Brecht is known for his radical rethinking of the theatre in the light of Marxist thought. He has succeeded in providing a methodology for a materialist critique by deliberately making ideology appear in the theatrical discourse. Political society is to recognise itself as a production rather than as a mimetic representation, but the question is who controls the production? According to Marxism it is the capitalist machine, but according to feminism it is the patriarchal one that is responsible for oppressing at least half of society, namely women. Brecht's presentation of women has not won him much acclaim from feminists. In his work the social positions of both men and women are seen as externally determined - often the exploiting male and the exploited female - while internalised ideals or anti-ideals of femininity and masculinity are reproduced without any distancing devices.