Why we took out Ann Summers on Saturday 26 March:
George, Julian, Dick, Anne and Timmy | 29.03.2011 01:36 | Analysis | Culture | Public sector cuts
We dropped the windows of an Ann Summers shop on Saturday 26 March. It commodifies the act of sex itself. This stands in contrast to the endless marketing of sexual attraction. There is a clear distinction between the notion that sex sells and selling sex. Sex is and should always be free. Free, as in from the logic of capitalism, not free, as in a hippy-bollocks free-for-all.
Ann Summers presents a thin veneer of respectability to what is ultimately total exploitation of our attachments, insecurities and fears. It is a point of capture for the feelings of inadequacy synthesized by capitalist marketing.
The present commodification of sex is so successful because the insecurity it generates distracts us from rejecting capitalist values as the only possible precondition for meaningful sexual relations. As if worth and value can be calculated from the frequency of orgasms. Good sex becomes quantifiable. Pleasures must be maximized. Are you missing out because you are not flirtatious, adventurous or daring enough?
But let us not spend too long missing the wood for the trees. This is the nature of the real subsumption beneath capital: once capitalist production is established it seeks to permeate every aspect of life that exists within it.
Our act was not one of destruction but one of rejection. A rejection of a process of capture. Of ensnaring and taking our desires from us. Of taking everything we want in life and returning it to us in a box. As something to work for.
It was also a rejection of the current dominant discourses. We find ourselves able to divide the anti-cuts movement into three main campaigns:
~ Tax-dodging
~ Tory-hating
~ Preserving the status quo (or at least, as it was before capitalism's crises became manifestly inescapable).
We reject all three themes for the simple reason that they expect an ideological shift within the capitalist framework, a framework that is programmed to self-perpetuate. Capitalism's function is accumulation[1], and capitalism is the most efficient means to accumulate. Therefore to fulfill its function it must ensure its existence and evolution. Begging to deny this for a set of unworkable liberal ideologies is a mere derailing of any sensible critique and possibility of escape.
The cuts ARE inevitable. This is the nature of capitalism. Capitalism is clearly not a social relation that exists to grant benevolence. Our continued denial of this obvious reality renders us impotent. We no longer act in our own interests but allow capitalism to design our playpens. Here and now we will not be penned. We are throwing our toys out of the pram and we do not subscribe to any illusions of consent or consensus[2].
We denounce any cries for unity. Unity is us all together as a unified one. Unity makes the same assumption as capital: the interchangeability of humans with interchangeable desires, as interchangeable parts within a machine. Unity again leaves us as numerical values, as quantities that must amassed and displaced to accomplish goals set out by others, since there can be no true representation.
We can only represent ourselves. We can only represent our own desires, express our own anger, and take our own action. This is not a statement of individualism, but an exposure of the myth of democracy. Just as it is impossible for a single representative to satisfy the demands of an entire electorate, so it is impossible for any unification.
Democracy is achieved by dividing the sum of desires by the number of participants. The mean, or expectation value, of a human. None of us, however, are average. So how can our differing and conflicting desires be calculated, calibrated, and returned to us a smoothed-out sameness?
Waiting for consensus is as impossible as voting for democracy. There can be no democracy within capitalism. We act because there is no alternative to this inevitability, we cannot wait for permission because there is no-one to bestow it. Neither waiting nor voting will set us free. Freeing ourselves begins and continues in an eternal now.
We free ourselves from our desires by realizing them. They are ours and only ours. Thus, we can only act alone. Solitude is not a cause for despair, but our onto-epistemology[3]. Only by accepting this can we approach the possibilities of meaningful social relations. Social relations free from comparisons, expectations and replications, none of which have ever emancipated anyone. Embracing our singularities is not severance from the world, but creation of connections between free and equal individuals.
Singularity is not synonymous with difference. Rather, it is the essential origin of commonality. Our anger erupts from our meaningful social relations, which we see as violated, exploited, and destroyed (or commodified) daily. It would be narcissistic of us to feel alone equipped and qualified to feel this anger. Common anger arising from the social condition necessitates solidarity.
In solidarity our singular actions form a multiplicity of resistances, only through which can the overcoming of capitalism become tenable.
*We say here everything we mean to say. However, we do not necessarily mean everything we say. We do this to confront mere passive readership and nurture critical engagement of all forms.*
[1] Assuming any supply is finite, accumulation necessarily implies concentration of capital.
[2] It comes as no surprise that the current economic paradigm is known as the 'Washington consensus'.
[3] Onto-epistemology is the nature of the reality of our existence, i.e. how things really are.
Ann Summers presents a thin veneer of respectability to what is ultimately total exploitation of our attachments, insecurities and fears. It is a point of capture for the feelings of inadequacy synthesized by capitalist marketing.
The present commodification of sex is so successful because the insecurity it generates distracts us from rejecting capitalist values as the only possible precondition for meaningful sexual relations. As if worth and value can be calculated from the frequency of orgasms. Good sex becomes quantifiable. Pleasures must be maximized. Are you missing out because you are not flirtatious, adventurous or daring enough?
But let us not spend too long missing the wood for the trees. This is the nature of the real subsumption beneath capital: once capitalist production is established it seeks to permeate every aspect of life that exists within it.
Our act was not one of destruction but one of rejection. A rejection of a process of capture. Of ensnaring and taking our desires from us. Of taking everything we want in life and returning it to us in a box. As something to work for.
It was also a rejection of the current dominant discourses. We find ourselves able to divide the anti-cuts movement into three main campaigns:
~ Tax-dodging
~ Tory-hating
~ Preserving the status quo (or at least, as it was before capitalism's crises became manifestly inescapable).
We reject all three themes for the simple reason that they expect an ideological shift within the capitalist framework, a framework that is programmed to self-perpetuate. Capitalism's function is accumulation[1], and capitalism is the most efficient means to accumulate. Therefore to fulfill its function it must ensure its existence and evolution. Begging to deny this for a set of unworkable liberal ideologies is a mere derailing of any sensible critique and possibility of escape.
The cuts ARE inevitable. This is the nature of capitalism. Capitalism is clearly not a social relation that exists to grant benevolence. Our continued denial of this obvious reality renders us impotent. We no longer act in our own interests but allow capitalism to design our playpens. Here and now we will not be penned. We are throwing our toys out of the pram and we do not subscribe to any illusions of consent or consensus[2].
We denounce any cries for unity. Unity is us all together as a unified one. Unity makes the same assumption as capital: the interchangeability of humans with interchangeable desires, as interchangeable parts within a machine. Unity again leaves us as numerical values, as quantities that must amassed and displaced to accomplish goals set out by others, since there can be no true representation.
We can only represent ourselves. We can only represent our own desires, express our own anger, and take our own action. This is not a statement of individualism, but an exposure of the myth of democracy. Just as it is impossible for a single representative to satisfy the demands of an entire electorate, so it is impossible for any unification.
Democracy is achieved by dividing the sum of desires by the number of participants. The mean, or expectation value, of a human. None of us, however, are average. So how can our differing and conflicting desires be calculated, calibrated, and returned to us a smoothed-out sameness?
Waiting for consensus is as impossible as voting for democracy. There can be no democracy within capitalism. We act because there is no alternative to this inevitability, we cannot wait for permission because there is no-one to bestow it. Neither waiting nor voting will set us free. Freeing ourselves begins and continues in an eternal now.
We free ourselves from our desires by realizing them. They are ours and only ours. Thus, we can only act alone. Solitude is not a cause for despair, but our onto-epistemology[3]. Only by accepting this can we approach the possibilities of meaningful social relations. Social relations free from comparisons, expectations and replications, none of which have ever emancipated anyone. Embracing our singularities is not severance from the world, but creation of connections between free and equal individuals.
Singularity is not synonymous with difference. Rather, it is the essential origin of commonality. Our anger erupts from our meaningful social relations, which we see as violated, exploited, and destroyed (or commodified) daily. It would be narcissistic of us to feel alone equipped and qualified to feel this anger. Common anger arising from the social condition necessitates solidarity.
In solidarity our singular actions form a multiplicity of resistances, only through which can the overcoming of capitalism become tenable.
*We say here everything we mean to say. However, we do not necessarily mean everything we say. We do this to confront mere passive readership and nurture critical engagement of all forms.*
[1] Assuming any supply is finite, accumulation necessarily implies concentration of capital.
[2] It comes as no surprise that the current economic paradigm is known as the 'Washington consensus'.
[3] Onto-epistemology is the nature of the reality of our existence, i.e. how things really are.
George, Julian, Dick, Anne and Timmy
Comments
Hide the following 33 comments
I agree what a disgrace...
29.03.2011 03:06
how dare they
How dare they?
29.03.2011 05:02
All these activities are ultimately linked together when you look more closely. The criminal elite want to erode social morality to justify their corrupt agenda. We must retain the high ground and reject all forms of exploitaion.
Klamber
i think i'm with you
29.03.2011 08:09
for me personally - ann summers is another business, and is a perfectly acceptable target like the others. but still, at the end of the day, all we did was a bit of damage to some windows and cash machines, which no doubt, will all be fixed by today and now business as normal. maybe we can move to actually hurt the flow of capital next time, like, for example, occupying major stations or motorways (on a week day!)
fightSEXISM
O.T.
29.03.2011 09:58
anarchist
An unhappy customer
29.03.2011 15:11
catherine
good work
29.03.2011 15:27
Having said all that, once again well done for taking a stand...
1q
yeah
29.03.2011 16:25
smashit
love it
29.03.2011 16:34
"In solidarity our singular actions form a multiplicity of resistances, only through which can the overcoming of capitalism become tenable"
read it out loud in a bond-villainesque voice
smashit
Support it, but honestly...
29.03.2011 17:16
Leave you ideologies and adopted activist roles behind please, it's not radical or cool, it just makes you look like insecure wannabe's.
Please, less insurrectionISM, more insurrection!
Death to all ideologies and roles...
All this sounds...
29.03.2011 17:26
If you don't like a store and what it sells don't shop there. But of course for some that isn't enough and they have to try and stop everyone else shopping there as well.
Dan
e-mail: danfactoruk@yahoo.co.uk
Well done
29.03.2011 18:26
ps, that Dan guy is an anti-feminist troll.
C*
Bord
29.03.2011 21:09
noone
Yeah...
30.03.2011 11:10
I want sex to be free. I just don't see how trying to ban people from shopping in stores like Ann Summers is going to make sex free.
Dan
e-mail: danfactoruk@yahoo.co.uk
If it's so 'free' why no posters of men's tushies?
30.03.2011 16:37
But they never will. It's not about sexual freedom. It's about women's sexuality as a market commodity, contained within narrow parameters. And I'm all in favour of of a liberated response to that.
Apart from this sentence: "We say here everything we mean to say. However, we do not necessarily mean everything we say. We do this to confront mere passive readership and nurture critical engagement of all forms."
The mainstream media encourages us to believe we are surrounded by idiots. It alienates, isolates and encourages passivity. It's not true, and I don't think it's necessary to reinforce it.
Also, I hope no innocent rabbits were harmed;-)
satori
Please chose your words with care
30.03.2011 16:47
Epistemology is the study of the origins of knowledge
Onto-epistemology is a made-up word. Even in Greek, it is meaningless. The coinage makes the user appear to be a fool.
a philosopher
no posters of men's tushies?
30.03.2011 20:08
OLD COMPTON
Well you...
30.03.2011 21:10
Dan Factor
e-mail: danfactoruk@yahoo.co.uk
not sure that's going to win many people over
30.03.2011 21:48
observer
Thought it was all about sexism
01.04.2011 09:41
MacF*ck
People inside
01.04.2011 11:37
the arguaments against such establishment probably extends to most pornography..
Probably in a more free-er communal society we would be living with a greater sence of
integrity and self respect (and respect to others) than what the current paradigm allows..
However I suspect that at least one or more unsuspecting shopkeeper (probably female)
suffered trauma from being on the inside of a shop besiged by masked people, who were
demonstrating rage and throwing bricks etc through the windows..
The shopworkers are usually paid £6 per hour and due to being in dept etc, effectively
trapped into such employment.. Anyway thought I would give them a mention, as they are
likely on 26th March to have suffered behind breaking windows..
They are not the target and deserve to be mentioned and acknowledged.
Jaya
Profit
01.04.2011 13:50
Dan Factor
e-mail: danfactoruk@yahoo.co.uk
bringing masturbation to the masses
01.04.2011 14:54
However of all the shops you chose to smash.. be honest is was just snobbery to go for Ann Summers. IN the middle of Soho surrounded by shops selling sex (and yes loads of pouting oiled steroid pumped up beefcakes.. "let me look after you birthday boy" preaching body fascist cliched images for the gay market). Lets face it their underwear is a bit trashy, nylon and naff and breaks with in a few weeks. Its a bit down market really and an easy target. As to whether it reinforces traditional gender stereotypes... have you ever even been in there? For every french maid outfit there is a police woman.. for every naughty bunny girl a Miss Whiplash. Was it not just selling the wrong kind of nylon prole sex? Is that why you smashed that and not any of the hundreds of other ones next to it or near by? (Probably some of them loads more dodgy and nasty than the gentle vanilla pedaled by Ann Summers)
Who do you think made female masturbation acceptable, normal and OK to talk about? was it feminists in the 70's staring up their speculum at their cervix or was it Ann Summers parties? Vices that people used to hide and feel shame about, like spanking, are now openly displayed and normalized.. or is that the problem?
Its a chain store and therefore I give it the due criticism that all big homogeneous chains deserve. Luckily I live in Brighton where we have loads of good independent sex shops. I'd be pissed off if some pretentious snobby insurrectionist smashed them.
I think possibly Britain would be a better place if all women felt it was completely normal to have and regularly use a vibrator.
so there!
Jessica Rabbit
I dunno why Ann Summers was a Target.
01.04.2011 16:19
It's not like they dodge taxes, receive tax payers bail out bonuses or Staunchly support the Tory party.
Do we really think come the revolution, we won't need Vibrators and love lubes anymore?
Foxy
e-mail: foxy@sabcat.com
Homepage: http://www.sabcat.com
Someones not getting any
01.04.2011 21:02
Terrifying wage slaves and shoppers that just wanna fun is not doing any of us a favour.
t
The original article
02.04.2011 12:38
Dan Factor
e-mail: danfactoruk@yahoo.co.uk
consent
02.04.2011 14:54
Try sourcing latex from sustainable south american workers co-ops, that's without trying to deal with licences and the endless explaining why you don't want to do pvc or leather. Mind, hemp and wood from sustainable forests is relatively easy so you end up pretty dungeon oriented.
The point was that if you're going to experiment with power relationships as well as supplying entertaining things for your nether bits, then you should ensure everyone involved consents- so by extension if you're selling related bits and pieces you shouldn't be exploiting anyone or anything or taking control away from anyone by doing things like raping the planet.
Weirdly enough, we never really got off the ground as a commercial (more exactly non-profit) venture, but I still really like the idea of an Annti-Summers.
Ann Summers was one of Richard Desmond's businesses- that's enough reason to object to it. It's not exactly Good Vibrations http://www.goodvibes.com/main.jhtml is it? Ann Summers isn't to do with empowering anyone, it just makes out it does as a selling point to provide more profit as part of a business empire that contains a lot of very disempowering and exploitative crap, not to mention the Star's promotion of the EDL on the front page. Quite possibly Ann Summers might have been sold off, but in a way that's beside the point- it's where the business started that has made it what it is, and it's still how it makes me feel if I go in there.
So 'Yay sex', 'Boo Ann Summers, exploitation and making people feel crap'.
See, that's all you need to say :D
vapidness
Ann Summers' contribution to the downfall of all we hold dear overstated
02.04.2011 15:45
There's a lot wrong with Ann Summers (see some of the issues raised by Vapidness above), but these problems are not specific to Ann Summers and so it's quite odd to single it out for smashing up. I don't think Ann Summers is commodifying sex but commodifying sex toys and other commercial products related to sex. A lot of what they sell is pretty tacky, but since sex toys are physical artefacts that someone produces and incurs a cost for, I don't think buying and selling them represents any worse a commodification than that done in any other shop.
That there are businesses making money from selling essentials like food and drinking water would seem a much more pressing concern if we're concerned about capitalism commodifying everything (as we should be).
"As if worth and value can be calculated from the frequency of orgasms." But they're not selling orgasms (even if, as a business looking for customers, they'd like you to think so) and they do not have a monopoly on sexual pleasure or anything approaching a monopoly. I and my lover can manage to have lots of fun sex just fine without needing to engage with the capitalist marketplace, thanks. The article looks like it's been written in an imaginary world where you can no longer enjoy sex without buying something from Ann Summers, but no one honestly thinks life is like this. Only a small minority of sexual acts involve transactions with Ann Summers.
They are a business interested in profit, no doubt, and that makes them as problematic as any other business. But they are not taking our sex away, putting in a box and selling it back to us. They are selling things that people might find it enjoyable to play with from time to time. If someone feels like they can never enjoy themselves sexually without getting hold of a vibrator or a nurse's uniform or a kinky board game their problem is not with capitalism, as it would be still apply if they'd made all those things themselves or had them supplied for free by a friend.
I really think this singling out of Ann Summers is a red herring. If their posters display airbrushed women with unrealistic bodies this is again problematic, but no worse than anywhere else on the High Street. There is much to be celebrated about the way sexuality is far more openly discussed than in the past and is much less cause for embarrassment, so that women who want to enjoy themselves with a vibrator (their choice and their right) can walk into a shop like Ann Summers without feeling that anyone they know spotting them will lead to them dying of shame, or that God is going to punish them for enjoying their body. Jessica Rabbit above talks a lot of sense.
And throwing in Deleuzian-sounding terminology like "singularity", "multiplicity" and "onto-epistemology" looks like an attempt to blind everyone with jargon. Please try and express yourselves clearly, using words according to the meanings by which they will be understood by the average literate person. Doing otherwise only makes you look like you're showing off, or are trying to mask an incoherent or unsophisticated analysis in clever language. Either way, it doesn't help get your point across and readers are more likely to ignore you than to assume you know what you're talking about but are operating on a higher intellectual plane.
Finally, as for comments like "we denounce any cries for unity", "we can only represent ourselves", "we can only act alone", I find it quite ironic that this kind of attitude seems to be peculiar to our society following a few of decades of unrestrained shop-till-you-drop individualism and the kind of selfish consumer society High Street retail chains have given us. In a mutually supportive community before the explosion of mass consumer culture and instant gratification, or in a small-scale tribal society to this day, such an attitude would be seen as highly dysfunctional and selfish. I'm not sure what is so wrong with duty to others, mutual obligation and sticking together, trying to come to agreement on things despite different individual preferences, recognising that you can't have it all your own way, and delaying gratification (not throwing your toys out the pram in an individualistic and incoherent manner) while you work hard with those around you to achieve common goals.
And to everyone reading, please enjoy your sex lives, free of any feelings of guilt or shame so long as everyone involved is consenting and having fun.
A Thousand Gateaux
Patronising...
02.04.2011 17:47
I'm very anti Anne Summers, I believe it does support the commidification of women as sex objects. However, a bunch of men doing something on behalf of women is at best meaningless and at worst fucking patronising.
Sarah
The cuts are inevitable?
02.04.2011 18:01
Obviously, it is not possible to stop all the cuts, or most of them, without bringing down this government and seriously destabilising the capitalist system. But how on earth will the working class be able to defeat the Coalition, let alone overthrow capitalism, without mobilising to defend itself against the ruling class' current assault?
Sure the dominant forces in the labour and anti-cuts movement do not have a revolutionary perspective, and thus cannot even fight the cuts effectively. They need to be challenged. But your nonsense is just fatalism and prostration in a revolutionary covering.
Sacha Ismail
e-mail: sacha@workersliberty.org
Homepage: http://www.workersliberty.org
what a lot of arrogant bullshit!
02.04.2011 19:42
"We denounce any cries for unity" lol you ain't got it from me!
and thats just the stupid language!
And the Target? nonsense
"Ann Summers normalises sexual objectification and pornification"
No it doesn't. For, yes, profit, it has enable millions of people to develop their sexuality in non objective and multi faceted ways. You situationist/insurrectionist tossers care nothing of ordinary people struggling in their lives struggling to free themselves from repressed upbringings. YOU are free in your polyamourous squats but you do NOTHING to help others to be free. (Actually i suspect the power relations are just as bad in your world as in the Ann Summers world and i suspect strongly the middle classes dominate as always)
Ann Summers has played a role in sexual liberation that your arrogance can not.
And McFuck have you been in Ann Summers??? There is plenty of male 'lingerie' and toys in there. You are speaking out of your unbutt plugged arse.
And Sarah HOW does AS help objectify women exactly?
rampant rabbit
Venus and Mars...
02.04.2011 22:02
The choice is yours!
Willie and Kate
Hmmm?
02.04.2011 22:22
Unfortunate baby
Cuts not inevitable
02.04.2011 23:37
Dan Factor
e-mail: danfactoruk@yahoo.co.uk