We’ll put Catharine MacKinnon (Professor of Law at the University of Michigan) in conversation with Beauvoir. Please start by reading MacKinnon's interview in the Los Angeles Times.

SEXUALITY AND MALE SUPREMACY

MacKinnon. 1989. Toward a Feminist Theory of the State. (pp. 3-12, 83-125, 237-49)

MacKinnon. 2010. “Gender – The Future”

MacKinnon centers sexuality, and heterosexuality specifically, in her analysis of male supremacy. She argues that gender does not determine sexuality. Instead, sexuality determines gender. As such, we should revisit the following question: “What is a woman?” For MacKinnon, a woman is that which turns men on. Femininity is defined by what is attractive to men. Put another way, women are the sexual objects of male subjects. Their sexuality is used by men. As MacKinnon puts it, “Man fucks woman; subject verb object.” However, all of this is mystified. Male supremacy is hard to see, let alone critique or abolish, because objectivism, the dominant epistemology, preferences the standpoint of men. Objectivism pretends to examine the world from outside of it and ignores the subaltern insights of women in the process. Liberal theory, Marxism, and the social sciences more generally are all guilty of this. Only radical feminism can help us unmask and undo male power. It does this through “consciousness raising,” where women critically examine the world by collectively drawing on their lived experiences. Consciousness raising doesn’t only challenge male power and its corresponding epistemology, it also motivates and directs feminist struggle. While there can be many targets in feminist politics, MacKinnon argues the law should be a primary focus in societies regulated by the so-called liberal state.