File spoon-archives/marxism-thaxis.archive/marxism-thaxis_1998/marxism-thaxis.9803, message 1135


From: brumback-AT-ncgate.newcollege.edu
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 16:56:55 -0800
Subject: M-TH: Picking up the Pieces


A few days ago, Leo started off on an idea which didn't get the discussion
it deserved:

>Leo wrote:
>>Sexual representation, a category in which pornography is the most infamous
>>but not the only element, is a complex cultural and political terrain.
>>Political interventions from the left usually do little justice to that
>>complexity. They generally are either (1) prohibitionist and censorious, which
>>almost invariably leads into tacit -- and at times, open -- alliance with the
>>puritanical and anti-sex politics of the fundamentalist right (perhaps most
>>manifest in the political trajectory of Andrea Dworkin and Catherine
>>McKinnon), or (2) libertarian, based on tacit acquiescence to the demands of
>>the sovereign consumers of an unfettered market in such representations,
>>regardless of the specific forms those demands might take, a position which
>>almost invariably leads into tacist -- and at times, open -- alliance with the
>>likes of Bob Guccione and Larry Flynt (perhaps clearest in the stance of a Pat
>>Califia). Neither approach is very helpful.

This is a crucial issue in the women's movement, because no other issue that
I can think of has caused as severe a split as this one has caused, IMHO.

But I am remembering that beginning in the '60s, after the civil rights
movement had gained some clout, it fought for the elimination of
representations of African-Americans which were judged to be reminiscent of
the old stereotypes: the infamous little black little jockey boy statues,
the shuffling Uncle Tom, etc. I don't remember exactly how this came about,
but it seems to me that black leaders came together on this to make it
happen, and nobody (at least not any blacks) protested on the grounds that
their freedom of expression was being violated.

Andrea Dworkin, on the other hand, inspired a great deal of anti-censorship
sentiment, and effectively, the feminist movement was split between those
women who wanted to limit the right of the patriarchy to represent women in
a way which was thought to perpetuate their oppression, on the one hand, and
those women who saw such limitations as sexually repressive.

I have asked myself: why could the black community come together on their
issue while the women's community couldn't? Perhaps I am oversimpifying, but
I think at least two differences in the black movement and the women's
movement may have contributed to the way the two movements dealt with the
issue of representation: (1) the predominance of working class and poor
people in the black movement, as compared to the predominance of
middle-class white women and professional women in the women's movement; and
(2) the relatively democratic process of the black movement, as compared to
the "cultural heroine" mode of leadership of the Dworkin camp.

Anybody have any ideas?

Nancy



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