Ecofeminism WGS 307

For my activism, I drew attention to the organizationWEDO, as their missions and values became very important to me as the semester progressed. Through this course, I have made more of an effort to be environmentally conscious and implement aspects of ecofeminism into my daily life and thinking. With the personal being political, I felt that this activism best fit with the course of action I wanted to take, and here are my results.

I initially posted on all my social media platforms about a brief explanation of WEDO’s impact and mission, and linked their website as well as a fundraiser for any who wished to donate. I made my personal contribution to WEDO, as donating to causes I care about is an act that I do when I am financially able to. The post initially did not garner much attention, but I did find that over time some people reached out to interact with me about this post. Family members messaged me inquiring about the organization, which was great because I would not consider the family members who reached out to be environmentally conscious. I had friends who share similar views as I do show my posts some attention as well. Conveniently, Earth Day fell on a day while my post was published, so I reshared to attempt to initiate a conversation about what can be done on an individual level, even if it is just learning and spreading awareness. I even received messages from a few people who I had not previously spoken to very often to reach out about this organization. It was a great feeling to know that my post generated some sort of interest in learning about the impact that WEDO has for women engaging in environmental politics.

As stated, I linked a fundraising option to my post, which I was surprised to see that I had contributed $60 in donations, other than my personal contribution. It may not seem like a very large sum of money, but it made me very grateful that others saw the value and passion in this organization that I saw. Especially during this time of financial hardship for many people right now, it was humbling to see those contributions being made to a fundraiser that was created to benefit such an important cause. I feel that my activism is a gesture that many people can do, and I firmly believe that not all activism has to be large-scale to be impactful.

Activism is an important part of inciting change in issues one would like to reform, but how can it be done? There are different levels to activism, being personal, more general to encompass communities, or even global activism. In order to begin my personal journey of activism, I am starting on the personal level to incite change within my own life that will hopefully translate into future activism on higher levels. Through this class, I feel as though I have learned a great deal about a theory of feminism that I was once skeptical about, and would like to try to give back to causes that support women’s human rights as well as environmental well-being. In one of the past blog posts, a supplemental source that was given was a link to the organization WEDO’s website. I find that a cause I am increasingly passionate about is the impact of environmental degradation on women’s lives, and WEDO is an organization that I would like to give back to.

(Pictured here are founders and contributing women of WEDO.)

To provide some information on WEDO, this non-profit organization works to ensure that women are able to engage as decision-makers, advocates, and leaders to fight for environmental related issues, as well as develop sustainable policies that are gender-related to present for implementation (“Vision & Mission” 1). WEDO was founded in 1991 by former United States Congresswoman Bella Abzug and feminist activist and hournalist Mim Kelber. Since their establishment, the organization grew on a global scale and included influential women such as Gloria Steinam, Wangari Maathai (The Green Belt Movement), and Vandana Shiva (Environmental activist in India) to advocate for their cause (“Herstory” 1). WEDO participates in international government processes to ensure that women’s voices are heard in the conversation about environmental struggle and provides a platform for women to lead this conversation to hold governments accountable (“Processes” 1). 

My plan to donate to WEDO is to, undoubtedly, donate a sum of money myself to contribute even a small amount to the work that they do. The other part of my plan is to try to gain awareness and educate others on this organization to see if others would donate to the cause as well. I am going to create posts on my social media accounts to describe the organization’s main objectives and encourage others to donate, or even simply learn about the impact that this organization has on gender-related political activism to benefit the environment. The posts I will make will contain a link to WEDO’s donation page directly on their website, and also a link to their mission statement so others may learn about the organization. My goal for my personal activism is to help an organization whose message and missions I care deeply about to donate what is possible so they can continue doing the work they do for global women.

During this time of quarantine under COVID-19, it may not be possible for many people to donate money, which is understandable. What I hope to achieve is to raise more awareness about ecofeminism and how there are organizations in the world that are advocating for reform to combat issues facing women and the environment by including women in global political discussions about policies. I think my plan will be well received, not only because of the people I interact with on social media, but because I feel it is a great way to raise awareness to this cause. If I can manage to have even one person ask me to explain a little more about what WEDO contributes, I will consider that a victory. The personal is political after all, and I hope I can spark some sort of activism within others to benefit this cause.

Sources:

“Herstory.” WEDO: Women’s Environment & Development Organization, wedo.org/.

“Processes.” WEDO: Women’s Environment & Development Organization, wedo.org/.

“Vision & Mission.” WEDO: Women’s Environment & Development Organization, wedo.org/.

Among the different activist demonstrations and raised awareness for environmental issues, such as the Chipko movement, the Standing Rock protests, and the Green Belt movement, there is very evidently a link to the oppression of women and the environment. Over decades of time and different locations around the world, women face patriarchal oppression often in the form of endangering the environment. It is important to note that in most of the articles that are going to be discussed are the accounts of the women who displayed activism and addressed their experiences with the negative impacts they faced as a result of the oppression of the environment.

This image can be seen in the video linked to the article by Sam Levin, where Caro Gonzales and another indigenous women kneel to pray in front of law enforcement before being forcefully removed from the site.

In the article by Sam Levin detailing the female-led fight in opposition of the Dakota Access Pipeline, he discusses the inhumane treatment that these women faced from law enforcement and other patriarchal establishments. The video accompanying the article shows the harrowing stories of women being abused by police, injured and threatened with arrest, and discriminated against for their protest efforts against the degradation of the indigenous lands. Indigenous women not only faced this during time of protests but also faced increased rates of sexual assault, human trafficking, and drug crimes due to the volume of male non-native oil workers staying in camps (Levin 1). It is said that women serving as water protectors were the core of the operations to fight against the pipeline, and are believed to not only be fighting for the rights of their tribes’ land and right to clean water, but for the systematic oppression in the form of racism, sexism, and abuse by law enforcement (Levin 1). 

Other examples such as the Green Belt movement display how impactful women have been in activism for environmental struggles. Wangari Maarthai was the instrumental driving force in the Green Belt movement that has, since 1977, planted over fifteen million trees to benefit the environment and the crop production (Maarthai 1). It is stated that women were increasingly aware of the environmental degradation due to the fact that they are the ones responsible for the planting, tending, and harvesting of crops for sustenance (Maarthai 1). Maarthai saw that these struggles were being faced, and initiated the movement to plant trees to curb soil erosion, provide shade, and create sources of lumber so that (Maarthai 1).

When women that were close to the environment noticed it was suffering, many took action because if the environment suffers, women suffer. Indigenous youth council leader and string contributor to the resistance of the pipeline, Lauren Howland, stated that she felt the discrimination was disproportionate because they are not white (Levin 1). This stuck with me, as most of the examples addressed in this posting regard women and nations of primarily people of color. The struggles of women of color are seemingly overlooked and are further disempowered on the basis of all forms of oppression they face. Marginalized groups experience failures from systems that most other non-marginalized people are protected by, and this is why the women of Standing Rock and the Green Belt movement and other movements initiated the activism for their environmental causes.

Sources:

Halton, Mary. “Climate Change ‘Impacts Women More than Men’.” BBC News, BBC, 8 Mar. 2018, www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43294221.

This article by Mary Halton further displayed the disproportionate rates in which women are impacted by climate change based on findings from the United Nations. Halton details how women are at risk around the world due to environmental degradation, such as the drying of Lake Chad in Central Africa, as well as natural disasters that leave women susceptible to a multitude of other issues.

Levin, Sam. “At Standing Rock, Women Lead Fight in Face of Mace, Arrests and Strip Searches.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 4 Nov. 2016, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/04/dakota-access-pipeline-protest-standing-rock-women-police-abuse.

Maarthai, Wangari. “Speak Truth to Power | The Green Belt Movement.” The Green Belt Movement, www.greenbeltmovement.org/wangari-maathai/key-speeches-and-articles/speak-truth-to-power.

 

When thinking of the concept of intersectionality, my mind used to always go toward the traditional feminist concepts of intersections of sex, race, gender, and so on. With the integration of ecofeminist theory, it has become more clear that the environment impacts social identities differently, while also being oppressed itself. Upon taking this course, intersectionality and feminism in general seems to have more of a presence in ecological oppression than I had initially thought. According to A.E. Kings, intersectionality had not explicitly been explored in ecofeminism as a framework of thought, and some ecofeminist thought continues to solely focus on the link between ecology and gender, rather than overlapping oppressions (Kings 1). However, it can be noted that many works insinuate intersectionality such as the writings of Laura Hobgood-Oster.

Intersectionality, as defined by the masses, was a term officially coined by Kimberle Crenshaw in 1989 to describe the overlapping of social oppressions that black women faced due to race and gender. It has since evolved into encompassing feminist idea based on sex, gender, race, religion, age, dis/ability, and other forms of discrimination (Kings 1). It is a framework of analysis that allows for a broader idea of what struggles people face based on their social identities rather than having a narrow, single-line type of view at oppression. When ecofeminist theories implement intersectionality into the ideas of ecological oppression, it allows for a discussion of the oppressions that face not only women and the environment, but the oppressions faced by human and even non-human beings and the environment. I loved the example that Kings describes in her work, by using a web. The spokes of the web represent the different types of social identities, while the spirals that interconnect with the spokes of the web represent individual identities. The spirals collide with the spokes at different levels, making it so each individual identity has its own complex experience with disadvantage or advantage (Kings 1).

I recall reading in Laura Hobgood-Oster’s writings about forms of discrimination connecting. “Classism, racism, sexism, heterosexism, naturism and speciesism are all intertwined (Hobgood-Oster 2).” When considering this, it makes me think back to the blog I posted about women in the Global South being disproportionately impacted by environmental degradation than most other populations in the world, and how intersectional analysis played a large part in this (UNWater 1). As Kings stated, there often lacks the understanding of more than just gender in ecofeminism, mainly playing on the idea that women and nature are connected. When considering “women,” it feels like a blanket statement that generalizes all women and their experiences instead of highlighting the individual dis/advantages they may face based on social identity. That is why the women in the Global South, being women and people of color of low socioeconomic status are often overlooked in ecofeminism. Not only women in the Global South, but as Cacildia Cain discusses in her article, black women are also seemingly left out of the mix. Cain details the struggles that black women face in the ongoing issues of the Flint, Michigan Water Crisis, and how classism and racism also play a large part in suppressing these women in their environments (Cain 1).

It is crucial for ecofeminism to encompass an intersectional standpoint due to the fact that women should not be generalized, and that the issues are not exclusively female. Although it is theorized that women’s patriarchal oppression is directly linked to the oppression of nature, it can also serve for interpretation of the varied oppressions among all social identities. Myself as a white woman in a “first world” nation does not have the same experience of the environmental impact that a woman in the Global South has, without an adequate water source available immediately and faces a multitude of negative impacts to simply obtain water.

 

Sources:

Cain, Cacildia. “The Necessity of Black Women’s Standpoint and Intersectionality in Environmental Movements.” Medium, Black Feminist Thought 2016, 23 Oct. 2018, medium.com/black-feminist-thought-2016/the-necessity-of-black-women-s-standpoint-and-intersectionality-in-environmental-movements-fc52d4277616.

Hobgood-Oster, Laura. Ecofeminism: Historic and International Evolution . 18 Aug. 2002.

Kings, A.E. “Intersectionality and the Changing Face of Ecofeminism.” Ethics & the Environment, vol. 22 no. 1, 2017, p. 63-87. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/article/660551.

UN-Water. “Gender: UN-Water.” UN, www.unwater.org/water-facts/gender/.

Villalobos, Briana. “Intersectional Ecofeminism: Environmentalism for Everybody.” IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, 26 Feb. 2017, ecology.iww.org/node/2100?bot_test=1.

This source provided an insight into how environmental issues are experienced differently based on intersectional social identities, as well as factors such as location. Villalobos discusses how the use of intersectionality was lacking in the mainstream feminist movement, and challenges this theme and attempt to use a more intersectinal framework to combat issues for feminism, environmentalism, and the LGBTQ+ movement.

In their article “Gender Equality and State Environmentalism,” Norgaard and York’s research assisted in shedding light on gender gaps in environmental politics in different nation-states. Their findings concluded that nation-state’s with higher percentages of females in higher political positions, such as Sweden and Norway, the more likely they are to enact environmental policies and ratify environmental treaties. Along with their research findings, they also discuss factors in ecofeminist/feminist theory that contribute to the link that women in politics may have on environmental treaties. Norgaard and York identify such factors as women being associated with being more compassionate, therefore having intuition for environmentalism, as well as the ecofeminist theory that sexism and environmental degradation are linked, making women in politics more prone to supporting ratification of environmentalist treaties.

One woman in politics that I related to Norgaard and York’s thesis is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Ocasio-Cortez is a Congresswoman in the US House of Representatives, and she has introduced legislation entitled the Green New Deal to combat carbon emissions across the United States, as well as helping boost the economy by creating jobs (Kurtzleben 1). This legislation also includes awareness for poor, disabled, and minority populations that this legislation may impact due to the drastic economic reform (Kurtzleben 1). The reason that AOC and the Green New Deal instantly came to mind is because she is a young female Congresswoman seeking great environmental reform for our nation. The 2018 midterm elections led to more women in winning campaigns for elected office since 1992, and with it came more representation for women in politics. AOC serves as a positive influence for representation for women, and furthers Norgaard and York’s thesis that having women in politics can lead to more environmental reform.

To go along with the Green New Deal, the organization WEDO (Women’s Environment and Development Organization) detailed in an article how they worked with other women’s organizations to advocate for social justice rights within the legislation (WEDO 1). These organizations for women are seeking political involvement with the development of the Green New Deal to encompass the interests of a feminst agenda that involves ideas for social justice for minority populations such as people in the Global South, indigenous women, all women of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and other underrepresented populations (WEDO 1). The organizations sent women from the coalition to present their agenda in order to “…make sure all folks have access to basic resources and distribute them in ways where everyone is taken care of.” (WEDO 1). By having feminist ideals from women’s political organizations connected to the environmentalist policies behind the Green New Deal, this demonstrates that having women in positions of political power allows for environmental reform as stated by Norgaard and York.

According to the Yale Program on Climate Change, statistics have shown that there are gendered differences on the importance of environmental issues, specifically climate change. In the figure above, it is noted that women lead in every category with the exception of one. “A large body of research shows a small—but consistent—gender gap in environmental views and climate change opinions. On average, women are slightly more likely than men to be concerned about the environment and have stronger pro-climate opinions and beliefs (Ballew et. al 1).” These statistics also reference Norgaard and York’s findings to support the idea that women in political power can foster climate reform policies and inspire young women to also take part in environmental policies  (Ballew et. al 1), as shown with WEDO’s political participation.

Sources:

Ballew, Matthew, et al. “Gender Differences in Public Understanding of Climate Change.” Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, 20 Nov. 2018, climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/gender-differences-in-public-understanding-of-climate-change/.

Kurtzleben, Danielle. “Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Releases Green New Deal Outline.” NPR, NPR, 7 Feb. 2019, www.npr.org/2019/02/07/691997301/rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-releases-green-new-deal-outline.

Norgaard, Kari and Richard York. “Gender Equality and State Environmentalism.” GENDER & SOCIETY, Vol. 19 No. 4, August 2005 506-522. https://pages.uoregon.edu/norgaard/pdf/Gender-Equality-Norgaard-York-2005.pdf

“Women’s Rights and Climate Activists Launch a Feminist Agenda for a Green New Deal.” WEDO, 25 Sept. 2019, wedo.org/feminist-green-new-deal-press-release/.

“Women, Politics and the Environment.” Women Deliver, 10 Mar. 2019, womendeliver.org/2019/women-politics-and-the-environment/.

This source from Women Deliver aided in the additional understanding of how women contribute to the overall benefit of environmental political policy. Women such as Tiza Mafira and Binta Yahaya were discussed in this article to show how women are contributing to environmentalism in nations such as Indonesia and Nigeris to showcase their environmental policy accomplishments.

There are many stances on the controversial topic of abortion in our society. Arguably the most prominent stances are the often conservative associated pro-life stance and the feminist/liberal stance of pro-choice. Ronnie Zoe Hawkins discusses an ecofeminist stance to abortion that not only involves the reflections of feminist thinking of abortion, as well as how the environment should play a role in people’s stances on abortion. Through Hawkins’s stance, she sees abortion as a means to control the population and environmental degradation, how this issue disproportionately impacts women in poverty. I am personally pro-choice myself and I agree with Hawkins’s views on ecofeminist reasonings surrounding abortion. 

After reading Hawkins’s views on abortion being a form of population control, I realized that this was a matter that I had not thought too much into. Hawkins identifies the population growth that has been experienced in the last two centuries from around 1 billion to 5-6 billion as of 1993 (Hawkins 690). According to the Worldometer, our current population is nearing 8 billion people. The growing population should be a legitimate concern to our environment due to the fact that there is a finite amount of resources that can be used to supply the human population. Thinking in Hawkins’s ecofeminist perspective, abortion is a viable means of population control because imagining a world where no abortions are performed makes me think like our world would be entirely overpopulated and resources would be depleted more so than ever. Allowing for women to terminate pregnancies allows for less resources to be depleted at a slower rate than if our population were to be higher from more births. 

Another crucial point surrounding the usage of the planet’s resources for the growing human population is the fact that other non-human organisms would be greatly impacted as well. Hawkins states that a growing population leads to more resources being produced and consumed, meaning that environments and habitats of non-human organisms can be destroyed (Hawkins 691). “…Anthropogenic, or human-caused, species extinctions are occurring at several hundred times the “natural” rate and, since they are the result of abrupt and often total destruction of habitats, are not offset by new speciation (Hawkins 691).” A feminist view of abortion neglects the impacts that abortion may have, whether positive or negative, on non-human organisms. By using an ecofeminist lens allows for it to become more clear that the population control aspect of abortion also leads to benefitting the world’s natural resources and the species of non-human organisms that would be displaced or harmed in the harvesting of the resources needed for the births that could potentially take place.

On a personal note, the looming threat of climate change is one factor that aids my agreement with Hawkins. I would not want to raise a child in the environment that we are potentially headed towards. If serious changes are not made in order to save the planet, we may be facing irreversible environmental damage in a matter of years. I personally would not want to bring even more human lives into the world that would have to live with these irreversible issues that were caused before their time where we would also not be able to sustain such a large population with the amount of resources available.

Lastly, the link that poverty plays in Hawkins analysis of abortion puts into perspective that abortion can sometimes be the most viable method for pregnant women in developing nations to terminate pregnancies. In an op-ed by one of the International Planned Parenthood Federation’s directors, Carmen Barroso, she provides that in 2015 over 200 million women went without access to modern contraceptive methods (Barroso 1). Contraception is not widely accepted or available to women, most prominently women in developing nations, leaving abortion as a common option for these women.

In terms of ecofeminist values, I personally believe that Hawkins’s views encompass what environmentalism and feminism stand for. Hawkins acknowledges that some more traditional ecofeminists see abortion as a “masculine” response to unwanted pregnancies and does not allow for respect of the natural process of gestation and birth to take place (Hawkins 693). As stated, feminist views do not encompass impacts faced by both human and non-human beings, and solely focuses on the rights aspect of human women having free will and agency of their bodies, or the disagreement with this belief. I believe that an ecofeminist perspective on abortion can be beneficial when one can take into the consideration the environmental benefits that abortion has had in terms of Hawkins’s writings. 

Sources:

Barroso, Carmen. “Empower Women for the Health of the Planet.” The New York Times, 8 June 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/06/08/is-overpopulation-a-legitimate-threat-to-humanity-and-the-planet/empower-women-for-the-health-of-the-planet

Bess, Gabby. “Reuse, Reduce, Reproductive Rights: How Abortion Can Help Save the Planet.” Vice, 6 Oct. 2015, www.vice.com/en_us/article/vv5kj9/reuse-reduce-reproductive-rights-how-abortion-can-help-save-the-planet.

This article from Vice provided an interview from a member of PAI, a global organization that promotes women’s reproductive health, to discuss how a woman’s right to choose can benefit the environment. Allison Doody reinforces in her responses how abortion as a woman’s right can impact sustainability of natural resources, how the United Nations has placed policies into action that benefit both reproductive rights and the environment, as well as statistics surrounding abortin and other reproductive processes. This source provided another ecofeminist perspective that contributed to the ideas shared by Ronnie Hawkins to further the understanding of ecofeminism and abortion.

Hawkins, Ronnie Zoe. “Reproductive Choices: The Ecological Dimension.” Living With Contradictions: Controversies in Feminist Social Ethics, 1993, pp 690-694.

The first image that caught my eye was of a fueling station called Betty Beavers. The reason it caught my attention is because my hometown in upstate New York is one of the 5 locations that this gas station has. When I was younger, I would always notice the very prominent sexualized features of the sign, but never questioned why. This example has less to do with the consumption of animals in regards to Carol Adams’s writings, but has more to do with the overall exploitation. The overexaggerated female characteristics such as breasts and makeup very clearly sexualizes the non-human beaver. In Adams’s “The Politics of Meat,” she discusses the term ‘anthropornongraphy,’ meaning that animals are displayed in a way that makes them sexually consumable to further perpetuate the simultaneous exploitation of women (Potts 14). I personally don’t know too many people of industries that consume beavers, so I view this gas station sign to be more of a physical comparison to the exploitation of women and animals.

For the second image, I translated the text on the image, which loosely translates to, “meat is joy, savor it in all its forms.” Accompanying this saying is the image of women of different body types displaying their breasts, as well as a steak below this. This image plays up the concept of women being used as sex objects to promote some sort of male consumption of meat, not necessarily anthropornography as in this case the subjects in comparison are human females. Rather, Adams addresses the animalization of women and the feminization of animals to view women and animals used for human consumption as simply flesh, or commodities to society (Potts 15). 

Lastly, the third image I chose further contributes to the idea of  animalizing women and feminizing animals. In this image, the saying “We’ve got the best racks” very obviously insinuates the women’s chests that are displayed, as well as the ribs in front of the man. Having a man as the focal point of this ad contributes to the catering to masculinity, seeing animals/meat and women as belonging to men. This image also shows to me Adams’s idea that the women and animals are being sexualized in a way to say “they want it” (Potts 15). Adams states that meat advertisements are similar to pornography in the sense that both animals and women are depicted as objects to oppress both to visions for male pleasure (Potts 15).

All 3 images I selected from Carol Adams’s samples personally resonated the idea that animal life is synonymous to the life of women (both being the consumed), and that both are meant to serve the higher purpose of being a means of consumption for men (the consumers). The objectification animal life in each image is almost completely disregarded and outshadowed due to its extreme comparison to women, leading me to believe that the lives of animals very clearly do not matter. Adams discusses that when people look at meat, they see nothing more than just meat, rather than the animal whose life was taken in order for this meat to be just meat (Potts 13). On top of this, women are objectified to be reduced to being compared to pieces of meat or combined with animals to be sexualized.

The image I chose is one that I have had a personal hatred for for some time now, and what is being depicted is a scene from a Carl’s Junior burger advertisement. Carl’s Junior had been previously known for its sensual depictions of women to sell “all natural” hamburgers, and that is exactly what this ad was attempting to do. It depicts a woman walking through what appears to be a farmer’s market where people discuss sexually suggestive produce, and appears to be conveying the message of the meat being all natural, comparing it to the idea that she, as a woman, is also “all natural.” When analyzing this image, I noticed Adams’s thoughts on speciesism intersected with other forms of oppression, such as racism, homophobia, and obvious sexism (Potts 16). Adams describes how most ads for animals that are consumed contain white women or have characteristics of white women, as black women and women of color are societally viewed as “wild animals” (Potts 16). She also identifies that since most of the exploitation of animals and women caters to the male gaze, that the ads are specifically aimed at straight men (Potts 16). 

For those who would like to view the ad that this image is taken from, the video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlUvQkW4B1k

Sources:

Kemmerer, Lisa. “The Pornography of Meat by Carol Adams.” Philosophy Now: a Magazine of Ideas, philosophynow.org/issues/56/The_Pornography_of_Meat_by_Carol_Adams.

Potts, Annie. “The Politics of Carol J. Adams.” Antennae, Issue 14. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54792ff7e4b0674c74cb719d/t/55dc8dace4b0ad76d7277cb7/1440517548517/ANTENNAE+ISSUE+14.pdf

Annotated Source:

Ko, Aph. “5 Reasons Why Animal Rights Are A Feminist Issue.” Everyday Feminism, 6 June 2016, everydayfeminism.com/2014/12/animal-rights-feminist-issue/.

This source was a helpful guide utilized to understand more on the concepts that intersect the objectification of women and animals. Ko details aspects of non-human animal exploitation and objectification that relate to feminist issue that also impact human women. Reading through these points contributed to the understanding of Carl Adams’s writings of how women and animals are reduced and sexualised for the consumption of society and men.

 

Upon looking at this particular image for the section, my attention immediately goes toward the human figure and the knife sticking out of the piece of meat. It is easily identifiable that the human figure in this picture seems to be male, signifying the masculinity behind the domination of the meat industry and the overall idea that meat in general is a masculine food. The knife sticking in the piece of meat, to me, means that man is exercising its power over the animal and symbolizes the initial killing of the animal in order to produce this meat. The knife represents the disregard of life of the animal being killed for consumption and instead heavily focuses on “meat” being consumed by man.

Unsurprisingly, when thinking of gendered eating, my mind automatically went to the idea of meat for men and some sort of salad, fruit, or “lower-calorie” alternative for women as we read in the HuffPost article, “Meat Heads.” This instinctive thought further proves the perpetuation of masculinity even in the foods we eat. With men being associated with meat, it yet again displays the patriarchal oppression of nature and its creatures, or speciesism as Greta Gaard states. Associating women with salads and other natural plant-based foods links to the overarching theme of ecofeminism in that the patriarchy oppresses both women and nature. However, I felt as though I wanted to go a bit deeper to examine gendered eating practices since the idea of gendered foods is something that was fairly easy to identify. In an article by Barbara J. Rolls, she details the impacts of eating habits on adolescent and adult men and women, as well as masculine and feminine eating styles. According to the studies she conducted, Rolls found that a gender difference in eating is that men often eat more calories than women due to the sizes of their bites/sips (Rolls 1). Women in the studies that Rolls conducted were shown to eat smaller bites and take longer to finish foods, and that they tend to eat smaller portions of food (Rolls 1). In a study that Rolls references, women were also found to display different eating patterns depending on who they are with, showing that they eat less when with desirable males or in large groups than with females or less desirable men  (Rolls 1). These findings perpetuate “sex-role appropriate” eating behaviors, where eating smaller bites, smaller portions, and slower is seen as feminine, and aasociated with someone being concerned about appearance and possess stereotypically feminine traits (Rolls 1). As Curtin also discusses, women are more pressured to conform to oppressive body shapes (Curtin 1), which contributes to this style of gendered eating practices. For men, their eating practices, as stated, reflect higher-calorie eating by taking bigger bites and Examining the eating styles through Rolls’s information provides even further that there is a divide in the way that food is viewed in terms of gender, whether it be the food itself or the actual consumption of the food.

I found the perspectives of both Gaard and Curtin very interesting, especially as a feminist who is not a vegetarian. Based on both readings, it feels to me that ecofeminists perceive non-human animals as their own beings that are deserving of respect with the abilities to live free of oppression. In Greta Gaard’s article, she details the relations of humans and non-human animals that serve the role of pets. Gaard feels as though speciesism is a prevalent form of oppression that reinforces other forms of oppression, such as sexism (Gaard 20). She compared the situation of the parakeet, Bella, she saw at the video store to that of other house pets, zoo animals, and dairy cows, to display her belief of society’s animal exploitation (Gaard 20). In Curtin’s essay, she describes the practice of moral vegetarianism, which brings ethics into the ecofeminist perspective of vegetarianism. One of Curtin’s points of moral vegetarianism is that human consumption of meat is an act of violence that is not necessary, and that there is a choice behind using senseless violence to consume non-human meat (Curtin 1). Both women bring up compassion in their respective articles, but in different ways. The articles show this perception of compassion on ecofeminist thoughts on vegetarianism in order to, as Gaard states, “…suffer with another, to imagine to the fullest extent possible the experience of another’s pain, and to commit oneself to taking action to alleviate the suffering (Gaard 22).” The relationships that ecofeminists seem to want to have with animals is one of mutual respect and compassion. Curtin brings up the morals behind senselessly killing animals for consumption, or for justified reasons such as starvation or dangerous encounters with a bear (Curtin 1). Both articles approach the idea of respectfully coexisting with non-human animals by displaying compassion and embracing vegetarianism as a practice to end another form of oppression, speciesism, that links to the overall oppression of women as well.

Sources:

Curtin, Deane. “Contextual Moral Vegetarianism.” ‘Toward an Ecological Ethic of Care.’ Hypathia, No. 6, Spring 1991, pp. 68-71. http://www.animal-rights-library.com/texts-m/curtin01.htm

Eisenberg, Zoe. “Meat Heads: New Study Focuses on How Meat Consumption Alters Men’s Self-Perceived Levels of Masculinity.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 13 Jan. 2017, www.huffpost.com/entry/meat-heads-new-study-focuses_b_8964048.

Gaard, Greta. “Ecofeminism on the Wing: Perspectices on Human-Animal Relations.” Women & Environments. https://www.academia.edu/2489929/Ecofeminism_on_the_Wing_Perspectives_on_Human-Animal_Relations

Rolls, Barbara J., et al. “Gender Differences in Eating Behavior and Body Weight Regulation.” Health Psychology, vol. 10, no. 2, 1991, pp. 133–142. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1037/0278-6133.10.2.133.

Barbara J. Rolls examines studies surrounding gendered eating behaviors to discuss the overall differences between men and women in terms of societal norms of food. Rolls identifies such differences between different age groups of men and women, the eating habits of men and women, as well as the impact of social environment and societal standards of appearance on gendered dieting and eating disorders. This source is very informative in displaying information regarding gendered eating practices as it lends to the idea that there are gendered differences in the foods that are being eaten and how they are being eaten. It is also illuminating on not only the women’s eating habits and their struggles, but also details men’s eating habits.

I have lived in Upstate New York all of my life, and the picture I chose is one that I took in I believe the summer of 2015 in my hometown. There’s a small portion of landscape seen under the sunset, and unfortunately a lot of the pictures that I took from that period of my life have been lost, but this picture holds a lot of personal memories and values for me. I remember we were driving up the large hill that is near my house to see the most amazing sunset I have ever seen, and made my grandfather pull over so I could take pictures of it. I stood outside taking pictures of the magnificent view over the barren corn fields until it got dark and I don’t think I could ever forget how breathtaking it was to experience this sunset in real time.

Living in rural upstate New York, I was surrounded by many farms and Amish homes, so where I lived wasn’t very populous or busy. All us neighborhood kids that lined the street had free rein of the environment around us and we took advantage of it nearly everyday. I grew up being outside the majority of the time that I wasn’t in school, exploring the woods and streams behind my house in the nearly 4 acres of land my family possessed, playing man-hunt in the summer nights with all of my neighbor friends, and wandering through the rolling hills of corn fields that surrounded my home. I also remember that as a younger child I never wore shoes anywhere in my small part of town. I could say so much more about the emotions and memories this picture draws from me, but now that I haven’t lived there since summer 2016, I can say that it makes me feel, more than anything, nostalgic and guilty that I took nature for granted, rather than being more appreciative of every aspect of it.

There was always an appreciation of what nature provided in my community, whether it be from hunting, fishing, or growing our own produce in the large gardens I had in my backyard to the larger fields of produce being grown by local farmers. It was a much simpler time when nature was very much an integral part of my community, however I never recall there being a stressed importance on nature other than the fact that most of the town hunted and fished in it. I don’t believe that this place would function on the basis of Terry Tempest Williams’s bedrock of democracy. I don’t necessarily believe as though my community has the sense of passion and deep connection, more so than just an appreciation. It is not to be diminished that there is appreciation present, but as Barbara Kingsolver and Terry Tempest Williams both allude to, there is no sense of protection of nature. Referring to land, Williams states that, “…they will not remain ecologically intact without our vigilance, without our willingness to protect what is wild.” (Williams 6). My community lacks the value of protecting and preserving nature to its highest potential to be able to continue to use it as a resource, but instead only views it as a resource and nothing more.

I do agree very much with Kingsolver’s view on needing wildness. Without having some sort of wildness in one’s life, it would be hard to have a sense of what the world and nature has to offer them. When Kingsolver talks about her husband showing kids from cities about fruits and vegetables coming from the ground, it shocked me that they had not a fraction of a clue about what nature has to offer. “I wonder what it will mean for people to forget that food, like rain, is not a product but a process.” (Kingsolver 1). This quote gives me great emotion due to the fact that I was lucky enough to grow up being in tune with nature to some extent rather than being completely out of touch with it. I believe it is completely possible for city-dwellers to have this connection with nature, if they choose to seek it out. When we live in a society in which all of our basic needs are essentially presented to us, there is no direct need for those in cities to go into nature unless it’s by choice. To me, some form of connection with nature, whether it be small or large, is significant in raising awareness of ecological needs and delving into this bedrock of democracy in order to protect the world around us more efficiently.

Annotated Sources:

Kingsolver, Barbara. “Knowing Our Place.” Small Wonder. HarperCollins Publishers, 2002. Kingsolver details her experiences with encountering nature in order to describe how crucial it is to have a connection to nature and wildness. In her writings, she discusses what it is like to live surrounded by nature and the ways in which she sees the value in tapping into this connection. Kingsolver examines nature as it impacts her writings, her daily living, and the way in which she views the world by utilizing aspects of the wilderness.

Williams, Terry Tempest. “Home Work.” Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert. Vintage Books, 2002. Terry Tempest Williams details the struggles between citizens of Southern Utah and the government involvement regarding the protection of nature. Williams writes about the usage of wilderness for commercial development rather than allowing it to be the unregulated wilderness it. Williams discusses the failures of the government to protect the land of her hometown while also examining her personal link to the deserts of Utah.

Environmental degradation is a widespread issue for the Global South that has impacted females arguably more than any demographic in these nations. In my post from last week, I discussed the negative impacts of climate change that women face in Third World nations. From living in agrarian societies where women are mostly relied on as the sole providers of sustainable food sources, degradation of the environment has put a large strain on the food sources for many (Daza 1). Leading into the discussion on drinking water in the Global South, women experience the same types of oppression when it comes to food and water. With a lack of resources, women and female children are forced to travel often far distances to provide their families with necessities because it is a societal expectation of them. Women and young girls travelling for resources increases the risk of physical danger and health issues, and decreases the time that women may spend doing other such things like getting an education (UNWater 1). On top of being expected to take on sustaining their families, women are also limited with work due to less job opportunities, leaving them with seasonal agricultural jobs that yield little in sustenance (UNWater 1). When reading the interview with activist Vandana Shiva, she discusses her experience with the impacts that deforestation had on peasant women in India. Shiva stated that these peasant women were well versed in what nature had to offer them, but with the forests being cleared, these women no longer had the trees and plants needed for food sources, firewood, and medicinal purposes (London 1).

In Bina Agarwal’s article on ecofeminism, or as she refers to it as “feminist environmentalism,” the main difference between her perception of ecofeminism and that of Karen Warren and Laura Hobgood-Oster, is stated to be a matter of ideology versus material. Agarwal addresses the commonalities of key elements of most ecofeminist theories, those of which are the connection between the oppression of women and nature, women/nature being inferior to men/culture, women’s efforts link to environmental efforts, and that there is a call to use more non-hierarchical systems in society (Agarwal 120). These elements are not unfamiliar and can also be found in the perceptions of Warren and Hobgood-Oster. However, Agarwal goes further to express her belief that ecofeminism in the West has ignored material influences, such as class, race, and lived experiences with nature (Agarwal 122-123). Agarwal also argues that Western ecofeminism generalizes women into one large category without recognizing the impacts of intersectionality on the impacts of environmental degradation, and that it almost gives off the idea that the link between women and nature is essentialist (Agarwal 122-123). 

I personally find that the perspective of Bina Agarwal more intriguing due to her use of the word “material” when describing the differences. Agarwal advocates for a more experience-based approach to ecofeminism, taking into account the lived realities that different demographics of women to examine how gender and class play into the environmental changes and their responses to it (Agarwal 126). Last week when I read a post by my classmate Mandi, she raised the excellent point of intersectionality playing a part in ecofeminist thinking that I had not previously considered. With Agarwal’s perception of ecofeminism, it becomes more clear that not every person has the same relationship or experiences with nature, and are impacted in much different ways based on their gender, geographical location, race, and class/caste. I do find that the ideological theories presented by thinkers such as Karen Warren and Laura Hobgood-Oster are very beneficial in terms of identifying thoughts and oppressions that can’t be physically seen, especially through Warren’s connections. Pairing with Agarwal’s experiential take on ecofeminism, I feel as though it would benefit the cause of ecofeminism to not only examine what it believed about the oppressive link of women and nature, but also to see it in real-time to further challenge, as Agarwal states, notions made about gender and the environment’s purpose, as well as the material division of labor and resources based on gender, and the human use of the environment’s resources (Agarwal 127).

Sources:

Agarwal, Bina. “The Gender and Environment Debate: Lessons from India.” Feminist Studies, vol. 18, no. 1, 1992, pp. 119–158. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3178217. Accessed 9 Feb. 2020.

Daza, Vanessa. “Two Fights in One: Feminism and Environmentalism.” Dejusticia, www.dejusticia.org/en/column/two-fights-in-one-feminism-and-environmentalism/.

Shiva, Vandana, and Scott London. “In the Footsteps of Gandhi: An Interview with Vandana Shiva.” Global Research, 3 Feb. 2016, www.globalresearch.ca/in-the-footsteps-of-gandhi-an-interview-with-vandana-shiva/5505135.

UN-Water. “Gender: UN-Water.” UN, www.unwater.org/water-facts/gender/.