Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 16:17:15 -0400 (EDT)
From: Kevin Cabral <kcabral-AT-freenet.columbus.oh.us>
Subject: Re: Lenin, Zetkin, Marx on sex?


On Tue, 16 Apr 1996, Justin Schwartz wrote:

> As far as I know Marx wrote practically nothing about sex and absolutely
> nothing about sexual orientation. He was a typically prudish and rather
> conservative Victorian in his own sexual mores, complete with the affair
> with the maid and the illegitimate son, Freddie Demuth, whose paternity
> the far more free-thinking Engels pretended to knowledge to spare Marx and
> more particularly Jenny embarassment and trouble. Raised Freddie, too.
> Engels, like Mill, was far advanced of Marx and in fact lived "in sin"
> with his lover, something Marx disapproved of rather sternly, not that he
> minded boffing the help. This difference was the source of the only major
> conflict between them. Marx was rather chilly when Engels' lover died and
> this nearly led to a break between them. 

	This reminds me of a description of Engels I read in Newsweek,
where they described him as a "Victorian" in his concept of sexuality.
This was in their issue on China. Of course I would tend to doubt the
authority of Newsweek on Marx and Engels, but I wonder where they would
have found Engels to be a "conservative Victorian?" 

	They mentioned Engels while discussing the "conservative attitudes
towards women" in the Chinese Revolution, according to the Zeppo Marxists
at Newsweek. Anyone have comments, as I've never remotely thought of
Engels as a "conservative Victorian" at all myself. 

Kevin
Cols, Oh





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