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SUSAN SONTA G
function is just that: to be useless, to be a refuge. Deprived of all eco–
nomic, religious, and educational functions, the family exists solely as a
source of emotional warmth in a cold world.
'J1he glorification of the family is not only a piece of rank hypocrisy;
it reveals am importanrt: structural contradiction in the ideology and
workings of capitalist society. The ideological funotion of the modern
family
is
manipulative - more accurately, self-manipulative. This does
not mean we can dismiss what goes on in family life as entirely fraudu–
lent. Genuine v,aluesare incarnated in the nuclear family. Indeed, were
it not for even that poor form of family life Ithat flourishes today, people
would lead far more ,alienated lives than they already do. But the strategy
will not work indefinitely. The contradiction between the values family
life is charged wirh preserving and the values promoted by industrial
mass society as a whole
is,
ultimately, an untenable one. Families are,
in fact, less and less able
[0
perform well
,this
assigned task, the
task
which justifies the family in its modern form. The function of the fami–
ly as ethical museum in industrial society is deteriorating; even there,
"human-scale" values are leaking away. Industrial mass society stores
the values of nonalienation in a safe place, an institution that is (by
definition) apolitical. But no place is safe. The acids of the world "out–
side"are so strong that the family
is
becoming increasingly poisoned,
more and more contaminated by society - which intrudes directly, for
instance, in the homogenized voices of the television set in every living
room.
To advocate "destroying" the family, because it is authoritarian,
is
a facile cliche. The vice of family life throughout 'history
is
not its
authoritarianism, but that authority
pe se
is
founded on relations of
ownership. Husbands "own" wives; parents "own" their children.
(This is only one of the many similari,ties between ,the status of women
and the status of children. 'J1hus Ithe sex whose members are
defined
as
adult, and therefore as physically responsible for themselves, gallantly
forces "women and children first" off sinking ships. In Spain, no mar–
ried woman may hold a job, open a bank account, apply for a passport,
or sign a contract without her husband's written permission - just like
a child. Women, like children, have essentially the status of minors; they
are wards of their husbamds, as children are the wards of their parents.)
Even the modern nuclear family in its liberalized Northern European
and North American form is still based, though less blatantly so, on treat–
ing women and children as property.
The family based on ownership is the target: people should not
be
treated as property; adults should not be treated as minors. But some
forms of authority make sense in family life. The question is what kind
