On Sun, 7 Jun 1998, Michael Sharp wrote:
> never be thought of that way either. Besides, women have different
> qualities from men, like being more detail-oriented, thinking and
"The family has been the basic economic unit of human social organization
in virtually all preclass as well as class societies. in fact, the family
in most societies must be understood as fundamentally an economic
structure functioning to produce and consume as a unit while at the same
time reproducing a new generation of producers. thus, the basic
relationship within the family must be understood as relationships of
production, consumption and reproduction, and not essentially as
relationships of love, sexuality, or force.
"It thyerefore, follows that the fundamental relationship between males
and females that have characterized all but some of the most recent of
social formations (end still predominate in conemporary society) must be
understood as relationships of production, consumption and reproduction,
and not manifestations of some underlying abstract or general difference
in human nature between 'feminine' women and 'masculine' men.
Relationships between the sexes structured in the family, and not any
essential female and male, are the essense of the differences in treatment
and behavior of men and women."
--Albert Szymanski. 1983. CLASS STRUCTURE: A CRITICAL
PERSPECTIVE. New York: Praeger Publishers. p497.
"it is essential to distinguish between 'masculine' and 'feminine' as
character traits that are socially conditioned, and 'male and 'female' as
purely biological characteristics. (For one of the best analyses of
character formation, see Wilhelm Reich. 1949. Character Analysis. New
York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.) many men have feminine character traits
and many women have masculine character traits. There is no socially
significant innate, a priori, or biological association of masculine
traits with men or feminie traits with women. the association is purely
historical and socially determined. Precapitalist societies found it
efficient to socialize feminine traits into women and masculine traits
into men.
"the feminine traits of docility, meekness, compliance, and subordination
of women have been especially desirable in thise types of jobs for which
the corporations have traditionally preferred women, while the masuline
traits of strength, virility, risk taking, and independence are most
desirable in those types of jobs for which the corporations have
traditionally preferred men [Bardwick and Dower. 1971. 'Ambivalence: The
Socialization of Women.' In WOMAN IN SEXIST SOCIETY, edited by Vivian
Gornick and Barbara Moron. New York: Basic Books.]."
--Ibid., p534
-Chris Allen
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