Sexual Politics

Patriarchy, reformed or unreformed, is patriarchy still: its worst abuses purged or foresworn, it might actually be more stable and secure than before.

It is interesting that many women do not recognize themselves as discriminated against; no better proof could be found of the totality of their conditioning.

Whatever the “real” differences between the sexes may be, we are not likely to know them until the sexes are treated differently, that is alike.

If knowledge is power, power is also knowledge, and a large factor in their subordinate position is the fairly systematic ignorance patriarchy imposes upon women.

Governments who manipulate population growth have two choices: making maternity pleasant, or making it inescapable.

Coitus can scarcely be said to take place in a vacuum; although of itself it appears a biological and physical activity, it is set so deeply within the larger context of human affairs that it serves as a charged microcosm of the variety of attitudes and values to which culture subscribes. Among other things, it may serve as a model of sexual politics on an individual or personal plane.

It is necessary to realize that the most sacrosanct article of sexual politics in the period, the Victorian doctrine of chivalrous protection and its familiar protestations of respect, rests upon the tacit assumption, a cleverly expeditious bit of humbug, that all women were "ladies"—namely members of that fraction of the upper classes and bourgeoisie which treated women to expressions of elaborate concern, while permitting them no legal or personal freedom. The psycho-political tacit here is a pretense that the indolence and luxury of the upper-class woman’s role in what Veblen called “vicarious consumption” was the happy lot of all women. The efficacy of this maneuver depends on dividing women by class and persuading the privileged that they live in an indulgence they scarcely deserve... To succeed, both the sexual revolution and the Woman's Movement which led it would have to unmask chivalry and expose its courtesies as subtle manipulation.

Under patriarchy the female did not herself develop the symbols by which she is described. As

Because of our social circumstances, male and female are really two cultures and their life experiences are utterly different—and this is crucial. Implicit

Their chattel status continues in their loss of name, their obligation to adopt the husband’s domicile, and the general legal assumption that marriage involves an exchange of the female’s domestic service and (sexual) consortium in return for financial support.

However muted its present appearance may be, sexual dominion obtains nevertheless as perhaps the most pervasive ideology of our culture and provides its most fundamental concept of power.

For it is precisely because certain groups have no representation in a number of recognized political structures that their position tends to be so stable, their oppression so continuous.

The term “politics” shall refer to power-structured relationships, arrangements whereby one group of persons is controlled by another. By

The derogation of feminine status in lesser males is a consistent patriarchal trait. Like

As patriarchy enforces a temperamental imbalance of personality traits between the sexes, its educational institutions, segregated or co-educational, accept a cultural programing toward the generally operative division between “masculine” and “feminine” subject matter, assigning the humanities and certain social sciences (at least in their lower or marginal branches) to the female—and science and technology, the professions, business and engineering to the male. Of

Sexual politics obtains consent through the “socialization” of both sexes to basic patriarchal polities with regard to temperament, role, and status. As

In democracies,5 for example, females have often held no office or do so (as now) in such minuscule numbers as to be below even token representation. Aristocracy,

Yeterince erkeksi ya da kadınsı olmamak, doğal yapıya aykırı düşmek gibi gösteriliyor. Ve hepimiz kadın ya da erkek olarark doğduğumuz için, cinsel kişiliğimizi yitirirsek yok olacağımız gibi bir düşünceye uyarlanmak isteniyoruz.

Ataerkil düzendeki sınıfın başlıca etkilerinden biri, bir kadını bir diğerinin karşısına koymaktır. Geçmişte fahişelerle namuslu kadınlar karşılaştırılırken, günümüzde de çalışan kadınlarla ev kadınları karşı karşıya getirilmektedir. Bu kadınlardan birincisi ötekinin sahip olduğu "güvenlik" ve saygınlığa gıpta ederken, ikincisi de kendisine saygınlık kazandıran sınırlamaların ötesinde, özgürlük, serüven, dünyayı tanımak diye adlandırdığı birinci kadının yaşantısına özlem duyar. İkili düzen standardının çeşitli elverişliliklerinden yararlanan erkek, her iki kadının da dünyasını paylaşır ve üstün toplumsal ve ekonomik gücü ile de birbirlerine yabancılaşmış bu kadınları birbirlerine rakip duruma getirir.

Ataerkik düzendeki sınıfın başlıca etkilerinden biri, bir kadını bir diğerinin karşısına koymaktır. Geçmişte fahişelerle namuslu kadınlar karşılaştırılırken, günümüzde de çalışan kadınlarla ev kadınları karşı karşıya getirilmektedir. Bu kadınlardan birincisi ötekinin sahip olduğu "güvenlik" ve saygınlığa gıpta ederken, ikincisi de kendisine saygınlık kazandıran sınırlamaların ötesinde, özgürlük, serüven, dünyayı tanımak diye adlandırdığı birinci kadının yaşantısına özlem duyar. İkili düzen standardının çeşitli elverişliliklerinden yararlanan erkek, her iki kadının da dünyasını paylaşır ve üstün toplumsal ve ekonomik gücü ile de birbirlerine yabancılaşmış bu kadınları birbirlerine rakip duruma getirir.

...the old pillars of an old decadent structure, are also built on the sexual fallacy. (Or as one is tempted to pun, phallacy.)

She is no one, because she lacks any trait that might render her visible: beauty, money, conformity.

Perhaps patriarchy’s greatest psychological weapon is simply its universality and longevity. A

despite a high incidence of women in certain professions such as medicine. The status and rewards of such professions have declined as women enter them, and they are permitted to enter such areas under a rationale that society or the state (and socialist countries are also patriarchal) rather than woman is served by such activity.

although of itself it appears a biological and physical activity, it is set so deeply within the larger context of human affairs that it serves as a charged microcosm of the variety of attitudes and values to which culture subscribes. Among

Stoller’s direction offer proof that gender identity (I am a girl, I am a boy) is the primary identity any human being holds—the first as well as the most permanent and far-reaching. Stoller

The subordinated group has inadequate redress through existing political institutions, and is deterred thereby from organizing into conventional political struggle and opposition.

Başkaldıran olmak, her zaman devrimci olmak değildir. Çoğunlukla, batağa daha fazla saplanmak demektir.