Riley Bedell

Date of Award

2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Gorup, Michael

Area of Concentration

Political Science

Abstract

Marxist analysis has been frequently dismissed as a class reductionist framework which omits important considerations of many unique, interconnected oppressions within its theoretical vision of building a more equitable future. On the contrary, this thesis builds upon Marx’s foundational critique of capitalism to show how an intersectional feminist approach can be derived from his theories of alienation, expropriation, and emancipation. In doing so, I draw upon social reproduction theory and feminist movements to show how capitalist society shapes the oppressions and depends upon unpaid reproductive labor processes which occur within it in a contradictory, crisis-invoking manner. As a result, I refute Catharine MacKinnon’s radical feminism which asserts a singularized ‘totality’ of oppression surrounding women’s domination and ‘victimhood’, arguing instead for a widened conceptualization centering the influence of capital and possibility for a shared resistance. From this widened scope, I then bring into perspective the care labor necessary for the survival of transgender individuals under a hierarchical gendered division of labor, which also holds emancipatory potential. Thus, while increasing transgender visibility has been perceived as a threat to such a division, leading to instances of transphobic violence, I suggest that transgender care labor demands recognition and compensation – a claim which ought to be further argued in future work.

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