Feminist Thought

Feminists Critique of Engels/Marxism

MacKinnon

Sexuality is to Feminism what Work is to Marxism (3 in Toward a Feminist Theory of the State)

This is why Marxists, Marx, Engels always fail to account for women’s subordination, can’t view women’s situation accurately

General Feminist Criticisms

1) Many have criticized him for soundness of anthropological evidence

2) Point out that he sees division of labor along gender lines as natural

- characteristic of all social systems

- matriarchal or patriarchal

3) That he confuses social construction of sexuality with “nature”

e.g. Pairing marriage as desired by women because of innate difs b/w male and female sexuality

all males lust for group marriage

all females want chastity,

“security” provided by male

Misinterpretations of Engels

often portrayed as more feminist than he is

misquote him as believing that women were a class;

or that male/female relations = “first class div”

not true - sex=div of labor

not dif rels to means of production