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Feminists believe in women being treated as
equals to men and socialists believe that the wealth and resources of the
world should be equally distributed among all people. Clearly these two ideologies have a
similar thread in the fight for equality. However, with all the feminisms in the world why should
anyone be a socialist feminist?
Is capitalism really all that bad?
Capitalism is a system that exists by
oppressing many for the profit of few.
Some people contend that capitalism is only a theory and it is
not fundamentally oppressive and is based on a supply and demand model. However, capitalism has proven
itself to only be able to exist by exercising oppression in various
forms (racism, sexism, homophobia, etc) and by supporting a
dog-eat-dog, backstabbing mentality.
It has proven that it is near impossible to advance out of the
social class you are born into.
On top of that, it does not even meet the demand for
resources. Since profit is the
motivating factor and not human need, many people die and suffer,
because it is not profitable to help those without money (unless of
course there is pressure from the public and then menial donations are
made as part of a PR campaign).
These people are capitalists. They are the ones who reap the
benefits of profits and own the resources and means of production. Capitalists have the power in the
government, military, and the media.
It is a system that creates wars in its ever present need to
expand to new markets and it systematically keeps women and other
oppressed groups down by using backwards ideologies to keep workers
divided.
Women’s oppression was certainly not
conceived by capitalism.
However, the history of the subjugation of women and girls can
be trace back to its origin in the development of class society. Contrary to theories that claim that
it is the biological differences between the sexes that have oppressed
women, it is clear that society and culture dictate much more how the
world works than any physiological “natural” reasons. Through all human societies women
have always been the ones to bear children, but they have not always
been denigrated to servant, slave, and as naturally inferior as they
have under class societies.
In subsistence societies (what Marx referred
to as primitive communism)
women and men worked together in roles that were seen as equally
important to survival and goods were owned communally. Anthropologists
have proven that the vast majority of human societies were based on
this kind of system and that class society is a relatively new
phenomenon. Without the concept
of private property, there was no motivation to exploit any other
person.
This changed with the advent of the idea of
private property, which came with advancements in productivity through
agriculture and domestication of animals. There were new divisions of labor and increases of surpluses. These developments created the idea
that it is possible for some people to exploit the work of others –
including women. Due to women
being the ones to have children they began to be treated as property,
along with their children.
Women are the only ones who can bear the next generation of
workers. Women’s role as
domestic slave and baby factory was not a natural one, but rather a
result of a particular socio-economic institution; class society.
The patriarchal family developed out of a
need to keep the status quo of class status and protect the ideas of
one generation to the next. Not only did this model serve as a way to
keep people within their social class it also kept people in line with
their gender roles. Sex is a
biological reality, but gender is learned. Through the heterosexual marriage and patriarchal family
little boys and girls learn their gender roles through modeling of
their parents. Homophobia is
connected in a great part to these learned gender roles and the
traditional family where wife is subservient to husband.
Patriarchy allows all men of society to exert
control over women no matter his status in society. The word family is
based on the Latin famulus
meaning household slave and familia
which means all of the slaves of one man. This hierarchy unites all men with a privilege, no matter
what their social class, to dominate over women. With patriarchal families also came
the idea of the double standard of female monogamy and male
promiscuity. The marriage of
women to men signified not only a financial transaction between a
father and groom, but also of that man’s control over the woman’s
capital (her ability to bear children and to give men sexual
pleasure). In addition to
restricting a woman’s sexuality, patriarchy works with capitalism to
keep women subdued in the workforce.
The role of women in the family is seen as being to take care of
the home and children.
With the increase of women involved in wage
labor, we see a resistance building as women are expected not only to
be modern women who work outside the home, but they must also continue
to be doting mother and wife.
Now it is virtually impossible for women to not work outside of
the home, either as part of a two-income household, a single mother, or
as a career woman. Women are
still by and large expected to marry and have children and the stay at
home mother has been replaced to some extent by the so-called
‘super-moms’ (who manage career and home). With the necessity of women in the economic labor
workforce, women are still expected to come home and do the unpaid
labor of running the household.
Women outside of the home are often relegated
to ‘women’s work’ in the lower strata of the workforce. Often she will be doing the same
tasks that she is expected to do at home (cleaning, cooking, looking
attractive, and waiting on men).
Even when women are able to break out of traditional female
jobs, they are still only making 75 cents on the dollar to their male
counterparts – even less for women of color.
Women not only are being treated as less
valuable than men, but they are also being punished for trying to be
economically independent to men.
In addition to this, by paying women less than men bosses can
pit working men against their female counterparts. The boss can threaten the security
of men’s jobs with replacing them with lower cost women workers, which
fuels sexism and divisions among workers. The animosity coupled with backwards thinking about the
role of women in society leads not only to women workers being used as
pawns against male workers, but also fuels sexual harassment and gender
stereotyping.
Capitalists are always is in search for new markets where they can
control more resources and make more profits. Technological advances and the growing size of global
corporations’ profits, has lead to a globalization of the labor market
resulting in outsourcing manufacturing jobs from more advanced
capitalist countries to places where workers can be paid as little as
possible. Here mostly young
women and girls work in the worst of the sweatshop conditions for
meager wages. The businesses
then take the products and sell them for super-profits in the advanced
industrial nations. There in
the advanced capitalist countries workers who have had to look for jobs
in the unskilled service sector due to the manufacturing jobs leaving
often have misplaced resent for the overseas workers who are being
super-exploited.
In addition to working in sweatshops, young
women and children around the world are often forced into the sex
trade. Often it is seen as the
only way to help support herself and/or her family. The sex industry is sometimes
painted as being liberating and feminist. In reality, the global trade of human beings is far from
liberating and pro-women. It is
yet another unfortunate side effect of a world based on profits and not
on basic human need. Women and
children often are turned over for profit in order to meet their needs
and that of their family. The
overwhelming economic ties to the selling of a human’s body is
undeniable and as long as economic necessity is the driving factor, the
sex industry cannot be liberating and has more akin to slavery than
salvation. Sex work often does
walk a line between liberation and oppression that is blurry with
so-called feminist pornography, etc. – however, as long as sex work is
based on economic need and sexist objectification of women it cannot be
satisfactory as a venue for the liberation of women’s sexuality. Women can only be free when they are
truly in control of their own bodies, desires, and destinies. This is impossible under a
wage-profit system, but is possible under an economy based on human
needs. When a woman’s sexuality
is based solely on her own desires and not on the need for economic
security, she will be free.
Aside from the sex industry, women are still
treated as commodities in the media.
The advertising industry in particular objectifies women. Advertising plays on basic human emotions. Instead of selling products they
sell an image, an idea, and ultimately a feeling. Often the motivating factor is
sex. The saying “sex sells” is
true. Everything from cars to
beer uses women’s bodies to push the product. Often only parts of women are shown – her legs, her
breasts, her backside – what is really seen as being important. When the entire woman is shown, she
is poised as almost always being sexual. Ads for women and men both portray women as sexual
objects. Even ad campaigns that
seem to be progressive, such as the Dove Real Beauty Campaign where
“real” beauties model in their underwear, Dove is still selling beauty
and happiness (and literally are selling firming creams and lotions to
the natural beauties).
Ideals of what women are supposed to be are
no better on television shows, movies, in magazines, or on the
radio. Women are often
represented as being there for heterosexual male pleasure. This can be seen in most instances
of lesbianism in the media.
Rather than being an expression of a woman’s own sexuality, it
is often framed as being for a heterosexual male audience. Women are supposed to be thin, big
breasted, submissive and yet aggressive, dominating but not too
assertive. She should be
independent, but always be looking for a man. In the case of women of color they are often portrayed as
fetishes. For example,
African-American women are often portrayed as animalistic and Asian
women are portrayed as submissive, naughty schoolgirls.
The ideologies in the media portrays are only
a result of the society that shows them – in this case a capitalist
society. It is not that there
are not other ideas, but the only ideas that get lip service are those
that support the system. For
example, there are hip-hop groups that talk of revolution and equality,
but those that call women whores
get much more air time.
Capitalism and oppression are so
interconnected that women’s liberation cannot come without the
abolishment of capitalism. No
true egalitarian society could exist under a capitalist economy, because
it is fundamentally dependent on backward ideals like sexism,
homophobia, and racism to keep workers divided while a small minority
on the top to get richer off of other’s labor.
Unfortunately, much of the organized feminist
movements have been derailed into bed with the Democratic party and
many have lost sight of the bigger picture in hopes that liberal
politicians will grant women rights.
Feminism has become almost synonymous with lobby groups and letter
writing – ignoring not only the roots of the oppression of women, but
also ignoring what has and has not worked in the past. The rights that women have today
were not handed to them or gained by pleading with politicians. Women did not gain the right to vote
through voting. Everything that
women have today is from mass actions – demonstrations, hunger strikes,
marches, rallies. Despite this,
mainstream feminist organizations are forgetting their radical roots
and falling into liberalism by attempting to work within the
system. This mentality is only
a waste of energy. Only through
people uniting in solidarity have concessions been made.
Critics point to the past where so-called
Marxists have subjugated women’s rights to that of class struggle and
have excluded women from socialist activities. In reality, despite the sexism of
some so-called leftists, the women’s liberation movement has always
been a part of Marxist ideology and is a fundamental part of the
emancipation of the entire society. As well as falling in line with
socialist theories, societies that have strove for socialism have been
much more progressive in women’s rights than pro-capitalist
societies. For example, after
the Russian Revolution the Soviets were the first to place women as
equal to men, granting reproductive and divorce rights, and Cuba
similarly passed legislation that states that men and women should have
equal responsibility in the home.
A socialist women is not a socialist first
and a woman second or visa versa.
One concern does not supersede the other. Instead, both the fight for women’s
equality and for an egalitarian economy are of equal importance. Also, it is important to note that
feminists are male as well as female.
We call ourselves socialist feminists and not feminist
socialists, because while there are many takes on feminism – liberal,
conservative, etc. – yet there is no such thing as a true socialist
that is not also a feminist (male or female). This does not mean that one is more important than the next.
Under true socialism, the patriarchal family
would cease to exist. No longer
would women be expected to be the natural mother and housekeeper. The role of the family to provide
love and support would instead be something that comes from the entire
society. There would be no need
for degrading advertising or media images, because the system would not
profit from exploitation. All
members of society would have an equal stake in all the world’s
resources. Human need would be
the basis of the economy and not profits. With social ownership of the resources and means of
production all members of society could take equal footing. No one would have to go without
healthcare, food, water, shelter, or education. There would no longer be any need to
oppress women. Women could
equally chose to be mothers or not, wives or not, and so on. Choice would truly exist.
This said, the abolishment of capitalism in
and of itself is not enough to make a just world. There needs not only be an
international socialist movement, but within that movement women and
other oppressed groups must have equal leadership, opportunities, and
respect. Women’s liberation and
the liberation of the working class are as interconnected as capitalism
is to the oppression of women.
They go hand in hand.
The need of a strong women’s movement in socialism and socialism
in a women’s movement is vitally important for the future of
humanity. A revolution alone
cannot guarantee equality.
Women will never be able to be free under capitalism and
socialism has no chance of ever truly existing if women and men are not
counted as equals in the revolution and in the future society.
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