å Tuesday, February 28th, 2017

Due Monday, March 6th, by midnight. Word count: 300 words. Please make sure everything is in your own words. Absolutely no quotes should be used. If you paraphrase from the text (from Rubin’s work or anywhere else), you must be sure to include the proper citation (either MLA or APA).

In her essay, “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality,” Gayle Rubin argues that several persistent features of thought about sex inhibit the development of a radical theory of sex. She notes that “[t]hese assumptions are so pervasive in Western culture that they are rarely questioned. Thus they tend to reappear in different political contexts, acquiring new rhetorical expressions but reproducing certain axioms” (9). In your own words, explain these assumptions and how they limit political discourse on sexuality in the United States.

In the Middle age, Europe was using feudal economy system. Emperor was giving territories to feudal lords, and they were having full authorities of that land. However, at the late Middle Age, feudal economy was destroyed, and new system called ‘Capitalism’ exposed to outside. Capitalism is an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. This new economic and political system looked like a revolution of economic system because this system was putting emphasis on the equality of people. However, as the time passed, capitalism started to cause many problems. In the Caliban and the Witch, Silvia Frederici state that capitalism created sexism and racism in the society. For example, she showed disparagement of women while capitalism was the economic and social system.

During the transition from feudalism to capitalism, over-exploitation threatened the collapse of the whole system. In addition, the workforce was barely survived. To keep the capitalism, it required the process which was making people in the society like a work-machine, and the conquest of women to the reproduction of the work-force. The subjugation of women was achieved by “witch hunt.” In addition, women were treated badly as labor. For example, Women were paid less than men, and increasingly excluded from most wage work. Furthermore, state policies were exacerbated misogyny within the working class and male craftsmen fought to cut off women who were in many professions, because they were afraid that women’s participation would drop the value of their own work. Women’s activity came to be considered as ‘not workers.’

Eventually, this degradation of women helped capitalism to create wealth. For instance, the sexual division of labor divided and controlled the working class. These processes allowed the capitalist class to secure control over labor.

The Caliban and the Witch is interesting, but I also found it to be a difficult read.
The chapter talks about capitalism and its direct causation of sexism and oppression of people, particularly women, black people, and impoverished people.
Frederici writes about the emergence of capitalism slowly oppressing women especially because they were put into a category of “reproductive beings” with little else available. As capitalism developed taking over feudal society, women’s wages (when they were given them) were pitiful when compared with men’s. They were less mobile since they became pregnant and took care of children and their social power was slowly stripped from them. Frederici writes about their protests which initially had some protection since their husbands were responsible for them legally, but eventually they found a way to arrest women for their protests.
It seems as things progressed from feudal to capitalism societies, poorer citizens who had previously been responsible for only working the land, slowly became responsible for the costs of working the land as well. Whereas before they simply did the labor and the wealthier individuals paid for the tools, and labor, when capitalism came into play, the poor individuals were forced to buy the land they were working and they became individually responsible for a small section of land meaning they were responsible for all monetary items and such. The land became something you could own and be responsible for in a way it had never been before.
Capitalism created lower wages, especially for women, higher prices, and great inequality. Women became almost breeders and were even paid for reproduction, but at a minuscule wage.
Wars became more frequent and violent, and a terrible famine began to hit. The famine caused such extreme hunger that people turned on each other believing that poor people would sell their souls to the devil for food.

Silvia Fredericci’s, Caliban and the Witch makes many valid points on capitalism and its detrimental effects on women, both emotionally and monetarily. She disproves the idea that “the women’s place in the home” was something that naturally came about within the economy, and shows that capitalism pushed sexism and female devaluing. Along with the workforce greatly favoring men, it also completely relegated women’s monetary value in labor and further prevented their progression in society. Witch hunts were also used to intimidate women out of work outside their homes, speaking to just how far people went to maintain their gender oppressive way of life.

The workforce of the time oppressed women in a number of aspects. Women were extremely discouraged to work outside of their homes, and were therefore much less valued within the workforce. Reproductive work had been a way some women earned wages in their homes, but it was deemed “natural responsibility” and invalidated as a form of labor. This again displayed the misogyny and disregard for women normalized and promoted by authority. Due to the invalidation of their work, many struggling women turned to begging and prostitution in order to feed themselves and their families. These lines of work were obviously dangerous and hardly ever sufficed in helping women get by.

The Witch hunt also had its ways of negatively affecting women’s monetary stance. The movement allowed for women to be accused of witchcraft for reasons not excluding desire for independence and work outside of their home. The Witch hunt was often used to intimidate women out of the workforce and keep them confined and dependent on men. By instilling a fear of these women with “powers” into society, men were able to be able to accuse women of witchcraft on often vague and elementary observations/suspicions, therefore putting them through trials in which the end result was invariably death.

In this work, Frederici speaks about the presence of Capitalism in Medieval Europe. Slowly, the economic system is being overrun by patriarchy, as a woman’s presence in society is becoming more and more excluded. As Capitalism took over, forcing Feudalism out, the degradation of women soon began as their placement in society changed greatly. Frederici discusses the sudden changes in women’s labor, as they are given unfair wages and unsafe working conditions. Women were continuously seen as housewives and were not given the same opportunities as men when it came to work. By keeping women limited in this sense, they were able to have the advantage by practically forcing women to rely on their husbands for support. Another way of keeping women limited was by pressing societal roles onto them. Soon enough, land and the purchase of it became increasingly popular. However, women were constantly confined to the typical domestic role, which did not allow them to branch out and participate in the buying and selling of land. They did not have enough resources or money to do so, thus leaving them under the control of their husbands.

Frederici continues to discuss the presence of sexual violence at the time as well. Ultimately, it was just another way of establishing capitalism at the time. As the strengthening of the wealthy, male population grew, the female population became more and more oppressed. Naturally, women had to remain inferior to men in order for Capitalism to rise with the male population. Soon enough, prostitution and violence against women became a typical occurrence. It is these situations that create boundaries for women and limit them from breaking free from the clutches of the wealthy white male. Besides the sexualization of women, there was also the accusation of women being witches. Women were considered to be witches if they could not reproduce, and in order to blame someone for this, the male population started the witch hunt. They believed it was their fault that there was a lack of reproduction. Women were unable to voice their opinion, be economically involved, and were seen as nothing more than housewives and child bearers. If they were anything else, they were discriminated against and were stripped of any humanness. Frederici clearly wanted to emphasize the unfair treatment of women during medieval Europe, as it was led by a sudden urge to grow economically that could not be done without tearing down women and keeping them under the thumb of the wealthy white male.

In Silvia Frederici’s, The Caliban and the Witch, she discusses the degradation of women. Women were seen as inferior to men and only seen as wives and ways to reproduce. While women did an assortment of jobs, it was seen as housekeeping or helping the man. Any women who were opposed to this and rioted were quickly arrested.

Since women were paid much less than men, they had little choice but to get married to and rely on men. This, in turn, led to them getting forced into a housewife position and later on, expected to have children and take care of them which took away a lot of their power and freedom. The growth of mercantilism also was a big factor as to why the population needed to grow via women.

Women also began to have little control over their body and childbirth. Many women were expected to get pregnant and keep the children because in the end, it would mean more men to potentially work. This also restricted their work options because since they had to take care of children, they weren’t able to do certain jobs such as production or traveling. Unfortunately, if women were not able to reproduce or were simply uncooperative, they were seen as witches.

All in all, women were degraded in many ways. Whether it was being seen as inferior to men, being paid less and therefore getting stuck in housewife roles or having no control over pregnancy and giving birth, they had little power in this time period and if they tried to rebel, they were put down and further degraded.