I’m always amused by those that try to discredit left leaning journalists/ writers by claiming that they are not “politically neutral”. This is especially evident in those that propose universal healthcare, benefits for the working class, etc. If they so much as dare to express an opinion in favor of such ideas, they are dismissed for being “partisan”. The funny part is that we have migrated into a world of ideologies where the proponents of capitalism have managed to present themselves as “neutral”, as if their ideas weren’t as ideologically charged as anyone else’s, rooted in centuries old notions of private property, class, racial hierarchies, etc.
This is also quite evident in current critics that are jumping at the defense of Sandberg and her “Lean In” strategies. Criticizing Sandberg, it seems, is “anti feminist” because apparently, she is proposing a “path towards success”. What is omitted from these defenses is that said path is only possible within a capitalist feminism. This is not a neutral, ideology free form of feminism but one that purports to use the current system to the advantage of individuals (as opposed to communities, the working class, the poor, People of Color who don’t stand a chance to come near this supposed “path to success”, etc.). “Capitalist feminism”, it seems, is the only kind of feminism that, these days, claims the label without caveats or qualifiers. It has become the default, the “neutral”. No, Sandberg is not “the new De Beauvoir” (as The New York Times would tritely have us believe), not by a long shot (unless one becomes “the new De Beauvoir” by merely writing about the condition of being a woman). Moreover, De Beauvoir, a Marxist and founding scholar of feminist existentialism, would probably be horrified by being used as a justification of capitalist brutality in the name of individual success.
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