Meaning of the phrase "to corner the world's pleasures"

Question

So I was baffled when the women at college accused me and my sex of having cornered the world's pleasures.

I know about the meaning of all of the words in this sentence, but I don't know the expression and I want to know about meaning of "having cornered" in this sentence

And I want to know this sentence too: "I realize now how ancient these identities are, how deep the tug they exert on men,the undertow of a thousand generations."

These sentences written by Scott Russell Sanders In patterns book lesson (Women and Men)

Answer 1

The metaphor 'to corner something' means to grasp it to oneself. It is easier to defend your physical possessions if you are holding them in a corner e.g. of a room, so that people cannot take them from you. Hence one can 'corner'both animate and inanimate things if one holds them metaphorically to one's bosom in a corner.

Sometimes businesses 'corner the market'. This means they buy up all the competitive companies selling a particular product so they are able to control the price at which it is sold etc.

So the OP's writer is accusing men of 'having cornered the world's pleasures' presumably to the exclusion of women.

In the second example, an 'undertow' is powerful current that flows beneath the surface of a river, a lake or the ocean. So the argument is that there is a very powerful 'under-current' based on the attitudes of ancestors going back 1,000 generations. (i.e. back in time through the last two or three ice-ages! A modest touch of hyperbole there. )

I think these explanations may help you toward a full understanding, but if I can assist you further, please say.

Answer 2

To "corner" something is to put all of it in a small, private corner for oneself.

To "corner the world's pleasures" is to monopolize them.

Frankly, the accusation makes no sense, because "pleasure" is a hard thing to monopolize. But apparently, the women were claiming that men have a monopoly on life's pleasures (or at least the means to buy them, such as money).