I found this to be the most radical of all the readings so far, even more so than Charlotte Bunch"s "Not for Lesbians Only". Firestone suggests, for example, "Feminists have to question, not just all of Western culture, but the organization of culture itself, and further, even the very organization of nature" (p. 224). In short, under the kind of feminist revolution that is necessary, no assumptions whatsoever, about any aspect of women"s (and men"s) lives, may simply remain unchallenged and un-interrogated. Firestone suggests that, in order to fully understand all this, we need something "as comprehensive as the Marx-Engels analysis of class antagonism" (Firestone).

             Therefore, sex and class do overlap, in a Marx-Engels/Feminist way, since women, like the poor class who create the conditions of possibility for eventual social and economic revolution, are a similarly oppressed underclass. Therefore, as Firestone suggests, we must begin (and it is only a beginning) with something like the Marxist model, applied to feminism, if we hope for feminism to function as it must: eventually making a truly positive difference in women"s lives, as revolution eventually would make in the lives of oppressed workers.

             This seems quite radical in and of itself, but as Firestone then also suggests, a feminist revolution must go even deeper and become more specific and focused in terms of gender-class reform. Marx and Engels, she explained, wrote about oppressed working classes, but did not write specifically about women"s oppression (which is naturally a different experience for a woman than for a man, even if each is equally poor). Engels, "because he can see sexuality only through an economic filter" (p. 225) does not begin to address the question of gender oppression.