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Original poster

Alienation, sex work and marx

37 replies

drwitch · 17/11/2021 09:47

Does anybody know of any literature that examines sex work from a Marxist perspective. I'm not completely sure about what I'm getting at but it's to do with the idea that it is the (according to Marx) the comodification of labour that causes alienation. Thus when sexual activity is transactional either through prostitution or in a traditional marriage it is profoundly alienating and worse because it's your actual bodies

OP posts:
KimikosNightmare · 17/11/2021 23:05

@CheeseMmmm

Because it's interesting to me anyway to read different political approaches!

Communist manifesto you can get free download easily. It's in my to read list... Along with mau and mein kampf.

Sadly my attention span is fucked ATM so here I am!

The Communist Manifesto, Mein Kampf and Mao's Little Red Book are of no interst other than their historical relevance for setting out their respective demented and evil ideologies.
CheeseMmmm · 17/11/2021 22:59

www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61

And plenty other hits on Google.

CheeseMmmm · 17/11/2021 22:58

She didn't conflate them. She wrote what she knows of the Marxist view.

CheeseMmmm · 17/11/2021 22:57

Because it's interesting to me anyway to read different political approaches!

Communist manifesto you can get free download easily. It's in my to read list... Along with mau and mein kampf.

Sadly my attention span is fucked ATM so here I am!

DonkeySkin · 17/11/2021 22:35

Being and Being Bought: Prostitution, Surrogacy and the Split Self, by Kajsa Ekis Ekman

www.spinifexpress.com.au/shop/p/9781742198767

KimikosNightmare · 17/11/2021 21:48

@drwitch

Does anybody know of any literature that examines sex work from a Marxist perspective. I'm not completely sure about what I'm getting at but it's to do with the idea that it is the (according to Marx) the comodification of labour that causes alienation. Thus when sexual activity is transactional either through prostitution or in a traditional marriage it is profoundly alienating and worse because it's your actual bodies
May I ask why?

I am profoundly anti the normalisation of prostitution as "sex work" . But given the horrific reality of Communism and Marxism whenever put into practice what purpose does such an analysis hold for bolstering the case against such normalisation?

I suppose you might find it an interesting intellectual game but beyond that?

I suspect that aside from Marxist feminists on here most people would raise an eyebrow at your conflation of prostitution and marriage.

TheMarzipanDildo · 17/11/2021 11:40

Sorry you probably already knew that

TheMarzipanDildo · 17/11/2021 11:36

The Communist Manifesto is quite clear (and concise!) on this actually, but I can’t find my copy.

Basically it responds to the accusation that communists would make women ‘a common good’ by stating that the argument only works if you think that women are goods rather than human beings in the first place.

Original poster
drwitch · 17/11/2021 10:14

Yes so (perhaps over simplistically) patriarchy alienates women from sexual activity and true pleasure and fulfillment)

OP posts:
learieonthewildmoor · 17/11/2021 10:10

www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjSiqTtkp_0AhUSfH0KHcyoDf4QFnoECAIQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FThe_Origin_of_the_Family%2C_Private_Property_and_the_State&usg=AOvVaw3gnubQiWqXuDFduvC4oGq0
Engels argued that women in the nuclear Victorian family with no civil rights were essentially prostituted. Very powerful analysis.

Original poster
drwitch · 17/11/2021 10:02

Thanks for that. I'm thinking of writing something on that idea that sex work as work is not useful framing and keen to look at various perspectives

OP posts:
highame · 17/11/2021 09:56

You already know this but........
In Marxist thought, then, the condition of the prostituted woman within the capitalist system is like that of a slave. It presupposes the alienation of the most intimate parts of her personality as well as near-total lack of freedom to choose employers and to bargain about wages. This website might be helpful Indian rather than UK but might lead you somewhere useful

journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2455632716637914?journalCode=jwsa#:~:text=In%20Marxist%20thought%2C%20then%2C%20the,and%20to%20bargain%20about%20wages.