Rooted in the Marxist‑historical‑materialist tradition, this monograph re‑examines intimate relations, marriage, family and contemporary low‑fertility crises by drawing on Engels’ theory of two kinds of production — namely the production of material means of subsistence and the production of human‑beings themselves. It introduces the German‑language analytical category Geschlechtsliebe, which integrates bodily‑sexual dimensions (sex‑drive, sexual relations) and inter‑subjective spiritual‑affective love, to break down the common conceptual confusion among desire, romance, marital contract and demographic reproduction.
The book develops a core dialectical contradiction specific to human production: the objective reality of human production versus subjective inclinations toward human production. Against this framework, modern‑era late‑marriage, low‑fertility and child‑free choices are interpreted not merely as cultural or individual‑value shifts, but as a spontaneous general strike within the sphere of human production. Such popular refusals of procreation undermine capitalism’s access to fresh labour‑power supplies, yet remain disorganised and lack conscious socialist‑political guidance, carrying risks of self‑destruction for the working class itself.
Critically distancing itself from Social Reproduction Theory (SRT) and its “reproduction of labour‑power” paradigm, the text argues that household‑care and child‑rearing create new labour‑power, rather than repairing pre‑existing labour‑power stocks. It undertakes comparative criticism of socialist and capitalist family‑law systems, pointing out that capitalist family institutions centre on private‑property inheritance, while socialist family institutions ought to pursue de‑unilateralisation of social‑input costs in human production, mitigating the disproportionate burdens borne by women in procreation and care‑giving.
Going beyond a sole critique of private ownership, the work advances a deeper thesis: labour‑power element‑formation constitutes a more fundamental source of alienation. Even after private ownership is abolished, so long as human capacities are treated as separable, measurable, allocable elements, women will still bear one‑sided burdens within human‑production processes. Looking toward communist society, the author envisages the socialisation of human‑production workflows. Once procreation and upbringing become socialised processes, sexual relations will shed all social‑functional mandates and turn into genuinely private interpersonal affairs, and love will escape institutional regulation entirely.
This work combines political‑economy critique, comparative legal history and theoretical speculation on communist‑era gender relations. It calls for the transformation from spontaneous reproductive refusal toward the conscious socialist reconstruction of human‑production, contributing fresh arguments for Marxist theories of gender, family and emancipation.
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