Description

A sensation upon its publication in 1970, Sexual Politics documents the subjugation of women in great literature and art. Kate Millett’s analysis targets four revered authors-D. H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, Norman Mailer, and Jean Genet-and builds a damning profile of literature’s patriarchal myths and their extension into psychology, philosophy, and politics. Her eloquence and popular examples taught a generation to recognize inequities masquerading as nature and proved the value of feminist critique in all facets of life. This new edition features the scholar Catharine A. MacKinnon and the New Yorker correspondent Rebecca Mead on the importance of Millett’s work to challenging the complacency that sidelines feminism.

Publisher Review

Millett’s classic woke me up, changed my perception of women and myself, as it did for tens of thousands of American women when it first appeared. — Leslie Crawford, “Kate Millett, the Ambivalent Feminist,” Salon Sexual Politics dissected the beliefs, the cultural language, that supported sexual hierarchy. Millett’s arguments cut through contemporary culture almost as surely as they did when written. In fact, it seems looking back to this old radicalism would help today’s feminists to move forward. — Katie Ryder, “Why Kate Millett Still Matters,” Bookforum A passionate book by an acute literary analyst. New Yorker Supremely entertaining to read, brilliantly conceived, overwhelming in its arguments, breathtaking in its command of history and literature. New York Times A richly informative book. Washington Post Book World A well documented intellectual masterpiece. Pittsburgh Press [Millett] translates the war of the sexes from the language of nineteenth century bedroom farce into the raw images of guerilla warfare… Even more than a political system, our sexual order is a ‘habit of mind and a way of life.’ Millett’s book may go far toward subverting it. Time