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.