The Right to Debilitate: The Workings of Global Capitalism and the Precaritization of Subjects in Die wundersame Welt der Waschkraft

Abstract:This article focuses on Hans-Christian Schmid's 2009 documentary Die wundersame Welt der Waschkraft as an example of how subjects are exposed to, embedded in, and exploited by global capitalism. Building on Jasbir Puar's concept of debilitation, the article examines the types of subjectivities that emerge in the narratives and material conditions produced by regimes of neoliberalism, as exemplified by Schmid's film. It illustrates how intimate social relations become pivotal sites where discourses of recognition, value, and resources converge. The film demonstrates that the increased access to consumer goods and services and the breakdown of national borders in Europe expose certain individuals to precarious labor conditions and render them barely legible as proper—or proper enough—subjects vis-à-vis the ideal Western subject hailed by heteronormative power structures. Workers in the film, such as Beata and Andrzej, experience increasingly precarious conditions and exemplify how certain individuals are forced to endure, bear, and sustain the impact of sociocultural discursive ideals of which individuals matter in what ways.