and popular images of female beauty that she believes oppress women. The mostly female crowd was attentive and generally enthusiastic.

Not so when the final panel held the stage. The discussion was punctuated by bursts of applause and hissing from the half-male, half-female audience that packed the 460-seat lecture hall.

"I know that modeling isn't the ultimate feminist profession, but it can be," Ms. Crawford said. To illustrate the point, she said she had achieved autonomy in her career. "I am in complete control," she said. "I run Cindy Crawford Inc."

But if Cindy Crawford was the panel's bombshell, Camille Paglia was its Molotov cocktail, filling the room with fiery outbursts.

Ms. Paglia, a professor of humanities at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, is legend for her theories about feminism. Among her central claims is that a woman's power is anchored in her beauty. The quest for beauty, she suggests, is in the female genes, and thus women take pleasure in staring at fashion models.

"The idea that women are victimized by these standards of beauty is so ridiculous," she asserted. "The departments of women's studies in this country are run by mediocre careerists who've never seen a painting in their lives."

Some men in the front rows started to shout and applaud. Others, both men and women, started to hiss.

When it came time for audience participation, Ms. Paglia pounced on those who dared disagree with her. To one male student who questioned the quality of her scholarship, she retorted: "You are an idiot. You are in the presence of one of the great academic feminists of your time, and you're making an ass of yourself."

Carol Cook, a Princeton professor of English, asked Ms. Paglia why she refuses to appear on stage with other academic feminists. "Honey, I am out of your league," she replied.

Later, Professor Cook called Ms. Paglia part of a "backlash phenomenon" against feminism, and added: "She compares herself to Freud. Freud is a much more subtle thinker than Camille Paglia will ever be."

But Ms. Paglia also found support. Charles Allen, a Princeton junior, said Ms. Paglia had expressed "a lot of men's and women's discontents with feminist rhetoric."

"Men at Ivy League schools are tied to feminist apron strings," he said. "They've been de-sexualized, and are terrorized about having any kind of romantic or emotional relations with women."

Toward the end of the discussion the snapping sound of Kodak One-Steps could be heard as dozens of young men in the audience tried to capture Ms. Crawford for their scrapbooks. Afterward, many gathered around the model, asking for her lecture notes and autograph.

"To tell you the truth, we wouldn't be here if Cindy weren't here," said Chris Ingrassia, a sophomore who had planted himself in front of the stage. "She's the main attraction."

People also approached Ms. Paglia to ask questions or to have her sign copies of her books. Rebecca Lubarr, a Princeton alumna, had mixed feelings about Ms. Paglia. "It might be true that a lot of power lies in women's sexuality," she said, "but then why do we feel so disempowered?"

On the other hand, she added, "I think feminists do tend to sound whiny when they completely fail to acknowledge the power of female sexuality, and Paglia is right to bring power into the discussion."

Jensa Bell, a junior who coordinated the lecture series, was pleased with the overall diversity of speakers but disappointed with the tenor of the final event. "In my eyes, the message many people got was antifeminist."

Perhaps she meant people like the young man who left the auditorium saying to his friend, "I think Cindy Crawford made eye contact with me once or twice."