Re: AUT: Fortunati

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

Tahir Wood wrote:

>I've been reading the Fortunati book, Arcane of Reproduction, and I
>wondered if anyone else has been doing likewise recently. Obviously
>this is an essential work in understanding gender, but I must say
>that I've experienced a bit of disappointment as I've been
>proceeding with it. I'm almost finished now with a careful reading
>of the book and I wanted to make a couple of quick critical
>comments. It seems to me that the author seriously overstates the
>functionality of the family and its gender relations for capital.
>She would like to show that alternative lifestyles, prostitution,
>etc. are somehow threatening to capital. I started out as being
>fairly sympathetic to this sort of idea and became less and less
>convinced the more I read. I am more and more seeing these different
>positions, conservative pro-family and progressive pro-choice (in
>the matter of lifestyle and sexuality), as being a conflict internal
>to capital and perhaps even equally functional for capital. Am I
>wrong? Comments needed.

My impression of the U.S. is that it's smaller capital that's most
enthusiastic about family values etc., while big capital doesn't care
that much as long as people show up for work and buy their stuff. An
acquaintance who works at Merrill Lynch told me recently about how
the firm had all sorts of "diversity" programs, and they even
sponsored a float in the most recent Gay Pride parade in NYC. Also,
big capital wants footloose workers, who are free to relocate on
demand and not be rooted in any particular place, unlike smaller
capitals, which are often quite rooted in both business and ideology
to a particular region.

Doug


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