Privatizing the Second Gender: The Origins of Private Property and its Relation to Female Sexual Enslavement in the Capitalist Economy

Abstract

With this inquiry, I seek to establish that the privatization of women as property not only originates from but also propagates the creation of private property as is theorized by Thorstein Veblen – and, through both Veblen’s and Friedrich Engel’s research, we can entail that the erosion of women’s agency and ownership is enforced during the early sedentary stages of human development. Throughout the course of history, women’s barbaric status as war loot has evolved into a more insidious institution of naturalized slavery and sexual encumbrance through the adoption of John Locke’s natural rights philosophy into the businessman’s practice, the decline of the Communist era followed by a subsequent burst of illicit trade activities coupled with widespread socio-political instability, and the acceleration of globalization. Female enslavement, especially within the sex industry, has since become enormously profitable within the global black market and can be observed to be perpetuated by Capitalist instincts of pecuniary predation and emulation.