With acumen and wit, [Ghodsee] lays bare the inequities women face under capitalism and the desirability of decoupling ‘love and intimacy from economic considerations.’”—O Magazine
“Brilliant ... engaging ... Ghodsee is not naive [and] brings the necessary skepticism to her thesis [which] comes into sharp focus when she looks at what happened after the Wall fell ... [a] valuable record of how things were and how they could be.”—Rosie Boycott, Financial Times
“The virtue of Ghodsee’s smart, accessible book is that it illustrates how it might be possible for a woman‑or, for that matter, a man‑to have an entirely different structural relationship to something as fundamental as sex, or health... Ghodsee approvingly notes the growing appeal of socialist ideas among young people in the United States and Western Europe, and her book is a useful reminder that the spread of these ideas would not just advantage the Bernie bros but might also better women's lives in significant ways. More orgasms alone might be a fine thing. But a change in the structural conditions under which more orgasms might be possible is another level of turn‑on entirely.”—Rebecca Mead, New Yorker
“What if all it takes to get laid more is to embrace democratic socialism?... Ghodsee demonstrates how, historically, women have reported greater sexual satisfaction under democratic socialist (and even communist) governments.”—Sophia Benoit, GQ Magazine
“Wonderful ... Kristen Ghodsee doesn't wear rose‑tinted spectacles ... but she seeks with great brio and nuance to lay out what some socialist states achieved for women ... That Ghodsee also makes this a joyous read is the cherry on the cake.”—Suzanne Moore, Observer
“Capitalism has fundamentally shaped and warped the ways we relate to each other, sexually and otherwise...leading us to view intimacy and love as things that only exist in finite quantities, and that are only worth investing in worthy relationships. Ghodsee's book offers an alternative to this model, looking back at the state‑socialist regimes in the 20th century, under which the state liberalized divorce laws, legalized abortion, invested in collective laundries and nurseries, and enabled women to attain more economic freedom‑and in turn, better sex.”—The Cut
“There are many reasons to revisit socialist policies in a time of widening inequality, but a feminist perspective offers some of the most powerful incentives.”—Guardian
“Convincing, provocative and useful.”—Times Higher Education
“[A] short, crisp and wonderfully engaging polemic [that] couldn't be more urgent.... A tonic for a badly ailing discourse.... Ghodsee's book shows that for women, socialism can at least improve the conditions for pleasure, and perhaps inextricably, love.”—Liza Featherstone, Jacobin
“A provocative and deftly argued text.”—Broadly
“A straightforward account of how capitalism harms women‑including, yes, in our intimate lives... It made me want to do much more than vote.”—Jewish Currents
“Ghodsee's focus...on sex and sexual relations emerges elegantly from the argument she has developed: that a feminist politics is central to socialism because it cannot avoid its foundation in economic principles. So long as women are economically dependent on men, there can be no equality; without such equality, she argues, heterosexual relations will suffer and so will the experience of sex itself.”—In These Times
“Written with academic clarity and professional empathy, this book takes the reader into an insightful journey on why women are pushed to the economic margins of a highly unequal society under capitalism.”—Hindu Business Line
“A pointed examination of the Soviet experiment... Using her years living in Bulgaria as fodder for the narrative, along with decades of research, [Ghodsee] makes the case that there are lessons capitalist countries can and should learn from socialism... At the same time, the author isn't blind to the failures of socialist regimes... While the title is the literary version of click‑bait, the book is chock‑full of hard‑hitting real talk.”—Kirkus
“A passionate but reasoned feminist socialist manifesto for the 21st century... Ghodsee's treatise will be of interest to women becoming disillusioned with the capitalism under which they were raised.”—Publishers Weekly
“Reliant on the commodification of everything, capitalism's triumph is a calamity for most women. Their hard slog as mothers and careers can never be remunerated within market societies which, by design, are compelled to commodify their sexuality, robbing them in the process of their autonomy, even of the opportunity to enjoy sex for‑themselves. Without romanticizing formerly communist regimes, Ghodsee’s new book retrieves brilliantly the plight of hundreds of millions of women in those countries as they were being stripped of state support and thrust into brutal, unfettered markets. Employing personal anecdotes, forays into the history of the women's movement and an incisive mind, Ghodsee is enabling us to overcome the unnecessary tension between identity and class politics on the road towards the inclusive, progressive movement for societal change we so desperately need.”—Yanis Varoufakis, author of Adults in the Room
“A quietly damning indictment of the Lean In approach to women's empowerment through the corporate boardroom. Ghodsee makes a compelling case for a more expansive understanding of feminism, where remaking the economy is central. A necessary reminder that today's socialism should be as much about pleasure as it is about power and production.”—Kate Aronoff, coeditor of Democratic Socialism, American Style
“This book is funny, angry, and urgent‑it's going to make readers think very differently about how they work, and how they live. Ghodsee is going to start a revolution. I'm already making a placard.”—Daisy Buchanan, author of How To Be a Grown Up
09/17/2018
Eastern European studies professor Ghodsee (Lost in Transition: Ethnographies of Everyday Life After Communism) expands her viral New York Times op-ed into a passionate but reasoned feminist socialist manifesto for the 21st century. Drawing lessons from the history of women’s experiences under mid-20th-century state socialism and then under the capitalism that followed its collapse, she argues that “unregulated capitalism is bad for women, and if we adopt some ideas from socialism, women will have better lives.” Ghodsee devotes the most space to sexuality, arguing that in societies that have economic equality by gender, reproductive freedom, and social safety nets, women are freer to pursue their own desires. She also posits that the depression caused by living in a sexist society can squash heterosexual couples’ libido and male-female emotional connection, supporting this idea with data from studies of women in East and West Germany, Hungary, and Poland. And she delves into the benefits of full participation of women in the work force, especially in the public sector, supported by childcare and freedom from “statistical discrimination”; visible presence of women at top levels of government and business; and women’s participation in the political sphere. Pointing to successes not only in Communist countries but also in Scandinavian social democracies, Ghodsee’s treatise will be of interest to women becoming disillusioned with the capitalism under which they were raised. (Nov.)
2018-09-18
From paid maternity leave to employment assurances, an argument for the benefits of socialism for women.
Ghodsee (Russian and East European Studies/Univ. of Pennsylvania; Red Hangover: Legacies of Twentieth-Century Communism, 2017, etc.) sums up her thesis in the introduction: "Unregulated capitalism is bad for women, and if we adopt some ideas from socialism, women will have better lives." And if you disagree with the author, she clearly doesn't care. "If you don't give a whit about women's lives because you're a gynophobic right-wing internet troll," she writes, "save your money and get back to your parents' basement right now; this isn't the book for you." Ghodsee's in-your-face tone sets the stage for a book that takes readers on a pointed examination of the Soviet experiment. Using her years living in Bulgaria as fodder for the narrative, along with decades of research, she makes the case that there are lessons capitalist countries can and should learn from socialism—e.g., how socialists pushed for equity between men and women and the benefits of collective forms of support for child-rearing. At the same time, the author isn't blind to the failures of socialist regimes. "Hungarians never managed to redefine traditional gender roles," she writes, "and domestic patriarchy was strengthened by pro-natalist family policies." Still, she points to examples of Scandinavian countries where socialist ideas are working to improve women's lives: "A wider social safety net," she writes, "like those in the contemporary Northern European countries, will increase rather than decrease personal freedom…no one should have to stay in a job she hates for health insurance, or stick with a partner who beats her because she's not sure how she'll feed the kids, or have sex with some sugar elder because she can't afford textbooks." Ghodsee makes a convincing case, though she fails to investigate how socialism addresses LGBTQ and people of color. Perhaps she's saving that for another book.
While the title is the literary version of click-bait, the book is chock-full of hard-hitting real talk.
