Platypus presents:
Tuesday, May 18th 8:00 PM
[5710 S. Woodlawn
Featuring a presentation by Chris Cutrone on Juliet Mitchell’s “Women: The longest revolution” (1966)
Join us for dinner and discussion
Socialism will be a process of change, of becoming. A fixed image of the future is in the worst sense ahistorical… As Marx wrote: ‘What is progress if not the absolute elaboration of humanity’s creative dispositions… unmeasured by any previously established yardstick[,] an end in itself… the absolute movement of becoming?‘… The liberation of women under socialism will [be]… a human achievement, in the long passage from Nature to Culture which is the definition of history and society.
—Juliet Mitchell
Juliet Mitchell’s groundbreaking essay, “Women: The longest revolution” (1966), brilliantly anticipated the feminist critique of Marxian socialism. But Mitchell found feminism, too to be lacking. Far from dismissing Marxism as a retrograde, patriarchal theory, Mitchell embarked on an effort to reconstruct Marxism as a philosophy of freedom that could orient political activists’ efforts to overturn male dominance and establish the equality of the sexes. Unfortunately, feminism after Mitchell’s essay failed to heed her call to attend critically to history to help get a better grasp and clarity about the pursuit of gender and sexual liberation, and abandoned the utopian possibilities of socialism in favor of the politics of established social identities. Join us to reconsider the paths not taken out of 1960s radicalism, and work towards reformulating a theory of sexual freedom that answers the needs of the present.
Reading:
[Juliet Mitchell Women: The Longest Revolution (1966)
](/file/readings/readings/mitchelljuliet_womenlongestrevolution_nlr40.pdf)