When one group rules another, the relationship between the two is political. When such an arrangement is carried out over a long period of time it develops an ideology (feudalism, racism, etc.). All historical civilizations are patriarchies: their ideology is male supremacy.
Interpretation
This quote discusses the political dynamics of power relations between groups and the resulting ideologies that emerge over time, particularly highlighting male supremacy in historical contexts.
Kate Millett's quote examines the nature of power dynamics in which one group dominates another, leading to the establishment of ideological frameworks that justify and perpetuate such power. She argues that throughout history, civilizations have been structured as patriarchies, where male supremacy becomes the prevailing ideology, influencing social, political, and cultural norms across generations.
In practice
In a lecture on gender studies, you could use this quote to illustrate how historical power dynamics shape societal ideologies.
Oh, what a catastrophe for man when he cut himself off from the rhythm of the year, from his unison with the sun and the earth. Oh, what a catastrophe, what a maiming of love when it was a personal, merely personal feeling, taken away from the rising and the setting of the sun, and cut off from the magic connection of the solstice and the equinox!
You can make some inferences about a man's character if you know something about the conditions in which he has survived and prospered.
Honest difference of views and honest debate are not disunity. They are the vital process of policy among free men.
The display of grief makes more demands than grief itself. How few men are sad in their own company.
Here is everything which can lay hold of the eye, ear and imagination - everything which can charm and bewitch the simple and ignorant. I wonder how Luther ever broke the spell.
I believe in truths, but I don't believe in the Truth. Furthermore, I think that vision of an underlying Truth, with as capital T, that scientists are privy to, has been a very counterproductive vision. It has served scientists very well, but what it has done, above all, is encloses the world of science and immunize it from criticism.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.