Books › La politique du mâle
La politique du mâle
First published 1973 · 519 pages
A fiery, foundational dismantling of how literature and culture weaponize sex to maintain patriarchal power.
What it feels like
Reading this foundational text feels like putting on a pair of glasses that suddenly brings the invisible architecture of society into sharp, horrifying focus. The pace is steady and deliberate, anchored by rigorous academic analysis, yet it pulses with an incendiary, righteous energy that makes the pages burn. It is an intellectually charged experience, immersing the reader in a meticulous dismantling of the literary canon and cultural norms. The prose is dense but fiercely articulate, blending scholarly critique with unapologetic polemic. It delights readers who crave deep, structural feminist theory and those who want to understand the historical roots of gendered power dynamics. Ultimately, it leaves you with a profound, lingering awareness of how deeply the political is woven into the personal.
- Mood
- intellectually charged
- righteous
- urgent
- illuminating
- Tone
- incendiary
- analytical
- uncompromising
- passionate
- critical
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- patriarchal power structures · systemic misogyny · the politics of sex · cultural conditioning · literary subjugation
- The writing
- Dense but fiery, blending rigorous academic critique with sharp, polemical rhetoric.
- The arc
- Moves from a startling awakening to systemic realities toward a fiery, resolute demand for intellectual and social liberation.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave foundational feminist theory and rigorous, unapologetic literary criticism.
Content notes
- misogyny
- discussions of sexual violence
- sexism
- degradation
About the book
"Sexual Politics laid the foundation for subsequent feminist scholarship by showing how cultural discourse reflects a systematized subjugation and exploitation of women. Millett demonstrates in detail how patriarchy's attitudes and systems penetrate literature, philosophy, psychology, and politics. Her incendiary work rocked the foundations of the literary canon by castigating time-honored classics - from D. H.
Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover to Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead - for their use of sex to degrade and undermine women." "A new introduction to this edition draws attention to some of the forms patriarchy has taken recently in consolidating its oppressive and dangerous control."--BOOK JACKET.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [364]-377). "Reprinting Doubleday edition, plus part of Touchstone edition, plus adding an introduction." Originally published: New York: Doubleday, 1970, and Simon & Schuster, 1990.
Description from Open Library.
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