Most men — even most men who believe in principle that this “right” is unfounded — cling hard to their right to rule the world. And most women — including many who are ashamed of the feeling — feel deep down a certain willingness to let them go on ruling it. – Dorothy Dinnerstein, The Mermaid […]
In the 20th Century, Liberation Theologies emerged within Latin American Catholicism and African-American Churches almost simultaneously. Subsequently, Feminist Theologies also sought to rethink Christianity and religion more broadly. Black Feminism and Womanism emerged in tension with this latter movement, as they sought to redress blindnesses perceived in Feminist Theology as well as secular (white) feminism. […]
[Reposting from Disloyal Opposition to Modernity here.] (The following is my response to the “Exiting the Vampire Castle” controversy on The North Star webzine about tensions between Marxism, intersectionality, and left politics.) 1) Communism is the goal of ending human domination, exploitation, oppression, and repression in a world of abundance, justice, and harmony among all […]
All it takes is reading another white male Marxist critique of intersectionality to remember exactly why I don’t consider myself a Marxist. (My Facebook status Sunday 5/18) [For an earlier discussion of some of these issues, see the original post.] Why should anyone care about intersectionality? What does this long strange word signify? Can’t we […]
“Because of the seemingly natural connection between women’s childbearing and lactation capacities and their responsibility for child care, and because humans need extended care in childhood, women’s mothering has been taken for granted. It has been assumed as inevitable by social scientists, by many feminists, and certainly by those opposed to feminism. As a result, […]
Is human society unalterably fated to reproduce in each generation inequalities, hierarchies, and domination? Is there a drive within each of us to both be dominated and to dominate others? On this most basic question, the radical left has tended to assert that “human nature” is not inherently competitive, aggressive, or domineering. Such traits are […]
The ruling classes throughout human history have dominated their populations by multiple means. They have monopolized and controlled political power, armies & security forces, economic relations, sex/gender roles, religious institutions, racial privilege, and ecological conditions & resources. As modern technology enables global travel and communications on an unprecedented scale, these originally local and provincial means […]
“Women as a sex class, then, do have potential disruptive power in the interconnected systems of capitalist and patriarchal sex/affective production. If women refuse to do their work as presently organized, neither capitalism nor patriarchy could continue to function.” Ann Ferguson, Blood at the Root (1989) _______________________________________________________ The revolutionary potential of women is missing from the […]
“We need not merely a synthesis of feminism with traditional Marxism, but also a thoroughly feminist historical materialism, which regards the social relations of a particular historical formation as one system in which gender differentiation is a core atribtute.” Iris Marion Young – Socialist Feminism and the Limits of Dual Systems Theory
I am very interested in a fusion of feminism, Socialism/Marxism, and psychoanalysis/sexual psychology. My concerns are similar to those that animated the Frankfurt School and today Žižek, why do the masses seem to gravitate towards the Right? What can progressives do to intervene for emancipatory ends in the social sphere? Freud’s theory of eros, death […]
I believe that motherhood has been institutionalized in such a way over history to exploit women and prevent their public influence on the activities of adult men. In other words, patriarchy has colluded in confining women’s influence as narrowly as possible to the world of children. Childcare, teaching, and parenting are overwhelmingly done by women. […]
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