About the author
American feminist writer, artist, and activist (1934–2017). Sexual Politics, adapted from her doctoral dissertation, became a bestseller and a foundational work of second-wave radical feminism, making Millett a public figure and the concept of patriarchy central to feminist thought.
Synopsis
Millett defines politics as power-structured relationships and argues that male dominance over women is the most pervasive such structure — a 'sexual politics' upheld by socialization, ideology, the family, and force. She analyzes the theory of patriarchy and then reads writers like D. H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, and Norman Mailer to show how literature dramatizes and legitimizes male power, contrasting them with the dissenting Jean Genet.
Core passage idea
Paraphrase · Modern copyrighted workMillett argues that the relations between the sexes are political — relationships of power and domination — and that patriarchy maintains itself through culture and consent as much as through force.
By treating sex as a political category and patriarchy as a system of power, Millett expanded politics to include the most intimate spheres of life. Her claim that culture itself enforces male dominance opened feminist criticism of literature, media, and everyday life.
To avoid a bubble
Pair with liberal feminists who seek equality within existing institutions rather than the overthrow of 'patriarchy' as such, and with critics who find Millett's readings of literature reductive or her concept of patriarchy too sweeping to guide politics.
Reading note
Dense and polemical, blending theory with literary criticism. Read it as the manifesto of radical feminism's analysis of patriarchy, and pair it with liberal and socialist feminists to compare diagnoses and remedies.
Best paired with
Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex; Angela Y. Davis, Women, Race & Class.