Sexual Politics

A sensation upon its publication in 1970, Sexual Politics documents the subjugation of women in great literature and art. Beginning in 1830 and targeting four revered authors—D. H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, Norman Mailer, and Jean Genet—Kate Millett 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 Catharine A. Mackinnon (University of Michigan Law School) and New Yorker correspondent Rebecca Mead on the importance of Millett's work to challenging the complacency currently sidelining feminism. 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. Kate Millett is an American feminist writer, artist, and activist. Her most recent books are Mother Millett, A.D.: A Memoir, and The Politics of Cruelty: An Essay on the Literature of Political Imprisonment. She is director of the Millett Center for the Arts and lives in New York City and upstate New York. Catharine A. MacKinnon is the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at Michigan Law School and the long-term James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Rebecca Mead is a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of My Life in Middlemarch and One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding.