Feminism for Sale: Commodity Feminism, Femininity, and Subjectivity

FEMINISM FOR SALE: COMMODITY FEMINISM, FEMININITY, AND SUBJECTIVITY Julie Elizabeth Dowsett A Dissertation Submitted to The Faculty of Graduate Studies In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Political Science York University Toronto, Ontario June 2014 © Julie Elizabeth Dowsett, 2014 ABSTRACT Today it is commonplace for the female consumer to be targeted using appropriated feminist discourses. This dissertation theorizes commodity feminism, a play on Marx’s conception of commodity fetishism, at the intersections of Marx/Marxism, feminist theory, and Freud/Freudianism. My method involves exploring a series of relationships through reading canonical and contemporary works of political theory and feminist theory. These relationships build upon one another in each chapter: the first relationship is between women and commodities, and to this relationship I add femininity, social control, and subject formation in sequence. In thinking through these relationships, I critique a variety of trade and scholarly marketing publications and marketing campaigns. I argue that the theory of commodity feminism provides a crucial, and as of yet unearthed, understanding of the contemporary relationship between women and commodities. I define commodity feminism as the commodification of feminist critique and praxis. In its cultural sense, commodity feminism is the broad phenomenon in which women are encouraged to express their empowerment by purchasing commodities. The politics of commodity feminism are both liberal and conservative. Commodity feminism is liberal in that it offers a type of resolution (however commodified) to the feminism/femininity tension and endorses liberal feminist politics of independence and self-determination. However, I argue that the view of society underpinning commodity feminism is conservative in that the masses are understood to be a problem in need of control. Therefore, commodity feminism, in addition to resolving the ii feminism/femininity tension by revaluing feminized commodities and the women who use them, transforms commodities into a form of social control. In other words, commodity feminism makes women entirely unthreatening to the status quo, yet allows them to feel like feminists through their consumption of feminized commodities and production of femininity. This social control is accomplished in part through the role played by commodities and corporations in the production of subjectivity. As this dissertation shows, commodity feminism today constitutes several hegemonic feminine/feminist subjectivities in the Global North and increasingly the Global South. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is customary on the acknowledgements page to state that without the support of faculty, colleagues, friends and family members, the dissertation would not have been completed. I can state without question that without the support of such people, my proposal would not have even been started, let alone would this process been brought to a close. My deepest thanks to Leah Vosko, for being such a supportive and conscientious supervisor. No one is quicker than Leah with e-mail and feedback! Leah did an exceptional job of pushing me to clarify my concepts and thinking and helping me with my writing. I am also grateful to Leah for her excellent career-related advice. I thank the other members of my fantastic committee: Shannon Bell and Sandra Whitworth, for their approachability, friendly encouragement and excellent feedback. Finally, I thank Ross Rudolph, who although not on my committee, has provided me with excellent feedback and assistance throughout the years. I thank the following friends and (former or current) colleagues, for their support and intellectual engagement over the years: Matt Davies, Émilie Dionne, Megan Dombrowski, Soren Frederiksen, Suzanne Gallant, John Grundy, Gigi Herbert, Sabine Hikel, Sandra Ignagni, Andreas Krebs, Abetha Mahalingam, Samantha Majic, Hepzibah Mũnoz-Martinez, Catherine O’Sullivan, Sean Saraka, Donna Schatz, Kristin Skinner, Healy Thompson, Emily van der Meulen, and Fred Vokey. I thank Marlene Quesenberry, without whose help I would have been lost in York bureaucracy countless times, and Lykke de la Cour, without whose advocacy and advice I would not have secured iv employment that provided me with the money and time I needed to finish writing. I thank Adinne Schwartz for alerting me to several helpful dissertation-related articles and events. I thank the members of my lapsed but not forgotten political theory reading group, Amber Alecxe, Danny O’Rourke-DiCarlo, Shokoufeh Sakhi, and Paul Mazzochi for many years of intellectual engagement. I thank reese simpkins and Emily Rosser for their scholarly engagement during the countless times we worked together and pushed each other as writing partners. A very positive component of my graduate school experience has been the wonderful women with whom I shared not only housing, but also our happiness and troubles. I therefore thank my graduate school roommates, most particularly Sharavati Bhide, Emma Dalby, Catherine O’Sullivan, Hepzibah Mũnoz-Martinez, Christa Laughlin and Emily Rosser, whose friendship in some cases before, and in all cases during and after we lived together, helped me immeasurably through this process. I thank my family, especially my mother-in-law Halynka Honczarenko, my grandmother Geneva Kirk, and my aunt Anne Maxwell for their support and encouragement. I thank my cousin Jennifer Maxwell for her witty pep talks, and my sister Heather Dowsett for clipping many advertisements and articles over the years. Some family members are acquired by circumstance and other family members are chosen. As such, I thank the members of my “chosen family,” Lisa Kilgour, Christa Laughlin, reese simpkins and Adinne Schwartz, whose support was critical to all stages of the dissertation process. v I thank my partner Andrew Hryhorowych, who came into my life midway through the writing process and changed my life forever. At various points, my dissertation took over my life and therefore his life as well; Andy had a seemingly endless supply of patience and understanding during these times. Andy’s love and support played an absolutely indispensible role in my completion. Thank you, my love. Finally I thank my parents, Burt and Kathryn Dowsett. Indeed, I dedicate this dissertation to my dad, for being my first example of an excellent writer, and to my mom, for her fine example of triumph in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................. II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ IV TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................... VII INTRODUCTION—GOOD GIRLS CONSUME: COMMODITY FEMINISM IN ANGLO-AMERICAN CULTURE AND BEYOND ..........................................................................................................1 A. FRAMEWORK AND METHOD ...........................................................................................................4 B. BROADER THEMES AND APPROACH ..................................................................................................6 C. EXISTING LITERATURE ON COMMODITY FEMINISM ........................................................................... 10 Questions of Origin ................................................................................................................ 10 (Feminized) Commodities and Social Control ........................................................................ 16 Gender, Race, and Civilizing Discourses................................................................................. 19 Toward a New Theoretical Framework ................................................................................. 21 D. DISSERTATION OUTLINE .............................................................................................................. 22 CHAPTER ONE—THE EXCHANGE AND COMMODIFICATION OF WOMEN: MARXISM, FEMINISM, AND THE COMMODITY FORM .............................................................................................. 26 1.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 26 1.2 MARX ON THE COMMODITY FORM, COMMODITY FETISHISM, AND WOMEN ...................................... 28 1.2.1 Marx and Commodities ................................................................................................ 29 1.2.2 Commodity Fetishism ................................................................................................... 32 1.2.3 Marx and Gender .......................................................................................................... 36 1.3 (FURTHER) GENDERING MARX: ENGELS ON WOMEN ..................................................................... 43 1.4 THE EXCHANGE AND COMMODIFICATION OF WOMEN: GOLDMAN AND RUBIN .................................. 51 1.4.1 Emma Goldman’s “The Traffic in Women” ................................................................... 52 1.4.2 Rubin’s “The Traffic in Women” ................................................................................... 56 1.5 CONCLUSION ..........................................................................................................................

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