Marxist view Flashcards
1
Q
Who does family benefit?
A
the bourgeoisie and the capitalist system - pass on hegemonic, capitalist values, keep w/c in a state of FCC preventing a revolution, prevents workers from going on strike as they have families they need to provide for
2
Q
What is family?
A
FAmily is a conservative institution constituted to aid the preservation of capitalism.
3
Q
Engels (1884)
A
- The family has a clear economic function for capitalism, by ensuring that wealth remains in the hands of the bourgeoisie
- Family is all about bloodlines and parentage
- in a pre-capitalist society there was a promiscuous horde and no way of maintaining wealth
- Now there are family relations that are based on clear legal contracts (marriage certificates, birth certificates etc) which facilitate inheritance. Therefore when rich people die it is their children who keep hold of their wealth - keeping the wealth and power in the hands of the bourgeoisie.
4
Q
Zaretsky (1976)
A
THE CUSHIONING EFFECT
- A variation on Parson’s warm bath theory
- Family life gives proletarian men something they could control and a space where they could be the ‘boss’.
- This provided a clear function for capitalism as it means that workers will tolerate the powerlessness and frustration of being exploited at work because they had a private domain where they er ‘king of the castle’ and could take out their stress and frustrations.
- Ties to Ansley’s (Marxist-feminist) perspective of women being ‘takers of shit’
5
Q
EVAL of Engel’s
A
- Not a very romantic take on marriage
- Surely family must be about more than what happens to your money after you die. Afterall, you will most likely spend the most of your life around these people.
- people with no property choose to live in families - the emotional stability and support it provides
6
Q
Functionalist criticism
A
humans live in families in the majority of societies - not just capitalist families.
7
Q
Communist countries
A
people in communist countries still choose to live in families
