Women in Space, and Who Sent Them There? Neoliberal Capitalism

A space flight was made in which the crew consisted exclusively of women. And by a private company. Is it time to clap our hands and celebrate this as a great success for women?

The all-female crew of Blue Origin, which included pop star Katy Perry, completed its journey into space on Monday, April 14, 2025. The flight lasted about 11 minutes and went more than 90 km above Earth, according to Blue Origin, crossing the Kármán line, which is considered the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space, at about 100 km above sea level. Along with Perry, the crew included journalist and fiancée of Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sanchez, who is also the helicopter pilot. Journalist Gayle King, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautical scientist and civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen and filmmaker Kerianne Flynn were also on that flight, the media reported.

Why is there no reason for celebration here?

Apart from the fact that this flight in no way celebrated the greatness of one Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to fly into space, perhaps because it was under the flag of the USSR, and Tereshkova is now a well-established member of the Russian State Duma, nor the success of other female astronauts , there are a few other things that catch the eye. This escapade doesn't remember nor gives an accolade to Sally Ride, Mae Jemison, Marsha Ivins…

The Blue Origin rocket program is a pet project of Jeff Bezos, today one of the richest multibillionaires in the world, owner of the service-technology company Amazon. A company that, we recall, denies workers’ rights by, among other things, prohibiting unionization of workers and forcing workers to work so much that they do not have time to go to the toilet, but urinate into plastic bottles. Bezos, who censored his other pet project, called The Washington Post.

Bezos, in principle, let his wife play around and promote herself a bit. It's like when various bastards give a woman a hundred marks to buy everything, to “fix herself”. This with Blue Origin is a mockery of feminism and the fight for women's rights and equality. “If you're not rich, if you can't afford it, watch us go into space“. Some people, like Neil DeGrasse Tyson, immediately flew to kiss the boot and be closer to the altar, because something is clearly being shared there and praised the move. Of course, old DeGrasse Tyson also tactically made a StarTalk podcast with Katy Perry.

He did not mention how much such a flight costs and how much this was a waste of marketing resources. Going into space is simply too expensive and, if there is no specific scientific and technological goal, unreasonable.

An insult to feminism

This insult to feminism, where everything revolves around the individual successes of women, some of whom are only there because they are sickly rich, is just a continuation of libertarian capitalist feminism. Yes, the one about whom Nancy Fraser wrote in the Guardian back in 2013 that she is a servant of capitalism. A feminism that forgot and was never interested in class struggle and equality, the roots of feminism and the suffragettes, but instead celebrated nudity, sex-possessed individuality. And this nudity and sexappeal (look at their space suits!) not an expression of rebellion, like Madonna's bare breasts were, but a means of earning. Some kind of OnlyFans, just don't say it like that. This is the feminism of Beyonce, the feminism of the LibDems, the feminism that celebrates “strong women”, i.e. the toxic and evil queens of deregulation of the state and the market, such as Margaret Thatcher, who blackened the working class, and 40 years later the United Kingdom and the whole world. Which was featured in the book Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls as an icon of feminism. This nauseating occurrence in a book that is supposed to inspire girls is just one of the pearls of libertarian feminism, if such a thing even exists.

Feminism, caught in a vicious circle with a free-market and, if possible, deregulated market as much as possible is a game we call Russian roulette. Maybe it turns you on, maybe it doesn't, but if you keep going, it will blow your mind once.

Feminism is not, let's not forget, a monolithic project – there are currents and currents. Western feminism is a betrayal of feminism because after the suffragettes and the fight for equality and the right to vote of the first wave of feminism (aw, beloved Churchill hated the suffragettes, he was a conservative to the core) and after the second wave of feminism, which opposed capitalism, neoliberal feminism kissed the ring to the omnipresent force of market capital and the commodification of everything and anything, including love, children, empathy, the noblest feelings you can imagine…

Stories about “women's empowerment” in a social model of patriarchy-capitalism in which men are just as victims as women and members of the LGBTIQ+ community are usually just a form without content. Often these are projects, trainings, educations, in which boys and men are marginalized to the point where they are abandoned to the manosphere and Andrew Tate psychopaths and criminals, YouTube, instead of teaching them social adaptation, emotion regulation and relationships with women – and other men. Patriarchy and capitalism kill. 

I have absolutely no intention of celebrating this departure and return of Blue Origin as a success for women in science and technology , in STEM. It was a picnic of rich girls and a couple of scientist-victims (who must have been in the crew, I guess, because they are the only ones who know what to do when the buttons are pressed), and not something that puts us in a position of equality. That's what “look mom, dad what I can do”. “Look what a bitch I caught”, pardon my French.

Just a little while before this crew of poor little activists took off for the stars, another woman, Suni Williams and her colleague, Butch Wilmore, were stranded, dumped and left in space beyond any normal deadline, over 9 months. In extremely uncomfortable conditions, such as in space. No luxury. Without family. And guess what happened when Suni returned to Earth? The media wrote that about her appearance. Because she was not wearing make-up, almost collapsed and exhausted, because there's no hairdresser in the universe, because her body is totally messed up. We haven't shied away from that misogyny comedy about Sally Ride who was asked how many menstrual tampons she needed and had a make-up set made for her, because for God's sake, what does a woman in the universe need but a make-up set.

And opposite Suni, there's Lauren Sanchez (who is said to be charismatic and has a magnetic appeal and kindness, that she conquers everyone around her, as I hear in some circles), always looking over-botoxed and over-filled, always looking over-fenced, because a woman shouldn't age and that's the message that screams from the official Blue Origin photos. Because you know, when men get older, they're salt ‘n’ pepper, experienced and sexy, they're forgiven for aging, women aren't yet, nor are they without makeup. Women aren't forgiven for menopause and climacteric. But at the same time, women are viewed as unpaid labor through housework and childbearing.

Feminism and the emancipation of women cannot be only for the privileged.

Market feminism

And the real female scientists in this escapade of intellectual kitsch remained invisible again. Something like the feminism of the movie Barbie. This was just another girlboss project, in which women do not truly empower themselves, but present themselves as unattainable competition to other women, who do not have such rich fiancés, another form of bullying:

My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard
And they're like it's better than yours
Damn right, it's better than yours
I could teach you but I'd have to charge

This is not the system we need. This is not something we should be proud of and celebrate. This is not feminism, this is mockery of feminism. This is not a woman in Pakistan trying to save children in floods. She is not a woman working two jobs in the US to feed her children and pay off her student loans. This is wild, poser, unregulated capitalism where some get sickly rich and others can't afford insulin. A world in which various coaches, trained psychotherapists, neurolinguistic programmers, motivational speakers and other grifters tell people who didn't have a chance in life, due to inequality, unequal chances and social injustice, that they are lazy and that they should move and create their own start-up and become entrepreneurs. Because entrepreneurship, market economy, shares, hedge funds and venture capitalism, mortgages for life – cure everything.

Come on, Barbie, let's go party.

 I'm a Barbie girl in the Barbie world
Life in plastic, it's fantastic
You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere
Imagination, life is your creation

Image: Blue origin

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