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.