FREE ESSAY ON KAPITAL

KAPITAL

American Gov.
Kapital
When one gets down to the roots of capitalism you find that it is a form of government
that allows the rich to get richer, the poor, poorer and the middle class to stay the
same. Karl Marx wrote a book, Kapital about the what capitalism does to the people in a
society, how it takes the humainty out of being and replaces it with x. Not only does it
do that but it creates a chain of commodities, fetishisis, and alienation within a
society. 
Commodities are at the top of this chain. A commodity is anything that is produced for
exchange. They have two parts to them, the use of the commodity and its value. With
women, and men the use of the human body is humanity, doing whatever it is that pleases
you, whether it be riding your bike, reading, dancing, whatever, it comes down to your
humanity. Their humanity is turned into a value when women have to sell their use to
obtain different forms of commodities, to then exchange those commodities for more
commodities. In capitalism women are defined by their bodies, and judged by what their
bodies can do, and look like. Women have to sell their humanity because in capitalism
that's the only thing people have to sell. In capitalism it doesn't matter who or what
you are, as long as you're producing something that will make money. Women sell their
humanity in different ways, there seems to be a same scale in place with women's jobs,
modeling (which is at the far right), stripping (somewhere in between), and prostitution
(which is at the far left). Most wouldn't connect these three with having any basic
ground (maybe stripping & prostitution), but their basic ground is that women are all
selling there use for some form of a commodity, which most of the time is money. 
The outcome that that has is profound. Not only does it effect women, and girls, it
effects boys and men. Their images of women become so distorted that they begin to
believe them. Women become fetishes for both men and women. With any commodity it will
become a fetish. "Society divides its labor between a multitude of private producers who
relate to each other by exchanging their products," (Marx's Kapital For Beginners, page
60) when that happens it gives the use value this imaginary power, which is an fetish.
Fetisizing women limits what a woman is, could be, or wants to be, because the fetish
with women is sex.
A large part of society that puts that and more standards on women are men. Men
fetishsize women as sex objects, by supporting prostitution, and strippers, and putting
standards on what is beautiful (models). Women become nothing more than sex, and bodies.
For men and woman. Not only do they view themselves as sex objects (models, strippers,
etc.), but as mothers, and housewives, and anything else society imposes on them. Right
now the world is much more open to women being in the work place than it was 50 years
ago. It's not so much the housewife anymore, but the images of women you see on
television, in movies, magazines, on the street. The problems that woman are having now
being alienated from their bodies is something that was just slowly beginning years ago.
The real value of what a woman is is lost somewhere in between her use and exchange.
Alienation is what use value, and fetishism, all lead to. Men become alienated from who,
and what a woman really is. They begin to believe in their fetishes, that women are
supposed to be tall, super thin, long legs, large breasts, long hair, and what have you,
so that when they are faced with what really is there they won't accept it. Not accepting
the reality of it, men become alienated from the real thing. They don't know what a woman
really is, just what society tells them a women is. 
The effects of alienation are much greater on women themselves. Women begin to see
themselves in unhealthy ways if they feel they're not living up to that standard of
beauty. Not seeing themselves for themselves begins a whole unhealthy chain of eating
disorders, over exercising; industries have been created to cater to that feeling.
Plastic surgery is something that was around at first to fix scarring and disfigurements,
but became a tool that could alter their body to whatever women felt a need to fix. If a
woman looks to old, she can get a face-lift. Too large? Get liposuction. Breasts are too
small? Get implants. Whatever you feel the need to fix about yourself you can fix it if
you have the necessary means. Cosmetics and clothing also fix the problem. It's not as
extreme as plastic surgery, but it's still there to cover up, or show whatever you want.
Makeup literally covers up whatever you don't want seen; it alters your face. Clothing
can make an outward change to whatever you don't want to be seen. It can enhance your
assets or hide everything about you. The clothing industry makes tons of money off of
people's insecurities. If you want to look like a model, here's what the models are
wearing. Your breasts are not the size you want and you don't want implants, this miracle
bra will help. You can waste tons of money on diet pills/shakes, become bulimic/anorexic,
get surgery done, put on ? a ton of makeup, or buy ? a ton of clothes. Whatever you feel
need to be fixed, altered, or hidden, there seems to be a commodity out there for you.
If this is what is going on now for women I would hate to think about what's going to be
happening in the next 10 to 20 years. It's almost as if we take three steps forward and
to steps backward. Yes, we are gaining professional status, and there are more
opportunities out there for us, but look at where we are doing with our bodies. It's sad
when people like Marilyn Monroe would now be considered someone over weight. If the
standards of beauty keep going down this scale, what would a beautiful person look like
in 2020? Something needs to be changed, this society we live in needs to be changed.
Acceptance of others and self are key. Once that is accomplished problems will begin to
disappear, as if never existence. 
Bibliography
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