Kate Millet

[enoughisenough12]

died earlier this week...

A feminist pioneer from the 70s. Such an important writer - and not just about feminism but also mental health

www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/07/kate-millett-pioneering-second-wave-feminist-dies-aged-82-sexual-politics

[YetAnotherSpartacus]

OH! I missed this. I'm actually all in goosebumps because I can't believe she was 82 and now dead ... I read her work 31 years ago as a student and that seems just like yesterday.. oh my GOSH. RIP Kate.

PLEASE anyone who uses the word 'patriarchy' and who calls themselves a radical feminist read Sexual Politics and pay tribute to a foremother.

[YetAnotherSpartacus]

From the obit. in the Graun

"The basis of Sexual Politics (1970) was an analysis of patriarchal power. Millett developed the notion that men have institutionalised power over women, and that this power is socially constructed as opposed to biological or innate. This theory was the foundation for a new approach to feminist thinking that became known as radical feminism"

www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/07/kate-millett-obituary

Please do all read and pay tribute.

[enoughisenough12]

She was such a pioneer wasn't she Sophocles? I'm so pleased someone else remembers her - she opened up an alternative view of women to those of us brought up in the conventional post war years of the 50s and 60s. She was radical and challenging.
She also contributed to 'Sisterhood is powerful: an anthology of of writing's from the women's liberation movement'. I loved that book!
She was one of the towering figures of the women's liberation movement - and doesn't that now sound such an old fashioned phrase . A great woman.

[SophoclesTheFox]

I remember reading Sisterhood is Powerful years and years ago. I think it might be time for a read of Sexual Politics - I've never read it, but so much I have read has been influenced by it.

I still quite like the phrase women's liberation - it saves a lot of tedious argument over the meaning of "equality". I think we should dust it down and use it again!

Thank you Kate, for all your work.

[YetAnotherSpartacus]

I also prefer 'women's liberation'. :)

[enoughisenough12]

There were all these iconic women writing and speaking and singing - it was such an exciting time - devouring the latest edition of Spare Rib or Outwrite. Thinking and reading and debating... She was so important.

[enoughisenough12]

And yes to women's liberation

[YetAnotherSpartacus]

I think you might be a few years older than me enough ... Although I do remember Spare Rib. I also remember the energy and the sense that things were not right, but that change was on the horizon. I feel more defeated and deflated now.

[IamEarthymama]

I owe her and her peers so much.
They opened my eyes to the dynamics of power in society and how poorly served we women are.

Journey on, Kate, in peace and with blessings and gratitude

[IamEarthymama]

I still have a few copies of Spare Rib hanging around.

[enoughisenough12]

@Spartacus - I suspect I am a bit older than most on here.

Perhaps in the 70s change happened more slowly - there was no internet or social media so we talked, we read and tried out these new ideas. Debating issues in women's groups getting involved in more radical action. Demonstrating and the first 'Reclaim the Night' marches, working in one of the first Rape Crisis centres, challenging in the work place and all the time reading these wonderful inspirational feminist writers, Susan Brownmiller, Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch, Marilyn French, Andrea Dworkin, Betty Friedan and of course Kate Millett. Always pushing against the establishment, both as activists and often through our careers, wearing 'feminist ' clothes - dungarees and doc martens anyone? . Little by little there were so many changes.
If I learnt anything from those wonderful women it is that talking and listening to other women (as we mainly do on this board) is enriching and stimulating and challenging and life changing and and and.....
I still believe that 'sisterhood is powerful'.....

[PricklyBall]

Online copy of Sexual Politics

[IrenetheQuaint]

Sexual Politics is brilliant, funny and eye-opening. It has changed the way I read novels and indeed watch films or TV for ever.

[IamEarthymama]

Thank you, PricklyBall

[enoughisenough12]

Jenni Murray (30 years on Woman's Hour today!!) will be talking about Kate Millet shortly.

[Elendon]

These two video by Sheila Jeffreys on Kate Millet.

gendertrender.wordpress.com/2017/09/07/sheila-jeffreys-on-kate-millett/