Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Ecofeminist

I was really interested in the article “No Remedy for the Inuit: Accountability for Environmental Harms under U.S. and International Law” by Anne E. Lucas. The most interesting thing about the article is how much it relates to works we have previously read. For example, it discusses marginalized groups, in this case the Inuit people. Also, throughout the semester, we have studied the challenges that marginalized people, such as African Americans, transgender, and disabled people, have faced. The article also discusses the dangers of dichotomies inherent in Western law.
Trying to categorize sexualities and genders into dichotomies has been a running theme through articles such as “Sex, Gender, and Science” and “Body Matters: Cultural Inscriptions.” Another theme in the article is the influence of capitalism. This is also a running theme in our discussions: how capitalism affects healthcare, body image, accessibility for disable people, etc. All of these similarities have made me realize that there are definable common problems.
Another interesting component of the article was its connection of feminist and ecofeminist. I had never heard the term ecofeminist before. However, it makes a lot of sense that the environment would be tied to the standard of living, particularly females. This has nothing to do with the fact that women are more “tied” to nature. Rather, it relates the quality of life of a specific group of people with nature.

1 comment:

ADP said...

I was also surprised by the term 'ecofeminist'. I have never heard of the term before or have linked the environment or feminism together. Yet, I am not surprised that society would blame the problem of the environment on women. Our media and society typically blame women for problems, because of the responsibilities we carry. For example, women give birth to children that use the environment on a daily basis, such as Indian women and children who go to wells daily for water. Americans and other wealthy countries use the same water but in a different way, but are not perceived as consuming the environment. These are the stereotypes we must fight to eliminate.