Ecofeminism Essay
Eco-feminism
- Length: 763 words (2.2 double-spaced pages)
- Rating: Excellent
“Women have long been associated with nature.” In the following essay Judith Plant sets out the main principles (in regards to ecofeminism): the closeness of women to nature; the belief that the domination of women and the destruction of nature have the same root cause; patriarchy; and the need to re-establish for nature the organic metaphor over the machine metaphor. Judith Plant believes that women have long been associated with nature and that historically, women have had no real power in the outside world, no place in decision-making. Other things such as the intellectual life, the work of the mind, have traditionally not been accessible to women for many reasons. Some of these reasons have included society’s mentality. According to Judith, today, ecology speaks for the earth, and feminism speaks for the ‘other’ in female/male relations. As for ecofeminism, she believes that by speaking for the original ‘others’, it seeks to understand the interconnected roots of all domination, and ways to resist the change. Historically, people were more connected with the earth years ago, mainly because of the fact that many of these people were involved with the earth in some way in their daily lives, through being peasants and living a ordinary existence. But now the earth has become more mechanized and industrialized. Before that, the earth, the giver and supporter of life, was viewed as female, and symbolized by woman, as was the image of disorder, with her storms, droughts, and other natural disasters. Judith Plant states that because of the view humans used to hold of the earth, they would in a way serve as constraints. ‘Mother Earth’ was seen to be alive and sensitive, and no one would consider destroying her in any way. A good example of this strong belief and view towards the earth could be seen in miners. In order to not prevent one of these rules, or in other words to not act ‘”improperly” towards ‘Mother Earth’ rituals were carried out. Miners would give offerings to the gods of the soil and the subterranean world, perform ceremonial sacrifices, and observe sexual abstinence and fasting before violating what was considered to be the sacred earth. The change that resulted from the growth in the mechanized and industrialized world was very different. Unlike the visions of the earth before, the new images were of controlling and dominating or having power of nature. How to Cite this PageMLA Citation: | Length | Color Rating | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay on Eco-feminism - “Women have long been associated with nature.” In the following essay Judith Plant sets out the main principles (in regards to ecofeminism): the closeness of women to nature; the belief that the domination of women and the destruction of nature have the same root cause; patriarchy; and the need to re-establish for nature the organic metaphor over the machine metaphor. Judith Plant believes that women have long been associated with nature and that historically, women have had no real power in the outside world, no place in decision-making.... [tags: essays research papers] | 763 words (2.2 pages) | Strong Essays | [preview] | ||
| Essay on Eco-feminism - Today, we live in a world interwoven with women’s oppression, ecological degradation, and the exploitation of workers, race, and class. In the midst of these troubles, a movement known as ecofeminism appears to be gaining recognition. In the following, I hope to illustrate this revitalization movement . I will begin by characterizing a definition of ecofeminism; I will then bring to the forefront the ethical issues that Ecofeminism is involved with, then distinguish primary ideas and criticisms.... [tags: essays research papers fc] :: 2 Works Cited | 1175 words (3.4 pages) | Strong Essays | [preview] | ||
| Essay about Fight Club and Feminism - The issue at the heart of the David Fincher film, Fight Club, is not that of man’s rebellion against a society of “men raised by women”. This is a film that outwardly exhibits itself as promoting the resurrection of the ‘ultra-male’, surreptitiously holding women accountable for the decay of manhood. However, the underlying truth of the film is not of resisting the force of destruction that is ‘woman’, or of resisting the corruption of manhood at her hand, but of penetrating the apathy needed to survive in an environment ruled by commercial desire, not need.... [tags: Feminism] :: 7 Works Cited | 2133 words (6.1 pages) | Term Papers | [preview] | ||
| Feminism in "Top Girls" and "The Handmaid's Tale" Essay - Both Top Girls and The Handmaid’s Tale relate to contemporary political issues and feminism. Top Girls was written by Caryl Churchill, a political feminist playwright, as a response to Thatcher’s election as a first female British Prime Minister. Churchill was a British social feminist in opposition to Thatcherism. Top Girls was regarded as a unique play about the challenges working women face in the contemporary business world and society at large. Churchill once wrote: ‘Playwrights don’t give answers, they ask questions’, [6] and I think she is proving it in Top Girls: she brings up many tough questions over the course of the play, including what success is and if women’s progress in the w... [tags: Feminism] :: 10 Works Cited | 1644 words (4.7 pages) | Powerful Essays | [preview] | ||
| Equity Feminism for the Next Generation Essay - Still Enduring: Equity Feminism for the Next Generation Webster defines feminism as both "the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes" and "organized activity on the behalf of women's rights and interests" (Webster 418). Equality of the sexes (in terms of rights) and the furthering of women's rights are seemingly positive aspirations; yet people tend to describe feminism using negative terms, and feminism today has acquired a bad reputation. "Radical" and "extremists" are adjectives commonly applied to feminism as a whole, when, in truth, feminists who adopt extreme positions constitute the minority.... [tags: Feminism Feminist] :: 4 Works Cited | 1919 words (5.5 pages) | Strong Essays | [preview] | ||
| Essay on The Ethics of Feminism - The Ethics of Feminism Just seeing more of life, just recognizing that there are an awful lot of things that are common among people. There are certain things that you come to learn promote a better life and better relationships and more personal fulfillment than other things that in general tend to do the opposite, and the things that promote these things, you would call them morally right.[1] The normative questions that come to fill one’s life, in this woman’s account, presume goals and methods that are inseparable from the history that creates a person as s/he is.... [tags: Ethics Morality Feminism Feminist Essays] :: 15 Works Cited | 4561 words (13 pages) | Powerful Essays | [preview] | ||
| Pornography and Feminism Essay - Pornography and Feminism It is constantly surrounding us. It cannot be evaded. Pornography is an initial part of the entertainment mainstream. Whether it is in magazines, or in music, pornography is gender-prejudiced. The word pornography can be defined as the depiction of erotic behavior intended to cause sexual excitement. Degrasion towards women is its only accomplishment. The poses they take and the acts they perform are all part of the discrimination that women face . The only thing pornography offers is negative effects on women.... [tags: Feminism Feminist Women Criticism] | 1379 words (3.9 pages) | Strong Essays | [preview] | ||
| Define Feminism Essay - Define Feminism "A woman should be barefoot, pregnant and chained to a stove," stated Ben Glantz, a high school senior. Drew Pershing, another senior, also shared a joke, "What does a woman do after she leaves a battered shelter. The dishes...if she knows what's good for her!" Daily jokes and comments such as these, no matter how harmless, are detrimental to the status of women and a dangerous undermining of their accomplishments. Shared by both genders, sexually discriminative comments are widely accepted in society as normal and harmless.... [tags: Feminism Feminist Women Criticism] :: 10 Works Cited | 1877 words (5.4 pages) | Powerful Essays | [preview] | ||
| Feminism Essay - Feminism There has been a great deal of discussion over the Feminist & Gender Studies Program changing its name to Gender & Sexuality. The basis of this debate is over the exclusion of the word "feminist" from the title. It is important to question how this modification will affect the direction of the program and the feminist movement as a whole. The categorization of this area of study must be sensitive to the complex social issues it represents. Bringing the term "gender" to the fore-front, and focusing less on women, is a necessary "part of the attempt by contemporary feminists to stake claim to a certain definitional ground, to insist on the inadequacies of existing bodies of men" (Sco... [tags: Feminism Sociology Essays] | 1514 words (4.3 pages) | Strong Essays | [preview] | ||
| Feminism Essay - Feminism The notion of difference among the sexes has been studied extensively in terms of cognition and brain activity. An MRI can back these claims, showing male and female brains 'lighting up' in different locations based upon different stimuli. Anyone with a close relationship to a child can attest to the fact that they were born with certain traits. Perhaps their nephew is very shy, while their niece has never met a stranger. In other words, some difference among individuals is innate, fundamental.... [tags: Women Rights Feminist Papers] | 3953 words (11.3 pages) | Powerful Essays | [preview] |
Related Searches
Feminism Other Things Mother Earth Historically Natural Disasters Peasants Decision-making Miners Judith Mentality
“Where the nurturing image had once been a cultural constraint, the new image of mastery allowed the clearing of forests and the damming of rivers.”
Judith Plant continues on this idea by stating that one theory bases this tendency for domination over nature on the human fear that nature is more powerful than human beings. By controlling nature, in a way society can seemingly assume power over life. Thus, “women, with their biological connections with life-giving, are a constant reminder of the reality of human mortality.”
Ecofeminism, as thought to be by Judith Plant, gives women and men common ground. Women have learned to think equally to men, and while women may have been associated with nature, this does not imply that they have been socialized in a differently from men. Judith believes the social system is not good for neither men nor women. Yet because we ourselves are the social system we need to find some common ground from which to be “self conscious, to enable us to recognize and affect the deep structure of our relations, with each other and with our environment.”
The point of view presented by Judith Plant is very persuasive. Although some may see it as somewhat biased because of the fact that it is written by a woman, in my opinion it is far from that. Plant simply states a fact, one which in many ways should be obvious to us. She follows that with persuasive arguments and factual evidence.
Not only women but also men, and nature itself need a new view of ourselves, while we begin to fix our relations with each other and also with “Mother Earth”. This view is a reflection of what we are learning through the study of ecology as well as feminism. We must realize the consequences of our actions before it is too late. We often do not realize the effect that even the slight actions which we partake in each day have upon the entire earth. So how is it that we oversee so many things which are part of the earth, and will we be able to make a change for the better before it is too late?
Ecofeminism Essay
Ecofeminism
The first part of this essay will outline the main arguments of the feminist ecologists and deal with the concept of Ecofeminism. The second part will sketch the main arguments of Rosemary Radford Reuther book, "Gaia and God". The final part of this essay will analyze: Starhawk's The Spiral Dance, "Witchcraft as Goddess Religion", The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, and "the Descent of Inanna" and examine the pros and cons of the position that a return to goddess worship would save our planet.
Part One
Ecofeminisms
Ecofeminism is a multicultural perspective on the interconnectedness of social systems of domination and the domination of non-human nature. It recognizes the cultural and political links between ecology and feminism. Ecofeminism is a value system, a social movement, and a practice. It criticizes the mainstream green movement and challenges the fundamental ideas of the western patriarchy about women, nature science, and "development".
Ecofeminism is an admixture of ecology and feminism. A French feminist, Francoise d'Eaubonne, first used it in 1974 (Mellor, 1997 p. 44). Ecological feminism focuses on gender as a category of analysis and the perspectives of women are integral to its analysis, it is committed to the importance of valuing and preserving ecosystems. The movement recognizes all social systems of domination: racism, classicism, ageism, and sexism as interconnecting.
The world's dominant socioeconomic and political structure is the western patriarchal capitalism. The system is based on hierarchies of class, race, and gender and the domination and exploitation of nature. It is insensitive to social concepts of justice, equity, and freedom. Economic, political, and social structures, the world's dominant ideologies, and values support patriarchy. The belief in a universal reasonable man, and the reliance on modern science and technology enable white middle class men to dominate and exploit "others".
Patriarchy is a system of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress, and exploit women. It is based on an ideology of men's superiority over women/nature. The subordination takes various forms: discrimination, disregard, insult, control, exploitation, oppression, and violence. Science and religion support patriarchal assumptions of male superiority over nature and women as biologically determined. In pre-patriarchal, pagan societies, women and nature were worshiped as life-givers. In Christian belief, God creates man in his image, and women and nature for the benefit of man. "Adam is Soul, Eve is Flesh".
Ecological feminists (Gaard, Heller) argue that culture defines the connection of women and nature. Men are as much part of nature as women are. However, the patriarchal culture identifies women with body, sex, irrationality, passivity, and earth. It is decided that women are closer to nature. Men identify with spirit, mind, action, and power; they are rational, stable, reliable,...
Loading: Checking Spelling
0%Read more
0 Replies to “Ecofeminism Essay”