Kate Millett: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|American writer, educator,and artist, and activist (1934–2017)}}

* [[Columbia University]] ([[PhD]])

The [[Feminist movement|feminist]], [[Human rights movement|human rights]], [[Peace movement|peace]], [[Civil rights movement|civil rights]], and [[anti-psychiatry]] movements were some of Millett's principal causes. Her books were motivated by her activism, such as woman's rights and mental health reform, and several were autobiographical memoirs that explored her sexuality, mental health, and relationships. In the 1960s and 1970s, Millett taught at [[Waseda University]], [[Bryn Mawr College]], [[Barnard College]], and the [[University of California, Berkeley]]. Some of her later written works are ''[[The Politics of Cruelty: An Essay on the Literature of Political Imprisonment|The Politics of Cruelty]]'' (1994), about state-sanctioned torture in many countries, and ''Mother Millett'' (2001), a book about her relationship with her mother. Between 2011 and 2013, she won the [[24th Lambda Literary Awards|Lambda Pioneer Award for Literature]], received [[Yoko Ono]]'s [[Courage Award for the Arts]], and was inducted into the [[National Women's Hall of Fame]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Millett, Kate {{!}} Women of the Hall |url=https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/kate-millett/ |access-date=2023-11-23 |language=en-US}}</ref>

Katherine Murray Millett was born on September 14, 1934, to James Albert and Helen ({{Née|Feely}}) Millett in [[Saint Paul, Minnesota]]. According to Millett, she was afraid of her father, an engineer, who beat her.<ref name="Hamilton p. 267">{{cite book|author=Neil A. Hamilton|title=American Social Leaders and Activists|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tKxOpAh78IsC&pg=PA267|date=January 1, 2002|publisher=Infobase Publishing|location=New York|isbn=978-1-4381-0808-7|page=267}}</ref> He was an alcoholic who abandoned the family when she was 14, "consigning them to a life of [[wiktionary:genteel|genteel]] poverty".<ref name="Rosenberg p. 224">{{cite book|author=Rosalind Rosenberg|title=Changing the Subject: How the Women of Columbia Shaped the Way We Think About Sex and Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fhiZFpE77tkC&pg=PA224|date=August 13, 2013|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-231-50114-9|page=224}}</ref><ref name="Magill p. 2536">{{cite book|author=Frank N. Magill|title=The 20th Century Go-N: Dictionary of World Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I3sBAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA2536|date=March 5, 2014|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-1-317-74060-5|pages=2536–2537}}</ref> Her mother was a teacher<ref name="Magill p. 2536"/> and insurance saleswoman.<ref name="Wintle p. 532">{{cite book|author=Justin Wintle|title=The Concise New Makers of Modern Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Gl8AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA532|date=November 28, 2008|location=London|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-02139-0|page=532}}</ref> She had two sisters, Sally and Mallory;<ref group=nb>For Mallory's impression of her sister, see {{cite web |last=Millett |first=Mallory |title=My Sister Kate: The Destructive Feminist Legacy of Kate Millett |url=https://mallorymillett.com/?p=322 |website=MalloryMillett.com |date=August 29, 2020 |access-date=2023-05-18}}</ref> the latter was one of the subjects of ''Three Lives''.<ref name="NYT Three Lives"/><ref name="Troublemaker" /> Of [[Irish Catholic]] heritage,<ref name="Magill p. 2536"/> Kate Millett attended [[parochial school]]s in Saint Paul throughout her childhood.<ref name="Hamilton p. 267" /><ref name="Rosenberg p. 224"/>

Millett graduated in 1956 [[magna cum laude]] from the [[University of Minnesota]] with a [[Bachelor of Arts]] degree<ref name="Hamilton p. 267"/><ref name="Magill p. 2536"/> in [[English literature]];<ref name="Cohen2009">{{cite book|author=Marcia Cohen|title=The Sisterhood: The Inside Story of the Women's Movement and the Leaders who Made it Happen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S8ms96Cy5FoC&pg=PA74|year=2009|publisher=Sunstone Press|location=Santa Fe|isbn=978-0-86534-723-6|page=74}}</ref> she was a member of the [[Kappa Alpha Theta]] sorority.<ref name="Buchanan p. 125">{{cite book|author=Paul D. Buchanan|title=Radical Feminists: A Guide to an American Subculture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c-5iUYZwNkQC&pg=PA125|date=July 31, 2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=Santa Barbara|isbn=978-1-59884-356-9|page=125}}</ref> A wealthy aunt paid for her education at [[St Hilda's College, Oxford]],{{refn|Her aunt paid for her education at Oxford, which was considered "a gesture that had less to do with her aunt's respect for Kate's intellectual gifts than with the family's discovering that she was in love with another woman"<ref name="Rosenberg p. 224"/> and/or due to her aunt's annoyance with Millett's "tendency to defy convention".<ref name="Magill p. 2536"/>|group=nb}} gaining an English literature [[British undergraduate degree classification|first-class honors]] degree in 1958.<ref name="Hamilton p. 267"/><ref name="Buchanan p. 125"/> She was the first American woman to be awarded a degree with first-class honors having studied at St. Hilda's.<ref name="St Hilda's">{{ cite web|url=http://www.st-hildas.ox.ac.uk/kate-millett|title=Dr. Kate Millett|publisher=St Hilda's College, Oxford University|access-date=September 4, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140818105429/http://www.st-hildas.ox.ac.uk/kate-millett|archive-date=August 18, 2014}}</ref> After spending about 10 years as an educator and artist, Millett entered the graduate school program for English and comparative literature at [[Columbia University]] in 1968, during which she taught English at [[Barnard College|Barnard]].<ref name="Hamilton p. 267"/><ref name="Magill p. 2536"/> While there, she championed student rights, women's liberation, and abortion reform. She completed her dissertation in September 1969 and was awarded her doctorate, with distinction, in March 1970.<ref name="Magill p. 2536"/>

Millett was one of the first writers to describe the modern concept of [[patriarchy]] as the society-wide subjugation of women.<ref>{{cite book |author= Laura Green |editor=Claeys, Gregory |title=Encyclopedia of Modern Political Thought, Volume 1 |date=2013 |publisher=CQ Press |isbn=978-0-87-289910-0 |page=285 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1qjlCAAAQBAJ&q=Millett |chapter=Feminism}}</ref> Biographer [[Gayle Graham Yates]] said that "Millett articulated a theory of patriarchy and conceptualized the gender and sexual oppression of women in terms that demanded a sex role revolution with radical changes of personal and family lifestyles". [[Betty Friedan]]'s focus, by comparison, was to improve leadership opportunities socially and politically and economic independence for women.<ref name="Wintle p. 532" />

In 1974 and 1977, respectively, Millett published two autobiographical books. ''Flying'' (1974),<ref name="Magill p. 2536" /> a "stream-of-consciousness memoir about her bisexuality",<ref name="In the Mind Field">{{cite news |author=Edward Iwata |date=June 13, 1990 |title=In a Mind Field: Kate Millett attacks psychiatry in 'The Loony-Bin Trip' |newspaper=LA Times |url=httphttps://articleswww.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-06-13/news/-vw-175_1_kate175-millettstory.html |access-date=September 5, 2014}}</ref> which explores her life after the success of ''Sexual Politics'' in what was described in ''[[The New York Times Book Review]]'' as an example of "dazzling exhibitionism". Millett captured life as she thought, experienced and lived it, in a style like a documentary film.<ref name="Mother Courage" /> ''Sita'' (1977) explores her sexuality, particularly her lesbian lover who committed suicide<ref name="Mother Courage" /> and the effect on Millett's personal and private life.<ref name="Magill p. 2536" /> Millett and [[Sidney Abbott]], [[Phyllis Birkby]], [[Alma Routsong]], and Artemis March were among the members of CR One, the first lesbian-feminist consciousness-raising group.<ref name="JoAnne Myers 93" />

In an interview with Mark Blasius, Millett was sympathetic to the concept of [[Age disparity in sexual relationships|intergenerational sex]], describing [[age of consent]] laws as "very oppressive" to [[gay male]] youth in particular but repeatedly reminding the interviewer that the question cannot rest on the sexual access of older men or women to children but a rethinking of children's rights broadly understood.<ref name="ipce">[https://www.ipce.info/ipceweb/Library/interv_kate_m.htm Via] '''[[List of pedophile and pederast advocacy organizations#International|Ipce]]''': "This interview, untitled, first appeared in "Loving Boys," Serniotext(e) Special, Intervention Series #2, Summer 1980. Reprinted with permission. Copyright 0 Semiotext(e) Inc., 1980. It also appeared in Daniel Tsang (Ed), The Age Taboo: Gay Male Sexuality, Power and Consent (Boston: Alyson Publications, 1981)."</ref> Millett added that "one of children's essential rights is to express themselves sexually, probably primarily with each other but with adults as well" and that "the sexual freedom of children is an important part of a sexual revolution ... if you don't change the social condition of children you still have an inescapable inequality".<ref name="ipce" /> In this interview, Millett criticized those who wished to [[Age of consent reform|abolish age of consent laws]], saying the issue was not focused on [[children's rights]] but "being approached as the right of men to have sex with kids below the age of consent" and added that "no mention is made of relationships between women and girls".<ref name="ipce" /> Millett believes sexual access to children is only one part of a larger goal of liberating children from all forms of parental oppression.<ref>York and Knight. Homosexual Behaviour and Pedophilia, p.3</ref>

Millett recorded her visit to Iran and the demonstrations by Iranian feminists against the fundamentalist shift in Iran politics under Khomeini's government. Her book ''[[Going to Iran]]'', with photography by Sophie Keir (1979), is "a rare and therefore valuable eyewitness account of a series of important developments in the history of Iranian women", albeit told from the perspective of a feminist from the western world.<ref>{{cite journal | title=Going to Iran (Review) | author=Patricia J. Higgins|journal=Signs|volume=9|number=1 |date=Autumn 1983 |pages=154–156 |doi=10.1086/494034 |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |jstor=3173673 }}</ref>

In March 2013, the U.S. [[National Women's Hall of Fame]] announced that Millett was to be among the institution's 2013 inductees. Beverly P. Ryder, board of directors co-president, said that Millett was a "real pillar of the women's movement".<ref name=Local>{{cite news|author=Mary Reinholz|title=Kate Millett, 'Pillar of the Movement,' Inducted into Women's Hall of Fame|url=http://eastvillage.thelocal.nytimes.com/2013/03/08/kate-millett-pillar-of-the-movement-inducted-into-womens-hall-of-fame/|access-date=March 15, 2013|newspaper=The Local: East Village|date=March 8, 2013}}{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The induction ceremony took place on October 24, 2013, at the National Women's Hall of Fame headquarters in [[Seneca Falls, New York]].<ref name=Induction>{{cite web|title=Induction Weekend 2013|url=http://www.greatwomen.org/news-and-events/induction-weekend|work=National Women's Hall of Fame|access-date=March 15, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141008001238/http://www.greatwomen.org/news-and-events/induction-weekend|archive-date=October 8, 2014}}</ref>

* {{cite AV media |year=1989 |title=Bookmark: Daughters of de Beauvoir (1 episode) |medium= biography |publisher= British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Union Pictures Productions |quote= Herself }}<ref name="IF">{{cite web |title=Daughters of de Beauvoir + Q&A |url=https://www.institut-francais.org.uk/cine-lumiere/whats-on/special-screenings/daughters-of-de-beauvoir-qa/ |website=Institut français du Royaume-Uni |access-date=April 9, 2020 |language=en |archive-date=April 9, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220409010127/https://www.institut-francais.org.uk/cine-lumiere/whats-on/special-screenings/daughters-of-de-beauvoir-qa/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[Category:20th-century American women artistssculptors]]

[[Category:21st-century American women artistssculptors]]

[[Category:FeministAmerican feminist artists]]

[[Category:WomenAmerican women human rights activists]]