Marcuse, Herbert (1898-1979)

Gender and Economy

For Marcuse, social positionings of sex and gender reflect broader economic relations and are exemplary of both acquiescence in and resistance to prevailing societal forces. Contemporary gender formations are based historically in an early societal configuration that favored physical strength and subordinated females as physically contingent on childbearing and child rearing, through which women came to be regarded as inferior generally. Once established, male-dominated power relations expanded into other social and political institutions.

Marcuse's work considers feminine characteristics as socially conditioned and inextricably connected to prevailing economic arrangements. Socially feminine characteristics such as receptivity, sensitivity, nonviolence, and nurturance stand in opposition to the social characteristics of capitalism: profitability, competitiveness, brutality, and productivity. While women's roles gradually changed in the development of industrial society, Marcuse notes that the result, rather than equivalent social positioning, was the increased exploitation of women as material laborers in addition to ongoing exploitation in the domestic sphere.

Sexuality and Liberation

A connection between consciousness and economic material conditions extends into Marcuse's treatment of sexuality. Sexual pleasures are sublimated in advanced capitalist society, resulting in restricted self-expression and thus stifling individuals' communion with humanity. Female sexuality in particular is objectified as a means to an end—either procreation or prostitution.

Marcuse suggests that capitalism's negative effects can be counteracted through developing freedom of sexual choice and incorporating knowledgeable opportunity in pursuit of a full range of sexual outlets. Sexual liberation can be attained through counternor-mative diversification of sexual desires, sexual activities, and gender roles. Because economic relations are fundamental to social arrangements, in order for such sexual freedom to be realized, strict divisions between what is public and private and what is labor and leisure would have to be similarly transformed and unrestricted.

However, as such sexual emancipation is pursued, it is at the same time manipulated and exploited by prevailing power structures. Liberating tendencies are [Page 505]reproduced as part of the established value system in the form of commercialized and commodified contrivances of advertising and entertainment industries. In so doing, sexuality becomes even further isolated from universal humanity.

Capitalism and Revolutionary Potential

Marcuse's later work discusses the decline of revolutionary potential in advanced capitalist relations. Capitalism creates false needs, integrating individuals into the existing and continuing system of production and consumption while absorbing and eliminating criticism and opposition. Although he demonstrates limited potential for complete liberation, Marcuse's work remains an optimistic contribution in that it theorizes a nonrepressive social order based in emancipatory goals of freedom and happiness.