Nancy Fraser (1) (1947–)

Run, don't walk, to your nearest book seller or library and get a copy of this slim, salient study of the specific evils of capitalism and the actionable ways that anticapitalist feminism proposes to redress them.

Arrruzza, et al, quickly sketch the bankruptcy of liberal feminism that "confuses feminism with the assent of individual women," and "steadfastly refuses to address the socioeconomic constraints that make freedom and empowerment impossible for the majority of women."

The writers also show more address issues of reproduction of labor, gender violence, and the environment.

This is one to own, underline, re-read and discuss with your book group. show less

Fraser wins on points. Mostly jabs thrown, a few body shots, but no dangerous punches. For Fraser, this book has been superseded by her dialogue with Jaeggi. For Honneth, I mean... I'm just not a fan, and he seems to get worse with age. This is a perfectly reasonable statement of what his position was, is, and probably always will be, with the exception of one small essay that, I believe, was written in the midst of the financial crisis, in which he briefly considered that just maybe show more properly recognizing people won't solve all our problems. Good to know he stuffed those concerns back under the mattress and got on with out Hegeling Hegel.

But seriously, this is a good, quick intro to Honneth in Honneth's own voice, and there's value in that, as well as the great value of literally everything Nancy Fraser does. show less

Wow, yet again I'm struck by my ignorance and apathy in not fully understanding the systems at work in my country. (The last time was in 2017 after I watched Ava DuVernay 's The 13th. Whew! I mean, I knew the "justice" system was messed up, and I was already on the fence about prisons, but that doc showed me how effed it truly is.) In all the social studies and history and government classes I've had in my lifetime, I only ever thought of capitalism as economics. Never did I really ever see show more it as a political system and definitely not a sustaining (or even a driving) force in patriarchy, racism, sexism... Probably my distaste for politics in general is a major contributing factor to that ignorance -- a factor, not an excuse to be sure.

"We write not to sketch an imagined utopia, but to mark out the road that must be traveled to reach a just society."

Feminism for the 99% is a solid primer. It's not an in-depth work and, for anyone already educated on the subject, it may only function as a quick reference for guiding theses and principles. For others, like me, it will serve as a catalyst to learn more. But don't let its page count fool ya -- I spent over a month reading and re-reading it.

Notes to self:

corporate feminism

p. 5 p. "We write not to sketch an imagined utopia, but to mark out the road that must be traveled to reach a just society."

p. 5 "new wave of militant feminist activism"

liberal feminism
p. 11 "Its real aim is not equality, but meritocracy."
p. 11 "liberal feminism outsources oppression"

p. 21 social reproduction
p. 22 "Far from being valued in its own right, the making of people is treated as a mere means to the making of profit."

p. 30 femocrats

p. 55 "Struggle is both an opportunity and a school. It can transform those who particpate in it, challenging our prior understandings of ourselves and reshaping our views of the world."

p. 75 "In comparison with postwar era, the number of hours of waged work per household has skyrocketed, cutting deep into the time available to replenish ourselves, care for our families and friends, and maintain our homes and communities."

p. 79 "...it is no wonder that struggles over social reproduction have exploded over recent years. Northern feminists often describe their focus as 'the balance between family and work."

p. 80 "A true resolution requires nothing less than an entirely new form of social organization." show less

Aaron shall take the two he-goats and let them stand before the LORD [...] He shall then slaughter the people’s goat of sin offering, [...] [He] shall [then] lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities and transgressions of the Israelites, whatever their sins; and it shall be sent off to the wilderness.
—Leviticus 16:7-21

On "Levitical Socialism":

When did the major theoretical work of Marxist intellectuals become the coining of new show more pejoratives? ("We only have the followers we deserve," true, but I won't hold this against Marx.) We have progressed from "Late Capitalism" to "End Stage Capitalism" to "Neoliberalism" to, now, "Cannibal Capitalism." (Good for Capitalism that it has recovered from end-stage disease and now appears to be taking food.) This last one won't stick either. As the music of Cannibal Corpse has demonstrated, making something wicked also confers a certain cachet.

Whenever "Capitalism" is hypostatized, we must be mindful of dangerous "Hypostatic Electricity" which threatens to short-circuit our forward charge (political movement) into the Ground. At any point in the space of Fraser's investigation where we encounter friction, we are tempted to zap it away using the Ground of "Abolish Capitalism." Therefore, we should not be surprised when Fraser's multipolar intersectional analysis is threatened by a monopolar short-circuit. When the task of using antiracism to end Capitalism begins to encounter friction (we must court the "white working class" after all), we are satisfied merely to end Capitalism, which has the side benefit of ending racism (we'll get around to it later), a short-circuit which functions to defer the task indefinitely. After all, Capitalism has not been so easy to Abolish as we had once believed. (Aren't we already living in the age of "Zombie Capitalism?") With this in mind, the gregarious work of enumerating the members of our coalition is already the counting of the cost of contingents we are preparing to sacrifice (but which, by virtue of the absurd, we will recover in Revolution (Eternity)).

In a world in which everyone is Exploited and Expropriated, where is the guilty party to be found? Fraser's text almost makes us forget we once heard, "Wrong life cannot be lived rightly," and that, "There is no ethical consumption under capitalism." When these phrases had not yet lost their salt, they recalled that every Exploited-Expropriated person is responsible, more or less, for the Exploitation-Expropriation of another. This Differance between "more" and "less" is precisely the space of action of a tenuous Resistance which must be won in each moment. To pave over the fact that everyone possesses, to varying degrees, "Guilt of Socialist Impiety," is to have these lapses and spaces continue to undermine collective action (is it possible to recall a Leftist movement which has not been destroyed by infighting?), whereas these faults and inadequacies could have been put to use as a tactical and strategic resource. These phrases, of course, have since been dis-armed, and now give permission for those with bad conscience to behave badly. Meanwhile we have "sent off our sins into the wilderness" where they now dwell with the Truly Responsible (The 1% AKA The Billionaire Class AKA The Megacorporations AKA The He-Goat), and the current "Socialist" task is to capture and destroy them. (This reaches a ridiculous apogee in certain sections of left-wing Climate Discourse, 'did you know that 10 corporations produce 90% of all emissions!?')

So rather than "Cannibal Capitalism" it appears this text is really about "Levitical Socialism," which performs the double-movement in the quotation from Leviticus above. Among those who use the phrase "scapegoat," few recall his brother who is to be sacrificed. Levitical Socialism wishes to draw, again, upon the power of this ritual. It is prepared to make the sacrifice, and, perceiving that the sacrifice is insufficient, wishes to repeat it with a doubling gesture - a piety and a purification. But both of these movements are made with the facility which no longer even believes in the Pentateuch, and should be viewed in the agnostic light of the 21st century. There is no piety to be gained in the sacrifice, rather it condemns itself, and sins do not leave the body when they are sent with the goat off into the wilderness, rather they conceal themselves deeper. A tremor passes through her body when the knife is drawn to exsanguinate the goat, and she realizes she is no longer safe in the movement. A sigh passes his lips who witnesses his sins led into the wilderness and feels finally free from the duty of self-inquiry. Some books have the power to make you more stupid. Following the ritual of the goat we are almost ready to join the cadre of meat-eating far-thinking Socialists who do not even vote. show less