Bio: (1949-) American anthropologist. Gail Rubin holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, where she also teaches. She specializes in gender studies, queer theory, and alternative sexual practices. In „The Traffic in Women: Notes on the ‘Political Economy’ of Sex” (1975), Rubin concludes that the patterns of kinship and exchange that Claude Levi-Strauss wrote about shaped women as goods that could be exchanged and owned by men (fathers, brothers, and husbands). These patterns of kinship create political structures and power relations, as well as a system of social relations that regulates the rights and obligations of men, women, and children. These kinship systems shape the economic and political oppression of women, but also how women and men shape their social and sexual selves. Rubin believes that capitalism also contributes to the economic exploitation of women, because capitalism depends on the reproduction of labor, and it is based on the unpaid labor of women in the household.

In the article „Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality” (1984), the author explores how society shapes sexuality and sexual identity. She concludes that medical and legal institutions create and maintain sexual differences and norms of deviant sexual behavior, in order to achieve political goals. She calls this approach to sex "sexual essentialism." Sexual essentialism presupposes the biological determinism of sexual behavior and serves to create a hegemonic model of acceptable sexual practices. Rubin also criticizes feminist theory and practice, which has also often marginalized some sexual practices (sadomasochism, pornography, sex work, transsexuality). With her theory, but also with her activism, Rubin actively promotes sexual freedoms, the right to choose, and sexual diversity, as a way of combating totalizing aspirations towards homogeneity.

Main works

„The Traffic in Women: Notes on the ‘Political Economy’ of Sex”, in Rayna Reiter ( ed.) Toward an Anthropology of Women (1975);

„The Leather Menace: Comments on Politics and S/M.”, in Barbara Davis (ed.) Coming to Power: Writings and Graphics on Lesbian S/M (1981);

„Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality”, in Carole S. Vance (ed.) Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality (1984);

„Of Catamites and Kings: Reflections on Butch, Gender, and Boundaries”, in Joan Nestle (ed.) The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader (1992);

Deviations: A Gayle Rubin Reader (2012).