Emma Goldman: Sexuality and the Impurity of the State

Elisabeth Anne MacDonald teaches English at the University of Western
Ontario.

This book examines the ideas of the early–20th-century anarchist and
feminist Emma Goldman. While her primary focus is on “the centrality
of sexuality and reproduction within (Goldman’s) anarchist theory,”
Haaland attempts to locate those ideas not only within the context of
the theoretical and philosophical foundations of Goldman’s thought,
but also in relation to contemporary feminist theory.

Written from a social constructionist perspective, Haaland’s study
begins with a discussion of the influence of Kropotkin and Ibsen on the
formation of Goldman’s anarchist theory, and of “Red Emma’s” own
particular contribution to anarchism—namely, the introduction of the
“private” issues of sexuality and reproduction into what were
formally specifically “public” theories. She then goes on to analyze
Goldman’s construction of women’s private “nature” and
“instincts” as emancipatory forces, not only within the context of
the growing influence of the “legislative/bureaucratic realm” over
individual personal lives in the early 20th century, but also in
relation to the “sexology” of Freud and Havelock Ellis.

Unlike earlier works on Goldman, this one touches only briefly on the
life and career of its subject. Haaland chooses instead to pursue a
scholarly investigation of Goldman’s ideas, placing them in the
appropriate social, historical, and theoretical context; locating them
within current feminist and social constructionist discourse; and
determining what value they still hold for a contemporary audience.

Haaland makes clear from the outset her own unease with Goldman’s
focus on the private realm of women’s individual sexuality as the site
for female freedom, and her virtually wholesale acceptance of “the
male and heterosexual model of sexuality.” Nonetheless, she concludes
that Emma Goldman’s belief that public life and rhetoric should
reflect and be in harmony with personal instincts and desires has
important implications for contemporary feminist theory and individual
political action.

Meticulously researched, carefully footnoted, and accompanied by an
extensive bibliography, this text is a valuable resource.