10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Invaluable Analysis of LGBT Liberation Politics, July 7, 2009
This review is from: Sexuality and Socialism: History, Politics, and Theory of LGBT Liberation (Paperback)
As an organizer that has been completely swept up in the movement for marriage equality and beyond, I found this book to be a clear, materialist analysis of where LGBT oppression comes from and what to do about it. It also makes a strong argument through some of the best LGBT history for political struggle from bellow being the decisive force in combating homophobia. The author makes a brilliant case for how sexual liberation of all people is inextricably linked to combating homophobia. Ultimately with a movement on the rise happening at the same time as rising unemployment and poverty, the politics of solidarity and socialism are more relevant than ever in building the LGBT struggle. It is so refreshing to talk about how gender and sexuality haven't always been this rigid and how things don't always have to be that way, that a revolutionary overthrow of the sexual order of the day is possible. Sexuality and Socialism contains vital history that has been buried from so many of our history books such as unified, steadfastly pro-gay black and white integrated workers organizations in the 1930's. This makes me proud to be a fighter for LGBT Liberation and ultimately, working class revolution.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
What about the 'A' word?, December 25, 2010
This review is from: Sexuality and Socialism: History, Politics, and Theory of LGBT Liberation (Paperback)
I am absolutely shocked that the author of this book claims to be a socialist. The word 'equality' comes up hundreds of times, which is fine in connecting socialist politics with existing movements. However there's no larger vision directing readers to the general contours of what a liberated sexual society might look like. Without that vision, any movement for LGBT liberation will wither on the vine once the two main political demands Wolf makes in this book are met (repeal of DADT, which is mentioned on 30 pages, and same-sex marriage legalization, which is alluded to on 50 pages!). The fact that DADT has recently been repealed and gays have since this books initial publication won the right to get married throughout most of New England not only undermines her ill-advised functionalist argument that capitalism somehow depends upon and is therefore the source of homophobia. It also means that much of what she spends time getting outraged about in this book is quickly becoming a non-issue. So much for being on the cutting edge or vanguard of mass politics. Do LGBT people call it a day and rest contentedly on their laurels now, or is there something more to fight for in the realm of sexuality, like maybe liberation? Clearly Wolf would respond in favor of the latter, but by focusing so strongly on equality at the expense of liberation she is unable to offer a real way forward past the political framework established by bourgeois society.
Useful in breaking that framework would have been some discussion of the a-word: 'alienation,' a term that comes up on exactly two pages in what amounts to a superficial discussion of Wilhelm Reich's earlier work. This oversight would not be so damning were it not for the established literature on alienated sexuality within Marxian literature, a literature extending far beyond Reich's contribution (see Alan Soble's 'Pornography'). Instead Wolf is too busy calling for equality to bother with developing an identifiably socialist understanding of sexuality that could benefit heterosexual people as well as LGBT people. A shame, really, considering the amount of attention this book has received and how large its potential audience is. My advice is to acquire Mario Mieli's
Homosexuality and Liberation: Elements of a Gay Critique and compare it to this work. You'll notice immediately which one is calling for a liberatory sexual politics.
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book for New Students & Experts, October 10, 2009
This review is from: Sexuality and Socialism: History, Politics, and Theory of LGBT Liberation (Paperback)
Whether you are someone learning about the history of homosexuality and gender variance for the first time, or are an erudite student in the field, this book is a 'must-have' on your bookshelf. This book is NOT an academic/abstract/unintelligible book. Rather, it is a broad attempt to offer a uniquely-materialist understanding of the development, evolution, and repression of homosexuality (or, to use a more apt phrase, "non-heteronormative lifestyles") in the modern era.
Starting with the obliquely homosexual practices of the Ancient Greeks up through the present industrial/financial times, Wolf explains how sexual preference and identity have ever been a product of the social & economic conditions upon which a given society has rested. In other words, for an individual to break free of the constricting bonds of the "normal, nuclear family (1 father, 1 mother, and 2.5 children)" and live out a variant sexual existence, that individual must have a means of providing for themselves independently and in connection with other, similarly "independent" individuals.
It is for this reason that the modern notion of a "homosexual" person as a distinct "type" set apart from "heterosexual" people, is a phenomenon that first emerges with the advent of capitalism and the industrialization of society. Capitalism tore apart the old, static family life based in the countryside with its suffocating traditions and monotony, and replaced it with the buzz, fluidity, anonymity, and diversity of myriad strangers, crammed in together at work and at home, beckoned with the promise of individual advancement via the market nexus.
However, just as capitalism offers the promise of new, more liberated lifestyles, it stymies them at every turn. Capitalism has no use for the sedentary and static life of the peasant economy, far removed from commerce and industry. It does, however, seek to retain certain structures of the former feudal society and adapt them to modern uses. The nuclear family (an individual unit of privatized reproduction versus social reproduction) is one of these structures.
Capitalism does not abolish war when it overthrows the various warring fiefdoms and monarchies of the Middle Ages. Nor does it abolish religion when it seals the fate of the "Divine Kings" of Europe. To use an analogy, the eye of the human plays a very different role than does eye of the dog (which is color-blind), yet nature saw fit to pass this organ down from species to species, making only slight adaptations to render it more useful in the employ of the given animal.
In such way does capitalism treat what should otherwise be the vestigal organs of our more barbaric, ancient brethren. Insofar as capitalism remains a rigid society premised upon class division and inequality, it retains (albeit in adapted and newfangled forms) the blemishes of oppression, war, poverty, etc.
What is refreshing about Wolf's conclusion to this analysis is her point that sexual oppression can indeed be ended -- not just limited, tempered, avoided, or ignored. Oppression, being a product not of some intrinsic human fallacy, but rather the (at first) unintended product of the particular structures of society (some) humans have crafted over time, can be eradicated by likewise creating new structures and institutions for human coexistence.
Such a new structure would have to call into question the basis of a capitalistic society that necessarily is based upon class inequality and mutual competition. For this author, a truly democratic, socialist society is clearly a form of human existence more amenable to full equality and liberation for all of our species.
However, regardless of whether you agree or disagree with this or other particular conclusions drawn by the author, you will nonetheless find this a remarkably insightful, if not life-changing, read.
(If you like this book, check out other similarly-written works such as:
Women and Socialism: Essays on Women's LiberationBlack Liberation and SocialismSubterranean Fire: A History of Working-Class Radicalism in the United StatesThe Meaning of MarxismThe Case for Socialism
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