Male Violence And State Violence
August 1, 2018 8:58 AM Subscribe
Barbara Ehrenreich’s essay “What Is Socialist Feminism?” From 1976 with a new introduction from the author. (Jacobin)
Related : No One Is Better at Twitter Than Barbara Ehrenreich (The Cut)
Related : No One Is Better at Twitter Than Barbara Ehrenreich (The Cut)
I agree that violence is instrumental in holding women and people who live in poverty back -- I think this is especially true when we broaden this beyond physical violence to include violence of poverty and hate speech-- and I like this essay a lot. I followed her on twitter, too, thanks for that!
I guess I'm just left pondering where this analysis would place the white women who voted for Trump in the USA or, in Canada, for Doug Ford.
It does seem many of us white women are often willing to set aside our own rights in order to keep brown people down. That doesn't seem like fear of violence to me. More like a deep need to push people down; a kind of mob mentality.
She mentions women being in charge of maintaining culture, so I guess you could read that to include the idea that maintainingn white supremacy is part of that for white women.
posted by chapps at 8:17 AM on August 2, 2018 [3 favorites]
I guess I'm just left pondering where this analysis would place the white women who voted for Trump in the USA or, in Canada, for Doug Ford.
It does seem many of us white women are often willing to set aside our own rights in order to keep brown people down. That doesn't seem like fear of violence to me. More like a deep need to push people down; a kind of mob mentality.
She mentions women being in charge of maintaining culture, so I guess you could read that to include the idea that maintainingn white supremacy is part of that for white women.
posted by chapps at 8:17 AM on August 2, 2018 [3 favorites]
Back in 2016 I remember reading something about those women fearing the loss of protection from both male and white supremacy, but I’m on mobile, and also...just...can’t bring myself to google for anything 2016-y at the moment.
posted by schadenfrau at 8:22 AM on August 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by schadenfrau at 8:22 AM on August 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
Interestingly, in my country (England), the Monarch, the Prime Minister, the head of the largest police force, and (until she was fired for bringing the Criminal Justice System into a state of crisis) the head of the Crown Prosecution Service are all women, as are the Prime Ministers of neighbouring Scotland and Northern Ireland, and the Chancellor of Europe’s largest economy. 90% of the homeless are men (where they are vulnerable to violence, a recent example of which was being set on fire by a group of drunk young women), even as the (female) newly appointed head of the largest Homelessness charity removes all images of homeless men from their website. Violent crime is falling, but men are twice as likely to be victims of it, a ratio that is rising as a consequence of the now departed Prosecutions Director switching resources for prosecuting all cases of violence, to prosecuting only the less common incidents of ‘violence against women and girls’. And this is the outcome of an electoral system in which women have the majority franchise.
So it’s not quite clear to many, in a system in which women have the majority franchise, and occupy all of the most senior institutional positions from which state violence is legitimately exercised, how it can be argued that women are being held back, and men have a monopoly on the exercise of state violence.
posted by falcon at 11:31 AM on August 3, 2018
So it’s not quite clear to many, in a system in which women have the majority franchise, and occupy all of the most senior institutional positions from which state violence is legitimately exercised, how it can be argued that women are being held back, and men have a monopoly on the exercise of state violence.
posted by falcon at 11:31 AM on August 3, 2018
A provocative critique of Ehrenreich’s ideology from the same era as the OP essay: The Rise and Demise of Women’s Liberation
Many of the errors of the New Left are perpetuated today, whether it be in the so-called socialist feminist movement or in the so-called anti-imperialist movement. Each such tendency, in its own way, has failed to learn from the recent past. Yet, as women, we must not fall prey to the dictum “history repeats itself,” for the massive institutionalized exploitation and oppression of women continues, virtually untouched by all the fulminations of the 1960s, just as American imperialism flourishes with unhampered brutality. Nevertheless, any critique of the New Left must recognize that it was, in itself, a powerfully progressive force in all of its manifestations.posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 12:48 PM on August 3, 2018
I have loved Barbara Ehrenreich since Nickel and Dimed came out. She does amazing work.
posted by domo at 7:22 PM on August 3, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by domo at 7:22 PM on August 3, 2018 [1 favorite]
Ooh, I like the Ehrenreich work but the Dixon is just so powerful, persuasive and relevant. The tension between these two competing views on socialism & feminism is the same tension that still plays out in organising today, as far as I can tell.
The autonomous movement, by isolating women, did not allow a serious political campaign against sexism to be carried out between men and women as an organizational struggle. The continued political segregation of women limited opposing sexism to opposing sexism in one’s lover or husband; Consequently, the autonomous movement failed in its mission of defeating left-wing sexism, as the regressive lines of much of the new communist movement make quite clear. The prolonged existence of the autonomous movement, with its penchant for psychological theorizing, made it difficult to see that the defeat of sexism and racism in the left was an organizational, not attitudinal, problem. The solution to the prevalence of both sexism and racism must be found in the process of party formation itself. The very structure of a revolutionary party must provide an organizational basis upon which equality between comrades can be developed and enforced,
As others have shared before, it's invaluable to step back and look at our the organisations we fight within, examine their internal dynamics & ensure we reflect a future worth bringing about.
posted by AnhydrousLove at 12:50 AM on August 4, 2018 [2 favorites]
The autonomous movement, by isolating women, did not allow a serious political campaign against sexism to be carried out between men and women as an organizational struggle. The continued political segregation of women limited opposing sexism to opposing sexism in one’s lover or husband; Consequently, the autonomous movement failed in its mission of defeating left-wing sexism, as the regressive lines of much of the new communist movement make quite clear. The prolonged existence of the autonomous movement, with its penchant for psychological theorizing, made it difficult to see that the defeat of sexism and racism in the left was an organizational, not attitudinal, problem. The solution to the prevalence of both sexism and racism must be found in the process of party formation itself. The very structure of a revolutionary party must provide an organizational basis upon which equality between comrades can be developed and enforced,
As others have shared before, it's invaluable to step back and look at our the organisations we fight within, examine their internal dynamics & ensure we reflect a future worth bringing about.
posted by AnhydrousLove at 12:50 AM on August 4, 2018 [2 favorites]
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widespread culture of sexual assault? grabby men.
trump administration? grabby men.
capitalism? grabby men.
white supremacist ethnonationalism? grabby white men.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 9:21 AM on August 1, 2018 [26 favorites]