Tuesday, May 04, 2004
thiswas my comment on 'gendering baude.'
Great post!
Libertarianism, like allah, is neither male nor female.
I’m guessing what you’ve been exposed to is libertarian theory as filtered thru straight white guys, maybe dead strait white guys.
Do you read any libertarian feminists? Even any libertarian women?
Any libertarian queer theory?
Voltarine deCleyre, Lucy Parsons, Emma Goldman, Carol Moore, Carol Erlich, Harriet Taylor Mill.
The whole objectivism thing is a blind alley. Yes, objectivism was a male cult of personality, centered around its queen bee, but it’s unfair to use rand to criticize the body of libertarian theory including Jefferson, franklin, jesus, mill, etc.
Historically, the randroid geeks had a lot to do with the current libertarian movement, and there was an important male founder’s affect.
Typical male libertarian activity – get together to drink beer and talk about planning a protest about the moon treaty.
Typical female libertarian activity – the neighbors have been threatened with having their kids taken away after a drug bust, so they go and take the kids to a safehouse across state lines.
An anti-feminist libertarian economist might choose to focus on dollar-denominated transactions in the formal economy. A feminist libertarian economist might choose to focus on time-motion studies of how a mom gets her kids up fed and off to school.
She might draw parallels between what the mom does and how the formal economy would handle the same tasks, and also look at animal studies of how a momma wolf gets the kits up and fed and off to play/hunt. The feminist libertarian might be more aware of the connections between ecology and economy. Thoreau, on economy, the chapter in Walden about ants, is a feminist libertarian in this sense.
You made 5 points.
Objective v intersubjective
Reason over emotion
Self-interest v altruism
Capitalism over communalism. Ok 4.
We’re all intersubjectivists now, aside from a few cranks over at the solipcist’s convention. Women are rational, men are emotional. Women work while men drink beer.
How can I maximize my self-interest? Libertarianism.
How can I maximize overall social utility? Libertarianism.
Libertarians don’t object to communalism, they only insist it be voluntary, not at gunpoint. That’s a feminist value, not violating personal autonomy.
So I would agree the current Lib. movement is gendered, but it’s a matter of the sales pitch, not the theory itself. Also, the male faction of the movement is noisier. There’s a lot of feminist libertarian stuff going on, but you may have to go look for it. Partly it’s a matter of learning to see it when you see it.
Great post!
Libertarianism, like allah, is neither male nor female.
I’m guessing what you’ve been exposed to is libertarian theory as filtered thru straight white guys, maybe dead strait white guys.
Do you read any libertarian feminists? Even any libertarian women?
Any libertarian queer theory?
Voltarine deCleyre, Lucy Parsons, Emma Goldman, Carol Moore, Carol Erlich, Harriet Taylor Mill.
The whole objectivism thing is a blind alley. Yes, objectivism was a male cult of personality, centered around its queen bee, but it’s unfair to use rand to criticize the body of libertarian theory including Jefferson, franklin, jesus, mill, etc.
Historically, the randroid geeks had a lot to do with the current libertarian movement, and there was an important male founder’s affect.
Typical male libertarian activity – get together to drink beer and talk about planning a protest about the moon treaty.
Typical female libertarian activity – the neighbors have been threatened with having their kids taken away after a drug bust, so they go and take the kids to a safehouse across state lines.
An anti-feminist libertarian economist might choose to focus on dollar-denominated transactions in the formal economy. A feminist libertarian economist might choose to focus on time-motion studies of how a mom gets her kids up fed and off to school.
She might draw parallels between what the mom does and how the formal economy would handle the same tasks, and also look at animal studies of how a momma wolf gets the kits up and fed and off to play/hunt. The feminist libertarian might be more aware of the connections between ecology and economy. Thoreau, on economy, the chapter in Walden about ants, is a feminist libertarian in this sense.
You made 5 points.
Objective v intersubjective
Reason over emotion
Self-interest v altruism
Capitalism over communalism. Ok 4.
We’re all intersubjectivists now, aside from a few cranks over at the solipcist’s convention. Women are rational, men are emotional. Women work while men drink beer.
How can I maximize my self-interest? Libertarianism.
How can I maximize overall social utility? Libertarianism.
Libertarians don’t object to communalism, they only insist it be voluntary, not at gunpoint. That’s a feminist value, not violating personal autonomy.
So I would agree the current Lib. movement is gendered, but it’s a matter of the sales pitch, not the theory itself. Also, the male faction of the movement is noisier. There’s a lot of feminist libertarian stuff going on, but you may have to go look for it. Partly it’s a matter of learning to see it when you see it.
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