Kapital Essays - Marxian Economics, Human Sexuality, Commodities

Kapital Essays - Marxian Economics, Human Sexuality, Commodities Kapital American Gov. Kapital When one gets down to the roots of capitalism you find that it is a form of government that allows the rich to get richer, the poor, poorer and the middle class to stay the same. Karl Marx wrote a book, Kapital about the what capitalism does to the people in a society, how it takes the humainty out of being and replaces it with x. Not only does it do that but it creates a chain of commodities, fetishisis, and alienation within a society. Commodities are at the top of this chain. A commodity is anything that is produced for exchange. They have two parts to them, the use of the commodity and its value. With women, and men the use of the human body is humanity, doing whatever it is that pleases you, whether it be riding your bike, reading, dancing, whatever, it comes down to your humanity. Their humanity is turned into a value when women have to sell their use to obtain different forms of commodities, to then exchange those commodities for more commodities. In capitalism women are defined by their bodies, and judged by what their bodies can do, and look like. Women have to sell their humanity because in capitalism thats the only thing people have to sell. In capitalism it doesnt matter who or what you are, as long as youre producing something that will make money. Women sell their humanity in different ways, there seems to be a same scale in place with womens jobs, modeling (which is at the far right), stripping (somewh ere in between), and prostitution (which is at the far left). Most wouldnt connect these three with having any basic ground (maybe stripping & prostitution), but their basic ground is that women are all selling there use for some form of a commodity, which most of the time is money. The outcome that that has is profound. Not only does it effect women, and girls, it effects boys and men. Their images of women become so distorted that they begin to believe them. Women become fetishes for both men and women. With any commodity it will become a fetish. Society divides its labor between a multitude of private producers who relate to each other by exchanging their products, (Marxs Kapital For Beginners, page 60) when that happens it gives the use value this imaginary power, which is an fetish. Fetisizing women limits what a woman is, could be, or wants to be, because the fetish with women is sex. A large part of society that puts that and more standards on women are men. Men fetishsize women as sex objects, by supporting prostitution, and strippers, and putting standards on what is beautiful (models). Women become nothing more than sex, and bodies. For men and woman. Not only do they view themselves as sex objects (models, strippers, etc.), but as mothers, and housewives, and anything else society imposes on them. Right now the world is much more open to women being in the work place than it was 50 years ago. Its not so much the housewife anymore, but the images of women you see on television, in movies, magazines, on the street. The problems that woman are having now being alienated from their bodies is something that was just slowly beginning years ago. The real value of what a woman is is lost somewhere in between her use and exchange. Alienation is what use value, and fetishism, all lead to. Men become alienated from who, and what a woman really is. They begin to believe in their fetishes, that women are supposed to be tall, super thin, long legs, large breasts, long hair, and what have you, so that when they are faced with what really is there they wont accept it. Not accepting the reality of it, men become alienated from the real thing. They dont know what a woman really is, just what society tells them a women is. The effects of alienation are much greater on women themselves. Women begin to see themselves in unhealthy ways if they feel theyre not living up to that standard of beauty. Not seeing themselves for themselves begins a whole unhealthy chain