What Does It Mean To ‘Abolish the Family’?

Family abolition seems like a timely idea – but what are we even abolishing here, anyway? |

View this email in your browser Kith and Kin Suddenly 'family abolition' seems like a timely idea. And not just because we are in the mood these days for abolishing all kinds of things, from prisons to the police, but also because, as Tom Whyman writes in his latest essay, the COVID-19 pandemic and its isolating lockdowns so very clearly stretched the workings of the nuclear family to breaking point. The academic Sophie Lewis – who has gained some notoriety in recent years for tweeting that Wes Anderson movies are fascist, or claiming that the diver and octopus in My Octopus Teacher actually fuck – has even penned a manifesto for the idea, essentially equating 'the family' with the privatisation of care. But what, Whyman asks, would it actually mean to abolish the family, at this point? And even if we could, should we? 'We wouldn't need to "privatize" care', he writes, 'if we didn't also need to be cared for.' Read now © 2022 ArtReview Ltd. All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at www.artreview.com or the previous digital magazine website Our mailing address is: ArtReview Ltd. 1 Honduras Street London, England EC1Y 0TH United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.