Daily Inspiration Quote by Kate Millett

A trap disguised as a question, Millett’s line makes the double bind snap shut in real time. The genius is its economy: two caricatures, no middle ground. “Prudes” and “prostitutes” aren’t descriptions of women so much as social weapons designed to discipline them. By putting the accusation in the mouths of an implied “they,” Millett spotlights how patriarchy launders its control through everyday judgment, not just laws or overt coercion. Whatever choice a woman makes, the verdict is already written.

The subtext is less about sex than about power: female desire is treated as illegible unless it’s either nonexistent (and therefore “respectable”) or commodified (and therefore “available” and punishable). The binary also reveals how “sexual liberation” can be booby-trapped; permissiveness isn’t automatically freedom if the culture keeps its old punishments and just changes the timing. Women are invited to be modern, but only on terms that preserve male comfort: not too much agency, not too much refusal.

Context matters. Millett wrote and organized in the heat of second-wave feminism, when arguments over the sexual revolution, marriage, pornography, and “respectability” politics were fierce. The line anticipates debates that still loop today: slut-shaming rebranded as “standards,” purity culture repackaged as “wellness,” and “sex-positive” rhetoric that can slide into new expectations. Millett’s question doesn’t ask for an answer; it exposes the rigged scoring system.