Women of Kallipolis, Unite!

(by Ömer Faruk Yalçın)

                                                                                                                 (1)

Some say Plato is one of the early feminist philosophers (2) since he offers women the training to rule and become a good guardian of his ideal city, Kallipolis (3):

“The women and men should associate with one another in education, in things having to do with children, and in guarding the other citizens in the way we’ve described; that both when they remain in the city and when they go to war, they must guard together and hunt together like dogs and share in everything as far as possible...”

One may exaggerate and become unnecessarily way too happy for this, but should not. Feminism is an ideology born to the left since it involves a critical reading of exploitation of women in the capitalist system. According to Nancy Fraser, feminism is an ideology that “started out as a critique of capitalist exploitation ended up contributing key ideas to its latest neoliberal phase,” (4) thus the right-wing understanding of feminism does not quite contribute to women’s struggle.

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There are rights and liabilities for women in Kallipolis only if they belong to the guardian class. Does this alone make Plato a feminist? What about the women producers? No madam, no sir! Plato is a classist philosopher who gives women their respected place among the guardian class only to guard the city better, since he is aware that the ideal city needs women participation. He is no defender of women rights. If he was, he would have something to say about women in producer class. He is no different than neoliberals who do not have any word for women except the ones working in the plazas. He is absolutely silent about other women in the society, women whose labor keeps the city alive. He is very similar to the neoliberals who are only in favor of women liberation if they become a wheel of the commerce like the Victoria’s Secret models or “the world’s most successful twenty women entrepreneurs”; and if they masculinize themselves and their ideology in the system to be more successful like Angela Merkel. This quite explains the inequality of women and men in Germany, too (7).

Plato’s aim is to have guardians like Angela Merkel in Kallipolis, thus there would be no liberation or equality for women, but the city would be perfectly guarded and ruled.

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In conclusion, Plato is an exception in his time, at least in the west. It is not common tradition to see philosophers or politicians to talk about women rights, even if in limited aspects. Thus, his ideas are valuable. But it would be way too optimistic to call him a feminist and defender of women equality, since his only goal is to construct Kallipolis in most secure way and he needs strong, successful women’s cooperation to do so.

References:

(1) Catherine. The F-word. 19 March 2012. Last access 25 December 2013. Image. URL= <http://thethinkingtank.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/feminism.png>.

(2)   Haslanger, Sally, Tuana, Nancy and O'Connor, Peg. Topics in Feminism. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2013 Edition). Edward N. Zalta (ed.). Last access 25 December 2013. URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2013/entries/feminism-topics/>.

(3) Fraser, Nancy. How feminism became capitalism's handmaiden - and how to reclaim it. The Guardian. 14 October 2013. Last access 25 December 2013. URL = <http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/14/feminism-capitalist-handmaiden-neoliberal>.

(4)   Plato. Republic. Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1992. Print. p 141.

(5)  Foster, Dawn. Why corporate feminism is convenient for capitalism. 11 December 2013. Last access 25 December 2013. URL = <http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/11/corporate-feminism-capitalism-womens-working-lives>.

(6) Dowling, Siobhán. Letter from Berlin: Does Angela Merkel Deserve to Be a Feminist Icon?. 24 September 2009. Last access 25 December 2013. URL = <http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/letter-from-berlin-does-angela-merkel-deserve-to-be-a-feminist-icon-a-650888.html>.

(7)  Wikilerner Team, Politics. 29 October 2013. Did Obama Lie to Merkel About Spying Her Cell Phone?. Last access 25 December 2013. Image. URL = <http://wikilerner.com/did-obama-lie-to-merkel-about-spying-her-cell-phone/>.