WS 305: Feminist Theories
Questions for Thinking about
Gayle Rubin's "The Traffic in Women"
All of these questions can be answered using Rubin's essay only, but you answers will be better if you consult other assigned readings for the course and class discussions. Do not directly quote more than a word or two in any single answer; rather, put the answers in your own words. Plan to take between a couple of sentences and a paragraph to answer each question.Turn in your answers to those questions (typed, double-spaced) when you come to class on Thursday, February 24. Do not write the take-home portion in essay form; rather, list your answers individually by number to assure that you have fully covered each question. You may work on the questions with your classmates, if you like, but the answers you turn in should be distinctively yours.

A. Economic Theory

1. What is "capital" in Marx's theory?
2. How are wages determined in a capitalist economy?
3. What is surplus value?
4. How does housework contribute to a capitalist economy?
5. What does Marxism NOT explain about women's historic subordination?
6. How does Engels's explanation of women's position differ from Marx's?

B. Kinship Systems and Structuralism

1. What is a kinship system?
2. How does gift-giving function in "primitive" societies?
3. What is the relationship between gift-giving, marriage, and the incest taboo?
4. What (besides women) do kinship systems exchange?
5. Why, according to Lévi-Strauss, do societies practice the division of labor?
6. What does it mean that kinship systems make males and females into men and women?
7. How can Rubin's analysis of gender and kinship systems be seen as constituting a structural analysis?

C. Psychoanalytic theory

1. What is the Oedipus complex?
2. In Freudian theory, how does the pre-Oedipal girl become a "normal," passive female?
3. How does Lacan understand the relationship between psychoanalysis and kinship systems?
4. What is the difference between a phallus and a penis in Lacan's theory?
5. What is the relationship between the incest taboo and the Oedipal crisis?
6. How does the incest taboo or Oedipal crisis function differently for boys and girls?

D. And finally . . .

1. Rubin suggests that Freud's theory of femininity is a "description of how phallic culture domesticates women and the effects in women of their domestication." Describe those effects.
2. What does Rubin think we as scholars and members of the culture defined by such a sex/ gender system need to do to repair its damage?