Mediating a Movement, Authorizing Discourse: Kate Millett,Sexual Politics, and Feminism's Second Wave

Sexual Politics in Fiksimini: Analysis of Feminist Critical Discourse

“…According to Millett, patriarchal ideology only exaggerates biological differences (male and female) and ensures that men always have a masculine and dominant role, while women always have a subordinate and feminine role. So, according to him, to eliminate male control, gender, especially status, roles, and sexual temperament must be eliminated (Poirot, 2004;Jeffreys, 2011). This feminist critical discourse analysis research will use Kate Millett's sexual politics parameters to analyze and find out the sexual politics contained in fiksimini.…”

News and Feminism: A Historic Dialog

“…For early second-wave radical feminists, media constituted a very problematic resource. The sexist ways in which commercial media had historically portrayed women and the ridiculing of the women's movement they often saw in news, combined with aspects of their internal philosophies and organizational forms, which eschewed any kind of celebrity for individual feminists, set up a very complex field of engagement (Barker-Plummer, 1995; Echols, 1989;Freeman, 1975;Poirot, 2004;Tuchman, 1980). The radicals knew that publicity was needed, but they approached media as a "necessary evil."…”

“…Besides the extremely problematic representation of feminism in media, radical feminists were also concerned that interacting with media would encourage hierarchies and "star" systems to emerge in the movement and undermine the radical egalitarianism that was a core goal of many women's groups (Freeman, 1975;Echols, 1989;Jay, 1999). Some movement groups (such as The Feminists and the Radicalesbians, for example) had come to equate bureaucratization or specialization with patriarchal forms of organization and they refused to have designated leaders or spokespersons in their organizations, trying instead to have a "structureless" organization in which each individual would "speak for herself" (Poirot, 2004;Jay 1999). Though there were often unspoken hierarchies and power roles, the groups overtly discouraged public leadership, and any kind of individual celebrity or notoriety became suspect (Poirot, 2004;Jay, 1999).…”

“…Some movement groups (such as The Feminists and the Radicalesbians, for example) had come to equate bureaucratization or specialization with patriarchal forms of organization and they refused to have designated leaders or spokespersons in their organizations, trying instead to have a "structureless" organization in which each individual would "speak for herself" (Poirot, 2004;Jay 1999). Though there were often unspoken hierarchies and power roles, the groups overtly discouraged public leadership, and any kind of individual celebrity or notoriety became suspect (Poirot, 2004;Jay, 1999). These organizational structures made interaction with liberationists difficult for journalists who were used to attributing information to authoritative sources (Tuchman, 1978).…”

“…Millet, who was married to a man at the time (and seems to have self-identified as a bisexual), was "outed" as a lesbian through public questioning at a meeting by a radical feminist lesbian colleague who believed that her media depiction as a happily married woman was damaging to the movement. But it was a Time magazine reporter who took this as a sign that Millett could no longer be a credible leader (Poirot, 2004;Jay, 1999). For some radical lesbian groups at the time, bisexuality was perceived as a "cop out" (Jay, 1999), and pushing Millett to express her lesbianism was seen by some as a purist (radical) move.…”