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.
It is fascinating to look at the bible as a source, because the bible truly can be used to make a stance on any argument if you nit pick it enough. Such as how slavery can be supported and opposed by the bible depending on which passage you take. Though the bible is one form that oppressed women, there are other religions without the bible that still can allow this oppression. While other religions and cultures actually follow a more matriarchy way. Such as Native Americans will have their decisions made by a group of female elders, with a chief that also plays his role. Also in judaism, it follows the matriarchy in that if your mother is jewish then her children are also jewish. Though the bible funnily enough starts are judaism. It being the first monotheistic religion. Weirdly though, god use to have a wife. That was forgotten in religion partly due to the fact that judaism came while the rest of the world was polytheistic. So to have in a sense two gods would not make the religion stand out or truly be monotheistic. Sadly, this is where I feel we lost our feminine quality. In choosing god to be perceived as masculine (our father), we started a trend of thinking that left behind femininity and the women. I believe religion though able to be good, has also caused a lot of damage and it started when monotheism formed and changed people from being able to pick and choose the gods they liked most to worship within their respective religions, to there is only one god and so there is now only one way to think. Overall monotheism consolidated power and enabled people to become loyal to one god (one leader) over having diversity in their worship and thinking.