Women as Sex Vendors

R.B. Tobias and Mary E. Marcy
30 pages (2008/1918); 142KB download
WOWIO Books; ISBN: WOWIO-00371

DESCRIPTION

Written during the upheaval of World War I, the thesis of this socialist-feminist-anarchist essay is that: "As a sex, women occupy a position similar to the petty shopkeeper, because they possess a commodity to sell or to barter. Men, as a sex, are buyers of, or barterers for, this commodity. The general attitude on this question of sex may be, and in fact usually is, wholly unconscious; but the fact remains that men and women meet each other, in the capitalist system, as buyers and sellers of, or barterers for, a commodity."

Thus the subtitle of the piece: "Or Why Women Are Conservative (Being a View of the Economic Status of Woman)" and the explanation "We only want to point out that women are able to save themselves because of their 'favored' position in the biological world. Since economic interest and economic control are at the basis of all social institutions, we want to show some of the results of this sex monopoly possessed by women, and required by men."

The conservatism of women, the roles learned by youths, how the family evolved and some thoughts about the future are discussed in the essay.