The New Fascism

Pasolini spoke of consumerism as "the new Fascism."  Of course that was back in 1975, when he was filming Salò.  Consumer-Fascism isn't so "new" nowadays, especially in the U.S., where consumerism has been deeply engrained since the early 20th century.

But the current, early 21st-century version of Consumer-Fascism seems to have focused on a particular target: women.  Contemporary consumer goods from magazines to internet pornography to video games are the vehicles through which Fascism works its oppression, either on women directly or indirectly by shaping male behavior toward women.  This latter method is perhaps the most dangerous and innovative.

Specific features of Misogynist Consumer-Fascism include the following: a presumption of female uncleanliness and a fascination with maintaining feminine hygiene; a direct assault on the female body, particularly the pubic and genital region; increased social pressure on women to succeed in the workplace; an insistence that women maintain their traditional role as homemaker and mother; professional dress codes that continue to sexualize women while endowing men with phallic authority; an encouragement toward males to remain in a state of perpetual adolescence; and a culture of internet pornography that provides both sexes with a phallocentric and brutally misogynist view of human sexuality and gender relations.