heterosexism vs homophobia/ anti-homosexuality (fwd)

Liza Featherstone lfeather32 at erols.com
Tue Feb 16 14:39:40 PST 1999


Charles wrote:
> Free love is deadly to
>capitalism.

Ha, that sure would justify what looks otherwise to be a logistical nightmare of a lifestyle, wouldn't it? I'm in between Charles and Kelley on this one: capitalism badly needs the ideal of monogamy, but it also needs its discontents. I think the ideal is what's really crucial to capitalist consciousness, though; capitalism doesn't need it to be real. Listen to the way people talk about marriage/commitment-- they use words like "responsibility", "I'm really ready to work on this", "i'm ready to settle down" etc. it's the same kinds of language people use to explain why they're staying in a boring job, acquiring property, save up money etc, none of which are *necessarily* responsible in any way EXCEPT that capitalism needs people to do them. ANd--partly for practical reasons like kids, but also for mindset reasons, monogamy/marriage also causes people to do a lot of those things: buy a house, get a boring/responsible job, etc. all part of the reason the capitalist state digs marriage I assume. NOT to condemn any of these things at all or the excellent reasons people have for doing any and all of them.

Liza



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