The Subjection of Women-John Mill

"Men do not want solely the obedience of women, they want their sentiments. All men, except the most brutish, desire to have, in the woman most nearly connected with them, not a forced slave but a willing one, not a slave merely, but a favourite. They have therefore put everything in practice to enslave their minds. The masters of all other slaves rely, for maintaining obedience, on fear; either fear of themselves, or religious fears." (523)

This reminds me of domestic violence. Before you say..what??????, let me explain. One of my teachers is a domestic violence counselor. She explained to us that domestic violence is not only when a women/man is physically abuse but often only consist of mental abuse in the form of control. A man with a controlling nature will likely say he didn't force the woman to do anything. But she, the woman, has gotten accustomed to granting his every whim, regardless of her feelings, that she quickly obeys, and appears to be a "willing slave". My college roommate had a boyfriend who was physically abusive, when they were alone and mentally abusive when others were around. He would ask her to do something and when she objected he would get up and walk towards her with a stone face glaring at her. He had programmed her to fear him and she consequently did what she was told.