#Lise Vogel
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Social Reproduction Theory: Remapping Class, Recentering Oppression -
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Books I read in December 2022 & my opinion on them !
My favorites!
La raison dans l’Histoire, Hegel, 1822 (it’s the intro of Lectures on the Philosophy of History if I am not mistaken) | much more approchable than the Phenomenology, I think it could be a good book to start with if you want to discover Hegel’s work.
Un balcon en forêt, Julien Gracq, 1958 | my favorite Gracq so far. If you don’t already know Gracq, I really recommend you check out his books!!
Hegel et la société, Pierre Macherey et Jean-Pierre Lefebvre, 1984 | a great book to explain some of Hegel’s concepts into simple yet precise ways. Made me want to read Elements of the Philosophy of Right.
Good
Marxism and the Oppression of Women: Toward a Unitary Theory, Lise Vogel, 1983 | Very interesting on paper. Disappointed that the original production of the author only amounts to 2 chapters out of 10. Moreover, they feel more like an introduction than a proper contribution, as the original production is quite underdeveloped and sometimes lacking. An important book nonetheless. Makes me want to read more of Lise Vogel !
Limonov, Emmanuel Carrère, 2011 | Could have easily been a favorite of mine but the author is so.......... annoying. Like mate, the book isn’t about yourself, stop it.
Bad
Querelle de Brest, Jean Genet, 1947 | Maybe it’s a Jean Genet overdose ? Idk, I really liked everything I read of him until now. But this one........... is not it. Very unsubtle, the balance in Genet’s work I liked so far is nowhere to be seen. The writing is usually heavy but here, it’s heavier than ever, making the book very hard to read. The fact that there is no sections makes it even worse. I am so disappointed.............
#didn't read as much as i wanted#between Christmas and the move#but still a good month with good books!!#and like that 2022 is a wrap omg#book#books#bookblr#book review#reading#reading journal#reading suggestions#bookworm#reading recap#book rec#book recommendations#hegel#julien gracq#lise vogel#emmanuel carrère#jean genet#pierre macherey#jean-pierre lefebvre#do reads#do read list
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A multi-generational saga courses across the pages of Ædnan, by Sámi-Swedish author Linnea Axelsson, translated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel. The verse epic follows an Indigenous Sámi family who have herded reindeer for generations, as the forces of colonialism and modern development of their ancestral lands threaten their culture and livelihood. The story is told by a small chorus of characters from the 1910s through the current day, and we become especially close to Lise, who left her Sámi family, following her brother Jon-Henrik, to be educated at a residential school for “Nomad” children. This excerpt from Chapter XII takes place in the early 1970s, along the Great Lule River Valley, where the state-owned Vattenfall company was developing hydroelectric resources, and Lise is graduating into a world unimaginable to her parents.
. .
The river climbed silently up the hills
as soon as Vattenfall whistled it came creeping:
–
Streamed backwards up its deep channel and drowned the earth
When the great Suorva Dam for the third time was to be regulated
–
Entreaty
shone from Mama’s eyes
–
She explained clearly to the Swedes
that the fishing will suffer if the water rises
–
There was probably no one who understood what she was saying
– –
After the social studies lesson I went with the others to sit on the gymnasium floor
–
Almost all of Malmberget’s students had been dismissed from class
– To participate in the miners’ strike meeting
–
Someone had heard that Olof Palme was coming
that he would travel all the way up here
–
To the mining company’s and Vattenfall’s world the one that he himself had helped build
–
It is what he is guarding
It is all that he can see
–
The mine boss’s voice
flowed wildly above the crowded hall which was hot with bodies
–
His voice was so robust his conviction so intense
–
I glanced at Anne who was sitting beside me leaning against the wall bars
and she smiled back at me
–
Soon we would be leaving school too
–
And could start working join the union
–
You took the job you wanted that’s all there was to it
–
Switchboard cleaner or cook
with the old folks at the Pioneer or the children in day care
– –
I spend the weekend up at Mama and Papa’s
–
I stand with Jon-Henrik
–
Watching the river flow murky across the slope
–
That brushy slope
where he and I used to go it’s underwater now
–
How are our tracks ever to be heard Among the Swedes’ roads and power stations
–
It’s Jon-Henrik who says this he had also been drawn down to the dam
–
To work for Vattenfall as soon as school was done
–
I’m surprised when he says
That he’d preferred to have taken up with the reindeer
–
Been elected into the Sámi community
And learned to guide that wandering gray soft ocean across the world of the fells
–
Just as the lot of us were once taught at the Nomad School that this is what the Sámi do
that this is how we all live
–
He laughs and says:
–
Who knows what the spring flood will bring with it
this drowned earth may yet be fertile
More on this book and author:
Learn more about Ædnan by Linnea Axelsson.
Check out The Rumpus for a conversation between Linnea Axelsson and Susan Devan Harness about Axelsson's Sámi heritage and the decision to write Ædnan in verse.
Click here to read Linnea Axelsson's op-ed piece for LitHub on Scandinavia’s hidden history of Indigenous oppression.
Visit our Tumblr to peruse poems, audio recordings, and broadsides in the Knopf poem-a-day series.
To share the poem-a-day experience with friends, pass along this link.
#AxelssonAudio#poetry#poem-a-day#knopf poetry#national poetry month#knopfpoetry#poem#Aednan#Linnea Axelsson
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⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ hi everyone \\(^.^)// i'm ćaja (tcha - yah). early 20s. i'm from an [undisclosed] country in western europe and i'm an organizer for my country's communist party
I've been on radblr for about three years now and lately i've gotten very pissed off at the casual racism, imperialist and anti-leftist propaganda that's been gleefully shared on radblr so i decided to create a sideblog to focus on women's liberation from a communist, anti-imperialist perspectiv. I know radblr has had these problems for a looong, long time but the way they treated Imane Khelif was really the final straw for me
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ white-passing, mixed working-class lesbian
i'm involved in some antiracist orgs that work to end racism targeting my ethnic group (won't say which because i don't want to leak my main).
i support female separatism but i don't think it's the be-all end-all of feminism. anti-political lesbianism. i don't care about dumb lesbian discourse (goldstar, butch/femme etc)
i don't consider myself a radical feminist because i find a lot of radical feminist theory to be completely disconnected from working-class women's lived reality. as a working-class woman from a marginalized/racialized community many of my relatives struggle(d) with alcoholism, drug abuse, illiteracy and psychosis, i have faced homelessness a couple of times and my struggle as a woman can't be separated from my struggle as a worker
i've always been interested in marxism and i've been a member of the communist party since january 2023. social reproduction theory resonates more with my worldview but i'm also interested in general marxist feminist theory as well as materialist feminism
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ no racism, no antisemitism, no zionism, no homophobia/lesbophobia, no ableism, no sexism
anti-psychiatry, anti-military, america-phobic, europe-phobic, pro-rehabilitation for convicts (still learning about rehabilitative justice)
atheist, anti-religion, very proud evangelical christian hater
vegetarian for the environment
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ abolish the sex trade and surrogacy. both of them are imperialist institutions that rely on the sex trafficking of impoverished women, mostly woc from the global south
you can't be a feminist, anti-racist and anti-imperialist if you support the sex trade (porn/prostitution) and surrogacy!
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ freshly graduated with a master's degree in social sciences, currently trying to work my way through Marx and Engels' works
some philosophers and activists I admire: Marx and Engels, Lenin, <3 Lise Vogel <3, Christine Delphy, Thomas Sankara, the Combahee River Collective. Still learning about marxism and marxist feminism (last read: Domenico Losurdo's Liberalism: a Counter History)
also interested in communist leaders (Ho Chi Minh, Tito, Mao, Kwame Nkrumah, Castro, Abdullah Öcalan) and female socialist/communist figures (Flora Tristan, Nadejda Krupskaja, Alexandra Kollontai, Claudia Jones, Nawal El-Sadaawi)
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ language, literature, philosophy enthusiast. indian food fan club. currently obsessed with crusader kings 3. i also love learning about archeology and religions (from an anthropological pov)
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ my favourite TV shows are Lost, Black Sails and Interview with the Vampire. my favourite movies are Black Swan, Wonka (2023) and Peter Pan (2003)
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ my favourite books are Frankenstein, the Count of Monte-Cristo, Lolita and Stephen King's It. currently reading some British female literature classics (Brontë sisters, Jane Austen, George Eliot)
UNCONDITIONAL support to the women in 🇮🇷 🇦🇫 and to the people in 🇵🇸 🇨🇩 🇦🇲 🇳🇨 🇸🇩 and Kurdistan!
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recently had a dream where:
- lise vogel wrote a "sequel" to marxism and the oppression of women called marxism and the oppression of women 2
- people submerged themselves in fish tanks as a form of skin care, like that thing where people let goldfish eat dead skin off their feet but for your whole body
- i was talking to a furniture shop owner who was friends with my mother (i dont know of any furniture shop owners in my mother’s social circle) and i was panicking about her potentially outing me
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Juillet MMXXIV
Films
Le Comte de Monte-Cristo (2024) d'Alexandre de La Patellière et Matthieu Delaporte avec Pierre Niney, Bastien Bouillon, Anaïs Demoustier, Anamaria Vartolomei, Laurent Lafitte, Pierfrancesco Favino, Patrick Mille, Vassili Schneider, Julien de Saint Jean et Julie de Bona
La Jalousie (1976) de Raymond Rouleau avec Daniel Gélin, Nicole Calfan, Jacques Toja, Annick Alane, Marc Eyraud, Anna Gaylor, Françoise Pages et Francis Lemaire
Maestro(s) (2022) de Bruno Chiche avec Yvan Attal, Pierre Arditi, Miou-Miou, Pascale Arbillot, Caroline Anglade, Nils Othenin-Girard et Caterina Murino
The Truman Show (1998) de Peter Weir avec Jim Carrey, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Natascha McElhone et Holland Taylor
Un crime dans la tête (The Manchurian Candidate) (1962) de John Frankenheimer avec Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury, James Gregory, Lloyd Corrigan et Leslie Parrish
French Connection (The French Connection) (1971) de William Friedkin avec Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco, Marcel Bozzuffi et Frédéric de Pasquale
To The Moon (Fly Me to the Moon) (2024) de Greg Berlanti avec Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Nick Dillenburg, Anna Garcia, Jim Rash, Noah Robbins, Colin Woodell et Christian Zuber
Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez (1964) de Jean Girault avec Louis de Funès, Michel Galabru, Jean Lefebvre, Christian Marin, Guy Grosso, Michel Modo, Geneviève Grad, France Rumilly, Nicole Vervil et Claude Piéplu
La Marseillaise (1938) de Jean Renoir avec Pierre Renoir, Louis Jouvet, Lise Delamare, Andrex, Edmond Ardisson, Nadia Sibirskaïa, Jenny Hélia, Gaston Modot et Julien Carette
Un éléphant ça trompe énormément (1976) de Yves Robert avec Jean Rochefort, Claude Brasseur, Guy Bedos, Victor Lanoux, Danièle Delorme, Anny Duperey, Martine Sarcey et Marthe Villalonga
Le Gendarme à New York (1965) de Jean Girault avec Louis de Funès, Michel Galabru, Jean Lefebvre, Christian Marin, Guy Grosso, Michel Modo, Geneviève Grad et Alan Scott
Le Secret de Green Knowe (From Time to Time) (2009) de Julian Fellowes avec Alex Etel, Timothy Spall, Maggie Smith, Christopher Villiers, Pauline Collins, Eliza Bennett, Rachel Bell, Dominic West et Carice van Houten
Raoul Taburin (2018) de Pierre Godeau avec Benoît Poelvoorde, Édouard Baer, Suzanne Clément, Vincent Desagnat, Grégory Gadebois, Victor Assié et Timi-Joy Marbot
Nous irons tous au paradis (1977) de Yves Robert avec Jean Rochefort, Claude Brasseur, Guy Bedos, Victor Lanoux, Danièle Delorme, Marthe Villalonga, Jenny Arasse, Christophe Bourseiller et Josiane Balasko
Drôle de drame (1937) de Marcel Carné avec Françoise Rosay, Michel Simon, Louis Jouvet, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Nadine Vogel, Pierre Alcover et Jean-Louis Barrault
French Connection 2 (1975) de John Frankenheimer avec Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Bernard Fresson, Philippe Léotard, Ed Lauter, Charles Millot, Jean-Pierre Castaldi et Cathleen Nesbitt
Le Gendarme se marie (1968) de Jean Girault avec Louis de Funès, Michel Galabru, Jean Lefebvre, Christian Marin, Guy Grosso, Michel Modo, Geneviève Grad, Claude Gensac et Mario David
Totally Spies! le film (2009) de Pascal Jardin avec Claire Guyot, Fily Keita, Céline Mauge, Jean-Claude Donda, Karl Lagerfeld et Emmanuel Garijo
Séries
Maguy Saison 6
Quitte ou rouble - Séparation de survie - L'injuste prix - Une nièce rapportée - Une occase en moins - Météo et bas - Une Maude passagère - Bénévole d'essai - Tata poule - Des routes en déroute - Débat des eaux - L'ami gratteur - Pinceaux périlleux - Termite errant - Troubles de la télévision - Étrennes à la traîne - Mégarde à vue - Golf: heurts - Mépris de Rome - Le rappeur sur la ville - Jaloux y es-tu ? - Clochard abstrait - Affreux d'emploi - Un clown chasse l'autre - Adamo.. tus et bouche cousue - Passe-moi le recel - Fissures la corde raide - Écoutes que coûte - Le carton de la plaisanterie - Un fils à la patte - Mur… aïe ! - Désaccords de guitares - Une mage d'histoire - Compagnons d'alarmes - Despote au feu - Dernière cartouche au tableau - Des pots en dépôt
Affaires sensibles
17 et 18 septembre 1981 : dernière cigarette pour la guillotine - 1er février 2003, l’accident de la navette spatiale Columbia - Les Dix d’Hollywood, ou quand l’Amérique voyait rouge - Challenger 1986 : une catastrophe en plein ciel pour la fin d’un rêve "étoilé" - La tornade Michel Polac - John Lennon, mort d'un enfant du siècle - “Nous irons les buter jusque dans les chiottes” Russie, 1999, les attentats, la Tchétchénie et Poutine - Essais nucléaires dans le pacifique, un mensonge français - Péchiney : délit d'amitié, délit d'initiés
Le Coffre à Catch
#174 : William Regal champion en Angleterre? - #175 : CM Punk de retour à la ECW ! - #176 : Shelton vs Christian : un banger en préparation ! - #177 : Trent Baretta & Caylen Croft : les vrais Best Friends ! - #178 : TLC 2009 : Un Show Stealer ?
WWE : les rivalités de légende Saison 2
Hulk Hogan vs. Roddy Piper - The Rock vs. John Cena - Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart - The Undertaker vs. Randy Orton - Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels - Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns - The Undertaker vs. Mankind - Trish Stratus vs. Lita
The Durrells : une famille anglaise à Corfou Saison 1, 2
Episode 1 - Episode 2 - Episode 3 - Episode 4 - Episode 5 - Episode 6 - Episode 1 - Episode 2 - Episode 3 - Episode 4 - Episode 5 - Episode 6
Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours
Episode 1 - Episode 2 - Episode 3
Totally Spies Saison 7
Attention : ceci n'est pas un test - Espionnes à l'ancienne - Alerte chat-pardeurs
Spectacles
Patate (1982) de Marcel Achard avec Pierre Mondy, Michel Duchaussoy, Marie Dubois, Pascale Audret, Clémentine Amouroux et Philippe Dehesdin
Imagine Dragons Chambord Live (2023)
Elvis: The Comeback Special (1968)
Nirvana: MTV Unplugged in New York (1993)
Les Pigeons (2022) de et avec Michel Leeb, et aussi Francis Huster, Chloé Lambert, Philippe Vieux
Livres
Batman : The Killing Joke d'Alan Moore et Brian Bolland
Red Skin, tome 1 : Welcome to America de Xavier Dorison et Terry Dodson
Red Skin, tome 2 : Jacky de Xavier Dorison et Terry Dodson
Le coureur et son ombre d'Olivier Haralambon
Détective Conan, tome 23 de Gôshô Aoyama
Détective Conan, tome 24 de Gôshô Aoyama
Conversations avec A d'Alex Lacquemanne
Kaamelott, tome 7 : Contre-attaque en Carmélide d'Alexandre Astier, Steven Dupré et Picksel
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have to look to lise vogel and tithi bhattacharya for that
where do babies come from?
not sure, marx never got around to writing that volume of capital
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Grève à la SNCF : le trafic reprendra progressivement après la levée du préavis
Le préavis de grève a été levé pour le week-end du Nouvel An, vendredi 23 décembre. Quelles conséquences cela aura sur le trafic ? En direct de la gare de Lyon, nous retrouvons la journaliste Lise Vogel.
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youtube
#Tiens ce soir au lieu de regarder la TV#régalez-vous : https://youtu.be/o6cXZyJ03QI#YouTube (https://youtu.be/o6cXZyJ03QI)#Les Bobards d'Or : France Info rafle la mise !#Lundi 7 février#pour sa 13ème édition#la traditionnelle cérémonie des Bobards d'Or 2022 s'est tenue au Théâtre du Gymnase ! Et c'est Lise Vogel#la jeune première de chez France Info qui a remporté le premier prix#suivie de près par Delphine Ernotte#la patronne de France Télévision. La troisième place a été attribuée à un médecin de plateau#le néphrologue de la Pitié-Salpêtrière#Gilbert Deray ! Cette année encore#un podium de la mauvaise foi bien mérité.#Youtube
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ok i'm so confused on how tumblr works but hello hey if anyone is interested in social reproduction theory, marxist feminism, black feminism, and postcolonial feminism in the vein of lise vogel, tithi bhattacharya, cinzia arruzza, chandra talpade-mohanty, sylvia wynter, himani bannerji, etc. we should talk
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"Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World" - Kumari Jayawardena
-> each chapter focuses on the history of feminism in a different MENA or Asian country so it's a very good entry book to get acquainted with feminism outside the west; you'll get many book recommendations from reading it!
"Women and Gender in Islam" - Leila Ahmed
"The Hidden Face of Eve" - Nawal el Saadawi
-> those three books are good companion books, i recommend reading them together
"Women, Race and Class" - Angela Davis
"The Wombs of Women" - Francoise Verges
"Gender, Ethnicity and Class: Romani Women Political Activism and Social Struggle" - Angela Koczé
-> my personal bible
"Black Sisters, Speak Out: Feminism and Oppression in Black Africa" - Awa Thiam
-> senegalese feminist, that book mainly focuses on polygamy and FGM in Africa
"The Trouble Between Us" - Wini Breines
"The Combahee River Collective Statement" - Combahee River Collective
"Marxism and the Oppression of Women: Toward a Unitary Theory" - Lise Vogel
"The Main Enemy" - Christine Delphy
-> those two are also great companion books. Delphy and Vogel have two very different understandings of how the patriarchy works + how it interacts with capitalism. both analyses are however very relevant; i wish someone would host a debate between these two
"The Women Outside" - Stephanie Golden
-> a book about homelessness among women in New York in the 80s/90s
"Women and Genocide" - Elissa Bemporad and Joyce W. Warren
-> history book; each chapter is dedicated to a different case study of how women were particularly impacted by one genocide. this includes: the genocide of the Herero and Nama, the Armenian, the Guatemalan, the Bangladeshi, the Rwandan, the Sudanese genocides, as well as discussions about contemporary violence against women in Latin America and the Middle East
Some theorists to check out that I still haven't read: Sheila Rowbotham, Susan Ferguson ("Women and Work: Feminism, Labour, and Social Reproduction"), Claudia Jones, Selma James ("Sex, Race and Class"), Heleieth Saffioti ("Women in Class Society")
I'd also advise reading "The Jakarta Method" by Vincent Bevins, it's about the coup backed by the CIA in Indonesia to overthrow the communist party in 1965. it explains that Indonesian feminists (the GERWANI movement) were particularly targeted by the junta following the coup, many were jailed, raped and murdered, while the military propaganda depicted them as 'whores'.
There's also a great chapter in "How Jews Became White Folks in America" by Karen Brodkin about immigrant and working-class Jewish women's involvement in the labour rights movement during the interwar in the US
radical feminism is a left-wing movement, but espousing some basic radfem ideas (ie, women are oppressed in patriarchal societies; prostitution is exploitative; gender ideology harms women's rights) doesn't automatically make you a leftist. you have to actually do the work and read left-wing theory (including theory not necessarily written by women; anticapitalist theory, antiracist theory, etc) to properly articulate the relationship between misogyny, racism and capitalism; to see how women's oppression is backed and supported by class society and racial oppression; to see how women of colour, working class women and third world women are uniquely oppressed in an imperialist, capitalist and patriarchal society. radical feminism isn't an identity or a label you can wear on and off, it's a movement you follow, it's principles you apply to yourself and how you see the world, it's radical actions you do in your day to day life. you have to actively work to be a leftist if you want to be a radical feminist. otherwise your liberation movement will only really cater to middle class, white and western women. working class women, woc and third world women will never be free if you don't also oppose imperialism, racism and capitalism. and that doesn't mean you have to include men in your feminism. you can oppose all these things while focusing on the women who're harmed by it
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susan ferguson, women and work, p13.
lise vogel, marxism and the oppression of women, p145.
two statements, at different levels of concreteness, of the same contradiction. crucial that the dynamic applies to sexual reproduction as well as day-to-day lifemaking
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I was literally JUST skimming that Rubin piece yesterday b/c my bf has been reading "Marxist feminist takes" on Instagram. They've been digging into anti-capitalist critiques of identity politics and what they referred to as queer theory (Is there a word for the instagram/tumblr theoretical cannon of like 2015-now?).
I have a women's studies degree (lmao) (one of the drabinski twins was my professor) and I feel strongly about Instagram theorists (we should talk about this, I'd love to hear your thoughts) so I was like let me pull out some PDFs for you to read some primary sources. Cause like Cohen was already critiquing queer theory in 97 with "Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens." I know there's stuff out there.
Turns out that "The Traffic in Women" is one of the only PDFs I have saved from school (very sad!!! Why did I do this). I was more into Butler and Ahmed in school and always leaned more phenomenological so I have not dabbled heavily in Marxist analysis.
Do you have any recommendations for Marxist feminist readings? Recent or classic? They're particularly interested in anti-capitalist critiques of sex work and porn, like alienation from the body type stuff, but also contemporary queer identity politics type stuff.
yes yes! I want to hear and talk more about instagram theory. is this instagraphics? what is it?
briefly: i'm a nancy fraser stan and it's one of those things where i feel fully and totally insane that we got to this place in culture without people really being the way about nancy fraser that they are about adolph reed (which is to say: fighting over and consuming rabidly) (i may feel similar about barbara fields actually, tbd). what your bf is looking for is nancy fraser's fortunes of feminism. i have an investment in her work that's particularly about her commitment to periodization and unravelling conventional periodization--she and i are hung up on the same time period and the same problems of history, even if we're going different places with it. there's something about the way that she at once critiques an economic regime and the intellectual disciplinary apparatuses that led us to have believed something about the economic regime--this is why people like her as a "critic of neoliberal identity politics" or whatever. but she stays committed in the end, always, in a very old school marxist woman way, to not only thinking about the exploitation of women, but the belief that they are exploited--itself sort of a heated position lol... anywho i digress. i have read and reread this article so many times, it's one of those things i always return to when i'm charting a thought. another article that really steered me back into this was this long one from tithi bhattacharya, which came out before her social reproduction anthology, which i would also recommend. both of those articles are in there actually. i have not read this newer one by susan ferguson. when that anthology came out i remember picking up lise vogel's marxism and the oppression of women and having some complaints that i'm curious if i'd retain. since my gayle rubin phase i've been thinking about that book and... kate millet, actually? actually i have more on this later (fights with my very young men comrades about whether "patriarchy" is useful that i keep losing somehow) more later!
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I was looking at books on Marxism + Feminism online and came across the book:
Marxism and the Oppression of Women: Toward a Unitary Theory
A woman named Susan Rosenthal wrote this 3-star review. I just skimmed it and wanted to share here to see people’s thoughts. I have not read the book myself but I am curious about this review.
“Takes us down the wrong road”
Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2014
Can marxism guide us in our struggle against women's oppression? In her preface to "Marxism and the Oppression of Women: Toward a Unitary Theory," Lise Vogel acknowledges the value of marxist theory:
"I remain convinced that the revival of Marxist theory, not the construction of some socialist-feminist synthesis, offers the best chance to provide theoretical guidance in the coming battles for the liberation of women". (p.ix)
At the same time, she argues,
"...that the socialist tradition is deeply flawed, that it has never adequately addressed the question of women..." (p.2)
These two statements reveal the strength and weakness of Vogel's book.
The book's strength lies in its marxist analysis of the labor necessary to reproduce the working class, the portion of that labor performed by women in the home, and the role of men in the sexual division of labor.
The book's weakness lies in its description of how capitalism organizes reproduction as a "system of male domination." With this description, Vogel retains the core of capitalist (bourgeois) feminism, that the liberation of women requires a cross-class women's movement organized separately from men.
Ferguson and McNally's 24-page Introduction supports Vogel's concept of a "male-dominant gender-order."
"It is not biology per se that dictates women's oppression; but rather, capital's dependence upon biological processes specific to women - pregnancy, childbirth, lactation - to secure the reproduction of the working class. It is this that induces capital and its state to control and regulate female reproduction and which impels them to reinforce a male-dominant gender-order. And this social fact, connected to biological difference, comprises the foundation upon which women's oppression is organized in capitalist society." (p. xxix)
Dishonest
To support her position, Vogel refers to the writings of 19th and early 20th century socialists. She quotes August Bebel, "women should expect as little help from the men as working men do from the capitalist class," and Eleanor Marx and Edward Aveling in The Woman Question,
"Women are the creatures of an organized tyranny of men, as the workers are the creatures of an organized tyranny of idlers." (p. 108)
She concludes that "the idea that women's situation parallels that of workers suggests a strategy of parallel social struggles for freedom" (p. 108).
This entire section is dishonest. Vogel ignores Bebel's description of upper-and-middle-class women and working-class women as "enemy sisters," and his explicit recommendation against women in antagonistic classes organizing together, except for united-front actions that benefit all women.(1)
Vogel also disregards Eleanor Marx, who could not be more clear on the matter:
"For us there is no more a `women's question' from the bourgeois standpoint than there is a men's question. Where the bourgeois women demand rights that are of help to us too, we will fight together with them, just as the men of our class did not reject the right to vote because it came from the bourgeois class. We too will not reject any benefit, gained by the bourgeois women in their own interests, which they provide us willingly or unwillingly. We accept these benefits as weapons, weapons that enable us to fight better on the side of our working-class brothers. We are not women arrayed in struggle against men but workers who are in struggle against the exploiters."(2)
In other words, socialists do not counter-pose women's liberation to the needs of the revolution; we use women's liberation to achieve the revolution.
Class matters
Vogel describes, but does not seem to understand, Clara Zetkin's class-based approach to women's liberation which is that all women are oppressed, but not all women have the same interest in ending capitalism. Women in the capitalist class are denied "free and independent control over their property," a condition that can be remedied by legal equality under capitalism.
In the middle and professional classes, women strive for equal access to education and employment compared with the men of their class. They call on capitalism to fulfill its pledge to promote free competition in every arena, including between women and men. These women form what is commonly called the `bourgeois' women's movement because they limit their demands to legal reforms.
Working-class women also seek legal equality with the men of their class, but such equality would only mean the right to equal exploitation. The liberation of working-class women requires an end to labor exploitation, and that can be achieved only by uniting with working-class men.
Theoretically and practically, the question of women's liberation peaks during the Russian Revolution. Vogel describes Lenin's emphasis on the importance of freeing women from "domestic slavery" so they could participate fully in the revolutionary transformation of Russian society. Achieving this required a two-fold process: socializing domestic labor and engaging men in housework. The latter required a systematic campaign against male chauvinism. Could such a campaign succeed?
Vogel observes that the capitalist system pays men more so they can support child-bearing women in individual family units. She concludes that this creates a system of male domination, or patriarchy. She writes,
"a material basis for male supremacy is constituted within the proletarian household... [providing] a continuing foundation for male supremacy in the working-class family." (p.88)
Vogel neglects to mention that the higher male wage comes with a price. `Family obligations' tie men to jobs they might otherwise leave. Men are legally bound to support women and children, even after they have left their families and formed new ones. And "dead-beat dads" can be imprisoned for not paying child support.
The key question is whether putting men in a financially-dominant position requires them to personally dominate their homes. The one does not automatically follow from the other. A superior financial position does not create male domination in the family, it only creates the opportunity for it.
Individual men can choose what to believe and how to treat others. Some men take advantage of their financial position to dominate women and children. Others do not. Consequently, the sexual division of labor under capitalism does not qualify as a system of male domination over women that can be compared to the system of capitalist domination over workers. The antagonism between women and men can be eliminated by re-organizing society. The antagonism between capital and labor is irreconcilable. As long as capital exists, labor will be exploited.
A system of sexism
Some socialists argue that "the current use of the term patriarchy...merely describes a system of sexism."(3) We certainly do suffer a system of sexism; every woman can testify to that. However, patriarchy implies a system of domination by men, while a system of sexism implies that society is dominated by sexist ideology. The difference is important.
A system of male domination implies that all men benefit from the oppression of women, whether they choose this or not. A system of sexist ideology allows individual men (and individual women) to choose whether to adopt or reject sexist beliefs and behaviors.
The failure to distinguish between individual interests and class interests lies at the heart of the debate over whether men benefit from women's oppression and whether women should organize separately from men.
The working class can never achieve socialism unless most women fight for it. Therefore, as a class, working-class men cannot benefit from women's oppression. However, the system of sexist ideas gives individual men the opportunity to do so. Some men embrace this opportunity; other men reject it.
Capitalism pressures all workers to abandon their class interests for the promise of personal gain. White workers can take advantage of Black oppression to advance themselves, or they can choose to fight racism. Individual workers can accept management bribes to get ahead, or they can choose to join a union, and so on.
Male superiority is the booby prize that capitalism offers men to sweeten the bitter taste of class exploitation. As Vogel notes,
"The ruling class, in order to stabilize the reproduction of labor power as well as to keep the amount of necessary labor at acceptable levels, encourages male supremacy within the exploited class. "(p.153)
While capitalism "encourages male supremacy," many men reject this role because it hurts the women they love, and it blocks them from enjoying egalitarian, cooperative relationships.
The individual man has no choice about whether or not the women in his life are oppressed; capitalism ensures that they are. However, individual men can choose either to take advantage of women's oppression or to share the burdens of the home and join the fight to socialize domestic labor.
Class comes first
The socialist challenge is to convince working-class men to put their class interests first, to convince them that whatever benefits they gain from women's oppression pale in comparison with the benefits they could have by rejecting sexism and fighting alongside women to end capitalism and all of its oppressions.
In contrast, Vogel, Ferguson and McNally offer a pseudo-marxist argument for a cross-class movement of women organized separately from men. This concession to bourgeois feminism betrays the interests of working-class women.
Any mixed-class movement of women must betray its working-class members. When working-class women demand socialized childcare, their privileged sisters moan about paying higher taxes. When working-class women demand more pay, their privileged sisters oppose the rising cost of hired help. The only `feminism' that can liberate all classes of women is the `feminism' that is based on the goals of the working class.
As Lenin argued with the Jewish Bund, advocating the right of oppressed groups to organize independently is different from promoting independent organization on principle. As a tactic, independent organization can advance the struggle against oppression within the working-class. As a principle, the independent organization of women deepens antagonisms between men and women and undermines working-class unity.
If the goal of this book was "to provide theoretical guidance in the coming battles for the liberation of women," then it takes us down the wrong road. To argue that women must organize separately from men is pessimistic and self-defeating. As Vogel documents, both women's oppression and men's role in this oppression are rooted in capitalism. Therefore, only a united working-class fight can uproot it.
There is nothing flawed or lacking in the socialist tradition of women's liberation; it simply does not meet the needs of privileged women who seek to end their own oppression without destroying the class system that enslaves their working-class sisters.
The value of Vogel's book lies in her confirmation that the sexual division of labor, male-female relations, and existing family structures are not based on biology but on the particular historical form that capitalism has chosen in order to ensure the reproduction of the working class. While not original, this hopeful message is worth repeating:
No biological barriers prevent women and men from working together to reshape the world to meet their needs. Only capitalism stands in the way.
Notes
1. Cited in Draper, H. (2011). Women and Class: Towards a Socialist Feminism. Center for Socialist History, pp.234-5.
2. Cited in Draper, H. (2011). Women and Class: Towards a Socialist Feminism. Center for Socialist History, pp.287.
3. Marxism, feminism and women's liberation, Sharon Smith, Socialist Worker, January 31, 2013.
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Both her books are very good. If you have to read one of them I would advise giving priority to Being and Being Bought (pdf here), which is about prostitution and surrogacy, because On the Meaning of Sex is good as an introduction to gender critical feminism and so many of the women here are already acquainted with a lot of the points she makes in it (although it is still worth checking it out, of course). She's my queen with Lise Vogel and Christine Delphy
I feel bad for everyone who isn't swedish and doesn't have the national treasure that is kajsa ekis ekman
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the existence of the trans exclusionary radical feminist position is not an exception from, but an extension of, radical feminist thought. the trans exclusionary radical feminist position is not completely bereft of any grounding in radical feminism, it is a logical continuation of radical feminism as undialectical, idealist, unscientific system of thought that has not and cannot bring about women’s liberation.
dual systems theory is fucking dead and TERFs are the worms chewing up the corpse.
we need a historical materialist feminism - social reproduction theory, Tithi Bhattacharya, and Lise Vogel are all working on this.
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