The paper revisits the work of Kate Millett in
Sexual Politics
(1970), examining in particular her `theory of sexual
politics' and
the analysis of gendered power and sexuality. Millett presented a
framework in which gendered relations of power are perceived as
explicitly sexual, and in this sense she paved the way for radical
feminist theorising of the links between power, sexuality and
violence. Millett's analysis is revisited in the light of more
recent `versions' of gendered analyses of sexual violence and
power,
in particular in relation to the increasingly `hegemonic'
Duluth
notion of power and control. Questions are asked about the analytic
power of Millett's approach; and the disappearance of (hetero)
sexuality in analyes of gendered power and violence.
return to
conference