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Disposable Women and Other Myths of Global Gapitalism

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Disposable Women and Other Myths of Global Gapitalism Disposable Women and Other Myths of Global Gapitalism Melissa W. Wright l) Routledoe | \ r"yror a rr.nciicroup N€wYql Lmdm Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Croup, an inlorma business Contents Acknowledgments xl 1 Introduction: Disposable Women and Other Myths of Global Capitalism I Storylines 2 Disposable Daughters and Factory Fathers 23 3 Manufacturing Bodies 45 4 The Dialectics of Still Life: Murder,'il7omen, and Disposability 7l II Disruptions 5 Maquiladora Mestizas and a Feminist Border Politics 93 6 Crossing the FactorY Frontier 123 7 Paradoxes and Protests 151 Notes 171 Bibliography 177 Index r87 Acknowledgments I wrote this book in fits and starts over several years, during which time I benefited from the support of numerous people. I want to say from the outset that I dedicate this book to my parenrs, and I wish I had finished the manuscript in time for my father to see ir. My father introduced me to the Mexico-U.S. border at a young age when he took me on his many trips while working for rhe State of Texas. As we traveled by car and by train into Mexico and along the bor- der, he instilled in me an appreciation for the art of storytelling. My mother, who taught high school in Bastrop, Texas for some 30 years, has always been an inspiration. Her enthusiasm for reaching those students who want to learn and for not letting an underfunded edu- cational bureaucracy lessen her resolve set high standards for me. I am privileged to have her unyielding affection to this day. I am also lucky to have an extended family that has helped me over the years in a variety of ways. And I still seek refuge in the compassionate insights of my paternal grandmother, Mrs. Ima tü(/ebb Wright, who died iust as I was entering graduate school. I am indebted to the generosity of the following who have pro- vided comments and advice on all or bits of the manuscript at various stages: Leslie Salzinger, Ted Norton, Marnina Gonick, Sarah Hill, Socorro Tabuenca,Julia Monärrez, Rosalba Robles, Lorraine Dowler, Miranda Joseph, James McCarthy, Joan Landes, Nan \ü(/oodruff, Mrinalini Sinha, Irene Silverblatt, Debra Keates, Alfredo Limas, Eduardo Barrera, Felicity Callard, and an anonymous reviewer of the book manuscript. Many of the chapters are revisions of previ- ously published articles, and I am thankful for the many reviewers and editors who helped me with those earlier and often extremely messy drafts. I am also grateful to Rosalba Robles and Estela Madero who have offered invaluable research assistance in northern Mexico over the years. And I have been equally fortunate to work with excel- lent students, particularly Anu Sabhlok and Kristin Sziarto, who conducted archival research and helped me organize the material. xii Disposable Women and Other Myths of Global Capitalism Armine Arjona, Esther.chävez cano, and Guadarupe de Anda also been superb sounding b.;.Ä;;;; have project. r *"nr to thaik "r.ä M;h p#öir:ri:*::ll?:ili: design and Verönicr iofpr""iai"g _r-iton ,r,e artwörk. I am armost ar a loss as how ro thank -y gr"äu"r. uäiiror., rri." j.-s.iänberger and David Harvey.. t ,t".rld'*Jrü.g i,irr, ,r,.* and not only .."i. is yär, wouid r t *. *rili.?, ,i1, book "go, T encouragemenr ".. without their initiar and g uidance, I mosr likery would ;ä;ä;barked on rhis career. I am i"ndeed säi;f"r-'ü";ra rit. David McBride. 'and t" t-ro;k*;; editor, Introduction for stickini *iilr'** I am Parsons for providing ; ;;il;L;;y;;?"_ thankful io Beth home,, in EI paso. r Disposable'Women wanr to add rhat no one mentioned . atso and Other üere anyway responsible for the m.istake. o"rrrights within ,r,. ,"tjrl" Myths of Global Capitalism I have benefited""J rr"{,,t._rü;;;;;i_ colleagues in and women's studies p.n'"iyrl"ii" Geography rr,. state university The Universitv of Georgi""t and also at witÄ La sidad Aur6noma de Ciudad;uärez"corriinues,yf*ä;;ig'r.t"tionrhip Univer_ insritutional ro afford an imporrant base fol py work arong porr provided ;i; b;;;r.ä;ffi;:llar sup_ bv the Nalionar scienc? räna"iior,,il.'i;;är;rvania State Universitv' and Th. u;;;;;?ä...* rtä' making possibie i...i"äispens- :lI irr ,n.;ö i."r. o1 ethnographic research gone into this endeavor. :f*:: hny äp,nrons, findings, and con_ cluslons or recommendations .*pr...r.ä The most obvious function of myths is the explanation of facts, in this book do not necessar_ ily reflect the views of those in.tituriorr-r.' whether natural or cultural. I wish to thank.the in Mexico and in china who must remain unnamed::g;;:;1;;iäe in Ency clopedia Britannica Online rhe bäok'and who tolerated my sanr quesrions, my relenrless p..r"n.", inces_ rnformarion. _y ;;;;;;;l"rjj.ä.n, ,o I am indebted ö ,t ii, "r,d," *' p"';;;"_ Myth is depoliticized :ü"lftt::::ä'i "' "r ;;ä#.#.:'Tä'"ffi:il i * i speech. I want to thank Guadalupe Roland Barthes, Mythologies (19721 t t.l3,}rf,ffjlv' and our daughter, Erena, Everyday, around the world, women who work in the third world facto- ries of global firms face the idea that they are disposable. In this book, I examine how this idea proliferates, both within and beyond factory walls, through the telling of a story that I call "the myth of the dispos- able third world woman." This international tale is told by people from all walks of life, including factory managers, corporate executives, and consumers across the globe who buy their products; it achieves transla- tion across languages, cultures, and historical moments; and it is widely believed to be a factual account of a woman worker whose disposability is naturally and culturally scripted. Through several ycars of ethno- graphic research, spanning 1991-2003,1 made this story the focus of my investigations within global factories and their surrounding urban areas in northern Mexico and in southern China. Illustrating what is 2 Disposable Women and Other Myrhs of Global Capitalism Introduction at stake in the telling of this myrh for these facrories, for rhe people ;o ro' employees, and, more broadln for the spatial circuitry of global tt""on'i""' n.' J;ü;i"*p'ial is mv ;,l,lü:iffi:|,'ä capital. As geographer Geraldine Pratt has wrirten, discourses are The myth of the disposable "sociospatial circuits through which cultural personal third world woman revorves around and stories are the trials and triburations of circulated, legitimated, and given meaning" i,r ..rirl'protagonist-a young woman within the production from a third world.l._:1,_";yi",;i;;;ü, of the material realm that we call "geography" (prar Ztty.r the passase of rime, comes t9ll, to personify the meaning of human Applied to the concern at hand, I employ this notion of discourses disiosabiliriffi.#äo even_ tually evolves into a living rr"r" *otlhr.rrr,.lr.ii. iyii'.*pr"i^ as sociospatial circuits to interrogate how the myth, as a form of that this wasting process occurs "iwithin ,tt" dis_course, produces specific subjects, their spatialitn and their sig- as she, i"äiä,i"rt"ä'r", n"r, within a relarively short-period of ti_. nificance for the relentlessly changing landscapes of global capital- loses the phvsicar and niental f":;-r'r; r", *ii.ir-rt."r,ä;;;;;;"g "g., ism.2 This means that I probe rhe story's internal circuitry to examine employed, until *l] i"i,i"il, she is worth r";;;; ;an the cost how it contributes to the making of a senrient being who is decidedly and substirute. of her dismissar In other words, ;;;;;;., this woman female, third world, and disposable and yet who embodies a form of form of indusrrial rurns inro a wasre, at which poiot ,r," rr är."rä.ä labor crucial for the materialization of global capitalism around the The myth exprains this u.nrucky world. f;;';; ä f".tu"r ourcome""äräpr"..a. of naturar and cultural Droces.ses that I must confess that my motivations a.! ;;;": to externar tampering. In for exploring this topic stem short, there is nothing, from my own political ylr ,i" .rirr'rn", can be done to save opposition to rhe myth and fiom my äesire to u n fort u n are prot"go.r,i-rt its rrä- r,.i.i Jä.ru ny. do something abour it. I consider the storS and the material circuitry Yer, parado"t."lll, as tt i, p-."gonisr it supports, to be dangerous for working people, and especially for form of human :Ien rurns into a living wasr€, the myrh .*pl"ir,Jho* the women to whom the story is directly applied. also believe produces ,h; ,l_;i;"l.ourly I that ma nv va r u a bie th i n gs *irh-'h;; I ;b.;' i*il,'r'rli'r' it implicates not only those who work for global firms but also those provides the myth ä r"ao* with its ;g;;;;nar ,tru.ture. who consume their products. I realize that, in admitting these beliefs, explains, despite For, t[e myth her ineluctabT" Jilil; the disposabre I have dashed any claims to objectivity or impartiality with regard ro woman possesses tirird worrd cerrain traits that make he, ütä;;;;.ri"riy the outcome of this research. able to global firms that ,.q"i;;;;;ous, patient, and a*enrive""rr_ workers' And these tr"it, mrte t.
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