Response to the views of Mia Freedman on sex work
Submitted by bounce on May 7 2013 18:16
A sex worker's response to columnist Mia Freedman's blog in which implied that she does not respect the right of women with mental illness to become sex workers.
A few weeks ago both Dr Brooke Magnanti and Mia Freedman appeared on an all women panel on Q and A. Quite a few topics were discussed, one being sex work.
The Combahee River Collective statement
A 1977 statement by a black feminist group which is widely considered a foundational text of the 'intersectional' approach to identity politics, which emphasises multiple, simultaneous forms of oppression.
We are a collective of Black feminists who have been meeting together since 1974.1 During that time we have been involved in the process of defining and clarifying our politics, while at the same time doing political work within our own group and in coalition with other progressive organizations and movements.
- 1. This statement is dated April 1977.
Insurrections at the intersections: feminism, intersectionality and anarchism - Abbey Volcano and J Rogue
A critique of liberal conceptions of 'intersectionality' and an outline of an anarchist, class struggle approach.
We need to understand the body not as bound to the private or to the self—the western idea of the autonomous individual—but as being linked integrally to material expressions of community and public space.
SWP 'expulsions' for discussing rape - not for the first time!
Submitted by hedgehog on Mar 9 2013 20:36
For the Socialist Workers’ Party, rape is now a big issue. Under very different circumstances – when it was more of a theoretical topic – rape was also a big issue twenty years ago.
The document reproduced below was written in association with the Radical Anthropology Group. It summarizes debates during the SWP’s Marxism event in 1991 – debates triggered by the marxist anthropological theory that the prohibition against rape, enforced through struggle thousands of years ago, was the foundational rule of early human society and culture.
[b]After months of lively discussion – including a well-attended debate between RAG member Lionel Sims and SWP leader Duncan Hallas at ‘Marxism’ – around 20 SWP comrades, including virtually all the party’s anthropologists, were summoned by the leadership to a kangaroo court at which they were told to discontinue the debate on pain of immediate expulsion.
Patriarchy, domestic mode of production, gender, and class - Christine Delphy
Christine Delphy proposes that there is a parallel mode of production - domestic production - alongside capitalism.
The analysis of patriarchy in our society that I have been developing for the last fifteen years has a history I would like to detail. I came to my use of the concept and to the model growing out of it by way of two projects whose theoretical concerns might seem unrelated.
Rethinking sex and gender - Christine Delphy
Christine Delphy on the social construction of sex, gender, hierarchy and division.
- 1. An earlier version of this article, Tenser le genre: Quels problemes? ’, appeared in Marie-Claude Hurtig et al. (Eds) Sexe et genre: de la hierarchie entre les sexes, 1991, Paris, Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. The present version was translated (by Diana Leonard) and appeared first in 1993 in Women’s Studies International Forum, 16(1), pp. 1-9.
Review: Anarchism and sexuality
DD Johnston's review of Anarchism and Sexuality, a multi-authored book edited by Jamie Heckert and Richard Cleminson (Abingdon & New York: Routledge, 2011).
I first encountered anarchism in my late teens (I had encountered sexuality a little earlier). Undoubtedly, anarchism made me a less bigoted, less dangerous person. I renounced explicit forms of homophobia and sexism that I had previously repeated uncritically. Simultaneously, however, I also developed new anxieties and confusions and sources of guilt.
The heterosexual questionnaire
The heterosexual questionnaire was created back in 1972 to put heterosexual people in the shoes of a gay person for just a moment. Questions and assumptions made of gays and lesbians that are unfair, are reversed and this time asked to straight people to demonstrate their absurdity.
1. What do you think caused your heterosexuality?
2. When and where did you decide you were a heterosexual?
3. Is it possible this is just a phase and you will out grow it?
4. Is it possible that your sexual orientation has stemmed from a neurotic fear of others of the same sex?
5. Do your parents know you are straight? Do your friends know- how did they react?
Theorizing patriarchy - Silvia Walby
Silvia Walby's 1990 book sets out a dual-systems approach to theorizing capitalism and patriarchy, synthesising Marxist and radical feminist perspectives.
Sylvia Walby provides an overview of feminist theoretical debates – Marxism, radical and liberal feminism, post–structuralism and dual systems theory. She shows how each can be applied to six key social structures: wage labour, housework, culture, sexuality, violence and the state. Her arguments are backed by drawing on empirical findings.
The heterosexual privilege checklist
A checklist from Queers United of things which heterosexuals do not have to be personally concerned about. We do not necessarily agree with all of it but reproduce it for reference.
On a daily basis as a straight person…
• I can be pretty sure that my roomate, hallmates and classmates will be comfortable with my sexual orientation.
• If I pick up a magazine, watch TV, or play music, I can be certain my sexual orientation will be represented.
Can comment on articles and discussions