@article{
author = "Ghodsee, Kristen and Lišková, Kateřina",
year = "2016",
abstract = "In academic writing, facts about the past generally require the citation
of relevant sources unless the fact or idea is considered “common knowledge:”
bits of information or dates upon which there is a wide scholarly consensus. This
brief article reflects on the use of “common knowledge” claims in contemporary
scholarship about women, families, and sexuality as experienced during 20th
century, East European, state socialist regimes. We focus on several key stereotypes
about the communist state and the situation of women that are often
asserted in the scholarly literature, and argue that many of these ideas uncannily
resemble American anti-communist propaganda. When contemporary scholars
make claims about communist intrusions into the private sphere to effect social
engineering or the inefficacy of state socialist mass organizations or communist
efforts to break up the family or indoctrinate the young, they often do so without
citation to previous sources or empirical evidence supporting their claims,
thereby suggesting that such claims are “common knowledge.” We believe that
those wishing to assert such claims should link these assertions to concrete
originating sources, lest it turn out the “common knowledge” derives, in fact,
from western Cold War rhetoric.",
publisher = "Beograd : Institut za filozofiju i društvenu teoriju",
journal = "Filozofija i društvo/Philosophy and Society",
title = "Bumbling Idiots or Evil Masterminds? Challenging Cold War Stereotypes about Women, Sexuality and State Socialism, Nespretni idioti ili zli planeri? Propitivanje hladnoratovskih stereotipa o ženama, seksualnosti i državnom socijalizmu",
number = "3",
volume = "27",
pages = "489-503",
doi = "10.2298/FID1603489G"
}
