Vortex: The Crisis of Patriarchy
Do we want to live in a world without birdsong? The pesticides, the coal mines, the clear-felling forestry industry, the industrial farmers are destroying the earth with their insistence on profit. But what point is profit on a dead and silent planet?
In this enlightening yet devastating book, Susan Hawthorne writes with clarity and incisiveness on how patriarchy is wreaking destruction on the planet and on communities. The twin mantras of globalisation and growth expounded by the neoliberalism that has hijacked the planet are revealed in all their shabby deception.
Backed by meticulous research, the author shows how so-called advances in technology are, like a Trojan horse, used to mask sinister political agendas that sacrifice the common good for the shallow profiteering of corporations and mega-rich individuals.
The biotechnologists see the lure of cure, rising share prices and profits.
She details how women, lesbians, people with disabilities, Indigenous peoples, the poor, refugees and the very earth itself are being damaged by the crisis of patriarchy that is sucking everyone into its vortex. Importantly, this precise and insightful volume also shows what is needed to get ourselves out of this spiral of destruction: a radical feminist approach with compassion and empathy at its core.
Shame is an emotion of the powerless because they cannot change the rules.
The book shows a way out of the vortex: it is now up to the collective imagination and action of people everywhere to take up the challenges Susan Hawthorne shows are needed.
This is a vital book for a world in crisis and should be read by everyone who cares about our future.
NOVEMBER 2020 | ISBN 9781925950168 | Paperback | 152 mm x 228 mm | 196 pages
Susan Hawthorne discusses her new book Vortex: The Crisis of Patriarchy which draws on her decades of experience and radical feminist knowledge to take on a huge task. Vortex is a wide-ranging analysis of the devastation patriarchy wreaks, including on women, lesbians, Indigenous people, people with disabilities, refugees and landless people, nature and the planet itself.
In this podcast, Susan explains the key ideas in Vortex, the running theme in the book of the myth of Cassandra and Trojan horses, how growing up in Australia has affected her work and why she asks readers whether we care about the safety of lesbians. Listen now.
Endorsements
A powerful feminist reconceptualization of major issues threatening to destroy our planet, our bodies and our life on earth.
—Farida Akhter, Nayakrishi Andolon, Bangladesh
This is the book that we have been waiting for!
—Alison Laurie, academic and long time New Zealand feminist and lesbian activist
Susan Hawthorne demands that we not only face the social and ecological crises of our moment in history, but recognize their patriarchal roots.
—Robert Jensen, Professor Emeritus, University of Texas at Austin
This is a must read for thinking people in every country.
—Sandra Coney, writer, health activist and environmentalist
Vortex is a tour de force.
—Heather Brunskell-Evans, author of Transgender Body Politics
Reviews
‘Vortex, The Crisis of Patriarchy’ by Susan Hawthorne is a highly readable and concise exploration of the contemporary crises we all face whether we like to think so or not.
…I was moved, informed, and inspired by this timely book and recommend it to everyone, everywhere.
—Louise Hewett, GoodReads
Table of Contents
Preface: The Year of the Pandemic
Introduction
A note on truth
A note on words
Key terms in this book
Chapter One: The Crisis of Economics: Patriarchal Wars against People and the Planet
Appropriation of politics
How has criticism of globalisation shifted sides?
The speeding vortex: every failure is a new business opportunity
Understanding neoliberalism
Resistance
Markets, work and the Universal Basic Income
Chapter Two: Less Than Perfect: Medical Wars against People with Disabilities
Feminism
Ruling classes
Infantilisation
Colonisation
Harm minimisation
Normalisation
Erasure
The technology of bodies
Money
The personal is political
Chapter Three: Feminist Cassandras: Men’s Patriotic Wars against Women’s Intimate Lives
War and the institution of heterosexuality intersect
War and masculinity, torture and heterosexuality
Intimacy and war
To counter war is to counter the militarism embedded in daily life
Postmodern war
Money
What would it take for a woman to be free of injury and to live without fear for her safety?
Chapter Four: Biocolonialism and Bioprospecting: Wars against Indigenous Peoples and Women
What is bioprospecting?
What is biopiracy?
Biopiracy of earth-based resources
Biopiracy and value
Biopiracy of body-based resources
Separation
Microcolonialism of Indigenous bodies
Gynocolonialism
Bodies with disabilities
Heterocolonialism
Intergenerational sustainability and cultural integrity
Money
What practices and laws can be implemented to prevent knowledge theft and biocolonialism?
Chapter Five: Deterritoriality and Breaking the Spirit: Land, Refugees and Trauma
Being homeless in the body
Dispossession
Land as relationship
Land as relationship in prehistory
Trauma
Refusing refugees
Money
What systems could be put in place to end planetary theft?
Chapter Six: Colonisation, Erasure and Torture: Wars against Lesbians
Globalisation
The politics of shame
The phallus and the penis
Origins of patriarchy and violence against lesbians
Nationalism and exile
Global recolonisation
Lesbian refugees
Money
Guidelines for officials interviewing lesbian refugees
Chapter Seven:Breaking the Spirit of the Women's Liberation Movement: The War against Biology
Trans v cis
Trans vs intersex
Trans vs lesbian
Trans vs women
Women's Circus
Oppression
Postmodernism and queer theory
Silence
Trauma
Hatred and shame
Breaking the spirit
Theft of a future and a past
Commodification
Strategies used by the trans lobby
Violence against trans people
Institutionalising trans laws
Money for astroturfing and transgender causes
Why sexual orientation not gender identity?
Chapter Eight:Breaking the Spirit of the Planet: Climate Catastrophe
Breaking the spirit of the planet
Temperate zone: bushfires
Dry zone: drought and water wars
Wet zone: coral death, cyclones, floods
Money
Breaking the heart of the planet
Chapter Nine: Sovereignty and the Spirit of Nature
Uncultivated
Sovereignty