The Prisoner of Sex is a book by Norman Mailer, originally published in 1971 in Harper's Magazine. He wrote the book in reaction to developments in women's liberation and technology. Written in the third person, it defends his writing against feminist writer Kate Millett.
The Prisoner of Sex was first published in 1971 in Harper's Magazine and was subsequently published as a book. The piece is Mailer's response to the 1960s Women's Liberation movement, though he spends much of the book attacking one literary critic, Kate Millett. Mailer has many issues with both the Women's Liberation Movement and Millett, who casts Mailer and authors Henry Miller and D. H. Lawrence as symbols of misogyny. Mailer's core point is that though women may try to equal men, this is unattainable and undesirable due to biological differences between the sexes. Hence, the title: we are all prisoners of sex, despite our greatest attempts to escape.
Mailer structures his work into four sections and refers to himself in the third person as "the Prize Winner" or "the Prisoner of Sex." Each section casts the author in a different role to explain an aspect of his views on Women's Liberation.
The Prize Winner
The first section begins with Mailer describing his travails in caring for his children by himself for six weeks. It is Mailer's attempt at understanding being a woman, about which he writes, "He could not know whether he would have found it endurable to be born a woman or if it would have driven him out onto the drear avenues of the insane."[1] The remainder of this section consists of Mailer writing about the growing Women's Liberation movement and the backlash against his work he received from these "enraged Amazons, an honor guard of revolutionary vaginas," and concluding that he needed to further articulate his thoughts about women.[2]
The Acolyte
In this second section, Mailer, understood to be an acolyte in the title, begins by surveying the writings and participants of the Women's Liberation movement. He considers women as a class in economic terms. Though unwilling to admit many of their grievances, he acknowledges the problem of unequal pay: "Even men opposed to Women's Liberation were willing to agree that the economic exploitation of the female was a condition in need of amendment."[3] In this section he also falls into the stereotypical male tropes of female neurosis, blaming a woman's period for car crashes, increased admission to mental hospitals, and crime. This is part of a larger argument about the inherent physical strength of women compared to men. The womb and the ability to conceive incarcerates women. According to Mailer, "The defeat (of women) was built in."[4] It is also in this section that Mailer goes into a long discussion on the philosophical and existential purpose of the female orgasm and what it means for men and man-kind when women figure out how to orgasm without the assistance of a penis. The clitoral orgasm where no man or phallus is needed, as opposed to a vaginal orgasm, is an aspect of the Women's Liberation movement that shows Mailer's inner fear of not being "needed".
The Advocate
This section consists almost entirely of Mailer attacking the work of Kate Millett. He opens the section by proclaiming that "by any major literary perspective, the land of Millett is a barren and mediocre terrain."[5] He attacks Millett for what he perceives to be an unfair assessment of his work and two of his favorite literary figures, Miller and Lawrence. He critiques her use of quotes and the conclusions that she comes to through her picking of quotes. He believes that it does not give the authors any credit for the work they did to understand women, taking issue with her only drawing attention to their oppression of women. He then continues his discussion of sex by debating the power dynamics of male prison sex, equating power and dominance to manliness, and submission and penetration to the societal example of a woman. The instinctual power dynamic is representative of male-female relations. He writes that in prison, "One's ass becomes one's woman; one's honor is that she is virginal."[6] Mailer makes the case that succumbing to the natural depth of womanhood and manhood is a necessity. He writes that it may be necessary for "humans with vaginas, not necessarily devoted from the beginning to maternity, must deepen into a condition which was not female automatically, must take a creative leap into becoming women."[7] Essentially arguing that womanhood is based on the confines of the womb. His discussion eventually turns into the evolution of sex as a transaction. In prison, sex is a transaction, a transaction of power. Mailer writes that heterosexual sex became transactional and more like homosexual sex with the invention of the pill, as there is no chance of conception. Only power, cruelty, lust, desire, or pleasure is traded. Mailer states that "the development of Women's Liberation may have paralleled to the promulgation of the pill."[8]
The Prisoner
Mailer in this section spends time discussing the genetics of sex. He discusses how sex is determined beyond basic chromosomal knowledge and theorizes how the determination of sex may, through the selective fertilization of an egg, be a larger meaning than just chance. Mailer discusses how even the choice of a woman to have sex with a particular man has an impact on the outcome of a child, putting great meaning onto the act of sex. His sentiments about sex are summed up in this statement: "No thought was more painful as the idea that sex had meaning: for give meaning to sex and one was the prisoner of sex."[9]. Mailer concludes the book by coming full circle to his own life. He describes an example of a couple where responsibilities are shared and are given equal importance. Mailer states that if he were to have this kind of roommate, he would rather have a man. His work should not suffer to help unless her work were more important than his—and that just isn't possible according to himself. Mailer makes a final call for succumbing to the differences between sexes that are rooted in biological differences. A perfect world for Mailer would be one in which "people would found their politics on the fundamental demands they make of sex,"[10] one in which Women's Liberation supporters would accept that liberation from sex simply is not possible.
Reviews and critiques
Brigid Brophy for The New York Times
On May 23, 1971, The New York Times published Brigid Brophy's review of The Prisoner of Sex. Her piece was titled, "Meditations on Norman Mailer, by Norman Mailer, Against the Day a Norman Mailest Comes Along." Brophy was a well-respected English novelist and critic. She was a feminist and a campaigner for social reforms. She was uniquely suited to critique not only Mailer but Kate Millett as well, who Mailer attempted to attack within his work.
Brophy does not believe Mailer has accomplished a fair critique of Millett's "Sexual Politics." In fact, Brophy believes Mailer could have dissected Millett's work better to reveal its bias. However, Mailer is not the man for the job, as she points out. She believes a better author, perhaps Gore Vidal, could have provided a more critical analysis and response to Millett's fallacies. Perhaps one would think Brophy would outright support Millett since they both identify as feminists. However, Brophy feels it is necessary to point out the flaws in both men's and women's work, therefore, she provides feedback on her misgivings about Millett's novel. Brophy critiques Millett's writing within her article, calling out the novelist's "blindness."
Brophy does not let Mailer off the hook, however, she points out that "Mr. Mailer is not, however, a champion of other men's rights, any more than he is of women's." She addresses Mailer's choice to write his piece in third-person narrative, asserting that, "Mr. Mailer writes in the third person, presumably because the pronoun 'I' wouldn't remind the reader often enough that Mr. Mailer is a he." Brophy, on the whole, is unimpressed with Mailer's literary ability, analysis, and wit.
Brophy is past the two sexes butting heads to outwit or argue with one another. Instead, she wants people (men and women) to see the ways consumerism culture has defined the sexes and has created the binary which both sexes suffer from. Her analysis is striking as she asks her readers to move past both Millett and Mailer. She writes, "We need a vast movement of Human Lib and we're offered a diversionary, though not diverting, sideshow. Millettancy versus the Mailer Reaction is a rigged fight. It's a revival of the traditional slapstick of sex hostility, a routine that became obsolete when it became unnecessary for anyone to be left holding an unwanted baby. Perhaps the object is to embroil men and women in fictitious and irrational sex warfare, so that we will go obediently on buying our His and Hers consumer goods (including His and Hers consumer books) and never notice that the system is dehumanizing us all."
Annette Barnes for The Massachusetts Review
In the 1972 Winter Issue of The Massachusetts Review, Annette Barnes critiques The Prisoner of Sex for six pages. In her article, "Norman Mailer: A Prisoner of Sex," she does not outright condemn Mailer's position in his novel. Instead, Barnes is reflective of why Mailer has his opinions of sex and the sexes. She questions what it means when Mailer calls himself a "prisoner of sex." She finds Mailer has not proven his argument by the end of his novel, instead she claims, "Mailer gives us a vision, not an argument." She acknowledges that Mailer has written himself as the hero of his novel. However, Barnes highlights that "the journey of the hero, although often enlightening, is also a journey of self-justification and even self-deception."
Barnes provides a poignant summarization of the themes of Mailer's novel. She tackles Mailer's interesting perspective of creation and technology, writing, "Mailer fantasizes much over lost seeds, over lost creations. Creation is a key. Women are needed in the process of creating new life and any technology which makes either man or woman non-crucial is Evil." Barnes beautifully critiques Mailer's opinion of creation for its sexism because, "Having babies is no simple event. Once the creature descends from the womb, he or she needs care. Who gets the job? What Mailer never comes to terms with is the price he requires of women for their participation in creation." Barnes does not understand why Mailer or anyone should believe Mailer's opinion over that of a woman who actually has knowledge and ownership of a womb, which Mailer speaks so reverently of.
Perhaps Mailer's greatest perspective in The Prisoner of Sex is his opinion of technology and its future. Barnes takes note of this but instills her own opinion of Mailer and his sexism. "Mailer fears technology. It depersonalizes. He fears its imprint on contraception, planned parenthood, and eugenics. But he writes as if in light of the general depersonalization of man by the machine, the depersonalization of women by man is a lesser evil. At least a man is thrusting into you, not just a plastic prick."
She finds at the end of her critique that both men and women are prisoners of sex if defined by Mailer's terms.
Town Bloody Hall
Mailer took his critics head on in a panel in 1971 in New York City's Town Hall. Mailer participated in a Town Hall with feminist critics and writers to defend his position in his book The Prisoner of Sex. The panel participants were all feminists and included Jacqueline Ceballos, Germaine Greer, Jill Johnston, and Diana Trilling. Each had read Mailer's The Prisoner of Sex. Many members of the audience were notable figures, like Betty Friedan, who had also read Mailer's new work. Seated in the audience, Cynthia Ozick remarks that she finished his book on her train ride to the town hall. To start the evening, each of the women had ten minutes to speak at the podium before participating in a panel with Mailer. Mailer was the self-appointed emcee for the evening and took his position seriously, finding many occasions to cut off the women and chastise the audience. Mailer takes a defensive position throughout the entire night. However, the evening gets quickly out of hand with heckling from the audience and volatile responses from Mailer. The Town Hall was documented in a film documentary in 1979, Town Bloody Hall.
Themes in The Prisoner of Sex
Much of this text deals with issues that Mailer contends upon considering sex. Like many of Mailer's other texts, his strong opinions about how sex should be are reinforced constantly throughout. Sex is viewed in a complex, layered manner. When it comes to analyzing women and the womb, Mailer views them as intrinsically connected. Women are given the gift (and burden) of having the power to create life. Still, to use this power, they need male assistance; they cannot fulfill their duties without the presence of a man. He argues that women are obsessed with men and put on makeup to maintain their attraction, but Mailer himself feels threatened by their physical appearances, as he admits in this text. Additionally, he argues that men and women are near-equals that are stuck in a constant fight for domination, which often manifests itself in sexual acts, framing it as a battle for control. Mailer focuses on the male experience with sex, especially within the Women's Liberation movement, to defend his past statements and current views of women. This leads to his concern with the development of technology. There is an overarching sense of fear that the development of technology will make people obsolete and erase individuality. With the development of technology related to contraception, he is concerned that men would become less necessary for sex, giving women a monopoly over the power of creation – a power he fears they will be naïve and abuse, eventually forcing men to take over the typically "wifely" duties around the house. He is concerned that the development of technology will upset the necessary social balance between men and women, leading to disastrous results. He argues that women's increasing influence on men is bringing about all the problems in modern society, which primarily manifests in this conflict with technology.
Even though he claims that he supports Women's Liberation, his writings, public statements, and actions are often seen as sexist. Many feminist leaders, especially Kate Millett, criticized his work, and he took this criticism harder than usual because he was at the height of his fame at the time. Additionally, Mailer was frequently confused as to why the Women's Liberation Movement was largely against him. While Mailer typically enjoyed debating others who were strongly against him, Millett's criticism unusually got under his skin, as he admits that he is more upset when criticized by a woman than if by a man. However, he does praise women for passionately arguing with him.
Mailer's views of women in this piece go back and forth throughout, making it unclear overall what his final stance is; he goes from stating that "his respect for the power of women was so large that…[it] would tear through him"[11] to arguing that women should be kept in cages.[12] He constantly stands by his statement that he does not hate women – even though some other parts of this piece seem to contradict this. He states that his past writings do not reflect his actual beliefs, however, his personal statements often contradict this.
Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are also affected by other social divisions such as in race, class, and sexual orientation. The ideology and movement emerged in the 1960s.
The sexual revolution, also known as the sexual liberation, was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the developed Western world from the 1960s to the 1970s. Sexual liberation included increased acceptance of sex outside of traditional heterosexual, monogamous relationships. The normalization of contraception and the pill, public nudity, pornography, premarital sex, homosexuality, masturbation, alternative forms of sexuality, and the legalization of abortion all followed.
A facial is a sexual activity in which a man ejaculates semen onto the face of one or more sexual partners. A facial is a form of non-penetrative sex, though it is generally performed after some other means of sexual stimulation, such as vaginal sex, anal sex, oral sex, manual sex or masturbation. Facials are regularly portrayed in pornographic films and videos, often as a way to close a scene.
Katherine Murray Millett was an American feminist writer, educator, artist, and activist. She attended the University of Oxford and was the first American woman to be awarded a degree with first-class honors after studying at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She has been described as "a seminal influence on second-wave feminism", and is best known for her book Sexual Politics (1970), which was based on her doctoral dissertation at Columbia University. Journalist Liza Featherstone attributes the attainment of previously unimaginable "legal abortion, greater professional equality between the sexes, and a sexual freedom" in part to Millett's efforts.
Sex-positive feminism, also known as pro-sex feminism, sex-radical feminism, or sexually liberal feminism, is a feminist movement centering on the idea that sexual freedom is an essential component of women's freedom. They oppose legal or social efforts to control sexual activities between consenting adults, whether they are initiated by the government, other feminists, opponents of feminism, or any other institution. They embrace sexual minority groups, endorsing the value of coalition-building with marginalized groups. Sex-positive feminism is connected with the sex-positive movement. Sex-positive feminism brings together anti-censorship activists, LGBT activists, feminist scholars, producers of pornography and erotica, among others. Sex-positive feminists believe that prostitution can be a positive experience if workers are treated with respect, and agree that sex work should not be criminalized.
The Second Sex is a 1949 book by the French existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, in which the author discusses the treatment of women in the present society as well as throughout all of history. Beauvoir researched and wrote the book in about 14 months between 1946 and 1949. She published the work in two volumes: Facts and Myths, and Lived Experience. Some chapters first appeared in the journal Les Temps modernes.
Lesbian feminism is a cultural movement and critical perspective that encourages women to focus their efforts, attentions, relationships, and activities towards their fellow women rather than men, and often advocates lesbianism as the logical result of feminism. Lesbian feminism was most influential in the 1970s and early 1980s, primarily in North America and Western Europe, but began in the late 1960s and arose out of dissatisfaction with the New Left, the Campaign for Homosexual Equality, sexism within the gay liberation movement, and homophobia within popular women's movements at the time. Many of the supporters of Lesbianism were actually women involved in gay liberation who were tired of the sexism and centering of gay men within the community and lesbian women in the mainstream women's movement who were tired of the homophobia involved in it.
New feminism is a form of feminism that emphasizes the integral complementarity of women and men, rather than the superiority of men over women or women over men, and advocates for respecting persons from conception to natural death.
Shulamith Bath Shmuel Ben Ari Firestone was a Canadian-American radical feminist writer and activist. Firestone was a central figure in the early development of radical feminism and second-wave feminism and a founding member of three radical-feminist groups: New York Radical Women, Redstockings, and New York Radical Feminists. Within these radical movements, Firestone became known as "the firebrand" and "the fireball" for the fervor and passion she expressed towards the cause. Firestone participated in activism such as speaking out at The National Conference for New Politics in Chicago. Also while a member of various feminist groups she participated in actions including picketing a Miss America Contest, organizing a mock funeral for womanhood known as "The Burial of Traditional Womanhood", protesting sexual harassment at Madison Square Garden, organizing abortion speak outs, and disrupting abortion legislation meetings.
The Female Eunuch is a 1970 book by Germaine Greer that became an international bestseller and an important text in the feminist movement. Greer's thesis is that the "traditional" suburban, consumerist, nuclear family represses women sexually, and that this devitalises them, rendering them eunuchs. The book was published in London in October 1970. It received a mixed reception, but by March 1971, it had nearly sold out its second printing. It has been translated into eleven languages.
Sexual Politics is the debut book by American writer and activist Kate Millett, based on her PhD dissertation at Columbia University. It was published in 1970 by Doubleday. It is regarded as a classic of feminism and one of radical feminism's key texts, a formative piece in shaping the intentions of the second-wave feminist movement. In Sexual Politics, an explicit focus is placed on the omnipresence of male dominance throughout prominent 20th century art and literature. According to Millett, western literature reflects patriarchal constructions and the heteronormativity of society. She argues that men have established power over women, but that this power is the result of social constructs rather than innate or biological qualities.
Anne Koedt is an American radical feminist activist and author of "The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm", a 1970 classic feminist work on women's sexuality. She was connected to the group New York Radical Women and was a founding member of New York Radical Feminists.
Germaine Greer is an Australian writer and public intellectual, regarded as one of the major voices of the second-wave feminism movement in the latter half of the 20th century.
The Myth of Male Power: Why Men are the Disposable Sex is a 1993 book by Warren Farrell, in which the author argues that the widespread perception of men having inordinate social and economic power is false, and that men are systematically disadvantaged in many ways.
Christine Delphy is a French feminist sociologist, writer and theorist. Known for pioneering materialist feminism, she co-founded the French women's liberation movement in 1970 and the journal Nouvelles questions féministes with Simone de Beauvoir in 1981.
Sensible and Sensuality is a collection of essay by Indian feminist writer Sarojini Sahoo. Published in 2010, the book contains the author's view on feminism. Sahoo is a key figure and trend-setter of feminism in contemporary Indian literature. She has been listed among 25 exceptional women of India by Kindle English magazine of Kolkata. For Sahoo, feminism is not a "gender problem" or confrontational attack on male hegemony and, as such, differs from the feminist views of Virginia Woolf or Judith Butler.
Barbara Joan Love was an American feminist writer and the editor of Feminists who Changed America, 1963–1975. With the National Organization for Women, Love organized and participated in demonstrations, and she also worked within the organization to improve its acceptance of lesbian feminists. She helped to found consciousness-raising groups for lesbian feminists and was active in the gay liberation movement.
Town Bloody Hall is a 1979 documentary film of a panel debate between feminist advocates and activist Norman Mailer. Filmed on April 30, 1971, in The Town Hall in New York City. Town Bloody Hall features a panel of feminist advocates for the women's liberation movement and Norman Mailer, author of The Prisoner of Sex (1971). Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker produced the film, which stars Jacqueline Ceballos, Germaine Greer, Jill Johnston, Diana Trilling, and Norman Mailer. The footage of the panel was recorded and released as a documentary in 1979. Produced by Shirley Broughton, the event was originally filmed by Pennebaker. The footage was then filed and rendered unusable. Hegedus met Pennebaker a few years later, and the two edited the final version of the film for its release in 1979. Pennebaker described his filming style as one that exists without labels, in order to let the viewer come to a conclusion about the material, which inspired the nature of the Town Bloody Hall documentary. The recording of the debate was intended to ensure the unbiased documentation, allowing it to become a concrete moment in feminist history.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
