It's mainly a few elite women who benefit greatly from standing with the forces that keep women down.
Interpretation
The quote criticizes a small group of privileged women who align themselves with systems that oppress other women.
Catharine Mackinnon highlights the complicity of a minority of elite women who, by supporting patriarchal structures, gain power and privilege at the expense of the majority of women. This statement underscores the idea that not all women are united in the struggle for gender equality, as some may choose to elevate their status by aligning with oppressive forces, thus perpetuating the very systems that undermine women's rights.
In practice
This quote can be used in a women's rights seminar to discuss the complexities of female empowerment.
Stopped as attribute of a person, sex inequality takes the form of gender; moving as a relation between people, it takes the form of sexuality. Gender emerges as the congealed form of the sexualization of inequaltiy between men and women.
So the idea that there is nothing essential, in the sense that there are no human universals, is dogma. Ask most anyone who is going to be shot at dawn.
Feminism is built on believing women's accounts of sexual use and abuse by men.
Politically, I call it rape whenever a woman has sex and feels violated.
To me, "sexual freedom" means freedom from having to have sex.
Mom told me, βIt probably gets pretty lonely to be Grandma, donβt you think?β I told her, βIt probably gets pretty lonely to be anyone
I wanted to give people that feeling of wanting to hug the TV and just admit that you're unhappy.
Women have an incredible ability to pick up on emotional signals. For example, there are some wolves that are so clever they have learned to dress up like sheep. Man says, "Looks like a sheep. Talks like a sheep." Woman says, "Ain't no sheep!"
We've made houses for hatred. It's time we made a place where people's souls may be seen and made safe.
My parents had this incredibly vital relationship with an audience, like muscle with blood. This was the main competition I had for my parents' attention: an audience.
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