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Journal Rethinking Marxism
A Journal of Economics, Culture & Society
Volume 18, 2006 - Issue 3
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Original Articles

Returning to Reproduction Queerly: Sex, Labor, Need

Pages 387-395
Published online: 22 Aug 2006
 
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Historical materialism's critique of capitalism and queer critiques of the material history of sexuality find a fruitful intersection in the concept of social reproduction. The making of history involves the reproduction of social life—what Marx referred to as ”species-being” or what might be called “social ontology.” As an aspect of social ontology, affective needs feature in the reproduction of social life and are folded into cultural norms. Capitalism produces unmet human needs that are embedded in values and identities and incorporated into relations of labor in and outside the marketplace. Drawing upon workers’ narratives, this essay examines sex and labor in the social ontology of the maquiladoras on the U.S.-Mexican border. Although sexual identity has eluded studies of labor relations in maquiladoras, these workers’ narratives illustrate its powerful role in and outside the factory, in workers’ exploitation and in labor organizing.