Transcript Mary Mellor (UK): 'Ecofeminism is a movement that sees a

ECO-FEMINISM : a critique
It can be defined as a social
and political movement that
considers the oppression of
women and the domination of
Nature as interconnected
phenomenon.
Mary Mellor (UK): "Ecofeminism is a movement
that sees a connection between the exploitation
and degradation of the natural world and the
subordination and oppression of women. It
emerged in the mid-1970s alongside secondwave feminism and the green movement.
Ecofeminism brings together elements of the
feminist and green movements, while at the
same time offering a challenge to both. It takes
from the green movement a concern about the
impact of human activities on the non-human
world and from feminism the view of humanity
as gendered in ways that subordinate, exploit
and oppress women."--- From the introduction
to "Feminism & Ecology" by Mary Mellor, New
York University Press,1997
Another perspective of ecofeminist attitude might be
visible in the social analysis of Indian ecofeminist
Vandana Shiva. She questions the dubious coupling of
feminine fecundity with that of land as passive
receptacles waiting to be filled. She redefines the
mission of feminism to set right the perverted vision of
modern societies to look down at productivity both of
women and nature leading to exploitation . She draws
a picture of a stream in a forest, for example, in the
modern world the beautiful rivulet remains
unproductive though fulfilling the needs for water of
families and communities, until engineers come along
and tinker with it, perhaps damming it and using it for
generating hydropower. The same is true of a forest
unless it is planted with a monoculture plantation of a
commercial species;
without a dollar value attached, it cannot be seen as a
productive resource.
Key-concepts
•a link between the oppression of women
and the oppression of nature.
•the ecological crisis cannot be attended
to without reference to differences
between entities in an hierarchical
fashion.
•women are likened to be more akin to
nature than culture, to body rather than to
mind, to the primitive rather than to the
civilized.
•This dualistic split which is at the heart
of Western power relations is most often
attributed to Descartes and thinking that
was prevalent during the time of the
Enlightenment, Plumwood (1993) traces
its roots back as far as Plato and
Aristotle.
• an ever exalted position for the role of
reason and consciousness, coupled with
an increasing location of those powers
within male constructed culture. Removing
‘soul’ from nature enabled men to regard it
as a resource, an entity devoid of
autonomy or agency, open to man’s
plundering.
• - It emphasizes environmental justice to a
far greater degree than Deep Ecology.
• The logic of domination is implicated in
discrimination and oppression on the
grounds of race, sexual orientation, class,
species and gender.
Classification
There are different types of ecofeminism
and the key-concepts of each group vary
from each other.
1)
Cultural/Radical feminism ( ecofeminist
spirituality or essentialist ecofeminism)
- Women have a special relationship with
nature by virtue of their biological role
going back to Earth goddess worshipping,
non-hierarchical matriarchies.
- Idea of female/women’s culture drawing
on ancient myths, concerned with the body,
flesh, the material, natural processes,
emotions and subjective feelings .
-This is in contrast to a male culture.
-Nature is to be liberated from the
repressive male ethos.
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women are part of the eternal cycle of birth, growth,
maturation and death which flows through them
following phases of the moon, rhythm of seasons
(reproductive technology developed by men is a
continuation of dual domination)
connections between women and nature lie in sex –
biological characteristics of women.
2 .Materialist Social Ecofeminism or
socialist/anarchist ecofeminism
-Exploitation of nature relates to exploitation in society
emphasizing social and political rather than personal
aspects of domination of women and nature.
- women’s and men’s nature is held to be a
political/ideological category.
-women’s oppression interwoven with class, race and
species oppression, women’s oppression is not
merely a special case of exploitation of the
proletariat and that to establish socialism would end
nature and women’s oppression.
• - the way we organize ourselves to get material
subsistence (relations of production, means of
production – material world of production) plays a key
role in shaping society so must way we organized
ourselves materially to continue as a species
(relations of reproduction, means of procreationmaterial world of motherhood)
• - women and men will have different standpoints,
different lived experiences in the capitalist relations of
Western societies – men mainly produce goods and
services to be exchanged as commodities in the
market for profit, women’s value is in domesticity,
sensuous activity not profit, and former dominates.
• - connections between women and nature lie in gender
• – social constructions of practices, characteristics
and roles based on sex.
• - what unites women and nature, is fact both are
exploited and oppressed by male, sexist culture, its
institutions, values and practices.
Idealist social ecofeminism
• argues that a particular approach to
knowledge – a set of ideas rather and
economic and social arrangements are
responsible for actions detrimental to nature.
• underlying values of society must be
reshaped, the prevailing ideas which are held
to stem from the hierarchical organization
and domination.
• Resistance Ecofeminism
• focus on women in developing world.
• focus on practical political concerns.
• women are on forefront of environmental
activism.
• rejects modernization.
Elements of
disproportion\critique:
•
Feminist and social ecologist Janet Biehl has criticized
ecofeminism as idealist, focusing too much on the idea of a
mystical connection with nature and not enough on the
actual conditions of women.
• 2. The antiessentialist ecofeminism has become more
prominent since the early 1990s : it has an epistemological
analysis of the Enlightenment, places the spirituality in
immanent world and then practices modern activism.
• 3. The materialist ecofeminism discusses economical
and political issues and can use metaphorically the
link of Great mother earth or Gaia (while the idealistic
tendency uses it literally).
• . These views of gender and environment constitute
feminist political ecology, which links feminist cultural
ecology, political ecology, geographical ecology and
feminist political ecology into one concept.
• 5. Technology Vs Primitivism
•
Françoise d'Eaubonne proposed a
cooperative system in small unities (villages)
with autonomization, without alienating
technology. With ecofeminist ideals and
pagan practices, these projects are
sometimes seen as a form of primitivism.
• 6.Vegetarianism
One strand of ecofeminism, associated with
Carol J Adams, Marti Kheel and Greta Gaard
has consistently argued that veganism is an
important part of ecofeminist ethics.
• 7.Liberal feminism:Liberal feminism does not
comprise part of Ecofeminism since it does
not see the need for a dissolution of
patriarchal society, following doctrine that
• Thank you one and all.