Thanks for the link. I think your comments are very insightful (and generated more discussion than mine did!) I think it’s so important to see patriarchy (or sexism, not sure which I prefer) as a system. It’s not just that men have sexist attitudes, though I think we all do; it’s that gender oppresses everyone who has a gender i.e. men as well. I was just having a talk with a female friend today, who said it must be hard for guys when they’re socialized to suppress their feelings. It’s so true. We’re not consciously afraid of appearing ‘womanly’; by the time we’re adolescents, the message is so ingrained in us that it’s not conscious at all. It’s repressed, and gets sublimated into all sorts of self-destructive activities – though useful for capitalist discipline, I’d argue.

I wasn’t aware of French being an effeminate language for the Bolsheviks; certainly the leadership were well-versed in many languages. I have no doubt a lot of sexism went on in the Revolution, but I’d just add that, by challenging the material structures of capitalism, the Russian Revolution made possible a real challenge to the roots of sexism. They set up collective kitchens, daycares and co-ops so women didn’t have to labour unpaid in the home; abortion was free on demand; homosexuality was legalized decades before anywhere else, showing a real understanding of linked oppression. All that ended under Stalinism, when the Party brought back specifically macho role models: the Stakhanovites, the ‘model workers’ who were invariably male and always did what the State told them. Which presumably meant not expressing their feelings :-)

For further reading, Alexandra Kollontai, a member of the Bolshevik Central Committee, wrote “Love of Worker Bees”, a semi-fictional novel about her attempts to set up a collective household and negotiate new gender and work relationships.

Cheers,

Victor

gooda, baada nnu kettena?