Status Updates From The Dialectic of Sex: The C...

"the elimination of the sexual classes requires the revolt of the underclass (women) and the seizure of the control of reproduction" that changed my life at 21

Continuing the verbal assault on culture, the scope is widened even more to the sciences and their exclusion of women. I think the commentary on how this exclusion has more or less shaped empiricism is interesting, but I take particular umbrage with how there are strong gendered connotations attached to 'science' (men) and 'arts' (women). Regardless, the calls for a 'cultural revolution' of sorts is intriguing.

With the examinations of love and romanticism done with, culture itself is now criticized. Looking at a wide variety of art forms (painting, film, even the comic book), it is concluded that only half of humanity's picture has been captured adequately. Naturally, it is the 'male' view, both of themselves and of their sexual counterparts, that has secured cultural representation to the detriment of the 'female' view.

The critical examination on love continues, with the ire now aimed at 'romanticism'. Firestone casts the cultural institution as one directly developed to pacify women who would otherwise rebel against their predicaments. Notions of eroticism and beauty are thrust onto the sexes to everybody's detriment.

As an aside, this is probably the funniest chapter yet because of Firestone's unmasked disgust towards Americans.

Freudianism and Feminism! I’m not read enough on psychoanalysis to say how accurate her depiction is. I think Firestone is touching on similar ground that Dworkin does by talking about the separation of sex from emotion - though Dworkin talks more about how Force used by Male Supremacist Society removes the ability for intercourse to be conducted without women being urged to perform.

An interesting history of American feminism (with little in the way of citations) and some of Firestone’s own political analysis on the fledgling variants of feminism in her time. Any time she mentions the work done by the Black Panthers, though, I get nervous because Firestone has a tendency to get racist.

"Women and love are underpinnings. Examine them and you threaten the very structure of culture." is just one of the many explosive statements littered throughout this chapter. The phenomenon is cast as benign (if selfish) in isolation, but distorted by the sex class system to be the engine of culture, where men feed off of it without reciprocity. Much emphasis is placed on 'traditional differences' between the sexes.

Firestone does more to explain sex-class as a working term over Dworkin. What is interesting is Firestone’s embrace of artificial birth, insemination, etc., and general (as it seems so far) trust in technology’s ability to aid in the development of a more egalitarian society with dissolved sex distinctions, while Dworkin is considerably frightened by this idea - a fear that takes up a chapter in Right-Wing Women.

Well. Here we are. The introduction briefly slips into the usual RadFem happenstance of racism before moving on to discuss a fairly interesting, though possibly unconvincing, modification to historical materialism with Freudian psych and sex-class analysis.