Kate Millett

Kate Millett (born Katherine Murray Millet on September 14, 1934 in St. Paul, Minnesota) is an American feminist writer and activist. She is best known for her 1970 book "Sexual Politics".

Career

Kate Millett received her B.A. at the University of Minnesota in 1956, where she was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. She later obtained a first-class degree, with honors, from St Hilda's College, Oxford in 1958.

Millett moved to Japan in 1961. Two years later, Millett returned to the United States with fellow sculptor Fumio Yoshimura whom she married in 1965, but they split up in the 1970s. The two divorced in 1985. She was active in feminist politics in late 1960s and the 1970s. In 1966, she became a committee member of National Organization for Women.

"Sexual Politics" originated as her Ph.D. dissertation, which was awarded by Columbia University in 1970. Here Millett offers a comprehensive critique of patriarchy in Western society and literature. In particular, Millett attacked what she sees as the sexism and heterosexism of the modern novelists D. H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, and Norman Mailer, contrasting their perspectives with the dissenting viewpoint of the homosexual author Jean Genet.

In 1971, Millett started buying and restoring fields and buildings near Poughkeepsie, New York. The project eventually became the Women's Art Colony Farm, a community of female artists and writers.

Millett's 1971 film "Three Lives", is a 16mm documentary made by an all-woman crew (including co-director Susan Kleckner, cameraperson Lenore Bode, and editor Robin Mide) under the name Women's Liberation Cinema. The 70-minute film focuses on reminiscences of three women recounting the stories of their lives. The subjects are Mallory Millett-Jones (the director's sister), Lillian Shreve, a chemist, and Robin Mide, an artist.

Her book "Flying" (1974) tells of her marriage with Yoshimura and her love affairs with women. In 1979, Millett went to Iran to work for women's rights, was soon deported, and wrote about the experience in "Going to Iran". "Sita" (1977) is a meditation on Millett's doomed love affair with a female college administrator who was ten years her senior. "The Loony-Bin Trip" (1990) discusses her diagnosis of bipolar disorder, describing experiences with hospitalization and her decision to discontinue lithium therapy.

In a notorious incident, she was a guest on a late-night television program in the UK ("After Dark" in 1991) when an inebriated Oliver Reed tried to kiss her, uttering the words "give us a kiss, big tits". Reed was made to leave the set.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Millett was involved in a dispute with the New York City authorities who wanted to evict her from her home at 295 Bowery as part of a massive redevelopment plan. Millett and others held out, but ultimately lost their battle. Their building was demolished, and the residents were re-located. [ [http://www.thevillager.com/villager_67/authormillett.html] The Villager, Vol. 74, Number 15, August 11-17, 2004 ]

Critical assessment

Her book "Sexual Politics" went out of print in the 1990s, only to be reissued in 2000. Charles Krinsky offered this assessment of her place in feminist history at the time:- Charles Krinsky

Controversy

In a 1980 interview discussing children's rights, Millett stated, "Certainly, one of children's essential rights is to express themselves sexually, probably primarily with each other but with adults as well". She was then asked, "Do you think that a tender, loving erotic relationship can exist between a boy and a man?". Millet responded: Cquote|"Of course, or between a female child and an older woman. Men and women have loved each other for millennia, as have people of different races. What I'm concerned about is the iniquitous context within which these relationships must exist. Of course, these relationships can be non-exploitative and, considering the circumstances, they are probably heroic and very wonderful; but we have to admit that they can be exploitative as well - like in the prostitution of youth. [ [http://www.ipce.info/ipceweb/Library/interv_kate_m.htm Sexual Revolution and the Liberation of Children ] ] |

Bibliography

*"Sexual Politics" (1970)
*"The Prostitution Papers" (1973)
*"Flying" (1974)
*"Sita" (1977)
*"The Basement" (1979)
*"Going to Iran" (1979)
*"The Loony-Bin Trip" (1990)
*"Believe me, you don't want a picture of that!" (1991)
*"The Politics of Cruelty" (1994)
*"" (1995)
*"Mother Millett" (2002) [ [http://bad.eserver.org/reviews/2001/2001-7-5-9.25PM.html reviewed by Martha Bridegam] ]

Films

*Des fleurs pour Simone de Beauvoir (2007)
*The Real Yoko Ono (2001) (TV)
*"Bookmark" .... (1 episode, 1989)
** Daughters of de Beauvoir (TV episode, 1989)
*Not a Love Story: A Film About Pornography (1981)
*Three Lives (1971, Producer)
*Playboy: The Story of X (1998) (Archive Footage) [ [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0589600/ imdb] ]

References

*Lorna Sage "The Cambridge Guide to Women's Literature in English", 1999, Cambridge

External links

* [http://www.katemillett.com KateMillett.com] - Official website for Kate Millett, including information on the Women's Art Colony Farm.
* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,876784,00.html "The Liberation of Kate Millett"] , "Time Magazine", August 30, 1970.
*Crawford, Leslie. [http://www.salon.com/people/feature/1999/06/05/millet/ "Kate Millett, The Ambivalent Feminist"] , "Salon", June 5, 1999.
*Freely, Maureen. [http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/politicsphilosophyandsociety/story/0,6000,509219,00.html "Return of the troublemaker"] , "The Guardian", June 19, 2001.
* [http://www.glbtq.com/literature/millett_k.html Kate Millett] , GLBTQ Encyclopedia entry
* [http://www.fembio.org/biographie.php/frau/biographie/kate-millett/ Kate Millett] , fembio.org
*Photos [http://www.fembio.org/images/WF-kate-millett-2.jpg] , [http://www.fembio.org/images/WF-kate-millett-4.jpg]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0589600 imdb]