Capitalism's Race: An Intersectional Examination of Gendered Commodification and Work in the Asia-Pacific


Joddi Alden, York University

This paper examines gendered and racialized processes in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region deeply embedded within global capitalist systems that are particularly reliant on the commodification of women’s bodies via their work in two key industries: the fashion as well as the domestic worker industries. I argue that women’s bodies, and the social reproduction that they perform, are commodities that are critical in shoring up capitalism and its effects, both regionally and globally. It is important to pay attention not only to the macropolitics of large systems, but also to the micropolitics of specific regions in order to understand the nuances of how systems work; the lives of women are connected and interdependent, though they are not the same. Thus, by examining women’s lives in both the fashion as well as the domestic work industries, this paper will seek to identify the intersectional ways that women’s lives are all interconnected by the exploitative processes of capitalism. By doing this, we can create solidarity across our differences in order to conceive of a common struggle that seeks to destabilize the most exploitative effects of the global economy. I divide my argument into three main sections which trace the steps of commodification for women in both the domestic work and fashion industry through the concepts of capitalist conditions, exchange value, and social reproduction. Then, I briefly examine resistance techniques that stem from such practices. Finally, I discuss the implications of commodification and what this means for working women worldwide. I frame my argument by referring to several key researchers in the fields of capitalism, migration, and gender. In particular, Marx’s (1976) theories on capitalism, exchange value, commodification, and the extraction of surplus value from labourers will constitute a critical theoretical lens by which I will examine the fashion and domestic work industries in the Asia-Pacific region. Additionally, Glenn’s (2008, 1992) scholarship on gender, race, and domestic workers also features prominently in my research and will relate the ways that capitalism exploits these categories in order to produce ‘ideal’ labourers. Finally, writings by Constable (2007) as well as Parrenas (2015) on domestic work in Southeast Asia will help to show the ways that women’s working bodies are commodified in the service of capitalism. While I note that the cases I discuss in this essay are not exhaustive, they indicate broader patterns which provide insight into the global nature of capitalism and how imperialist activities are subsumed within the foundation of gendered and raced inequalities. Conclusively, intersectional processes of gender and race serve to commodify women who work in the fashion and domestic work industries in the Asia-Pacific (APAC). Through such commodification, the social reproduction and the consumption required by global capitalism is able to take place, effectively demonstrating how such processes flourish due to inequalities within society. While seemingly only a regional phenomenon, these systems within APAC are deeply interconnected to the health of capitalism in other markets across the globe. The global implications of regional processes thereby suggest how examining women who work in specific regions is critical to formulating methods of resistance to capitalist exploitation. By examining the regional similarities between women’s realities as workers and the ways that global capitalism is shored up by their activities, there is potential to destabilize oppressive practices at their root. Strategic, intersectional coalitions between women to support each other across work and its industries may help to shift the ways that women are commodified and controlled. While this is not a way to completely fracture global capitalism or lead to its demise, remembering that women’s lives are intimately interconnected across time and space can help lead to better organization, support, and activities of solidarity which can cut across the power relations that seek to endlessly exploit.

This paper will be presented at the following session: