Sexuality and Socialism: History, Politics, and Theory of LGBT Liberation (Paperback)

~ Sherry Wolf (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"Sexuality and Socialism is the most intelligent and enlightened discussion on sexuality to come from the Left in a long time. No other work that comes to my mind explains the history of sexuality and sexual repression in the United States as comprehensively and compellingly."--Ron Jacobs, Dissident Voice

The movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights has greatly expanded sexual freedom, but many challenges confront the struggle for equality. Sexuality and Socialism offers a Marxist analysis that links today’s struggles for equal rights to a future based on genuine liberation.

Sherry Wolf is on the editorial board of the International Socialist Review. She has written for publications including MRZine and CounterPunch and has spoken across the country on the struggle for gay and lesbian liberation.

About the Author

Sherry Wolf is on the editorial board of the International Socialist Review. She has written for publications including MRZine and Counterpunch, and has spoken across the country on the struggle for gay and lesbian liberation.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Haymarket Books (June 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931859795
• ISBN-13: 978-1931859790
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #233,684 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Invaluable Analysis of LGBT Liberation Politics, July 7, 2009

By	Ashley Simmons "Red Ash" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for New Students & Experts, October 10, 2009

By	Keith Rosenthal (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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 Liberation
Black Liberation and Socialism
Subterranean Fire: A History of Working-Class Radicalism in the United States
The Meaning of Marxism
The Case for Socialism

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Survey, but Lacks Depth, September 5, 2009

By	J. Edgar Mihelic "teacher, punk" (Chicago) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Too much of a survey for me, I was looking for and hoping for a little more depth and less of a synthesis of things about history and theory I already know. The last two chapters reached for a prescription for depth, but did not necessarily get there. Well written, but you can see the author's obvious biases in some of the chapters. If I had worked my way through this book with a pen in hand I might have more to say on a point by point basis, but in a survey here there is so much information. What I expect will be the most useful and interesting part of the book is the bibliography and suggestion for further reading. It made me want to crack back open my old Marx/Engels reader and hit up some of the sections I haven't read yet, mostly Engels's take on the rise of the modern family under capitalism.