Kristen Ghodsee discusses two key themes in Kollontai's 1918 essay, "New Woman." The first is the persistence of nostalgia for an imagined traditional family of the past that might save us from the difficulties and loneliness of late capitalism. Kollontai herself understood that many "new women" in the early years of the Soviet Union were nostalgic for the sheltered lives of their mothers and grandmothers. Flaming this nostalgia for a "golden age" of the past is a typical rhetorical strategy of the reactionary, far right. The second theme is the recent preponderance of anti-capitalist films in the mainstream media, such as Parasite and Squid Game.
Kristen Ghodsee's author website: www.kristenghodsee.com
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