Explain ecofeminists interconnected perspectives…
“The absence of feminist methodologies for the use of intersectionality is concerning.” King, A.E. (Changing Face of Ecofeminism)
Intersectionality is defined as a “web of entanglement where each spoke of the web represents a continuum of different types of social categorisation of gender, race, and sex. While encircling spirals which depict individual identities. These spirals collide with each spoke at a different level of the continuum.” How is identity represented on this web? In (The Complexity of Identity. B.Tatum) “Identity is complex, representing the individual characteristics of family dynamics, social and political context and historical factors,” which I liken to the web, and the collision of these creates an identity further influenced by non-static processes, like the media’s representation of that individual, or interpretations of people’s opinions on such person, or the community to which this person belongs, or belonged. Does identity change? Tatum seem to posit that puberty brings on a “self-creation of one’s identity” experienced in developed nations. She continues “the foundation of identity is laid in the experiences of childhood …” Are these experiences only in developed nations? Should one assume that non-western individuals’ identity is arrested in childhood? Are the distortions in our identities part of the non-western identity also?
The interconnectedness of women in rural India with poor menstrual hygiene collide on the same spoke on the web. Interestingly, women in India were involved in the environment three hundred years ago when they sacrificed their lives to protect the sacred Khejri trees. Yet these poor women have been lost by ecofeminists who focus only on gender as a significant mode of oppression and not the multiple intersecting factors which influence menstrual hygiene and its environmental impacts. King stated, in India 128.000 schools have no functional toilets, and 61.000 schools have no running water. Some girls are forced to stay at home during menstruation, and others go to school, but both suffer with poor sanitation dilemmas. The well-intended Western company Procter and Gamble spend $5millions dollars to introduce western sanitary protections. But many communities have no garbage collection, so waste is burned, buried or thrown away, eventually polluting streams. The West often believe throwing money at (fill in the blank) makes it better.
The intersection of race and gender for African Americans collide differently, the women face unequal pay, dismissive justice courts, the men mass incarceration, but the communities often face environmental degradation. Majora Carter in her Ted talk spoke of her neighborhood with its 40% city waste, and a sewage treatment plant, and a myriad of environmental hazards, and no parks. Environmental justice she states, focus on race and class, as good indicators-the white areas have parks and trees, less environmental burdens as compared to black areas. This inequity is seen in the staggering numbers of children in South Bronx with asthma-1 in 4. Carter was able to get a park built in her neighborhood, after being without one for sixty years.
D.Allison in (A Question of class) sexual identity was not influenced by puberty, instead was constructed by her class and regional background. Born in 1949 in South Carolina, Allison was “blending in for safety, as she did in high school and college, part of a habit of hiding after realizing she was queer. She hid to survive this identity.” No woman dared to express such at that time in history. Allison said she ignored who she really was and became an automation, by constructing an identity “in which I took pride.” Allison was sexually molested until a teenager and was physically abused; she is attracted sexually to the physically aggressive and leather fetishism. What is Allison’s true identity? “Claiming your identity in the cauldron of hatred and resistance is complicated, almost unexplainable” (Allison)
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
“The ecofeminist movement gained steam in the mid 1970s, in the Global North.” (Perrin.) “Second wave feminism shifted from suffrage to dismantling workplace inequality and increasing political female representation But the critics claimed it only focused on white middle-class women, disregarding experiences of other gender groups, ethnicities and sexualities.” Such criticisms argues Perrin led to an array of ecofeminism scholarship, theology, ecowomanism and queer theories. The underlying message posits Perrin was “regardless of diversity within maligned groups and ecosystems, oppressive groups was perpetrating the degradation of nature and oppression of minorities for the same reasons.” Perrin quotes Birkland. “ecofeminist’s lack of intersectionality were a misconception, poor understanding of ecofeminists positioning of patriarchal dominance over nature and ‘woman.’” “Woman,” she continued, did not represent a homogeneous whole.”
Perrin, Sam. Ecofeminist: Struggles with Intersectionality. ecologyfor themasses.com. November 2019.
Hi Bridget.
I really appreciate the way you brought up women in India. True intersectionality looks at intersections at all points and based on some of the readings is something ecofeminist may miss. Some argue that ecofeminist, as you mention, focus more on gender than any other “intersection” or “identity” as suggested by Tatum. It didn’t make sense to me that Proctor and Gamble would attempt such uninformed decision to place a western product in a non-western country and assume they “did good.” I think it was ignorant on their part. Further, what I found interesting was the article by Cain who asserted that ecofeminism lacks intersectional frameworks because of the focus on western white women. “Ecofeminism lacks black women’s standpoint and only focuses on white women’s oppression” (Cain). She compares the mainstream environmental movement with ecofeminist theory saying both of them lack an intersectional framework. “the ecofeminist movement, like the mainstream environmental movement, has been mainly white and middle class dominated and lacks intersectionality” (Cain). I really thought this was interesting and it grabbed my attention because doesn’t every theory have a critique? Or doesn’t every theory have flaws? If we applied intersectionality to feminism and ecofeminism would they be more complete? A. E. Kings tells us that we should treat intersectionality with “optimistic caution” because it may not be a successful tool in the future. Even intersectionality is critiqued. The argument tells us we should be wary of intersectionality so that we don’t reinforce the status quo. Using labels can unintentionally support the institutions that created them. Another critique is that intersectionality covers an infinite number of possible oppressions. I do agree that there is a long list of “ism’s” that are examined under intersectionality but that should remind us there is never just one type of oppression (for example, just gender) any one person experiences. We all have multiple identities and through those differences we experience oppression in different and complex ways.
I like how your post brought up different ways that feminism can leave different kinds of women out, and highlighted why intersectionalism is important. You talk about ways that black women have been left out of feminist movements, and also a way that achievements have been made with black women and environmental issues like parks. Intersectionalism is important to feminism and ecofeminism in 2020 because when the first feminist wave began, it was all about white women. The first wave of feminism was during the time of the suffrage movement. The desire to vote brought a lot of women together, but it was mainly white, educated women. Slavery had just recently been outlawed so racism was still very prominent in the culture. Feminism was still elite, and very different than what we consider feminism today. Some people refer to feminism that includes all different races, genders, sexualities, etc as intersectionalism, but I would consider all of that just plain feminism. A new inclusion in that would be the environment. That is something that needs to be added to a feminism definition, as ecofeminists believe oppression of the environment is equivalent to oppression of women.