I made a post a few months ago asking for help for Marxist Korean resources. It was for my South Korean girlfriend who wanted to understand my ideology. She was quite enthusiastic and curious when she found out I was a Marxist-Leninist, which definitely wasn’t the reaction I was expecting. We talk a lot about Korean politics, but by that point I had tried my best to keep my opinions out of it. I didn’t want to put salt in wounds that are still open today (the korean people and families being separated, the yearning to reunite, the ROK being a puppet state, etc…), and we were still getting to know each other at the time. Even if I say something that I know is right, sometimes it’s not the most tactful thing to say…
The responses y’all gave me was really helpful. She’s become not only becoming educated about Marxist ideology, but she’s also gone from hating the DPRK to a much neutral and realistic perspective about it. It’s slowly becoming more positive over time as well. We talk a lot about DPRK media now…we are learning a lot about it together. I’m really grateful for her, honestly. She’s an amazing woman and absolutely the smartest person I’ve ever known…
We’ve also been talking a lot about feminism lately. I am constantly being horrified about new information about how terrible life is for women in the ROK…and I absolutely love and appreciate her talking about this stuff to me. She’s always over the moon by the fact I’m a male feminist and brings it up, because before we met, that phrase was just an oxymoron to her.
Anyway, it makes me curious of any literature that covers sexism as a method of maintaining a imperial system. I first think of The Mass Psychology of Fascism by Wilhelm Reich, which definitely is an interesting read, but that focuses on sexuality moreso. I’d like something similar to that but focused on gender instead, written by a woman preferably.
Also … I’ll apologize right now. My weed edible just hit me while writing this, so I hope its comprehensible. I probably made it way more sappy than I’d usually write in a post lol.
Clara Zetkin and Alexandra Kollontai. (Silvia Federici has the most recent literature but tbh I think she lacks the understanding of Dialectical Materialism, which led to her misrepresenting Karl Marx’s analysis of capitalism and ignoring the dialectical relationship between industrial and reproductive labor.)
You made it beautiful, and I am grateful. I’m very happy you and your love are getting on the same page, and feel it’s inevitable, as feminism isn’t compatible with patriarchy, and thus capitalism.
Thank you 😭
Yeah, I basically expressed the same thing to her. I feel like patriarchy must be dismantled alongside capitalism, as I see patriarchy as a tool of the elite to seperate people and suppress progressive, and evidently Marxist, ideology. With the things she’s told me about the ROK and how deeply imbedded the patriarchy is systematically, enforced by the Americans, it’s only deepened my belief in that. Feminism is literally seen as a dangerous ideology there, and I suppose to the ROK state and elite, it is.
I’ve been teaching her the difference of TIRF and TERF ideology. Usually when I’ve talked about politics, while I’d give her things like literature, I mostly stayed back and let her form her own opinions herself. I told her that she never had to feel like she had to agree with me on anything…but this was probably the first time I told her directly that I believe TERF ideology isn’t feminist because it reinforces deeply sexist ideas of what gender is and isn’t based in science. I guess I’m glad I did, because she had no clue TIRF ideology existed. By her own account it seems like radical feminist ideas in the ROK are only TERF ideologies unfortunately…and it’s what kept her away from learning more about it. So… it’s pretty nice now that we can start incorporating what she’s learned about capitalism into her ideas of feminism now …
Thank you for educating her on RadFem.
It’s a vital tendency that meshes extremely well with MarxFem and has unfortunately been smeared by association with TERFs, even though they’re not even feminists never mind RadFems.
Anyone have resources on RadFem? My understanding is quite poor
I’m still exploring the literature myself so I asked a more well-read comrade and she suggests:
- Toward a Feminist Theory of the State, Catharine MacKinnon
- Intercourse, Andrea Dworkin
- Woman Hating, Andrea Dworkin
Oh my gosh, that’s even more righteous, good and pure! Thank you comrade, for sharing, it means so much more than I can express. Blessing you, your girlfriend, your relationship.
I haven’t read anything by her yet but check out Alexandra Kollontai
I am unsure about the direct connection between imperialism and sexism, but for modern feminist theory I generally recommend Sara Ahmed who also runs a blog. She writes extensively on anti-colonial, postcolonial feminism and queer theory. I also think she has some article called “Critique on Gay Imperialism” or something like this also. I have a few of her books and think they’re quite good.
