Gender Commodity: Marketing Feminist Identities and the Promise of Security

Gender has become a commodity, traded in symbols and narratives, and can be bought and sold. Gender Commodity argues that gender is a social relation made into an alienated object, and that people are reaching out and identifying with objects that promise stability, duration, and fulfillment. It is an interdisciplinary study that brings literary studies into dialogue with the mediascape around issues of gender, culture, and economy, and asks how the symbolic production of gender commodity at home informs an imagination of gender policy.

Format: Hardback
Length: 200 pages
Publication date: 10 February 2022
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

The economy of today operates in a realm where symbols and narratives hold equal significance alongside tangible objects. As a result, gender has transformed into a commodity, readily available for purchase, production, and relentless labor. What sets this commodity object apart and imbues it with a sense of alienation, mystery, and even threat, according to Marx, is the erasure of the workers' social relations and subjective experiences. These are imprinted onto the object, granting it an independent existence, disconnected from the worker, and posing a potential threat.

Gender Commodity posits that gender, once a social relation, has been transformed into an object that is alienated and detached from its original essence. In the context of today's pervasive insecurity, individuals seek solace and a sense of stability by attaching themselves to objects, even symbolic ones, that falsely promise fulfillment, duration, and satisfaction. Gender has become one of these commodities, imbued with the promise of gender equality and empowerment.

Gender Commodity is an interdisciplinary study that brings together literary analysis and the broader media landscape to explore issues of gender, culture, and economy. It delves into the ways in which gender is produced and circulated through various forms of media, including advertising, popular culture, and political discourse. By engaging with these mediated representations, Gender Commodity questions how they shape our understanding of gender and influence gender policies on a global scale.

While Gender Commodity critiques gender-affirmative feminism for its complicity in perpetuating the culture of the commodity, it also seeks to inspire feminist imagination by proposing alternative visions of gender. It encourages feminists to challenge the dominant narratives and stereotypes that perpetuate gender inequality and to envision a world where gender is not reduced to a commodity but is instead celebrated for its diversity and complexity.

In conclusion, Gender Commodity offers a critical perspective on the commodification of gender in today's economy. It highlights the ways in which gender is transformed into an object that is alienated, mysterious, and even threatening. By engaging with the interdisciplinary study of gender, culture, and economy, Gender Commodity encourages feminists to reimagine gender and to work towards a world where gender equality and empowerment are not merely commodities to be bought and sold but are fundamental rights and values that are upheld and celebrated.

Weight: 432g
Dimension: 160 x 235 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781501388026