I’ve been studying Marx again lately. Not, of course, because I have any Marxist sympathies (although it’s easy to forget that Marx was writing at a time when the working classes in England were terribly exploited and forced to live less than human lives). No, the reason I’m studying him is because there’s clearly something to be learnt about the sex war, and its relationship to ‘economics’, with his analysis of class war and economics. Anyway, I’ve been reading about Charles Fourier, an early utopian socialist who influenced him, as well as Engels and others.
Charles Fourier (1772 – 1837) was a French philosopher who dreamed of building a society based upon socialist communes, in which not only property and labour would be shared, but also sex. He was probably the first writer to discuss sex redistribution and the problem of incels, recognizing that the free sex market has winners and losers, just as Capitalism does. He was truly an eccentric and fascinating character, and one whose ideas are certainly worth studying. He was also one of the first male feminists, although he can hardly be blamed for that. Writing before even Darwin, he would have little idea that women would restrict male sexual opportunities when given any power. Here is a quote from a very interesting article on his ideas about sex redistribution that I came across.
How was the minimum to be assured? To some extent, Fourier expected his society to produce conditions in which everyone would get into the act. “First love is said to leave a lasting impression. Thus the free play of this passion is particularly important in Harmony. Since the choice is free, there will be relatively few lads who become passionately attached to lasses of their own age. Nature loves contrasts and readily links people of disparate ages. Furthermore, so many friendly relations are established in Harmony between people of widely divergent ages that it will become commonplace for a young lad to begin his amorous career with an elderly woman and for a young girl to begin with a mature man. Of course there is nothing predetermined about the matter since everyone’s choice will be free …”23 More persuasive aids to assortment would be provided by the rules of love and the “courts” which enforced them. Young people voluntarily enrolled in the “Damselate” were expected to practice fidelity “until they have finished their education.”24 But: “. . . [No one is expelled from the Damselate until he or she has committed three infidelities and one inconsistancy. . . . Only half an infidelity is counted if a Damsel has an affair with one of the priests or priestesses who, in view of their age, are given special advantages . . . . A homosexual affair is only counted as half an infidelity. . . . Any Damsel may redeem an infidelity by spending two nights with an elderly priest or priestess.”25 “Angelic couples” – exceptionally handsome and beautiful lovers – would gain glory by sharing themselves with twenty admirers each. “We will see how a pure, refined and transcendent sentimental relationship will not reach physical consummation until the two lovers have had physical relations with all who ardently desire them. We will see how by this act of amorous philanthropy they will obtain the same glory that civilization gives to a Decius or a Regulus and other such martyrs for religious or political principles.”26
https://libcom.org/article/fourier-and-computer-dating-joan-roelofs