Gayle Rubin

Gayle Rubin is an American cultural anthropologist born in the year 1949.She is a renowned activist and theorist of sex and gender politics and is known for her works in the field of feminism, lesbian literature, pornography, prostitution, as well as anthropological studies. Presently, she is an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan teaching anthropology, women studies and comparative literature.

Early Life:

She was very active in the campus of the university, writing for women’s movement papers, majorly on feminist topics. She was also a part of feminist consciousness raising group during the late 60s and helped found an early Lesbian Feminist group called Radicalesbians. In the year 1975, her essay called the “Traffic In Women:

According to Rubin, “Gender is a socially imposed division of the sexes” and Female oppression is perpetuated within the patriarchal society through the exchange of women-which is the key to her argument, referencing Marcel Mauss’ “Essay On The Gift.” Considering women as gifts and exchanging her during marriage has been believed to strengthen the trust bonds between the exchangers and this exchange is also a very important social custom. She argued that gender was created by men in a system that functions on blood relationship i.e. kinship. Women are born biologically female and gender comes into play when such exchanges have to be made. When a man has to give away his daughter or sister for matrimonial purposes, it allows the formation and strengthening of the kinship ties and also leads to, “transfer of certain rights, lineage names, and sexual access”. When sex/gender system is analyzed in a capitalist society, women are excluded from that system, making men as the sellers and women as their commodities for exchange and it is the men who are the beneficiaries of such an exchange within this social organization. Rubin hopes for a society which is genderless with no sexual difference and hierarchies attached.

Rubin also stresses upon the “sexual division of labor” which

Here, Rubin clearly and distinctly pronounces that sex is used as a political agent for the implementation of repression and dominance in the western society of today. She has minutely analyzed the stance of modern culture on sexuality, exposing the hypocrisy and subjugation that victimizes anyone with a different sexual orientation or inclination. Her work majorly focuses on sadism, homosexuals, women, children, pedophiles etc. Her argument is strengthened by the theory of Foucault about the discourse in sex and its institutionalization. She questioned the value system that the various groups attach to sexuality defining some behaviors as good/natural or bad/unnatural. The concept of “Charmed Circle” of sexuality was introduced by her in this essay. This essay suggests that the sexuality that is given importance by the society is kept inside of it, while the others are opposed and kept outside of the society. There are a lot of ideological connotations attached to the ideas of sexuality, the most important being the negativity of sex. If marriage, love or reproduction is not involved, the sexual activities are considered bad or dangerous especially in the western context. A need is felt by the people to draw a line between good and bad sex as they see it standing between sexual order and chaos. It is often feared that if “bad sex” is allowed to move across the line, unimaginable activities will also follow. It is also