On Dual Attribute of Gender Relations in Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844Rebuttal of Western Feminists’ “Natural Theory of Gender Relations”

Some Western feminists argue that in Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 , Marx defined gender relations only in terms of natural attribute. This popular view is a misplaced judgement that confuses Marx and Feuerbach and denies the scientific nature of Marx’s analysis of gender relations. Feuerbach constructed the “species essence” of human beings and gender relations around “natural attribute”. Although Feuerbach attempted to make the transition from the natural attribute of human beings to the social attribute, the human beings that he “sensually intuited” were not yet detached from the category of natural flesh. Marx, on the other hand, went beyond Feuerbach to understand gender relations from the height of the combination of natural and social attributes, and emphasised the importance of social attribute. It is precisely because of the indispensable social attribute of gender relations that Marx raises them to the height of measuring social civilisation; it is also precisely because of the dialectical unity of natural and social attributes in gender relations that they can be used to measure the dynamic development of man’s naturalness and sociality and that they are referred to by Marx as indicators of judging the degree of cultural upbringing of mankind.