Vortex: The Crisis of Patriarchy

321 Pages·2020·2.224 MB·English

by  Susan Hawthorne

A powerful feminist reconceptualization of major issues threatening to
destroy our planet, our bodies and our life on earth. This book unfolds
the disastrous faces and forms of capitalist patriarchy with its tools of
colonization, globalization and a neoliberal dehumanized system. But
the author does not stop here. Susan Hawthorne articulates powerfully
the feminist resistances around the world with the hope that ‘mass
movements can recreate the world in new ways’.
—Farida Akhter, Nayakrishi Andolon, Bangladesh
This is the book that we have been waiting for! Susan Hawthorne
covers theoretical issues, critiquing the takeover of neoliberalism, post­
modernism and anti­scientific ideologies. She examines the impact of
patriarchal industrialisation and classist oppressions on women’s lives,
on humanity in general, and on the planet. Her easy­to­read style enables
everyone to follow her descriptions and analysis of present­day problems
and challenges. She defines the terms, and analyses how modern
patriarchy controls economics, controls and damages the planet and
Indigenous people and cultures. She highlights the patriarchal control of
medicine on people with disabilities and how the modern trans activists
are damaging lesbian cultures and lesbians. She writes about insisting on
access to safe, female­only spaces such as refuges and medical facilities.
She elucidates how patriarchy damages the planet, nature, and life for
everyone. Only by understanding patriarchy, and how destructive it is,
will we be able to address it.
— Alison Laurie, former Programme Director of Gender and
Women’s Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
and long time feminist, and lesbian activist
Susan Hawthorne demands that we not only face the social and ecological
crises of our moment in history, but recognize their patriarchal roots.
Vortex makes clear the connections between these crises and does not
shy away from naming male dominance as a driving force. The book
reflects Hawthorne’s impressive intellectual and artistic skills, bringing
the clarity of political analysis alive with her poetic language. Vortex helps
us understand how difficult it will be to meet these challenges and why it
is so crucial to do so immediately. 
— Robert Jensen, Professor Emeritus, University of Texas at Austin
The global pandemic of Covid­19 has created the opportunity for nations
and communities to take stock of where several decades of neoliberalism
and the free market have taken us and to ponder — is there a way we
can still save the planet? In this courageous and very timely book, Susan
Hawthorne lays bare the links between seemingly disparate events and
deeply embedded global directions, arguing we must resist if we are to
live free, healthy, ethical lives as people and nations. This is a must read
for thinking people in every country, and offers a radical feminist take on
how to rebuild a future that respects people and the environment, and
avoids the mantra to ‘get back to normal’.
—Sandra Coney, writer, health activist and environmentalist
The current term ‘intersectionality’, with its focus on ‘identity’, has lost
its ability to analyse 21st century patriarchy. Vortex is a tour de force
committed to reversing this superficial analytical trend. Hawthorne
powerfully explores the material effects on women and children, and on
the planet which sustains all our lives, as we are differentially placed by
the patriarchal bio­politics of neoliberal globalisation and capitalism.
— Heather Brunskell­Evans, philosopher and author of Transgender
Body Politics
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Susan Hawthorne joined the Women’s Liberation Movement in
1973. She quickly volunteered at Melbourne’s Rape Crisis Centre
and was active in student politics. She has organised writers’
festivals, been an aerialist in two women’s circuses and written
on topics as diverse as war, friendship with animals, and mythic
traditions. She writes non­fiction, fiction and poetry and her
books have been translated into multiple languages. She has
taught English to Arabic­speaking women, worked in Aboriginal
education and had teaching roles across a number of subject areas
in universities including Philosophy, Women’s Studies, Literature,
Publishing Studies and Creative Writing. She is Adjunct Professor
in the School of Humanities at James Cook University, Townsville.
Susan has won awards in writing, publishing, the gay and lesbian
community and in 2017 was winner of the Penguin Random House
Best Achievement in Writing in the Inspire Awards for her work
increasing people’s awareness of disability.
Other books by Susan Hawthorne
Non-fiction
In Defence of Separatism (2019)
Bibliodiversity: A Manifesto for Independent Publishing (2014)
Wild Politics: Feminism, Globalisation and Bio/diversity (2002)
The Spinifex Quiz Book: A Book of Women’s Answers (1993)
Fiction
Dark Matters: A Novel (2017)
Limen (2013)
The Falling Woman (1992/2004)
Poetry
The Sacking of the Muses (2019)
Lupa and Lamb (2014)
Valence: Considering War through Poetry and Theory (2011)
Cow (2011)
Earth’s Breath (2009)
Unsettling the Land (with Suzanne Bellamy, 2008)
The Butterfly Effect (2005)
Bird and Other Writings on Epilepsy (1999)
The Language in My Tongue (1993)
Anthologies
Lesbian Poets and Writers: Live Encounters (2018)
Horse Dreams: The Meaning of Horses in Women’s Lives
(with Jan Fook and Renate Klein, 2004)
Cat Tales: The Meaning of Cats in Women’s Lives
(with Jan Fook and Renate Klein, 2003)
September 11, 2001: Feminist Perspectives (with Bronwyn Winter, 2002)
CyberFeminism: Connectivity, Critique and Creativity
(with Renate Klein, 1999)
Car Maintenance, Explosives and Love and Other Lesbian Writings
(with Cathie Dunsford and Susan Sayer, 1997)
Australia for Women: Travel and Culture (with Renate Klein, 1994)
Angels of Power and Other Reproductive Creations (with Renate Klein, 1991)
The Exploding Frangipani: Lesbian Writing from Australia and New Zealand
(with Cathie Dunsford, 1990)
Moments of Desire: Sex and Sexuality by Australian Feminist Writers
(with Jenny Pausacker, 1989)
Difference: Writings by Women (1985)
VORTEX
The Crisis of Patriarchy
SUSAN HAWTHORNE
First published by Spinifex Press, 2020
Reprinted 2021
Spinifex Press Pty Ltd
PO Box 5270, North Geelong, VIC 3215, Australia
PO Box 105, Mission Beach, QLD 4852, Australia
[email protected]
www.spinifexpress.com.au
Copyright © Susan Hawthorne, 2020
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright
reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise) without prior written permission of both
the copyright owner and the above publisher of the book.
Copying for educational purposes
Information in this book may be reproduced in whole or part for
study or training purposes, subject to acknowledgement of the source
and providing no commercial usage or sale of material occurs.
Where copies of part or whole of the book are made under part VB
of the Copyright Act, the law requires that prescribed procedures
be followed. For information contact the Copyright Agency Limited.
Edited by Renate Klein and Pauline Hopkins
Index by Karen Gillen
Cover design by Deb Snibson, MAPG
Typesetting by Helen Christie, Blue Wren Books
Typeset in Minion Pro
Printed by McPherson’s Printing Group
A catalogue record for this
book is available from the
National Library of Australia
ISBN: 9781925950168 (paperback)
ISBN: 9781925950175 (ebook)
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Preface: The Year of the Pandemic xi
Introduction 1
A note on truth 2
A note on words 4
Key terms in this book 7
CHAPTER ONE
The Crisis of Economics:
Patriarchal Wars against People and the Planet 15
Appropriation of politics 16
How has criticism of globalisation shifted sides? 18
The speeding vortex: every failure is a new business
opportunity 22
Understanding neoliberalism 24
Resistance 27
Markets, work and the Universal Basic Income 29
CHAPTER TWO
Less Than Perfect:
Medical Wars against People with Disabilities 37
Feminism 38
Ruling classes 39
Infantilisation 40
Colonisation 42
Harm minimisation 43
Normalisation 45
Erasure 46
The technology of bodies 48
vii
VORTEX: THE CRISIS OF PATRIARCHY
Money 52
The personal is political 53
CHAPTER THREE
Feminist Cassandras:
Men’s Patriotic Wars against Women’s Intimate Lives 59
War and the institution of heterosexuality intersect 60
War and masculinity, torture and heterosexuality 65
Intimacy and war 67
To counter war is to counter the militarism embedded
in daily life 70
Postmodern war 75
Money 78
What would it take for a woman to be free of injury
and to live without fear for her safety? 81
CHAPTER FOUR
Biocolonialism and Bioprospecting:
Wars against Indigenous Peoples and Women 85
What is bioprospecting? 87
What is biopiracy? 90
Biopiracy of earth-based resources 91
Biopiracy and value 92
Biopiracy of body-based resources 94
Separation 96
Microcolonialism of Indigenous bodies 96
Gynocolonialism 100
Bodies with disabilities 106
Heterocolonialism 107
Intergenerational sustainability and cultural integrity 109
Money 112
What practices and laws can be implemented to
prevent knowledge theft and biocolonialism? 113
viii
CONTENTS
CHAPTER FIVE
Deterritoriality and Breaking the Spirit:
Land, Refugees and Trauma 117
Being homeless in the body 120
Dispossession 123
Land as relationship 132
Land as relationship in prehistory 135
Trauma 137
Refusing refugees 141
Money 144
What systems could be put in place to end
planetary theft? 146
CHAPTER SIX
Colonisation, Erasure and Torture:
Wars against Lesbians 149
Globalisation 151
The politics of shame 155
The phallus and the penis 158
Origins of patriarchy and violence against lesbians 161
Nationalism and exile 165
Global recolonisation 170
Lesbian refugees 176
Money 178
Guidelines for officials interviewing lesbian refugees 180
CHAPTER SEVEN
Breaking the Spirit of the Women’s Liberation
Movement: The War against Biology 183
Trans vs cis 185
Trans vs intersex 186
Trans vs lesbian 187
Trans vs women 189
Women’s Circus 192
Oppression 193
ix