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Vexy Thing: On Gender and Liberation
Even as feminism has become increasingly central to our ideas about institutions, relationships, and everyday life, the term used to diagnose the problem—“patriarchy”—is used so loosely that it has lost its meaning. In Vexy Thing Imani Perry resurrects patriarchy as a target of critique, recentering it to contemporary discussions of feminism through a social and literary analysis of cultural artifacts from the Enlightenment to the present. Drawing on a rich array of sources—from nineteenth-century slavery court cases and historical vignettes to writings by Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde and art by Kara Walker and Wangechi Mutu—Perry shows how the figure of the patriarch emerged as part and parcel of modernity, the nation-state, the Industrial Revolution, and globalization. She also outlines how digital media and technology, neoliberalism, and the security state continue to prop up patriarchy. By exploring the past and present of patriarchy in the world we have inherited and are building for the future, Perry exposes its mechanisms of domination as a necessary precursor to dismantling it.
304 pages, Paperback
First published August 23, 2018
44 people are currently reading
1604 people want to read
About the author
Imani Perry
33 books985 followersImani Perry, a professor of African American studies at Princeton, first appeared in print at age 3 in the Birmingham (Alabama) News in a photo of her and her parents at a protest against police brutality. She has published widely on topics ranging from racial inequality to hip-hop and is active across various media. She earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a bachelor's degree from Yale University.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
September 14, 2019
It's difficult to describe exactly what Imani Perry does in 'Vexy Thing' because she does so, so much. In the simplest of terms, we can say that 'Vexy Thing' is a deconstruction of patriarchy through the lens of liberation feminism. In that deconstruction, Perry asserts that patriarchy is not an ideology—it’s an architecture rooted in the Enlightenment and Age of Exploration. Since its inception, patriarchy has always had a footing in the law and shaped notions of sovereignty, property, and personhood. But patriarchy does more than configure our notions of nation-state and citizen: it undergirds our very economic system. Modern capitalism was borne of the transatlantic slave trade, and slavery as an economic institution is rooted in patriarchal notions of personhood, property, and sovereignty. Patriarchy lives amongst us, not simply in logics of gender and forms of gender oppression but also in racial domination, economic inequity, global hierarchies of power, intimate relations, and so much more.
As such, Perry urges us to return to the Marxist structuralist feminist thought of the mid-20th century (bell hooks, Angela Davis, Patricia Hill Collins, the Combahee River Collective, Chandra Mohanty, etc.) in order to better assess the multiple layers of patriarchal domination that exist in our current moment. Perry gives an incisive reading of neoliberalism and the marketization of everything; of economic precarity and ever-growing inequity; of social media, the fashioning of the self, and the fiction of privatized digital spaces as revolutionary public spheres (even as they remain essential connective spaces for many marginalized individuals and groups); of the relentless terror of the U.S. security state.
In the first two sections, Perry offers readings of patriarchy’s layers and architecture, complicates the ways patriarchy dominates, and describes the matrices of domination that it spawns. The final section moves away from legal history and political theory to philosophy, literary analysis, and visual arts and culture to think through witnessing, mapping, passionate utterances, and curation as ways that we can reimagine, reconstruct, think, and *be* more fully. Through art, Perry suggests, we can seek liberatory futures that are ethical, moral, and beyond the world’s terms of orders as we know them.
Perry had me at the term “liberation feminist.” I’m forever in awe of her ability to bring so many diverse disciplines into play to analyze complicated phenomena. Readers of 'More Beautiful, More Terrible: The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the United States' will be familiar with the breadth and depth of Perry's interdisciplinary knowledge and thinking. From the first page, you know she is a scholar of literature and law, a historian, a sociologist of knowledge, a philosopher, and a political theorist. Through it all, Perry's emphasis on reading--reading as method, analysis, and praxis--shows that her training as a cultural studies scholar is always at work. 'Vexy Thing' is a difficult and, at times, very dense text, but it’s mind-stretching and wonderful. Perry's academic writing has always possessed a deeply literary quality, and observing her style and form is a pleasure in and of itself. Perry generously offers her reader a theoretical framework for understanding complicated relations of domination, language and terms for description, and so many threads for further exploration.
I often think of bell hooks warning us of the dangers of feminism being "subsumed under lifestyle choice" and the need for those of us who do feminist work to continually focus on and reassert politics/the political. Perry has done this magnificently, and she urges us to do the same.
As such, Perry urges us to return to the Marxist structuralist feminist thought of the mid-20th century (bell hooks, Angela Davis, Patricia Hill Collins, the Combahee River Collective, Chandra Mohanty, etc.) in order to better assess the multiple layers of patriarchal domination that exist in our current moment. Perry gives an incisive reading of neoliberalism and the marketization of everything; of economic precarity and ever-growing inequity; of social media, the fashioning of the self, and the fiction of privatized digital spaces as revolutionary public spheres (even as they remain essential connective spaces for many marginalized individuals and groups); of the relentless terror of the U.S. security state.
In the first two sections, Perry offers readings of patriarchy’s layers and architecture, complicates the ways patriarchy dominates, and describes the matrices of domination that it spawns. The final section moves away from legal history and political theory to philosophy, literary analysis, and visual arts and culture to think through witnessing, mapping, passionate utterances, and curation as ways that we can reimagine, reconstruct, think, and *be* more fully. Through art, Perry suggests, we can seek liberatory futures that are ethical, moral, and beyond the world’s terms of orders as we know them.
Perry had me at the term “liberation feminist.” I’m forever in awe of her ability to bring so many diverse disciplines into play to analyze complicated phenomena. Readers of 'More Beautiful, More Terrible: The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the United States' will be familiar with the breadth and depth of Perry's interdisciplinary knowledge and thinking. From the first page, you know she is a scholar of literature and law, a historian, a sociologist of knowledge, a philosopher, and a political theorist. Through it all, Perry's emphasis on reading--reading as method, analysis, and praxis--shows that her training as a cultural studies scholar is always at work. 'Vexy Thing' is a difficult and, at times, very dense text, but it’s mind-stretching and wonderful. Perry's academic writing has always possessed a deeply literary quality, and observing her style and form is a pleasure in and of itself. Perry generously offers her reader a theoretical framework for understanding complicated relations of domination, language and terms for description, and so many threads for further exploration.
I often think of bell hooks warning us of the dangers of feminism being "subsumed under lifestyle choice" and the need for those of us who do feminist work to continually focus on and reassert politics/the political. Perry has done this magnificently, and she urges us to do the same.
November 2, 2018
This book is a must read for anyone who is interested in having a framework to use for thinking about our current political moment. It’s a history of personhood, textual analysis, an argument for the necessity of art, and a brilliant analysis of feminism and patriarchy. It’s also a great introduction to Black feminist thought. If you love listening to people talk about Toni Morrison, you will enjoy this book, a lot. Highly recommend for anyone doing feminist work.
September 5, 2020
This is a failed attempt to write about patriarchy.
We desperately need more theoretical work addressing patriarchy and how it manifests in myriad forms as bound up with all other forms of oppression. But this book is merely more grist for the academic mill.
Rather than clear, focused arguments, Perry writes long, wandering paragraphs that consist largely of close readings of literature and art (with far too many long block quotes thrown in).
Her definition of patriarchy largely ignores the specificity of men’s oppression of women (which is what most feminists has understood the core of patriarchy to be, even as it intersects with other oppressions). Rather, she defines patriarchy in terms of the relationship between “patriarchs” (who hold property, sovereignty, and personhood) and “non-persons”. This leads to a number of problems with her analysis, including that she routinely dismisses sexism as central to patriarchy.
She also has trouble acknowledging that marginalized men are capable of being patriarchal and oppressing marginalized women and queer people. It’s one thing to acknowledge how wealthy white men are the ultimate beneficiaries of patriarchy, it’s another to discount completely the extent to which other men also perpetuate patriarchy.
Most egregiously, Perry defines domestic violence (a central form of patriarchal oppression) as merely “collateral patriarchy” because it doesn’t meet her sui generis definition. She also clumsily makes an important point about how prisons aren’t a solution to male violence by citing two anti-feminist reactionaries (Janet Halley and Jeannie Suk). Given her proclaimed commitment to women of color feminism, she could have cited any of the numerous actually feminist, radical activists working on addressing gender violence without relying on prisons. These include Mia Mingus, Mariame Kaba, Beth Richie, Andrea Smith, Angela Davis, Ann Russo, and many others. This betrayal of feminism leads her to argue that prisons and the “security state” are more real/serious/damaging forms of patriarchy than male violence against women. To be sure, the criminal justice system is racist, classist, and sexist and needs to be abolished. But it is not MORE important to critique these institutions than to address intimate partner violence.
Perry’s prescription for “liberation feminism” is also unsatisfying. It largely seems to consist of close readings of highly avant garde art and literature, individual practices of “curation” (seemingly of media), and individual ethical commitments in place of larger political ones. It’s a far cry for the radical, collective politics we need to actually overthrow real patriarchy.
If you want to know more about what patriarchy is, you will not find it in this book. Instead, I offer a reading list of texts the address then issues Perry claims to cover in much better ways.
Caliban and the Witch, Silvia Federici (Perry cites this book to make a fairly uninspired point about witches representing “monstrosity,” but it’s actually an amazing Marxist feminist account of how modern patriarchy arose).
Maria Lugones, “Heterosexism and the Colonial/Modern Gender System”
Andrea Smith, Conquest
Sarah Deer, The Beginning and the End of Rape
(These three texts address how patriarchy was spread through colonialism)
Beth Richie, Arrested Justice
(Addresses how the anti-violence movement was co-opted by the racist and patriarchal criminal justice system, to the detriment of Black women facing male violence)
The Revolution Starts at home
Beyond Survival
Ann Russo, Feminist Accountability
(These texts are about how to address gender violence without relying on prisons)
Hester Eisenstein, Feminism Seduced
Nancy Fraser, Fortunes of Feminism
(These texts address how feminism has been co-opted by capitalist interests and propose how to resist)
Silvia Federici, Revolution at Point Zero
Lise Vogel, Marxism and the Oppression of Women
Susan Ferguson, Women and Work
Maria Mies, Patriarchy and accumulation on a world scale
(Addresses how capitalism exploits women’s domestic and paid labor, a topic which Perry wholly neglects)
Ariel Salleh, Eco-sufficiency and Global Justice
Vandana Shiva, Staying Alive
Carolyn Merchant, The death of nature
(Addresses how the oppression of women and the domination of the environment are intertwined, topics Perry again ignores)
Teresa Ebert, Ludic Feminism and After
(A Marxist feminist critique of the poststructuralist theories Perry uncritically celebrates, even though it is actually a bourgeois dead end with little use for feminists)
All of these texts are better starting points than Perry’s book. Skip Vexy Thing and read any of these instead.
We desperately need more theoretical work addressing patriarchy and how it manifests in myriad forms as bound up with all other forms of oppression. But this book is merely more grist for the academic mill.
Rather than clear, focused arguments, Perry writes long, wandering paragraphs that consist largely of close readings of literature and art (with far too many long block quotes thrown in).
Her definition of patriarchy largely ignores the specificity of men’s oppression of women (which is what most feminists has understood the core of patriarchy to be, even as it intersects with other oppressions). Rather, she defines patriarchy in terms of the relationship between “patriarchs” (who hold property, sovereignty, and personhood) and “non-persons”. This leads to a number of problems with her analysis, including that she routinely dismisses sexism as central to patriarchy.
She also has trouble acknowledging that marginalized men are capable of being patriarchal and oppressing marginalized women and queer people. It’s one thing to acknowledge how wealthy white men are the ultimate beneficiaries of patriarchy, it’s another to discount completely the extent to which other men also perpetuate patriarchy.
Most egregiously, Perry defines domestic violence (a central form of patriarchal oppression) as merely “collateral patriarchy” because it doesn’t meet her sui generis definition. She also clumsily makes an important point about how prisons aren’t a solution to male violence by citing two anti-feminist reactionaries (Janet Halley and Jeannie Suk). Given her proclaimed commitment to women of color feminism, she could have cited any of the numerous actually feminist, radical activists working on addressing gender violence without relying on prisons. These include Mia Mingus, Mariame Kaba, Beth Richie, Andrea Smith, Angela Davis, Ann Russo, and many others. This betrayal of feminism leads her to argue that prisons and the “security state” are more real/serious/damaging forms of patriarchy than male violence against women. To be sure, the criminal justice system is racist, classist, and sexist and needs to be abolished. But it is not MORE important to critique these institutions than to address intimate partner violence.
Perry’s prescription for “liberation feminism” is also unsatisfying. It largely seems to consist of close readings of highly avant garde art and literature, individual practices of “curation” (seemingly of media), and individual ethical commitments in place of larger political ones. It’s a far cry for the radical, collective politics we need to actually overthrow real patriarchy.
If you want to know more about what patriarchy is, you will not find it in this book. Instead, I offer a reading list of texts the address then issues Perry claims to cover in much better ways.
Caliban and the Witch, Silvia Federici (Perry cites this book to make a fairly uninspired point about witches representing “monstrosity,” but it’s actually an amazing Marxist feminist account of how modern patriarchy arose).
Maria Lugones, “Heterosexism and the Colonial/Modern Gender System”
Andrea Smith, Conquest
Sarah Deer, The Beginning and the End of Rape
(These three texts address how patriarchy was spread through colonialism)
Beth Richie, Arrested Justice
(Addresses how the anti-violence movement was co-opted by the racist and patriarchal criminal justice system, to the detriment of Black women facing male violence)
The Revolution Starts at home
Beyond Survival
Ann Russo, Feminist Accountability
(These texts are about how to address gender violence without relying on prisons)
Hester Eisenstein, Feminism Seduced
Nancy Fraser, Fortunes of Feminism
(These texts address how feminism has been co-opted by capitalist interests and propose how to resist)
Silvia Federici, Revolution at Point Zero
Lise Vogel, Marxism and the Oppression of Women
Susan Ferguson, Women and Work
Maria Mies, Patriarchy and accumulation on a world scale
(Addresses how capitalism exploits women’s domestic and paid labor, a topic which Perry wholly neglects)
Ariel Salleh, Eco-sufficiency and Global Justice
Vandana Shiva, Staying Alive
Carolyn Merchant, The death of nature
(Addresses how the oppression of women and the domination of the environment are intertwined, topics Perry again ignores)
Teresa Ebert, Ludic Feminism and After
(A Marxist feminist critique of the poststructuralist theories Perry uncritically celebrates, even though it is actually a bourgeois dead end with little use for feminists)
All of these texts are better starting points than Perry’s book. Skip Vexy Thing and read any of these instead.
June 11, 2019
Just incredible--thought-provoking, and really makes me want to be more attentive to like my entire life. I think if you've read many of the women of color feminists she cites, you might feel like this book isn't saying much new, but it draws all of these lines of thought together in such a slim little volume that is ultimately pretty accessible. (I would say maybe a challenge to undergrads without much experience, but I think they could definitely take to it with interest if it was done carefully.) Just so many good explorations and such a rooted sense of theory and praxis. Really strongly recommend to all folks!
July 16, 2024
mental breakthroughs come in waves, we often stagnate or plateau until the next big revolution in out thinking comes along. Vexy Thing was this revolution for me.this book literally changed my life
December 30, 2024
i can’t remember the last time that a book straight up called me stupid, but this one definitely did! this book is so well researched and intentional in all that is discussed, that i most likely will be reading and re-reading it for a long time to come in order to fully engage with it.
at its core, vexy thing by imani perry explains how patriarchy is continued and constructed throughout history, literature, legal thought, etc. over time. throughout the text, she pulls from a broad spectrum of media: music, vignettes, historical accounts, poetry, art, cartography, policy, etc. to demonstrate her essential point that patriarchy, domination, and personhood are not only intertwined, but cannot be understood separately.
perry asserts that feminism is a critical practice, a verb. feminism requires “reading through the layers” of gendered forms of domination. throughout reading, i tried to do the same and found it very difficult! however, i appreciated how perry goes beyond the commodification of feminism and patriarchy to address ways that we must think and act within the margins. we must be witches and critique the inside, not for the purpose of joining, but for the purpose of improving the lives of “outsiders”. additionally, loved the concept of liberation feminism (alert: potential final paper topic)!!
this was a tough read, not only because perry (as an academic) functions on a plane that i only hope to one day grasp but also because she makes valid criticism of how we as a society navigate patriarchy and social movements. i mean she talks about any topic you can think of, explaining its relation to domination and liberation, so it can be overwhelming at times. also, the historical vignettes and just mass onslaught of words was a lot to process for me.
honestly, the vexing ting of vexy thing is how patriarchy and domination is everywhere.
if you’re up for the challenge and ready to have a stare down with your own commitment to be critically engaged, then you should def read this book! trust me when i say it is not a light read, but if you’re conducting research on feminism or patriarchy, great academic-level/graduate text to engage with.
at its core, vexy thing by imani perry explains how patriarchy is continued and constructed throughout history, literature, legal thought, etc. over time. throughout the text, she pulls from a broad spectrum of media: music, vignettes, historical accounts, poetry, art, cartography, policy, etc. to demonstrate her essential point that patriarchy, domination, and personhood are not only intertwined, but cannot be understood separately.
perry asserts that feminism is a critical practice, a verb. feminism requires “reading through the layers” of gendered forms of domination. throughout reading, i tried to do the same and found it very difficult! however, i appreciated how perry goes beyond the commodification of feminism and patriarchy to address ways that we must think and act within the margins. we must be witches and critique the inside, not for the purpose of joining, but for the purpose of improving the lives of “outsiders”. additionally, loved the concept of liberation feminism (alert: potential final paper topic)!!
this was a tough read, not only because perry (as an academic) functions on a plane that i only hope to one day grasp but also because she makes valid criticism of how we as a society navigate patriarchy and social movements. i mean she talks about any topic you can think of, explaining its relation to domination and liberation, so it can be overwhelming at times. also, the historical vignettes and just mass onslaught of words was a lot to process for me.
honestly, the vexing ting of vexy thing is how patriarchy and domination is everywhere.
if you’re up for the challenge and ready to have a stare down with your own commitment to be critically engaged, then you should def read this book! trust me when i say it is not a light read, but if you’re conducting research on feminism or patriarchy, great academic-level/graduate text to engage with.
September 8, 2020
“The structures of social services and education and even the importation of social science into policing, assert a desire to reduce physical violence and maintain order, but they also rest on punitive bureaucratic structures that while reducing the immediate brutality of certain forms of violence, often by patriarchy seekers, do overwhelmingly still fall into the logic of patriarchal order and domination”
“..I believe the transformation of both the interior self and the relations we have with others are necessary to practice a politics of liberation.”
“But because of the voraciousness of the market, subversion of the old rules often become a marketing device or an individualistic practice that is the product of self-promotion, simulacra, and celebrity.” ..”How do we make space for ruptures in the rules of patriarchy that are not circumscribed to market winners or the individualized commodity and instead open up new forms of relation for more of us and in analog existences.”
“Emotions are always part of analysis and reason, but they are not often recognized as such because they are submerged according to the grammars we have been taught to treat reason as belonging on a masculine register, along with order and, set in opposition to emotion. This binary is dishonest and damaging.”
“And while we are often reminded that we simply cannot pay attention to every tragedy or every injustice in the world, we can be attentive to the compossibility of a practiced awareness to the interlocking nature of all dominations in such a way that we remain open to reading them each as we encounter them and allow ourselves to be transformed in that process”
“..I believe the transformation of both the interior self and the relations we have with others are necessary to practice a politics of liberation.”
“But because of the voraciousness of the market, subversion of the old rules often become a marketing device or an individualistic practice that is the product of self-promotion, simulacra, and celebrity.” ..”How do we make space for ruptures in the rules of patriarchy that are not circumscribed to market winners or the individualized commodity and instead open up new forms of relation for more of us and in analog existences.”
“Emotions are always part of analysis and reason, but they are not often recognized as such because they are submerged according to the grammars we have been taught to treat reason as belonging on a masculine register, along with order and, set in opposition to emotion. This binary is dishonest and damaging.”
“And while we are often reminded that we simply cannot pay attention to every tragedy or every injustice in the world, we can be attentive to the compossibility of a practiced awareness to the interlocking nature of all dominations in such a way that we remain open to reading them each as we encounter them and allow ourselves to be transformed in that process”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 15, 2021
If you’re thinking about adding another Black Feminist Theory text to your TBR, take this as your sign.
“Vexy Thing” by Dr. Imani Perry is everything.
It introduced me to the concepts of the “entrepreneurial woman” and the “failed man.” And by the time Perry began to dissect the commodification of “self-love” and “self-care” in our media-obsessed world, I was screaming. Yes, this text is THAT wonderfully-made & someone needs to crown her. Now.
My biggest takeaway? Patriarchy may be considered a “buzz word” to many, but that doesn’t make it any less powerful, violent or destructive.
Thank you for this, Dr Perry.
“Vexy Thing” by Dr. Imani Perry is everything.
It introduced me to the concepts of the “entrepreneurial woman” and the “failed man.” And by the time Perry began to dissect the commodification of “self-love” and “self-care” in our media-obsessed world, I was screaming. Yes, this text is THAT wonderfully-made & someone needs to crown her. Now.
My biggest takeaway? Patriarchy may be considered a “buzz word” to many, but that doesn’t make it any less powerful, violent or destructive.
Thank you for this, Dr Perry.
December 14, 2019
This book was challenging to read as someone who is out of practice reading critical theory, but it was a rewarding challenge. Perry is examining identity and personhood entangled with patriarchy and race and capitalism in a way that is multifaceted and deep and thoughtful and, well, vexing. I hope anyone concerned with feminism or otherwise is interested in unraveling patriarchy will read this book. I especially would recommend it to others who found value in Silvia Federici's Caliban and the Witch.
October 21, 2019
I love this book. I'm using it in a course called Understanding Gender and students have responded to the text really well. Perry's voice is compelling, challenging, and her approach to analysis that incorporates the kind of imagination in literature and art is stunningly rendered.
October 11, 2020
Finally a nuanced feminist articulation of patriarchy and it's roots in the Age of Enlightenment and how racialized subjects were brought under it as non-persons to labor and how that mechanism extends to the 21st century
October 18, 2020
Meaningful, artistic and also super dense. A bit of a slog in places.
January 24, 2021
I read this for a critical theory class and really enjoyed it!
Read
January 30, 2022The relation between the one speaking and the ones spoken for is fractured by economic interests.
An excellent book on personhood, sovereignty, gender, race and much, much more.
An excellent book on personhood, sovereignty, gender, race and much, much more.
Read
March 22, 2019306.858 P4634 2018
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews