Sexual Politics by Kate Millett
"Sexual Politics" by Kate Millett is a foundational text in feminist literary theory, focusing on the ways patriarchal norms shape literature and culture. Millett argues that male-dominated societies create works that often degrade women and hinder progress toward gender equality. Through her analysis, she posits that sexual dynamics are central to political issues, emphasizing that recognizing these connections is crucial for addressing systemic inequalities. The book provides historical and cultural context for the feminist movement and critiques notable male authors such as D. H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, Norman Mailer, and Jean Genet, highlighting their roles in perpetuating misogyny and male dominance. Millett acknowledges the literary talents of these writers while critiquing the harmful impacts of their representations of gender. Overall, "Sexual Politics" serves as a critical exploration of the intersection between literature and the struggle for women's rights, making it a significant work within the feminist canon.
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Sexual Politics by Kate Millett
First published: 1970
The Work
Sexual Politics, Kate Millett’s closely reasoned analysis of the patriarchal bias that underlies literary productions, was one of the earliest works to apply feminist literary theory to specific works of literature. Millett demonstrates how male-dominated culture has produced writers and literary works that are degrading to women and hurtful of efforts to reform and alleviate the conditions of women’s lives. Sexual Politics is recognized as a classic work of the feminist movement and is arguably the most brilliant and cogent statement on the tyranny of sexual stereotypes to appear in twentieth century North America.
Chapter 1 deals with what sexual politics is. Millet makes the attempt to define, describe, and provide examples of the “ancient and universal scheme for the domination of one birth group by another—the scheme that prevails in the area of sex.” It is Millett’s view that sex underlies all political questions and that it is necessary to bring this principle to the public attention before any positive steps can be taken to remedy it. Chapter 2 provides a cultural and historical background of the feminist movement, pointing out the direction that feminist agitators needed to follow.
Separate chapters on D. H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, Norman Mailer, and Jean Genet demonstrate the relevance of the general concepts of sexual politics to the field of literary criticism. In the development of Millett’s analysis, Lawrence is ridiculed for his sentimental presentation of macho virility, Miller is exposed as a misogynist of the first order, Mailer is seen as anxiety-ridden and fearful of losing power to women and homosexuals, and Genet is shown to parody heterosexual love relationships in his depiction of homosexuals. The common thread in all these male writers is their concern to perpetuate (consciously or unconsciously) male domination over the female. It is important to observe that Millett believes that all these writers are important and gifted writers—despite what she believes to be the deleterious effects of their literary productions.
Bibliography
Belsey, Catherine, and Jane Moore, eds. The Feminist Reader: Essays in Gender and the Politics of Literary Criticism. New York: Basil Blackwell, 1989. The introduction links Millett’s work with Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch and Eva Figes’ Patriarchal Attitudes, witty, eloquent, and wide-ranging polemics reflective of the 1960’s, when the existing authorities were challenged by the politics of liberation.
Gornick, Vivian. Essays in Feminism. New York: Harper & Row, 1978. In “Why Do These Men Hate Women,” Gornick discusses Mailer’s response in The Prisoner of Sex to Sexual Politics. While praising his eloquent defense of Miller and Lawrence against Millett’s “distorting polemic,” she finds that other aspects of his argument confirm Millett’s conclusions.
Humm, Maggie. Feminist Criticism: Women as Contemporary Critics. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1986. Discusses Millett as a pioneer in feminist criticism and her indebtedness to Simone de Beauvoir. Provides a close reading of the style, structure, and ideology of Sexual Politics.
Mailer, Norman. The Prisoner of Sex. Boston: Little, Brown, 1971. Mailer’s rebuttal to Millett, which takes the form of a keen literary analysis of two of Millett’s targets: D. H. Lawrence and Henry Miller. Mailer demonstrates that Millett rips quotations out of context and literally rewrites many of the scenes she purports to describe.
Miller, Nancy K. Getting Personal: Feminist Occasions and the Other Autobiographical Acts. New York: Routledge, 1991. Recognizes Millett as a pioneering feminist scholar who takes on the “massively male precincts of literary history.”
Moi, Toril. Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory. New York: Methuen, 1985. Contains a chapter on Sexual Politics as a feminist classic. Discusses the response of feminist critics to the book, particularly their rehabilitation of Freud and their reservations about Millett’s treatment of him.