Jump to content

Talk:Kate Millett/GA1

Page contents not supported in other languages.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

GA Review

[edit]

Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · Watch

Reviewer: Crisco 1492 (talk · contribs) 05:13, 7 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Initial comments

[edit]
  • Hi Carole, I'll be reviewing this. I usually start with images (force of habit), so here's your image review:
  • File:Kate millet 1.jpg - OTRS permission; I don't have any doubts its correct
  • File:Old East.jpg - Fine copyright wise
  • File:Okuma1.jpg - Fine copyright wise.
  • File:Barnard College, NYC IMG 0961.JPG - I'll admit the uploader gave me pause (history of copyright violations, last I checked he's still blocked for that) but everything appears to check out here.
  • File:Entrance Bryn Mawr.JPG - Fine
  • File:Jenny Fay Likens.jpg - Problem here. You need a non-free content rationale for every article in which this image is used, and there's none for Millet's article. However, I'm afraid even this may not be enough, as WP:NFCC#8 requires "contextual significance", such that the lack of the image would be severely detrimental to a reader's understanding – something I doubt is met here. However, if we can track down the original newspaper (difficult, but not impossible) and if it was published without a copyright notice (rare, but not unheard of) then under US law the image would be public domain. It's a long shot, but it might work.

Prose comments later. A quick one though: the "Art" section consists mostly of short paragraphs, all under their own headings. This looks choppy, so if its possible to expand the paragraphs or rework so that the headings are removed and the paragraphs are longer, that would help greatly. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 05:13, 7 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for taking this on! I'll remove the image of Jenny Fay Likens, it's not needed... and I'll work on the "Art" section.--CaroleHenson (talk) 05:30, 7 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Prose

[edit]
  • Prose comments:

Intro

[edit]
  • A seminal influence on second-wave feminism, - the use of the term "seminal" might require a reference. Don't doubt it's correct, but WP:WEASEL is pretty firm.
  • is perhaps best known for her 1970 book Sexual Politics, - don't see this referenced in text
  • "Legal abortion, greater professional equality between the sexes and a sexual freedom nearly unimaginable 40 years ago" - I'd attribute this to the author of the source, and avoid using "40 years ago" (that's a 2001 source, so it's 53 years ago now, and counting
  • Might be worth mentioning what she's been doing since the 1980s in the lead (you don't seem to go into much detail with biographical information)

Early life

[edit]
  • who used corporal punishment. - does the source go into details? It wasn't exactly uncommon for corporal punishment to be used in the US in this period, after all, and a lot of the children of this era ended up using it as well.
  • and the subject of her book Mother Millett. - this is much much much later (unless Millett wrote the book when she was still a child) and such shouldn't be here. Was she a teacher/insurance saleswoman concurrently, or consecutively?
  • Her sisters are Mallory, one of the subjects of Three Lives,[1] and Sally, her older sister. - any brothers? also, is the implication that Mallory is the younger one correct?
  • she attended parochial schools in Saint Paul throughout her childhood. - since your last sentence included Millett's two sisters, we might want to restate her name here.

Education

[edit]
  • I see a snippet that says she enrolled in the university at age 17. Some preliminary scouting hasn't turned up anything with a source I can use... I've not found specific dates for graduating high school or starting college. It's probably 1951/1952 based upon her year of birth and graduation date. Searching on those years, her papers at Duke University, which include her University of Minnesota records, begin on 1951 so we might be able to infer it was 1951 or so, but that would be original research, right?--CaroleHenson (talk) 20:46, 7 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • A wealthy aunt paid for her education - this would imply UoM too, and not just Oxford. Might need to refactor.
  • I've only seen it related to Oxford - from what I've read, it sounds like they wanted to get her out of the country. The sentence is worded "A wealthy aunt paid for her education[nb 1] at St Hilda's College, Oxford,"--CaroleHenson (talk) 19:42, 7 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • Titles of masters / doctorate theses available?

Career

[edit]
  • Radicalesbians, and Downtown Radical Women - Either of these worth redlinks?
  • 40 years ago - same issues as above: I'd attribute and remove the "40 years ago", maybe replace it with "early 1960s"
  • She became a spokesperson for the movement - which movement? Feminist? (Also, since this is a new paragraph, the first "she" should be Millett.
  • which she covered in her 1974 book, Flying. - Perhaps some discussion of the thoughts she expressed in Flying?
  • Betty Friedan's focus, by comparison, was to improve leadership opportunities socially and politically and economic independence for women. - the comparison with Friedan appears to come out of nowhere for individuals unfamiliar with second-wave feminism. Perhaps a bit of segue? Also, how did Millett effect her changes?
  • in her sexual, physical and emotional abuse. - her being Millett, the abstract "powerless girl", Likens, or Baniszewski?
  • "Quite apart from any feminist polemics, The Basement can stand alone as an intensely felt and movingly written study of the problems of cruelty and submission." - Per WP:ATTRIBUTION and related policies/guidelines, we should attribute this to the author in-text
  • Going to Iran - any more detail?
  • I had looked for more details earlier and hadn't found anything... and right away tonight I found this great People article and expanded that paragraph significantly. I was so curious about what happened so that was an interesting find. Thanks!  Done--CaroleHenson (talk) 06:06, 8 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
* added 80,000 / seven printings for the first year.  Done--CaroleHenson (talk) 03:06, 8 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • The judge ruled in the plaintiffs' favor, but Millett reluctantly paid portions of the earnings to the women. - why "but"?
  • I've added a bit more to the statement: "The judge ruled in the plaintiffs' favor, but Millett reluctantly paid only a portion of the earnings to the women." The point is that she only paid a portion - and "but" seems to fit this situation better than "and". Does it sound better / make more sense now?--CaroleHenson (talk) 06:28, 8 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • Three Lives - worth redlinking? I mean, a NYT review suggests that there may be others out there, and multiple reviews is usually enough for notability. Not being mainstream (entirely or at all) doesn't affect notability; Frank's Cock is an FA yet very non-commercial and avant-garde.
  • "dazzling exhibitionism". - again, attribution would be nice here.
  • Would be nice to have a review of Sita. This helps.
  • In 1980, Millett was one of the ten invited artists whose work was exhibited in the Great American Lesbian Art Show at the Woman's Building in Los Angeles. - Have you had a look for contemporary newspaper reviews on Google News Archive? Perhaps they'd have discussion of her artwork.
  • a 'bizarre, dark, awful place' in the habit of doping its residents and pinning them in their beds - perhaps mention that it was a nursing home / retirement home / whatever the term is she uses.
  • Millett and others - other tenants, perhaps?
  • Any other discussion of The Women's Art Colony? Mission statement, etc.? I mean, she's maintained it for over 40 years, yet it's given 2 sentences in the article.

Awards and honors

[edit]
  • Why was Millett selected for the Courage Awards?
  • In March 2013, the U.S. National Women's Hall of Fame announced that Millett was to be among the institution's 2013 inductees. - Quote the citation, perhaps? The "Awards" section feels rather short.

Controversy

[edit]
  • Section #Controversy should, per WP:CSECTION, not be its own section. I'd move the Mailer information to #Sexual Politics, and the other one in a section discussing her scholarship (something missing from the article so far).

Personal life

[edit]
  • The dedicated section on Mother Millet might work better as a subsection in #Career (trimmed, perhaps, with an article on the book).
  • Yep, I definitely understand your point and I wrestled with that... its so telling of the family dynamics -- and the interesting twist of Millett "rescuing" her mother from the nursing home after her mother had her committed to a psychiatric ward, that I think it fits here.--CaroleHenson (talk) 07:26, 8 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • These qualities helped to make her "one of the most influential radical feminists of the 1970s". They could also make for difficult interpersonal relationships. = Attribution again -  Done--CaroleHenson (talk) 07:26, 8 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • remarkable - This is POV, so attribution would be better
  • Rousseau's Confessions - Should this be Rousseau's Confessions or Rousseau's Confessions?
  • The Loony Bin Trip - You haven't mentioned this book yet; why is it not in the career section?
  • came to her rescue - is there perhaps a less loaded term we can use?
  • met fellow sculptor Fumio Yoshimura - you haven't described Millett as a sculptor yet, just that she studied the art.
  • Millet was described as a sculptor in the "Early career" section: "In New York City she worked as a kindergarten teacher and learned to sculpt and paint from 1959 to 1961. She then moved to Japan and studied sculpture. Millett met fellow sculptor Fumio Yoshimura." Are you saying that some of this needs to be repeated here?--CaroleHenson (talk) 07:14, 8 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • Fumio Yoshimura - I know we can't redlink the name, per WP:REDLINK, but do you think there could be an article about him?
  • I don't know. I tried looking for more information about him and it's pretty lean. He seems to have been admired as a teacher and a sculptor of interesting wood pieces, but he doesn't appear to be particularly notable... unless his notability comes from being married to Millett. It has surpised me how little I was able to find out about him - and the Millett-Yoshimura relationship.--CaroleHenson (talk) 07:14, 8 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • it was said that he "loves her, leads his own creative life, and accepts her woman lovers - Attribution again. "it was said" is weaselly.
  • Yoshimura sculpted in wood, first in unfinished linden wood, having taught himself how to work with the medium while in New York. Known for his "painstaking technique", he made life-like depictions of plants, machines, and other objects, like bicycles and kites. Yoshimura was an adjunct professor at Dartmouth College for 11 years. - Not sure this is related closely enough to Millett to go into this much detail
  • Might be best to name all of her sisters in the front.
  • Yoshimura threatened divorce. - You had their divorce "amicable". A threat doesn't sound very amicable (might need to be reworded)
  • He threatened divorce in the early 1970s when they lived in California and was going through one of her most unstable periods. They divorced a decade later. But, I read "amicable" so many times about their divorce I thought I'd put it in the article. I went ahead and removed it, though. That's fine.--CaroleHenson (talk) 07:14, 8 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • a few times. - do we know how many?
  • Mallory Millett - why has the hyphenated name been omitted here? Had she become divorced/widowed by this point, or ...?
  • an Irish parliament member and a therapist-psychiatrist from Dublin, - are either named?
  • She did not oppose "supportive, inquiring and sensitive psychotherapy." - Ref?

Comprehensiveness

[edit]

Note about comprehensiveness:

  • I don't know why, but I'm unable to pull up the full Feminist Review article, but I was able to pull up and used the Signs / Women and Religion article to expand the scholarship section a bit re: Going to Iran.--CaroleHenson (talk) 04:38, 10 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • Although this article does a good job presenting her personal life (and the mental health aspect wouldn't look out of place in an FA, in terms of balance), I'm not sure it deals with Millett's academic activities adequately. Right now, her view of feminism appears to be limited to "Millett articulated a theory of patriarchy and conceptualized the gender and sexual oppression of women in terms that demanded a sex role revolution with radical changes of personal and family lifestyles", which I feel (though I'm not familiar with her writings) may be a bit too simplified. Millett's academic life feels very bare bones, and considering her activities and writings on feminism are why she drew mainstream attention, and that Sexual Politics has entire journal articles about its influence on 2nd wave feminism, the academic aspect probably needs to be strengthened a bit to reach criterion 3. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 16:14, 7 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Comments

[edit]
  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYT Three Lives was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
Thanks for the great work on this. I'll get to work on it.--CaroleHenson (talk) 17:52, 7 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Do you mind if I break this into chunks by section? My brain is on overload and it would help to work a chunk at a time.--CaroleHenson (talk) 02:57, 8 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I hope you don't mind, I went ahead and broke this out into sections, which makes it much easier for me to track. I get overwhelmed by blocks of info.--CaroleHenson (talk) 05:12, 8 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Expansion items

[edit]

From Cristo's comments above, I'm moving the remaining items, which are essentially items for expansion here:

  • Might be worth mentioning what she's been doing since the 1980s in the lead (you don't seem to go into much detail with biographical information)
  • which she covered in her 1974 book, Flying. - Perhaps some discussion of the thoughts she expressed in Flying?
  • Betty Friedan's focus, by comparison, was to improve leadership opportunities socially and politically and economic independence for women. - the comparison with Friedan appears to come out of nowhere for individuals unfamiliar with second-wave feminism. Perhaps a bit of segue? Also, how did Millett effect her changes?
  • Would be nice to have a review of Sita. This helps.
  • In 1980, Millett was one of the ten invited artists whose work was exhibited in the Great American Lesbian Art Show at the Woman's Building in Los Angeles. - Have you had a look for contemporary newspaper reviews on Google News Archive? Perhaps they'd have discussion of her artwork.
  • Any other discussion of The Women's Art Colony? Mission statement, etc.? I mean, she's maintained it for over 40 years, yet it's given 2 sentences in the article.
  • Why was Millett selected for the Courage Awards?
  • There's not a clear explanation of why. I think it can be inferred that it's because of her work on Sexual Politics and her accomplishments as a human rights activist, feminist, and artist - from several articles that mention the award and provide some biographical info about Millett... but there's no clear connection between the award and these points. I added a description from Yoko Ono of what she meant to accomplish with the award, which should help readers assess why she might have received the award.--18:38, 8 October 2014 (UTC)
  • In March 2013, the U.S. National Women's Hall of Fame announced that Millett was to be among the institution's 2013 inductees. - Quote the citation, perhaps?
  • The "Awards" section feels rather short.
  • a section discussing her scholarship (something missing from the article so far).

I also have to address Comprehensiveness and some to-do items in the Personal Life section (the two books, two items on her sisters' names).--CaroleHenson (talk) 14:58, 8 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I felt like this article was going to be a "beast" to get through GA review, but I didn't think I had so many items to work through. Thanks for the detailed review... I'll keep working on these remaining items... but have some personal life stuff that has been keeping me busy so it may be slow-going over the next couple of days.--CaroleHenson (talk) 15:10, 8 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • No worries, RL has been keeping me rather busy as well, and I consider "7 days" a suggestion more than anything. Did you notice my image suggestions at the top? Two of Millett's book covers are simple enough to be PD in the US. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 15:25, 8 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • Nope. If they're free, they're free. The template usually explains enough (but note it's just the versions I linked to... the subsequent editions appear to have more creative (and thus unfree) covers). — Crisco 1492 (talk) 00:06, 9 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • Alright, looks like the only things left to do before I do a source review are expand the "Scholarship" section a bit (academic reviews of her books should help indicate the main points) and reference the exhibitions section. Prose is at the GA level or higher. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 11:33, 9 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Reference comments

[edit]
  • Ref for the films and "Out of the Loop". On The Issues Magazine. Summer 1998.?
  • I've got the basic info, I don't know the page number.
  • If I've provided all the information for the films - using the cite AV media template, I didn't realize references were needed. What would a reference have in it that isn't in the listing?
  • Time magazine is a work and not a publisher
  • Standardize whether or not you include publishers with newspaper references
  • Standardize how your "Accessed via Highbeam" blurbs are formatted. I'd use the =via parameter
  • I do have a standard approach: "(accessed via HighBeam Research, an online subscription service)" - everyone of the citations says that. I don't know of a parameter
  • You sometimes have it after the publisher (normal) and sometimes after the work (in italics). It doesn't look quite right. There's a "via=" parameter with the cite family of templates that you can use. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 09:05, 12 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • Alice Henry (June 1977). "Sita (Review)". off our backs (accessed via JSTOR): 14. - page 14, volume 14, or...? Might need to standardize how you format page numbers
  • I didn't format the page numbers, I used a {{cite}} template. This was a journal, so I used the cite journal. I guess if I switched to the "citation" template - that would format consistently. Is that what you're suggesting?
  • Standardize whether or not you use locations of publishers in your book references
Just out of curiosity, how many of these are GA criteria?--CaroleHenson (talk) 08:44, 12 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • Odd, I could have sworn that 2A included reference formatting, but rereading WP:GA?, the criteria as phrased would accept bare urls, and in fact specifically states that standardized formatting is not necessary... interesting. The GA candidacy is in the bag, and I'll be passing it now. If you plan to continue to FAC (it would be nice to have Millett on the main page some time) I recommend standardizing the formatting, getting a few more academic reviews of her work, and giving a more nuanced discussion of her theoretical approach, if possible, but I think the comprehensiveness is GA class already. Congratulations, and my apologies for being so late in returning to the review. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 09:05, 12 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • The via= and subscription= parameters are helpful! I made the changes for all the HighBeam and JSTOR sources. Oh my, going for Featured Article sounds like a good plan, but I might need a break. I get your points about theoretical approach and more academic reviews, but what do you mean about standardized formatting - do you mean citation formatting?