Of Property and Propriety: The Role of Gender and Class in Imperialism and Nationalism: A Decade Later

This essay, written in reflection of earlier work, introduces the themes needed to analyze forms of gender and class oppression as these have been mediated through, and by, hegemonic projects of imperialism and nationalism. It argues that the gender critique of imperialism and nationalism should be informed by a critical epistemology that integrates class, capital, and other social relations with ideologies and practices of power. A feminist historical materialism is used that avoids the either-or binary of material, social relations versus culture and language is used, bringing into view the particularities of social relations and illuminating the ways that gender becomes crucial for hegemonic projects. These hegemonic social projects inform languages and cultures of people that are integrated as shaping elements of common sense, consensus, contestations, and the politics of gender. The pitfalls of national consciousness are also brought into view using feminist and class lenses, so that differences between liberal, communist, and even fascist forms of nationalism are revealed. These analytical tools, developed a decade ago, are still relevant to contemporary case studies of imperialism and nationalism of Israel and Palestine and the religious and cultural nationalism in parts of the Middle East that has arisen in resistance to contemporary American imperialism.