Month: March 2020

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.