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Highlights
id913731750
Socialist theorists from the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries observed that capitalism distorted heterosexual relationships by forcing women to be economically dependent on men. Prominent proponents of women’s emancipation like August Bebel and Alexandra Kollontai proposed that only socialism could be truly liberatory in the realm of sex relations. By socializing reproductive labor through the provision of childcare, public cafeterias, and public laundries; guaranteeing paid, job-protected parental leave; and establishing housing, healthcare, and education as basic rights of citizenship, many twentieth-century socialist societies in Eastern Europe managed to put these theories into practice. These changes in the background “market conditions” meant that women could choose the partner they loved rather than the one with the most resources. This also meant that women measured the desirability of men by more than the size of their bank accounts. As I’ve discussed elsewhere, state-supported social safety nets help to free romance and marriage from materialistic calculations.
✏️ Quick recap of the author’s book about better sex under socialism. 🔗 View Highlight
id913732186
he implicit message seems clear: In a free market economy, women either need to marry for money or earn enough of their own money so they can afford to marry for love.