Ecofeminism Philosophy and Practice

When I read through each article, they all seemed to encounter similar reactions to their protest. For example, Wangari Maathi discusses her violent fight towards better the lives of the impoverished people in Africa, the same way the indigenous women are fighting for their water. Yet both sides are derailed by the authority of men. We, as women, know the obstacles which we face living in a patriarchal society, now imagine living in this society and not having a voice to protest. This is how nature has been living for centuries, and fortunately, there are some who actually care about how our environment is affected.

When we take these women’s experience into account, the trauma they endure isn’t much different from the injustice which nature endures. One of the indigenous women “…recounted how officers took her to a North Dakota jail last month where, she says, a group of male and female guards forcibly removed her clothes when she refused to strip in front of them (Levin 1).” Metaphorically speaking, it is the same way in which the earth is being stripped of its resources. Humans don’t take into account how the earth will be affected in the long wrong, which is why it is easier for us to just worry about problems as they arise. The women in Africa were taken care of the same way their land was, which is, they weren’t. Just like the soil and the water, Wangari Maathai was treated as though she was expendable. The government over harvested the land and the left the people to solve the problem. The women in Kenya were the ones that did the harvesting and gathering of water, so they are well aware of the state they are forced to live in. There is also a connection between the pollution and the people because they are forcibly connected. The water is polluted, but there aren’t any other sources of water for miles, so they are forced to consume the only water source readily available. The people then become sick and polluted the same way their homes had become because of the government. Lastly, the indigenous women discussed how “…many were locked up for nonviolent offenses or because they were too poor to immediately pay bail. Brown and black people and native people get put away for really doing nothing (Levin 17).” Now let’s take a moment and think about how a lot of the animals on the planet are living. We have zoos, aquariums, PET STORES, animals just locked away, for what? Simply existing. It’s ironic how humans are said to be above animals on the food chain, and yet this category has magically put women on the same level as animals. These women are trying to protect their land and their people, and yet this sees to be an issue. Why is it that our society never seems to learn from its mistakes? You can’t continue to bulldoze over any land you please simply because you want it. Although this isn’t a feminist connection, but the children are connected to our environment as well because some children in poorer families must fight to help their family.

Think about the boy in Corrêa’s article, he is wading through garbage filled water in order to collect cans for his family. I feel that this is an important connection because this is showing us what our world has already become from us not taking care of it, imagine years from now. It’s crazy how women are supposed to be the one’s fixing the environment, yet men are the main culprits trying to derail our progress.

We are all aware of the inequality which women face in today’s society, but I feel that I don’t usually hear about the benefits which women would have if given the same chances which men receive. This article focuses on just this, the idea that “…gender equality may influence the environmental behavior of nation-states (Norgaard 508).” I read an article a few years ago in my political policy class and it brought up how women have different priorities than men when it came to certain reformations. They found that men focused more on war and security, while women focused more on the home and schooling. When I think about each perspective, they seem like the opposite ends of the same stick. Without taking into account one side, you are losing out on potential success. Norgaard and York talk about how women seem to be the main ones concerned with our environment, so the concept of inequality could contribute to our environmental downfall.

Hunt, Elle. “The Eco Gender Gap: Why Is Saving the Planet Seen as Women’s Work?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 6 Feb. 2020, www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/06/eco-gender-gap-why-saving-planet-seen-womens-work.

This article is such an amazing read and I recommend that some of you look through it. I chose this article because I feel like York discusses the issue of inequality and the environment, while my article discusses the WHY? Why is it up to women to fix the environment? Why is it that the idea of being eco-friendly is something usually associated with women? If you look closely at your feminine products (any resources catered towards women), you’ll notice that more of your items are ‘going green’ compared to the products of men. I liked the way in which Hunt chose to interpret the idea of going green. She states, “The result of this is what the market research firm Mintel has termed an eco-gender gap, where green branding might as well be pink (Hunt 3).” I like this quote because it made me think of the irony behind this article. Even though we all live on this planet, it’s up to women to save and preserve it. Sound like the whole “women should raise the children” ideology all over again. It’s as though the issues which the patriarchal society can’t be bothered with just automatically gets placed upon women’s shoulders.

Holden, Emily, and Lauren Gambino. “Green New Deal: Ocasio-Cortez Unveils Bold Plan to Fight Climate Change.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 7 Feb. 2019, www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/07/green-new-deal-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-plan.

I chose this article because my last article brought up how Greta Thunberg and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez are “…the highest-profile climate campaigners in the world today (18).” If you don’t know Alexandria, she is the U.S. Representative for New York’s 14^th congressional district. This article focuses on her vision to put an end to “…economic and racial injustice while also fighting climate change (Holden 1),” it was labeled as the Green New Deal.

This last image I chose because it shows the understanding of global warning between men and women. The first bar graph is relatively equal, but when you look at our ozone layer and acid rain, the gap begins to grow. There were other graphs that should the comparison between men and women when it comes to our environment, but I chose this one because, I feel like it shows multiple examples of the environmental gender gap which we face. Even when it comes to the idea of environment, its very existence is seen as being that of a women. Think about the idea of MOTHER Nature. How can an inanimate object magically belong to a specific gender? Without equality, men will never understand their obligation to our environment and women won’t have the proper tools to save it. Both sides must come together and understand that nature belongs to no one, we need it to survive and vice versa, we must come to terms with this ideology and work together to implement eco-friendly lifestyles.

I feel that after reading all the readings and going over Hawkins’ ecofeminist account on abortion, I feel that I have to agree with her stance. She decided to use our resources and supplies as an example of why the stabilization of our population is necessary. Look at what’s happening in our healthcare system now. We have more people sick than we have resources to take care of them, as well as ourselves. I have many family members who all are still required to go to work, and yet they have to reuse supplies because there isn’t enough for everyone. Now just think of the hospital resources as the food we need to survive. If there are too many people populating the earth, the casualty may be worse than intended if our resource to human ratio isn’t corrected. Hawkin’s states that, “While efforts to diminish consumption and to restructure the global economics scheme can and should be advocated in light of this relation, so can a further slowing of our rate of population increase (Hawkin 692).” Even if we discover new ways of rationing our resources, that’s basically only answering half of the question. The number of resources we need will still be on a constant incline because the population is growing at an increased rate. One thing that we also forget about as well is the way in which our actions are affecting our environment. The excessive amount of harvesting for goods is another factor of our diminishing supplies. As a whole, we have been constantly taking more than we need, just look at our supplies of toilet paper and hand sanitizer.

STORY TIME

So, I was on Instagram on this page called Insider, they have a bunch of different topics like food, fashion, etc. So, I happened to be looking at the news version of this page and found a video of a grocery store manager. He was telling a story about a customer who was trying to make a profit off of the pandemic, but it later came to bite him in the ass. The customer bought thousands of hand sanitizers and toilet paper rolls and was trying to sell them on eBay. I’m not sure if this is the same guy or a different one but a man tried to sell his stuff on eBay when the pandemic just started, and eBay decided that they would not allow anyone to exploit their company in order to make a quick buck. So, the man came back to the grocery store and told them that he wanted to return everything because he wasn’t able to sell it on eBay. The manager decided to teach him a lesson and told him that he can’t return it and he shouldn’t have bought so much. Morale of the story, don’t be this guy, cause Karmas A B**ch.

Now let’s think about our planet, mother nature is the manager an we are the customer. We continuously over harvest our resources and eventually, we won’t be able to take it back when it inconveniences us. We have to try to think about the bigger picture behind the necessities of abortion, not just the surface.

Jessica Valenti discusses how abortion should be looked at in a broader light because it not just about women having the right or convenience to get one; it’s about women having a choice in the way that she wants to live her life. She brings up key underlying aspects which are intertwined with abortions, such as, having the choice on when to become a parent. Valenti argues that having a choice when it comes to parenthood can be beneficial to the way in which women participates in society (Valenti 4). Women had an easier time of achieving their goals when they had access to contraception, which led to an increase in the number of female doctors and lawyers. Having access to these types of contraception can prove to be beneficial to the development of our society.

We all know of the shortage which our healthcare providers are facing during the coronavirus pandemic. Doctors and nurses are being forced to reuse their scrubs and other hospital resources because there aren’t enough for everyone. Along with the issue of supply shortage, there is also and environmental issue occurring as well, pollution. If you look at the images presented of the world before and after quarantine, the earth has been slowly recovering from all the destruction which us humans have cause. In order to combat both problems, my family and I decided to learn how to make the mask ourselves.

Figure 1. Before and after quarantine in Manila, Philippines

Figure 2. Before and After Quarantine in Los Angeles, CA

Figure 3. Before and After Quarantine in India

Since both my mom and my sister work at hospitals, they know first-hand how hard it is to gain access to the proper resources. In order to protect themselves and others, we are making face ask by hand for my family and their friends at the hospital as well. This will contribute to stopping the spread of coronavirus, as well as contribute to clearing out some pollution. The surgical masks are made in factories which are pumping out tons of carbon dioxide into our air. I know that this act may seem small, but I feel that this act is being done by many people, so it will be very beneficial to us and our environment in the end.

Personally, I thought I understood why the image was chosen before even reading the articles, but once I read the articles, I realized that my reasoning merely scratched the surface of the actual symbolism behind this picture. I was aware of the stereotypical date where the guy gets something like steak or a burger and the girl will get a salad, but the power dynamic behind the “masculine” meat and the “feminine” salad has gone past the idea of just food. When I viewed this image, I also noticed the 2^nd knife sticking out of the meat, but why would you need 2 knives for 1 person. I feel that this may seem small, but it shows a level of overkill on the human’s part, as well as the power of life and death which humans have over other species. Another way to view this image is as the meat being woman and the figure is the patriarchal male. The same way men hunt for meat is the same way in which men go hunting for women. Curtin brings up how “the connection of women and animals through pornographic representations of women as meat ready to be carved up… (Curtin 4).” Although women have been connected to meat, they are not the only oppressed group that were grouped with animals. I didn’t really notice it but Gaard brings up how oppressed people over the years have always been associated with some kind of animal. She brings up the “…linkage of women and animals in such derogatory terms for women as sow, bitch, pussy…Nazi propaganda equated Jews to vermin, and blacks have been called coons or jungle bunnies (Gaard 20).” The fact that one oppressed group is being associated with another oppressed group shows that society is aware of the oppression that is taking place in the world, but don’t care. If you think back to our ancestors, they would hunt and gather for their food, yet they understood that balance which needed to be upheld between people and mother nature. Nowadays, we take our resources for granted, so much so, that we have to resort to chemicals and hormones in order to provide us with enough resources (vegetables, fruit, cows, etc.) for us to “survive” (as if we don’t waste billions of pounds of food each years, but don’t worry, there are GMO’s to fix that). The idea of resources having gendered qualities is ridiculous, yet we have grown up with the idea of gendered food for years thanks to social media and television. When discussing the idea of gendered food, I noticed that during social gathers, the man is usually associated with barbecuing, while the women focus on the sides (chips, dessert, and of course the salad). Whether it’s a commercial, a show, or a movie, you will usually see a man behind the grill while the women host. This idea may not seem like a big deal but it’s reaffirming the idea of gendered rolls in the household. Without understanding the balance that is necessarily for all species to coexist, our plant will continue to deteriorate and the separation amongst oppressed groups will continue to grow.

When reading this article, it made me think about a connection between the theft of land and the theft which occurs during a burglary. I feel as though the connection between people and the environment is a hard concept for some to grasp, but when you think about an intruder, it’s a pretty similar experience. Williams expresses, “Those of us who live here know the heartbreak of loss…It’s not just the loss of a playground or a place of recreation…it’s the fundamental loss of natural systems, free-flowing rivers, rock art pecked and painted in the stone by hands of the Ancient Ones a thousand years ago (Williams 6).” The same way an intruder comes into your home and disturbs your environment is the same way in which politics has destroyed William’s and her people’s homes. Situations like this are not uncommon, for centuries, Native Americans have taken time to cultivate and preserve their land, just to have it stolen from them whenever politically convenient. I have lived in the same town my entire life and I genuinely love my town and the people in it are amazing. If I was forcibly uprooted from my home, I could only imagine the pain it would cause. The affects which land theft has on the permanent residents is profound, yet insignificant to the goals of politicians. Although recycling and bag laws has become a lifestyle for some people, I feel as though society’s efforts are being counteracted by political agendas. Williams brings up a valid point that “we will not have to preserve or protect land because we will have learned what it means to be good stewards, to see the larger community as an embrace of all species (18).” This statement supports Kingsolver’s idea that the wilderness around is a necessity and I have to agree with her. Kingsolver made an ironic statement that I never really thought in-depth about until now. She brings up how “we seem to succumb so easily to the prevailing human tendency to pave such places over, build subdivisions upon them, and name them The Willows, or Peregrine’s Roost, or Elk Meadows, after whatever it was that got killed there ( Kingsolver 16).” The fact that companies will tear down the homes of people/animals and then try to make up for it by naming after that location, as though this can repair the situation. Although I am not familiar with living off of the environment firsthand, I can say that I do feel as though I am connected to my history and the earth in some way. I have a very ethnically diverse family, to the point that I am unsure of my complete ethnicity, which is why I chose this specific image. I still have a lot to learn about my familial background, but I’m hoping to gain the same level of knowledge which my cousin has when it comes to our family’s history. Growing up, my older cousin was intrigued by our family history so much that he has been doing research for decades. Whenever I went to his house, he would have pictures of our ancestors hung around the house and loved telling stories about them. He would pull out family photo albums and tell my family and I stories about our family’s history and where each person came from. I feel that having such a large, close-knit family is beneficial to me keeping track of my history. Williams explains how “…both the elders and children alike had deep ties to the land through story…the stories they told animated the country…. (William 4).” This quote reminds me of my family because telling stories is how we tend to spend our time together. I believe that the process of storytelling in my family revolves around some form of reminiscing which is why there’s a nostalgic feeling in the air whenever we come together. The land around us has been here for years, although we may not know specifics, we are aware of the connection which our ancestors had to their land. The land provided for them the same way it provides for us, and yet we are taking its benefits for granted. Without understanding the give and take that is needed, there will always be that imbalance between humans and nature.

It is easy to take the environment for granted when you are not forced to suffer the consequences. Women in Third World countries are forced to endure unsanitary water, sanitation facilities and improper hygienic resources. Since women do not have proper bathrooms, they are forced to use outdoor toilets. It is found that “…women and girls are more vulnerable to abuse and attack while walking to and using a toilet or open defecation site (Unwater 3).” A certain quality of life should be upheld for residents no matter what country they live in. The women in these locations are usually the one’s given the responsibility of scavenging for supplies. It is a lot of work but “…women and girls usually bear the responsibility for collecting water, which is often time-consuming and arduous (3). Since the people in these locations have close connections to the land, it is clear why the degradation of the environment around them is affecting them on such a great level. There are certain hygienic needs which women have that are not being met because of the lack of concern for the female mass. Women are in charge of certain aspects of life such as water, health and hygiene, and not giving the option of getting a job and/or education. There are feminists like Vandana Shiva who are fighting for the rights of women, as well as, environmental rights for the people. She brings up the issue that “…the biological wealth of poorer countries was too often appropriated by global corporations that neither sought their hosts’ consent nor shared the profits. These innocent people are being used by corporations for their land, as well as, for their profit from their resources. The lack of concern for the people and their land is why ecofeminist are fighting for these rights today.

Ecofeminist may have the same general cause, but these feminist do not always share the same perspective. Bina Agarwal argues some of the issues she has with some ecofeminist views when comparing Western perspectives to Non-Western perspectives. She discusses the way in which ecofeminist don’t use intersectionality when they are discussing the oppressive nature towards women. Agarwal argues how “…it posits woman as a unitary category and fails to differentiate among women by class, race, ethnicity, and so on (Agarwal 122).” You can’t expect equality for all if the different oppressive intersections aren’t being discussed as well. Agarwal also had an issue with the way is which some ecofeminist viewed the relationship between women and nature. She states, “…it locates the domination of women and of nature almost solely in ideology, neglecting the (interrelated) material sources of this dominance (based on economic advantage and political power (122).” She argues this perspective because she believes that the relationship between women and nature should be viewed on a more materialistic way. A similarity which she found between the two feminist types is their form of environmental fight. She brings up how “women in the west, for instance, have responded in specific ways to the threat of environmental destruction, sch as by organizing the Greenham Common resistance to nuclear missiles in England and by participating in the Green movement…A variety of action have similarly been taken by women in the Third World (123).” Although their views may not line up perfectly, their fight doesn’t seem to be very different. Each side is willing to take the necessary steps to gain equality. Although this is true, I find Bina Agarwal’s perspective more appealing because of her concern for the different categories such as race and class. I agree with her idea that you can’t just focus on gender when trying to obtain true equality, you must also acknowledge the other intersections which are also enduring oppression.

For years, men have been using this biblical tale to justify their demeaning nature towards women. When I saw this image, I wondered what the world would come to if Adam was the one tricked into the eating the apple, rather than Eve. Would the world be the same patriarchal society which we live in today, or, would women rise up and take control? I used this image because it is a well-known biblical tale that is constantly used to show the supposed fault in the female gender. Over time, women and nature have become intertwined in some way, shape or form in history. Ecofeminism provides us with the understanding that “all forms of oppression are connected and that structures of oppression must be addressed in their totality (Hobgood-Oster 1).” If you don’t acknowledge the different oppressions which occur in today’s society, then how can you expect to achieve true equality. When it comes to the topic of environment, mankind has continuously abused its power over mother nature. From issues such as deforestation to things you wouldn’t even think of, such as having pets. Hobgood uses a quote form Francis Bacon that explains how Bacon will “hound nature in her wanderings in order to drive her afterwards to the same place again. To disclose the secret of nature Bacon suggest that entering and penetrating into these holes and corners of nature will lead to the uncovering of the truth (8).” It’s interesting the apparent way he associates nature with a women and feels that using a dominate nature is the best way to get the results you are looking for. This is the same way in which women are forced to live in this oppressive society due to the patriarchal ideas that have been around for centuries. At one point in time, the church use to be the judge and juror when it came to the judicial system. There were many times when the church would use the bible (especially the story of Adam and Eve) in order to support their radical ideologies which oppressed women. Hobgood states, “Merchant argues that the feminine language used for nature and the parallel violent approaches of control assigned against unruly nature and unruly women are obvious (8). Men are able to effortlessly oppress nature, the same way they feel no remorse for the oppression which they inflict on the female population. One of Warren’s eight connections which I feel interesting is her Symbolic connections. Symbolic connections revolve around “…women and nature that appear in religion, theology, art, and literature (Warren 25). The image that I provided shows the perfect example of women and nature intertwining in both religion and art.  Without the proper knowledge and understanding of the correlating issues between women and nature, the attainment of total equality will be unachievable.

My name is Shalese and I am a senior  Women and Gender Studies major. When looking through the feminist blogs, I noticed there were a few blogs of interest to me but I ended of choosing the Ms. Magazine blog. I’ve taken a few politics courses and I enjoy looking at the current events that are taking place in today’s society, which is why I feel that this blog connects to my interest. It also couldn’t be a model because I want to focus on political issues in other countries, not just the United States. Recycling has become a big issue in my town, to the point that a large portion of the stores no longer provided plastic bags. Customers are forced to use papers bags, which barely last because they always tear, and on top of that, customers have to pay for these cheap, less durable bags.