Gayle Rubin's Revolutionary Essay 'Thinking Sex'

In Gayle Rubin’s revolutionary essay, “Thinking Sex”, which shook the very foundations of feminism and queer studies, she introduces the idea of six ‘features’ that can get in the way of other’s ability to comprehend sexual oppression and rebuke it. Though “Thinking Sex” doesn’t quite explicitly state or list these motifs of Western culture, the six features of Western thought that get in the way of our ability to comprehend sexual oppression and denounce it are capitalism, politics, religion, psychology, the state of the country, and medicine.
Capitalism has played one of the larger roles in the inability to recognize sexual oppression so it is easy to ignore its existence as a valid struggle. The US’s capitalist society pushes the work force
“A radical theory of sex must identify, describe, explain, and denounce erotic injustice and sexual oppression.” (Rubin 9). Looking back in time with confirmation bias, it’s clear that feminism from thirty years ago wouldn’t be nearly as progressive as it is today, however, for Rubin to have been able to recognize this in her time (the essay, being written in the eighties) truly shows how far this essay went in redefining feminism, or rather setting in stone what future feminism should look like. As Rubin says in “Thinking Sex”, “As [feminist issues] become less those of gender and more those of sexuality, feminist analysis becomes misleading and often irrelevant.” Here, Rubin clearly states her frustration directed towards the feminist community and their lack of inclusive progression (or otherwise noted as intersectional feminism) (Rubin 34). Rubin believes in the ‘enrichment’ of feminism, and illustrates that feminism, no matter the sub-politics, can not be considered radical if it is not intersectional and fails to shed light on the power dynamics that exist in
The four conditions both authors state that facilitate the ability for any event to be collectively remembered by a group are commemorated ability, mnemonic capacity, resonance, and research and presentation. Collectivized groups are more likely to find an event memorable if it is perceived as dramatic, politically relevant, or otherwise newsworthy. Mnemonic capability, in this context can be defined as the symbolic mobilizing activities tied to or in reference to those influenced by activist movements. “Resonance” in Armstrong and Cage’s terms, comes from the “framing literature” in reference to how effectively a commemorative vehicle emotionally affects its audience (or any reaction in incurs). Finally, the presentation refers to similar confrontations for events that resembled [the Stonewall riots] and otherwise presented similarly with other movement. In the article, Armstrong and Crage describe how it was so successful by describing the effects of Stonewall as being resonance as well as overall dramatic. What also helped boost Stonewall’s popularity was