Practice for a better planet

There is so many ways one can make a difference in the world even by changing one thing different in your daily routine.  The environment deserves our attention and so does the oppression of minorities.  The biggest thing I’m working on is the personal attention towards being an Eco Feminist.  Feminist believe,  “The personal is political.”   So here are some different things to think about and some of my own experiences doing my part as an Eco Feminist.   I am choosing a personal is political approach to minimizing waste and to go completely vegan.  I think it will also easier to do a minimal waste when eating on a vegan diet. I recycle but I don’t have a compost in the city it can get tricky.  I feel by sharing my experience on my Instagram stories and  on FB along with baby step options on how to move yourself to a more sustainable diet and helping the environment at the same time.  By knowing how many animals could be saved; or identifying a culture that sexualizes women and meat.  

Some of my story ideas and struggles.

So I saved all my glass containers to put my grains in And bought vegetables only.  You know it’s been hard. I think my perception of myself not eating dairy or meat was a little off.  I noticed my cravings. I work in a restaurant and even though I think I rarely think about it, I do. I didn’t eat any meat but I unconsciously ate some yogurt not even thinking about it.  Then I realized I put cream in my coffee. I switch it up and hadn’t put that much pressure on my consumption of animal products. I don’t have butter often but when I do I use it.  It is difficult but not impossible to start vegan, but if you have never done a change of diet it may be easier in increments.  I have to say being allergic to eggs has kept me alert of things my body likes and doesn’t. I think many may not have notice the signs our bodies have to the pollutants in our food. I will be posting some facts about pesticides and how to help our policy on different gmos and pesticides.  Are these gmos and pesticides that individuals know about.  The animals are even eating these foods too.  So there is no really getting away from it unless we know where we get are food.  Place is a huge factor to think about for how different cultures eat and whether they have the means to eat vegetarian or not.  I have a privilege to have a choice to not eat meat and to be a vegan for a week.  So I will work on  getting a deeper look of how intersectionality and  place matters to how we live as feminists and environmentalists.

Analysis of my praxis

Day one of going vegan was difficult even being in an urban setting with vegan options available everywhere.  Which essentially is pure laziness on my part for not participating in a more vegan diet.  Being vegan is a game of staying connected and conscious to my own privilege of the choice.  I have to stay reminded of why I am choosing to be vegan.  The biggest one being sexualization and politics of the meat industry.  It opened up an even bigger dialogue for me on why as a woman I don’t want to participate in it.   So this was my main mantra on why I have kept my Eco Feminist vegan diet.

Day 2

Day 2 was a little easier and I shared different stories on Instagram because that’s been my social platform for social justice.  I tagged other friends and companions who are vegan and share similar passions. In Chicago there was some eco feminist art shows on the sexulization on meat and why you should stop eating meat for a week.  I posted picture and asking questions like “how many days did you think about eating meat?”  “Did you think of meat today?”  I got many responses say what they thought of.  This engagement got me thinking what other Campaigns could look like for me and really digging into the platform of my choice.  So using this will also help me to gain knowledge of other humans in a more positive light.

Day 3

I am a vegetarian so not eating meat Is fine for me but naturally When I drink coffee I ask for cream.  It has been a challenge but it is working.  To be honest not eating animal products has really changed the glow of my skin.  Am I allergic to milk and other dairy products?  I think so. Plus not to mention when digging deeper milk has way to many hormones and is not good for the human body plus everyone is allergic.

Day 4–7

As my skin cleared up and my social platform was becoming more interesting and fulfilling.  This past week has helped me to see how much more energy I have and how I have had more fun living my higher purpose.

Analysis

This way of being isn’t sustainable for everyone.   We must look at our own abilities as individuals and what is sustainable for one community changes for another.  Intersectionality has a huge play in me seeing this be a better change for me. I have many sensitivity’s and can help others see they may be better to. Or eat certain things.

E

From the Chipko Movement and the Green Belt Movement to the Standing Rock Movement we have seen women stand up for the Mother Earth.  Wangari Maathai, Kenya’s foremost environmentalist and women’s rights advocate, founded the Green Belt Movement on Earth Day, 1977, encouraging the farmers (70 percent of whom are women) to plant “Green Belts” to stop soil erosion, provide shade, and create a source of lumber and firewood.  With this movement came massive attracts. She was harassed and threatened daily for her activism. At Standing Rock “Native women say they are protecting the basic human right to clean water. But for some indigenous activists, the internationally recognized movement has become a larger fight against a history of misogyny, racism and abuse by law enforcement.” Women at Standing Rock have gone through many traumatic experience while fighting for the water of a Nation.  The name of the Chipko movement comes from the word ’embrace’, as the villagers hugged the trees, and prevented the contractors’ from felling them. These courageous women who started the fight for protection of land fought for the right for women
to have a safer more stable environment to live and sustain the communities.

Without the web of intersectionality some may be completely unaware of theses movements and the degree of which black women and indigenous women are discriminated against because of their beliefs their race, their sex, all pieces to remember when speaking of the deeper oppressions of women and nature around the world.  As eco-feminists are looking forward we need the sight of intersectionality to make changes on this planet. If we don’t see the crossroads of racism and sexism then how will we see our own Mother Earth being raped of it’s sustenance. Women around the world feel pains of the earth in their souls and it is no wonder why women are associated with nature.   The Chibakio Movement was started to stop the deforestation of the south in India. It would have destroyed a culture. A whole community would have been destroyed along with the land if it hadn’t been the movement of visionaries. I feel that women are visionaries. We feel so deeply and can see the impact happening before it happens. Too much is at stake for our planet and our future kin to sit back and think only of ourselves is foreign to many women.

The movement celebrates 45 years on March 27th this year.  Here are the communities determined to protect the land.

‘ Embrace the trees and
Save them from being felled;
The property of our hills,
Save them from being looted.’

The Chipko protests in Uttar Pradesh achieved a major victory in 1980 with a 15-year ban on green felling in the Himalayan forests of that state by the order of Mrs Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India.  (Edugreen) I feel that men used the word “tree hugger” in a hostile way through the 80s. Using it to make fun of people and this has been used to degrade people who care about the environment and has been used in hate speech.   Without the knowledge of intersectionality involving people and the environment, eco-feminists may not be able to seriously address the behavior of individuals that act in hateful and just plain out wrong ways towards women and the planet. Crenshaw speaks of the unseen biases women of color face daily that we are (many people are unaware of their own implicit biases).

https://youtu.be/akOe5-UsQ2o

As Kimberlé Crenshaw states we just don’t see the Cross roads because we aren’t aware of them.  If we are aware of the Crossroads of discrimination then how can we be aware of the crossroads of the destruction of life and the planet.  Marginalized groups aren’t able to get resources and things they need to better themselves/their communities and environment because the greater populace is dismissive of those being marginalized.  When Indigenous women are being devalued and harmed by police enforcement and by our very government what is clear to me is this is also who is hurting the land and the jeopardizing the clean water supplies.  Where will we be if we don’t fight for the right of women and those that are marginalized all over the world. When we stick up for one we stand up for many more. The more we educate on environmental issues and intersectionality the crossroads of mutuality the more we may see change.

These movements are still being threatened daily.  The Greenbelt movement faces threats upon threats to be destroyed.  This happens to missions to save our earth as well as the discriminating rhetoric of being dismantled my greed and hierarchical male dominated sources.

I absolutely agree that disempowerment and environmental degradation are behind the material deprivations and cultural losses of the marginalized and the poor. Looking at the deeper picture no land or thing should be privatized or ruled it is for everyone not just a selected few.  When things are privatized it leaves those that can’t afford filtered clean water (that should be free) who will suffer first and those who suffer the most are the marginalized.

https://www.greenbeltmovement.org/ click on link to support the Green belt mission by planting a tree or buying a tree for someone to plant!

http://ddnews.gov.in/people/%E2%80%98chipko-movement%E2%80%99-completes-45th-anniversary

Intersectionality

&

Ecofeminism

Patricia Hill Collins built upon her theory, arguing that multiple forms of oppression connect to form a “matrix of domination” – just as identities overlap, so too do the hierarchies by which structural power imbalance is maintained.

Hey there if you’re just joining in, this blog is about the importance of the environment and the equality of women and those that are marginalized through race, class, sex, religion, gender and much more.  In this section I will discussion the importance of ecofeminism and intersectionality. But first I want to reintroduce myself.  As a writer with multiple diagnosed learning disabilities one being dyslexia and another being adhd. It’s been a challenge to maintain a B average. I don’t  give up easily so I will do my best at drawing a clear picture for you. Where am I in the intersectionality model and where are you?  I am first a white American, woman, queer, Jew, poor and middle class family system, 2nd generation Eastern European;  I am privileged to be white and not privileged to be a women.  Does knowing this matter? Does it matter for the environment?  Yes!. Intersectionality and the way it is taught and used is important. In fact without it we will discriminate others and become apart of the hierarchical system that destroys communities and their environment. Even if we don’t consciously want to.  Let’s take you the reader for example. Who are you? Where do you come from? What is your skin color? Are you religious? Where do you live? Are you male or female? Are you LGBTQIA? All these questions matter,  to ecofeminists without them we would find a huge gap for tackling injustices around the world and not just injustice for humans but injustice for nature too.  So you may ask yourself what is ecofeminism, what is intersectionality and why both? Ecofeminism fights for the struggles and oppression of women and nature. One reason is because women are believed to be closer to nature and life on earth is an interconnected web, not a hierarchy. A healthy, balanced ecosystem, including human and nonhuman inhabitants, must maintain diversity. (Ecofeminism beliefs) If we are to understand diversity we must use intersectionality to help understand and realize feminism isn’t just about the equality of women because all women’s experiences are different.  There are many layers to intersectionality. The lens of intersectionality allows for the overlap between identities of race, sex, class, sexuality, etc. to be fully incorporated in structural analysis, thus providing feminist analysis with the perspective to encompass the true range of all women’s lives, the scope to understand all women’s experiences.

Here is a photo of a map of intersectionality.

Intersectionality is a framework designed to explore the dynamic between co-existing identities (e.g. woman, Black) and connected systems of oppression (e.g. patriarchy, white supremacy). The term was created by Kimberlé Crenshaw and challenges an assumption continuing to undermine the feminist movement – that women are a homogeneous group, equally positioned by structures of power.  For an effective feminist movement that tackles the very root of persisting inequalities, in the words of Audre Lorde, “there can be no hierarchies of oppression.”

This statement by Audre Lorde is important.  With hierarchies we value one thing more than the other.  Intersectionality has no room for hierarchy and neither does the ecofeminist movement. This movement began as a metaphorical and conceptual tool used to highlight the inability of a single-axis framework work to capture the lived experiences of black women.  Feminists and eco feminists intersectionality attempts to attend to the variety of ways in which women live and the range of circumstances, which influence their often vastly differing experiences. (Cacildia Cain)

I want to clearly state my findings on the matter and let you in on a secret I love the environment.  Telling you how much the environment means to me and as an environmentalist and feminist, intersectionality is important.  A friend of mine who is half black and white comes from multiple backgrounds. She once stated that we all benefit from oppression, even the oppressed.  The vicious cycle goes around and around and around. Intersectionality offered a ‘new twist’ on critical ecofeminism by offering a “nodal point” (Lykke 2005) for disparate approaches to contribute to ecofeminist scholarship and explore the effects of sexism, class, homophobia, caste systems, and racism on women and their relationship with the environment.  (Intersectionality reading). If ecofeminist want to help the planet in a deeper sense we need to be using intersectionality as the lens we are looking out of.

Ecofeminists need to be looking at the global south and land degradation with the oppression of women with a different lense than the women who are suffering from land degradation in flint Michigan.  These women come from different backgrounds and the racism, sexism, caste and religion is different. The black women of Flint Michigan who are marginalized the most here are being attacked in a different way.  The lead in the water and the poison is hurting predominantly poor black women. They are having miscarriages and are becoming sterile, unable to get access to fresh water and water filters they can’t afford. While this is caused from the hierarchical stand point of white supremacy and patriarchal domination.  Something Audre Lorde says we need to abolish all together. In this we can see that women and the environment are being overseen and the ones that are suffering the most are lower class marginalized black women. Without looking at our prejudices we are missing the point. It isn’t just about justice for women and the environment it’s about taking on racism, sexism, religion, castes, and so much more we may not be looking at.  We are fighting a system through many different lens and no one community or person is the same.

GENDER EQUALITY AND STATE ENVIRONMENTALISM

Gender inequality may be linked to the degradation of our planet.  At least this is the research being talked about in Kari Norgaard and Richard York’s “Gender Equality and State Environmentalism.”  Largely absent from older debates is awareness of, or attention to, the gendered nature of environmental politics. Their research On countries such as Norway and Singapore has brought light on the subject.  The two leading countries in industrial but are polar opposites of environment and gender equality.  Norway with more gender equality and less sexism has not only fulfilled the environmental treaties of the Global Eco, are more impactful on the environment globally.  Where as Singapore is industrially high carbon emissions footprint almost double the amount of over 13% of the worlds emissions and with very little women in leadership roles it gives you the clue that maybe gender equality is important to the servical of the planet and mankind in general.   “Existing work in the area of gender and the environment and ecological feminism suggests several reasons that nations with greater gender equality may be more prone to protecting the environment.”(508)

What do you think?  Do you think women around the world care way more about the environment?  Women do care more about the environment statistically and here’s why.    They have been and still are more affected by the disturbance of nature.  As described in this quote.

“Women have more pro-environmental values, are more risk averse, are more likely to participate in social movements, typically suffer disproportionately from environmental degradation, and sexism and environmental degradation can be mutually reinforcing processes.” Norgaard and York.  

A photo of First Lady Erdoğan: “Our relation with the environment is, above all, an issue of morals. It is not an option but a necessity for Muslims to protect the environment, defend animals’ rights and live modestly without wasting.”  

It’s refreshing and exciting to read of leading women in the world and it’s important to talk about.  First Lady Erdoğan’s “zero waste project” is underway in Turkey and making huge changes to laws and policies.  She is speaking to the sensibilities  of many eco-feminists around the world.

A photo in Turkey of the significant change on the “zero waste” initiative.

In a culture that over values masculine qualities we set the stage for Trump and Putin.  The stage of violence and war with guns, border laws and the fight for oil in Venezuela or the fight for Gaza and taking more land from Palestine.

  This research of Norgaard and York indicates that women are more likely than men to express support for environmental protection and that women consider a variety of environmental risks, from nuclear power to toxic substances, to be more serious than do men.

Syrian schoolchildren run past heavily damaged buildings in the rebel-held are of Jobar, on the eastern outskirts of the capital Damascus, on April 30, 2016. / AFP / AMER ALMOHIBANY (Photo credit should read AMER ALMOHIBANY/AFP/Getty Images)

Women are consciously more aware of the responsiblity for future generations.  As we are the ones literally giving birth to a nation and have too much invested to see it fail.  Explanations for the gender gap in environmental concern have built on this work, suggesting, for example, that women are more concerned about the environment because they have been socialized to be family nurturers and caregivers (Hamilton 1990).

Let me just say that I was not groomed to be a politician but I think I may have been more inclined if I saw more female leaders growing up. Women in politics have been held back and with less women in power the less we see happening to protect our environment.

Without women like First Lady Erdoğan and Brundtland  and other women around the world fighting for the environment where would we be?

Women like First Lady Erdoğan and Bruntland are paving the way.  Bruntland  made huge steps bringing women to more levels of leadership in creating change in the environment for Norway in the 70’s.  She created new policies that led to change on a global scale.  There are more women in politics since the late 1970’s.  This can be seen in the chart below.

This is what the stats are of women in parliament.

The key to closing the gender gap? Putting more women in charge! This article was amazing describing the need for more women in office and having more women presidents. I love that this is such a true statement. Women hire more women.  When Norgaard and York talk about Norway and Singapore on equality and emissions it’s mind blowing. There is way more evidence pointing to women’s impact on the world when they are in higher up positions.  

The gender gap and the state of the environment are connected.  The link below helps mine the real gaps to help create a sustainable planet and a world that works for everyone.  Women leaders and more women in charge of changing environmental policies.  Check out more oon the “Zero Waste Program”. 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2016/10/27/7-important-facts-about-the-global-gender-gap/#772e47a34c22

Links about the global gender gaps

http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2017.pdf

https://money.cnn.com/2018/03/08/news/economy/gender-equality-economy-environment-opinion/index.html

Zero waste initiative.

https://www.turkeyhomes.com/blog/post/turkey-s-zero-waste-project-and-efforts-to-protect-the-environment

http://www.tim.org.tr/en/press-room-news-tim-launched-zero-waste-in-exports-campaign.html

Abortion isn’t a light word!  As a topic it can be rather sensitive and arguable. Even the toughest off feminists have given “it” sensitive names such as “the most difficult decision” “tragic”.  (Jessica Valenti) I won’t discredit the feeling aspect or the moral piece being hard or tragic but even these names by feminist seem to come with the cost of one’s moral compass. Isn’t it time we cut through the BS? In the article Abortion isn’t about the right to privacy. It’s about women’s right to equality. Jessica Valenti says “it’s time for the pro-choice movement to lose the protective talking points and stop dancing around the bigger truth: Abortion is good for women.”  In this discussion on abortion lets center topics of morality and destruction of our ecosystem and why in eco-feminists Hawkins says it’s  tied to women’s reproductive Right. Eco feminist Hawkins takes us into the extinction of species to the extinction of mankind and why it should be wrapped up in women’s equality and their reproductive Rights around the world.

“One of the most important issues in biomedical ethics is the controversy surrounding abortion. This controversy has a long history and is still heavily discussed among researchers and the public—both in terms of morality and in terms of legality.”

There are 3 different standpoints of abortion.  Traditional pro-life, pro-choice and the middle.  There are many different extremes to abortion.  Traditional pro-lifers believe a baby is formed at conception, were as pro-choice believe that it’s not til after birth.  The middle is they believe an abortion is just is certain cases such as rape. I think the biggest thing I learned in the readings was thet morality is taught and it by a law and the way we were brought up on how we might decide.

Morality is that neverending conversation of law and ethics.  We can dive into the morality of abortion which has been a topic of traditional account for centuries.   Women have been, dominated by this topic of right and wrong under the pressures of white male supremacy for a thousands of years.   Isn’t not allowing women the rights to their own reproductive system immoral? Lets not forget about the Women who are suffering the most from these laws. Women in 3rd world countries who are closest to areas, not only suffering from land degradation and poor health, but from inequality. Hawkins talks about land degradation being perpetuated by lower class people in poverty.  When the land doesn’t have any more to give they move on to survive.  “This planet has over 1 billion people in poverty”.  (Hawkins). Many women in these places don’t have access to safe birth control or safe health care. It could most likely be a topic of the privilege in this case. What about the destruction of our planet from a moral high ground that too many people will kill us all.  Hawkins keeps a very high level of care by sharing her passion for all life.  That it takes being aware of everything as a whole then as separate with quasi rights. I think what I’m really learning from Hawkins is that everything is precious but we honestly don’t treat everything as precious.  Hawkins asks her reader to dig into a deeper sense of mother.  To be smart and good to the children you have and plan for life.

Women in Nepal.

Telling women by law what they can  and can’t  do with their bodies is by definition a form of  slavery.

Slavery comes in many forms and this is just another way women have been controlled and just maybe how the Mother Earth is being controlled.

Many feminists believe Abortion is a necessity for millions of women worldwide, for their health, for their wellbeing, for their dreams of a better tomorrow. The reality is that a woman will seek an abortion—legal or otherwise—almost instinctively and in self defense. A woman will do this when an unwanted pregnancy presents an excessive strain on her or her family’s physical, emotional or economic resources. Throughout the ages, courageous women have made it their right and indeed their responsibility. In a civilized society we owe women the legal right to make their decision safely.
http://feminist.org/rrights/

Eco-feminist Hawkins shares their view on abortion with less of a dramatic approach and high ground for abortion.  Hawkins talks about the environment and her love for all life. She writes that too little attention has been given the moral implications, from an environmentalist perspective and whether or not it is morally okay to bring up another child in the world.    To put it bluntly Hawkins speaks from the legal standpoint of the earth the animal and the water and the air. In the last two hundred years our planet has grown from one billion to 7 billion. This amount of growth to environmentalist is not sustainable. We must take different looks and start changing the traditional thinking that has been dominated by the white supremacy. The land degradation from globalization along with resources being depleted by everyone rich and poor.  We have taken a impatient look at overpopulation. Overpopulation has turned to the abuse of animals and animals being genetically modified to grow faster to feed more people. How is this ethically or morally ok?. How Is it healthy? As of present time, recognition of our connectedness with all other life on this planet reinforces the need for abortions. (Hawkins) I bring up this quote and the talk of the chicken because it seems so separate, but it’s not. With overpopulation we are slowly harming ourselves and destroying creatures.  So many creatures have gone extinct due to our growth as humans. Everyone has a place here but maybe not for much longer. I agree that eco-feminists can talk about abortions more and create more dialogue about the destruction of this awesome planet. I believe that it is partially due to the education of contraceptives and sexual health. Women without rights to their own bodies are slaves and so is the planet.

Animals by law have quasi rights.  Rights to stay alive.  So a rhino that is going extinct can’t really be protected though morality says don’t kill that animal.  Morality is different from place to place.  Will Animals  be able to save themselves from our own destruction?

True fact no animals are found after natural disasters such as tsunamis.  The animals are normallly found way up in the mountains.  One researcher says it’s because they know the earth better than we do.

Take a look at the world clock for reference on the destruction of forests, the pollution of forests and the population of humans.

http://www.poodwaddle.com/worldclock/

I agree that abortion isn’t just necessary because people will get them anyway, or because our privacy is important – but because women’s desire to seek the life they want in the way that men can is our right and its purpose, not a side effect.

Society benefits when women can commit to education and work and dreams without having at the back of their mind that maybe it’s all provisional, because at any moment an accidental pregnancy could derail them for life.  The planet benefits when women can commit to education and work and dreams without having at the back of their minds that it’s all for nothing the world is done for anyway. (Jessica Valenti)

The sexualization of women and animals does not come as a any surprise when reading The Sexual Politics of Meat, by Carol J. Adams.  Oppression comes in many forms. She describes meat as a “symbol for what is not seen but is always there – patriarchal control of animals”. [ii] “What is not seen but is always there?” Let’s think upon the view of it being the demoralization of everything but the white male dominated ad space.  It shows that the space that I’m in and the advertisements that I see are for my white male counterparts. Adams describes white men as being the dominant over all humans and non-humans, this includes women, people of color, lgbtqia. This is looking into the views of intersectionality of white man ruling over everything else.  Take the photo below for example.

This picture is a female pig being sucked dry by a dominating pig as all the other little pigs waste away.  The bigger and deeper look at this photograph is how pornographic it really is and how it violates women as whole.  Adams speaks of it in her book as anthropornographic. It is an older white women on her back getting raped for all she’s worth by a huge ass white pig who has literally kicked everything aside for its own benefit.  For one in natural selection that happens, yes. But the mother wouldn’t just allow one pig to kill all her babies. in this case nobody is winning but the big fat gluttonous pig. The others being all the other parts that create a better community.  Is this supposed to be funny? I find the image grotesque and disturbing. This is stating that the white man is more deserving of the earth’s resources than anyone else. Another image that seriously is making fun and demoralize lower working class and the woman’s mother body.  Maybe even the sense of raping Mother Earth as well. This reminds me of Carols insight in “War of compassion” Many of the arguments that separate caring into deserving/undeserving or now/later or “first those like us”/”only then those unlike us,” constitute a politics of the dismissive. Being dismissive is inattention with an alibi. It asserts “this does not require my attention,” or “this offends my sensibility,” (i.e., “we are so different from animals how can you introduce them into the discussion?”). Genocide, itself, benefits from the politics of the dismissive.
When someone asks the questions on if animals matter, do you think it can be referenced alongside the “boys will be boys”? Now hear me out! You turn a blind eye to what you don’t want to really talk about or look at because it doesn’t affect you? When we say “we are different from animals” we are saying the same thing “boys will be boys” The dismissal of an advertisement that dismantles women into meat objects is stating that a women is basically dead  and things that are dead don’t feel.  So there for women and animals don’t matter. When men see an advertisement that endorses the eating of meat making the man manly. It says eat meat, be manly and take whatever you want because your a man. Add that message with a scantily dressed women and there is a deeper message being portrayed.  I’m easy and I can be taken. As described from Adams here. “First, let’s acknowledge that whenever whiteness appears, it is a choice. Earlier I referred to the whiteness of the feminized pigs in the ads. That is a deliberate choice. Black women are often depicted as “wild” animals who have to be captured. Meanwhile in advertisements (and t-shirts, wall paintings, billboards, etc.) for barbecues, pigs are often depicted not just as white women, but as “slutty” white women, i.e., white trash.”  

In Carol Adams slideshow she carefully chose Lady Gaga White Jewish Woman in a meat bikini. She is photoshopped in good shape and very attractive. She has a come fuck me face and is basically half dead.  Meaning the animal she is wearing as clothing is dead. I don’t get that at first. I’m too busy first trying to figure out if it’s really Lady Gaga and why she would do this ad. She has literally become the cow to eat.  Lisa Kemmerer says Adams holds no punches in her analysis of how these ads sugar-coat the flesh industries. “Anthropornography gives you a hooker on your plate. Nonhuman animals are whoring for you. Nonhumans want you, too. Suffering? Slaughtering? Inhumane acts? No. They want it” (p.111).  How about this view? The cow/woman is forever pregnant til death and the dead cow/woman the model is wearing has died to only serve one purpose. The purpose for future destruction of animals and our planet. Would this model have done this advertisement if she really knew? Could you imagine if you were a cow. Your last time being outside you see your best friend being worn by a human as your on your way to the slaughterhouse.  To think that my whole existence as a living creature is to serve the male white dominating population. Francis Bacon spoke of reversal role. We are all meat, we are potential carcasses’ said Bacon, ‘whenever I am at a butcher’s I always think it astonishing it’s not me hanging on the hook, must be pure chance’. As Deleuze explains, ‘meat is not dead flesh, it retains all the sufferings and assumes all the colours of living flesh. It manifests such convulsive pain and vulnerability […]. Meat is the common zone of man and beast, their zone of indiscernibility’.[iv]

With this last photo I’m truly shocked by what I’m seeing.  It’s another woman giving birth to a burger a man a white man is going to eat.  The exploitation of women/cows giving birth to just have their baby be ripped away and shipped off to be eaten.  Is this how we treat our children? Most likely if I’m asking that question it’s most likely true. This photo is just disputing to think I would seriously take the sacred most beautiful thing I can do as woman is create and a white man has me basically giving birth to something he eats.  I say and bring up white men because you don’t see these advertisements geared towards any other race but the white male race. This is were intersectionality of one specific race white male dominating homophobic rhetoric and oppressing women by calling them animals and making them sexual objects, people of color are merely animals to die.  I am going back to Adams question of change. How do we make those whose suffering doesn’t matter, matter?

The photo above is of the iconic jolly fat doughboy, or what seems to resemble the doughboy.  I see a hat with no face and a less chubbier version.   In fact this photo of a white creature looks more  lean like the lean meat boy.  This photo detaches us from the experience of the meat being from an actual animal.  It is complicity to eating meat when the slaughter house and farms are out of sight.  The oversized knife with an oversized piece of meat also reminds me of the reference “cutting off more than we can chew.” How we are wasting more than we need.  “Statistics show that the average household wastes about 21.7% of meat.  Needlessly killing billions of animals a year.” (Killclock)

Finding gender biased eating photos wasn’t as easy as finding sexism videos geared towards men eating meat.

These advertisements for Burger King, Carl’s Jr., McDonald’s we are seeing women sexily dressed or not dressed at all lying next to a stack of huge ass burgers. As seen below.

Curtin (1992) points to Adam’s analysis that women are often represented in pornographic ways as “meat” ready to be carved up.

In this 1978 addition of hustler magazine Larry Flynt “We will no longer hang women up like pieces of meat.”

The sexism and speciesism in this is evident to any feminist and it is important to be aware of the oppression that women and animals share. “Men athletes, and soldiers in particular are associated with red meat and activity. (“To have muscle you need to eat muscle”), where as women are associated with vegetables and passivity.” (Curtin)  The message this is sending is perpetuating the oppression women feel every day.  We are merely a piece of meat and rendered like the piece of meat we find in the grocery store.  Even in these advertisements I have become numb to it.  I think that the Super Bowl has a huge mix of animal oppression and women oppression with white male dominance.

“Feminists who politicize their care for animals see specific linkage between sexism and speciesism, between the oppression of women and the oppression of animals.” (Gaard)

Years ago I went with my friend upon his request to go to a dairy farm.  He had been a vegetarian for 2 years and my partner and I had been before we knew eachother.   Our friend was a kid from New York City never seen an animal up close before and wanted to.  He said I want to go to a farm.   I have to admit I hadn’t been to a farm in years when I was a little girl I saw the birth of a calf and I was mortifyied that people would eat a baby.  Let’s just say I was scared.  I knew how the animals were treated and didn’t know how it was going to be or look like at the farm we chose.  If your not aware of the process of dairy cows and factory farming.   Cows are often contained in small containers ripped away from the baby as soon as they are born.  The cows are either artificially inseminated, rapped and impregnated after 50 days of giving birth.  When I was on the farm the mothers started coming in and there was a calf about a day old crying for its mama.  I could sense the pain.  The cows calling back to the baby was never allowed to see their baby again.  It was heart wrenching.  I could see the tenderness in the cows eyes.  As they were all heading in the mothers crying for their babies made me think of what it would be like to be ripped away from my mother or vise versa.  To feel the empathy for these animals was such a special moment for me.  There were also these tiny little kittens on the grates as the cows were passing one was under foot of the large clumsy looking creature.  The kitten I thought may have been squooshed was completely acknowledged by the cow.  They are present to life I thought.  I think we can stay more visibly aware of what we are eating and the connection of vegetarianism and ecofeminism. “:most of the meat and dairy products in these countries do not come from mom-and-pop farms with little red barns. Factory farms are responsible for most of the 6 billion animals killed for food every year in the United States (Adams 1989, 6). It is curious that steriods are considered dangerous to athletes, but animals that have been genetically engineered and chemically induced to grow faster and come to market sooner are considered to be an entirely different issue.” Curtin

“Just as there are gender-specific reasons for women’s commitment to vegetarianism, for men in a patriarchal society moral vegetarianism can mark the decision to stand in solidarity with women. It also indicates a determination to resist ideological pressures to become a “real man.” Real people do not need to eat “real food,” as the American Beef Council would have us believe.” (Curtin)

It’s cold here in Chicago and just as easy to stay inside soaking up as much documentary’s as I can find without becoming to much of the indoor prune.  I’m getting restless in the cold months.  I live for the outdoors. I was in my snow gear running around Humboldt Park the park of beauty and depth. With out this park I don’t think I could survive the winters or the summers and I think I speak for majority of the neighborhood.  Come rain or shine people are in this park. Walking, jogging, biking, fishing, slacklining. You name it it’s probably happening. Right now it’s oviously snowy and full with remnants of the valentines vendors from last weeks Valentine’s Day.  My partner and I go ice skating late nights on the lagoon.  I love it.  It’s quiet amongst the trees and brush.  I can only hear my breathing and my heartbeat.  There’s the tree in The middle of the lagoon and the only time I can touch it. My ritual I guess you can say, I breath in deep and say thank you I needed this. 10 years ago I wouldn’t be doing this.

The oppression in the neighborhood spread and devastated the park years ago.  For a long time no one went there.  The community was really hurting.  It was hurting from the economy and the city didn’t care.  It was rough when the neighbors didn’t have the money to really survive.  It took a lot of special people helping the park get better.  The place is now being looked after by the Puerto Rican communities, as they lead other communities started to take it back.  A month from now the earth in Humboldt will unthaw and the people will emerge to embrace its greatness. The great sycamores that live there along with the might oak.  We need this park here in our urban settings to stay connected. It reminded me of Barbara Kingsolver’s book “Knowing Our Place”.

“It’s a privilege to live any part of one’s life in proximity to nature. It is a privilege, apparently, even to know that nature is out there at all. In the summer of 1996 human habitation on earth made a subtle, uncelebrated passage from being mostly rural to being mostly urban. More than half of all humans now live in cities. The natural habitat of our species, then, officially, is steel, pavement, streetlights, architecture, and enterprise — the hominid agenda.”  Kingsolver

I see this quote and forget how blessed and privileged we can be if we just look up and hug a tree.

Several years back there was a festival planned in Humboldt Park called “Riot Fest”.  It made huge headline with big name bands coming through and it brought a lot of people.   This festival had a lot of outsiders who didn’t care for the neighborhood they were in.  This created a lot of tension in the community.  Thousands of people came and by the end after the storm of Riot fest Humboldt Park was destroyed,  peoples yards were destroyed.  All from others not caring about other people’s places.

The bid went in for riot fest and the community banded together to say no.  The Alderman used it as a ploy for money in the neighborhood to boost moral and his own self esteem, but forgot about the damage it cost to the part and its ecosystem. Trees were damages along with natural indigenous species of flowers destroyed. Other communities banded together for the conservation of Humboldt Park. The festival was seen as oppressive and and uncaring of the community and its park.  

This is just one photo of the devastation of one festival.

The survival and conservation of these tiny urban parks of Chicago is just as important as the survival and conservation of the southwest.  It is important to know your roots and stay connected to nature. Terry Temptest William’s talks about the devastation of the Glen Canyon Dam In 1950’s shunting the flow of water from the Colorado River to the Grand Canyon.  When things are clouded by wealth and greed life takes fewer breaths to extinction. “The lands have been here for millions of years and they will certainly outlast us by another million years or more. But they will not remain ecologically intact without our vigilance, without our willingness to protect the wild.”  (Willams). I remember as a little girl when my love for birds of prey began. I drew them all the time. I researched al the different kinds. The year I found out of the eagle being on the endangered species list In 2nd grade. I remember I was so furious and upset that something so dear to me could be gone tomorrow.  I was about 6 or 7. I remember asking my mother about it and crying and asking her if I would ever see one again. As my mom consoled me she talked to me about nature and our need to protect it and to not take too much. My mom took me to a bird sanctuary a couple weeks later to make sure I saw a bald eagle. I thought to my little self about the things I may never see again in this world.   What things had been extinct because of man’s hunger to destroy and conquer instead of coexistence? My young heart and mind held great wisdom through these years. Connecting myself to my roots. The places from my beginning filled with stories of nature and how we are connected. That we must live in balance and not take to mucH.

Forty years ago, our national symbol was in danger of extinction throughout most of its range. Habitat destruction and degradation, illegal shooting, and the contamination of its food source, largely as a consequence of DDT, decimated the eagle population.

Bald Eagle Fact Sheet – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Ecofeminist philosophy can help bring to light different thinking for the ecosystem and the environment. It is our responsibility to raise awareness to the source.  If we are destroying the habitats of animals and of the waterways them are destroying ours.

“Those least responsible for climate change are most affected by it.” Vandana Shiva, Soil Not Oil, 2015.

Ecofeminism different views

Ecofeminism has many theories.   The common thread is to raise consciousness to the oppression of nature and oppression of women as a way to highlight the idea that both must be understood in order to properly recognize how they are connected. With an awareness comes change. I am intrigued by my own thoughts of the matter.  How will my activists heart create my own thinking to ecofeminism. There are yet again many schools of thought. Warren and Hobgood-Oster was different from Agarwal and Shiva.  As western feminist took a more radical and social approach with hierarchy and dualism so did Agarwals approach with the duality of human experience in the caste systems.  The duality of systems is that essentially the women of the poor communities were burdened with an even deeper responsibility.  The choice to take action and looking into the ways it is the women’s duty to voice and to be advocates of their communities.  As Agarwal mentions the role the women plays in the community being different amongst cultures.  Women’s connection to the natural world is vast. With men dominating the health systems and eliminating holistic medicine women are growing out of practice of old rituals and conservation of culture and our environment.  The Chipko movement started in 1970’s India. Chipko meaning hug “to hug” in this case the women of a small tribe started a movement to stop the deforestation of their forests. It Came from the Ghanaian  philosophy.  

“Ecofeminism claims that patriarchal structures justify their dominance through categorical or dualistic hierarchies: heaven/earth, mind/body, male/female, human/animal, spirit/matter, culture/nature, white/non-white. Established oppressive systems continue to manifest their abusive powers by reinforcing assumptions of these binaries, even making them sacred through religious and scientific constructs.”  Warren

https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/structural-instability/208705/bricolage-or-the-impossibility-of-pollution/

Here we look at a technology as part of the pollution in third world countries.

The approach of western feminism is different.  We are addressing different cultures, ideals, philosophies, stressors.  There is much to learn from other cultures and the destruction of ancient societies.  As seen above there are many sides to view for environmentalism and feminist views. 

 Shivas Is one of the most prominent of Gandhi’s intellectual heirs. A physicist and philosopher of science by training who has developed a considerable reputation as a champion of sustainability, self-determination, women’s rights, and environmental justice.  She was also involved in the Chipko movement.  She is full of action to see that the women of India are educated and have a voice to help save the communities of India and the world.  

Agarwal and Shiva’s approach is a more action based feminist/ environmentalist.  I feel it is more personable and acts with less drama. Women are not seen as victims and have made deeper impacts on their communities and environment.  Shivas approach to ecofeminism came through the philosophy of Gandhi and his action to keep people educated to their environment and to stay within their means.  ~Sustability

 Environmental degradation is the deterioration of water, soil and air with the destruction of ecosystems and habitats.  One of the biggest one being deforestation. Deforestation causes major environmental problems the most important being the carbon -oxygen balance of the atmosphere. The roots of trees hold on to the soil and prevents soil erosion. Deforestation results in loss of topsoil. The rain pattern is affected due to deforestation and it also increases the air pollution.   Other examples being manipulation of resources(mining), nuclear testing/waste, pollution of water. As we take a look into what things we are doing to stop environmental degradation as ecofeminism or Feminist environmentalism. Let’s look at how the women the Global South are being heavily affected by environmental degradation. In third world communities around the world, women manage water, food and sources for fuel, as well as forests and agricultural terrain. Women are the thread to their communities thriving.   Think about it really, In these developing countries women produce 60 to 80 percent of the food. That’s a huge amount. Women in the global south are affected by water shortages, water pollution and privatization along with deforestation. “In India an estimated 30 million or more people depend on the forest for its produce.”

Human induced pollution

Present day environmental pollution is the result of man’s unusual treatment of nature. With the gradual development of technology, there has been a growing tendency to alter and modify the natural world by man. The use of the natural world from the consumer’s perspective is the chief cause of environmental pollution.

Eco Feminism was said to be the start of the third wave movement.  When questions were being raisied about ecoglogy and that women and nature are heavily connected.  The biggest being that women are creators, mothers as you will like Mother Earth.  These kind of things ties us to certain ideas of oppression of nature and the opression of women.

The term was introduced by Francoise d’Eaubonne in her book Le Feminisme ou la Mort [Feminism or Death] published in 1974. She describes Ecofeminism relating to the oppression and domination of all subordinate groups (women, people of color, children, the poor) to the oppression and domination of nature (animals, land, water, air, etc.)

Ecology:

is the branch of biology which studies the interactions among organisms and their environment. Objects of study include interactions of organisms with each other and with abiotic components of their environment.

Like feminism ecofeminism is multi faceted.  No one theory is the say all there’s different circumstances for women everywhere.   The biggest thing is if we are all working torwards the greater good of humanity fighting for equal rights to women and bringing about topics worth bringing up.

  “What makes ecofeminism distinct is its insistence that nonhuman nature and naturism (i.e., the unjustified domination of nature) are feminist issues. Ecofeminist philosophy extends familiar feminist critiques of social isms of domination to nature.” Warren

We live in a hierarchical society taught to have a favorite ice cream and a favorite movie.  Asking someone what your favpatriarchal question.  It is embedded in us.  

“Ecofeminism’s constructive worldview replaces hierarchical dualisms with radical diversity and relationship, modeled on both biodiversity and the feminist emphasis on the strength of difference.” Warren

We live in a hierarchical society taught to have a favorite ice cream and a favorite movie.  Asking someone what your favorite ….. is a patriarchal question.  It is embedded in us.  It’s really easy to get caught up in the language and as we are brought of in the Patriarchy with the hierarchical dualism it’s hard to see what’s really happening. Eco feminists are reaching to be more radical and conscious about what’s happening.  As a women it’s easy to feel more and I think there is something said for that.  We feel what the earth feels.  If we are sick the earth is sick and if the earth is sick we are sick. “Ecofeminism’s constructive worldview replaces hierarchical dualisms with radical diversity and relationship, modeled on both biodiversity and the feminist emphasis on the strength of difference.” 

Food Deserts in Chicago

What is a food desert you ask?

A food desert is a place that doesn’t have proper access to a grocery store with real produce or food to maintain  a well balanced diet.   This means that majority of places named a food desert means there isn’t much for you to eat.  Your looking at gas station and merely fast food places.  For instance, according to a report prepared for Congress by the Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture, about 2.3 million people (or 2.2 percent of all US households) live more than one mile away from a supermarket and do not own a car.  Chicago’s percentage has been going down but that’s not to say from years of pushing in the right direction it has gotten just the same in back lash.  According to the VCU study, Chicago residents in communities with no supermarkets are 25–46 percent less likely to have a healthy diet compared to communities with the greatest access to stores. When really boiling down to it is money and consumerism.  The developers and people running the City of Chicago wasn’t caring for their citizens.  The real kicker about it is many didn’t even know the difference.  In history people didn’t leave the 5 miles from were they were born.  I’m pretty sure humans aren’t any different from thousands of years.  This is definitely crossing the boundaries of ecofeminism.  

Surprising enough Chicago has huge population  of food deserts.  This is a huge affect on African Americans and single mothers.  As an eco feminist I would like to raise awareness on this matter that many women are unable to give their children the proper food and care they deserve as human beings.  There are many long winded discussions being made about how to redirect and educated these areas to creating community gardens and really directing a love for the earth.  The more that we open up more conversations of oppression in this country it is a place of higher consciousness

 What connects women to nature?

There are many things that connect us to nature as a woman I am tied by mother hood and creation all together I feel that we have a lot in common.  In history the talk of patriarchal societies starting in the time of pastoralist and urbanization.  Not to get too off the topic but men were destructive and full of plans to destroy and oppress. Through this change men found fit to make themselves the center of it all.  Laws were written to rule over animals, earth, women, children and oppression started

Karen Warren talks about What connects women to nature and one way I’ve been able to resonate is through history.  Although many of the writings weren’t written by women mainly by men so that even says something.