A Journal of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya

to an extent, altered it, and allowed women
some freedom. But seeing its own benefit
in patriarchy, capitalism colluded with it.
Within the patriarchal mould, women’s
labor is assessed inferior. This works in
favor of capitalism. Similar is the matter
of the woman’s body. Capitalism and its
many products played their role in liberating
the female body at one level. But at another,
it has also conspired with patriarchy for
its own profit in making it a mere object.
It is vital to liberate the female body.
Women should have absolute sovereignty
over their bodies. But lending the slogans
for liberating women’s bodies to make them
available for themselves, and for everyone
else, is also a matter of tact. In other
words, women’s bodies were to be freed
from patriarchal tenets, rules and values.
Through capitalism, it has been liberated
way more. Women have also developed
this consciousness that their bodies belong
to them. But this ‘liberated body’ has been
transformed into a body ‘available’ for
male relish and consumption has been
the shrewd adroitness of patriarchy’s
apparatus to keep it alive. Also, the various
devices of capitalism, like media, etc. have
amply demonstrated and transmitted the
female-body. Leaving the precincts of one’s
home and accessing public spaces is in
itself a step towards women’s liberation.
But it must be reviewed if merely stepping
out can lead women to a liberated Utopia?
Or, is the patriarchal apparatus molding
and re-presenting itself in further
‘objectification’ of women’s bodies? It is
even possible to see the women consenting
to this. But what must also be seen are
the powers that construct and influence
this consent. If we disregard this, neither
can we understand the reality of women’s
liberation struggle, nor carve the intended
Utopia. As a matter of fact, these
circumstances are fraught with such
complications that one can neither fully
reject nor endorse just one aspect of it.
Therefore, capitalism and its associated
devices have to be commended for the
progress they’ve produced. At the same
time, their ‘profit’ oriented oppressive
system and its ties with patriarchy have
to be understood and condemned.
These two social structures aside, what
has been the position of patriarchy in
socialist/communist states? (For now,
brushing aside the question of how
successfully Socialist or communist these
states have been.) It is important to ask
this question since some people believe
that the onset of socialism is going to
concurrently resolve the aim of women’s
liberation. Actually, this derives from an
operative understanding of ‘base’ and
superstructure. Not just women’s liberation
but caste-related causes have also been
seen in the same light. Some see the matter
of women’s liberation (in context of their
gendered existence) as relating only to
the superstructure. They feel that postrevolution
when the ‘base’ itself would
January-March 2012 :: 137