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Women's Role in Patriarchy Analysis

The document summarizes Kate Millett's analysis of the literary representation of women in works by D.H. Lawrence and Henry Miller in her book Sexual Politics. Millett examines Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover and exposes its sustained celebration of masculine sexuality and presumption of female passivity. She also analyzes Miller's Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, castigating the classics for their use of sex to denigrate women. Overall, Millett argues that patriarchy is a political institution that subordinates women and allows notions of femininity to become psychologically ingrained through cultural conditioning.

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Irfan Baloch
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83 views3 pages

Women's Role in Patriarchy Analysis

The document summarizes Kate Millett's analysis of the literary representation of women in works by D.H. Lawrence and Henry Miller in her book Sexual Politics. Millett examines Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover and exposes its sustained celebration of masculine sexuality and presumption of female passivity. She also analyzes Miller's Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, castigating the classics for their use of sex to denigrate women. Overall, Millett argues that patriarchy is a political institution that subordinates women and allows notions of femininity to become psychologically ingrained through cultural conditioning.

Uploaded by

Irfan Baloch
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

ASSIGNMENT.

_________________________
Submitted By: Irfan Khan
Roll No: 2419/635164
Class: BS English
Semester: 4th
Course Title: Literary Theory (2)
Topic: Dymestification of Women
Subtitted To: Afzal Majeed

_________________________
Patriarchy has subtly developed the myth that motherhood is the
only domain in which women are practically ordained. Women as a
sex are thought to be the world's natural reproducers, with the
responsibility of bearing and rearing children. Patriarchy honours
women's inherent dominance as the so-called woman – power. It
indulges in an exaggeration of nature's maternal principles. Self
effacement, unconditional love and devoted service are demanded
from women for the perpetuation of patriarchal norms. This results
in an idealization of motherhood which confines women to their role
as nurturers. Feminists from the West, recognise this vicious trap –
that patriarchy elevates motherhood and misleads women is order
to exploit and circumscribe them.

Motherliness is a way of life. It enables a women to express her total


self with the tender feelings, the protective attitudes, the
encompassing love of the motherly women.
Patriarchy, on the other hand, abuses it as a tool to subjugate all
women. Maternity knowledge has been channelled to satisfy male
interests and to keep patriarchal laws in place as the universal rule
for women.

In addition, the sanctity of motherhood is accepted only when


acknowledged by matrimony. The man made society commands
that motherhood is valid only within the bounds of marriage and it
desecrates unwed motherhood as a curse for women. Simone de
Beauvoir puts this aptly :Maternity, in particular, is only respected
by married women; the unwed mother remains a public
embarrassment, and her child is a severe life handicap for her.

Feminists in the West are well aware of the oppression that occurs
under the guise of motherhood. Patriarchy's aim is to enslave
women, and motherhood is a powerful weapon in achieving that
goal.

ASSIGNMENT.2

_________________________
Submitted By: Irfan Khan
Roll No: 2419/635164
Class: BS English
Semester: 4th
Course Title: Literary Theory (2)
Topic: How does Kate analysis the literary representation of
women in the works of D.H Lawrence and Henry Miller
in her book Sexual Politics

Subtitted To: Afzal Majeed


_________________________
Sexual Politics (1970), a key text of second-wave feminism, claims
that patriarchy was a political institution based on women's
subordination, and that Western social structures are secret
methods of power manipulation. Millett, like de Beauvoir, argued
that women were subjected to artificially constructed notions of
femininity, and that all facets of society and culture were governed
by a sexual politics that allowed women to internalise their
inferiority until it became psychologically ingrained in them. Millett
identified literature as a tool for political ideology because it
recreated sexual inequalities and reinforced patriarchal values of
society.

To expose the depth of this insidious indoctrination, Millett


examined the work of four 20th century male authors, including DH
Lawrence (Lady Chotterly’s Lover, in which Millett exposes a
sustained celebration of masculine sexuality and a misogynistic
presumption of female passivity). Millett’s analyses rocked the
foundations of literary canon by castigating classics — DH
Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer
and Tropic of Capricorn, Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead
for their use of sex to denigrate women.

She, on the other hand, admires homosexual writer Jean Genet's


gender politics. Millett is also known for distinguishing between the
biological conceptions of "sex" and "gender," which are learned
culturally.

_________________________

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