We live in a society where sexual imagery abounds while actual sexual practices are secreted away, surrounded by walls of privacy and shame. There have been very real gains in sexual freedom, won through the hard struggles such as those waged by women for reproductive freedom, by lesbians and gays for human rights, by people of colour against forced sterilization and by young people for increased autonomy. But these gains are still very limited, as we are a long way from having the information, power and resources required for full sexual freedom in an environment free of harassment and coercion.
There seems to be a disjuncture between the proliferation of sexual imagery and the code of silence that surrounds actual sexual practices (excluding locker room bravado). In this article, I am continuing the argument I made in the last issue of New Socialist that this disjuncture is grounded in particular characteristics of capitalist society, specifically commodity fetishism which is the attribution of mystical powers to things that are bought and sold on the market.
Virtual Sexuality
The virtualization of sexuality on the internet is one of the many forms in which sexual imagery has proliferated. This virtualized sexuality seems to bring out some odd patterns of behaviour. There are people who spend so much time consuming internet pornography that they describe it as an addiction. They actually feel powerless to control the amount of time they spend on-line seeking sexual images.
Romantic attachment has also been virtualized. I recently heard about someone who left a long-term relationship to run off with someone she had never actually met in person. The only prior contact had been through internet chat. So what is it that makes internet contact and imagery so alluring?
Obviously, there are a lot of dimensions to this. Men often express masculinity in sexuality through an objectification of the person who is desired. The transformation of the desirable person into a thing to be watched, possessed and used is one of the important dimensions of masculinity in this culture. Sexual imagery fits well into this masculine sexual universe.
The internet seems to add a particular inflection to this pattern, one that is related specifically to commodity fetishism in capitalist society. The internet presents an excellent medium for the flight from our actual bodies that capitalist social relations stimulate. Video games, virtual sexuality and various simulated chat communities all include dimensions of leaving our body to enter into the realm of exchange, leaving behind our earthly presence and becoming information.
The urge to flee our bodies is very strong in a society where commodities seem to hold all the cards. The experience of human existence in a capitalist society is largely defined by the experience of mindless toil without intrinsic reward, under the control of others. Our life energy is sucked out of us by work, studies and household labour so that at the end of the day we just want to be distracted or soothed. Our bodies are often wracked with pain as a result of repetitive strain and other workplace injuries, while our minds are numbed by routine and endless boredom.
This daily experience of bodily drudgery contrasts sharply with the afterlife of the things people produce. These products seem to have extraordinary powers, most particularly in the realm of exchange where they seem to dictate to us the terms of access to them. Gas says, “Sorry, no heating oil this winter unless you cough up more money.” The dollar goes up, stocks go down, suddenly you are out of a job or freezing in the dark. The realm of exchange seems to be pretty great compared to our own humdrum existence.
Flight Into Exchange
It is understandable in this situation that we try to flee our bodies and enter into the realm of exchange. There are many ways we can do that. While we are shopping, we feel the magical transformative power of things tantalizing us. This lasts right up to the moment when we actually purchase the thing and get it home, at which point it becomes a mere use value out of the realm of exchange and loses its charms.
Another strategy for entering the realm of exchange is to turn our bodies into a product, making it like a thing. We can tattoo our skin, dye our hair, work out at the gym or use make-up and fashion to make our body a product and take it out of the realm of everyday toil in exploitive relations. Seen in this perspective, bodybuilding is about wiping out the actual body and making it into an image-like thing.
Virtualization is yet another way to leave our bodies behind. Here we seek to become information, flowing like money through the wires. Desires are inflamed by the very unreality of the virtualized image, which seems to inflect the human body with the magic of commodification. On-line chat allows for disembodied communication, so we can connect with others as if in the realm of exchange. Video games allow us to enter a world of dematerialized interactions, where the dead do not rot.
I am not claiming here that the only thing going on when we are shopping, chatting on-line or working out at the gym is a flight into exchange. I am arguing that part of the allure of these activities comes from the fetishism of commodities and the attribution of magical powers to the realm of exchange.
Taking Back Our Bodies
One of the dimensions of socialist theory, then, needs to be an understanding of the fight to get our bodies back. This fight has many aspects and has been expressed in many ways in feminist, anti-racist, queer and workers’ mobilizations. It is certainly not only about commodity fetishism, but is also about masculine dominance, racism, heterosexism and the oppression of children and people living with disabilities. But commodity fetishism reminds us that capitalism organizes a particular relationship with our bodies that is interrelated with other experiences of oppression.
Play can take many forms and imagination is a beautiful part of human experience. The struggle to take our bodies back is not about condemning virtual sexuality, fantasy, shopping or gym membership. Rather, it is about trying to understand the sources of the particular circumstances in which sexuality is openly expressed in images while it is repressed or suppressed in practice. This can only change if we challenge the fundamental social relations that create this experience as we struggle for sexual freedom and against violence and coercion.