A short exercise in applying Social Reproduction Theory to Kimbra’s Music Video Settle Down.

Alienation is not limited to labour in the workforce but can also be found in the home. Looking at the home through Social reproduction theory intimates that the socially sanctioned need fulfilment and leisure process provided at home is carefully constructed to fulfil the needs of a capitalist society. Kimbra’s video ‘Settle Down’ (2010) illustrates the social stereotypes inherent in ‘settling down’ particularly from the perspective of the feminine or ‘care giver’ role. It breaks down the key areas of need fulfilment through family dinners, self-care, reproduction, and emotional reconciliation, all which aim, to sustain and keep the family unit as cohesive as possible. Kimbra’s video (2010) utilises the masculine as a prop objectifying them as a fictitious male ideal. This could point to the lack of purpose the ‘male’ traditionally has, when utilising social stereotypes, in the home outside of being renewed for use within the capital driven workforce. Another key element to the video (Kimbra, 2010), which speaks to Social reproduction theory and more broadly Marxism, is the competitive placement of one woman against another, a ‘rival’. As the bearers of labour power twice over women are positioned to compete with one another in order to give capitalism a “stable set of social relations to reproduce itself.” (Bhattacharya, 2017).  This idea of maintaining/producing social relations in competition with others can be seen in the lyrical emphasis on ‘I’ll love you well’. The burden of emotional reconciliation is laid firmly at the doorstep of the female counterpart in the relationship versus the absent and/or otherwise occupied male counterpart. For women the traditional role is not limited to maintenance and production of non-labouring members but also to facilitating the variety of daily activities to restore the energies of the direct producers even if this includes them. “Man may work from sun to sun, But a woman’s work is never done.” (Plotz, p.73, 1982).

References:

Forum5Recordings (2010). Kimbra- “Settle Down”. YouTube . 06 July. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHV04eSGzAA [Accessed 3 November 2020].

Plotz, H. (1982) Saturday’s Children: Poems of Work.  New York: Greenwillow Books, 1982.

Pluto Press (2017). Tithi Bhattacharya | What is Social Reproduction Theory?. YouTube . 22 November. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uur-pMk7XjY&t=2s [Accessed 3 November 2020].

Second Year Undergrad