The Results Are In!!

Hey Y’all Welcome Back!!

Hope you’re excited about these results!

***Quick note; I just wanted to discuss a concern that last week’s comments presented. Which is my lack of inclusion for pork. My family and I don’t eat much pork, we simply don’t like it. We might eat it a few times a year during the holidays but that’s about it, so I felt there was no reason to include it within my data.***

Alright let’s begin there’s much to discuss and I’m excited to show you all the results.

This is Family 1:

They were successful! They went an entire week without meat and the mother is considering going full time vegetarian! I spoke with them after their meatless week and they all said the first three days was really hard because even though they had protein in their system they felt as though they didn’t. But once the three days was over they seemed to go through the rest of the week without a problem. I’m really impressed they were all able to do it so successfully! They also shared with me the kinds of meals they ate and three of them stood out to me so I’d thought I’d share them with you.

1. Ginger Scallion Ramen Noodles, the kids called it weird looking spaghetti. 🙂

2. Provolone Veggie Party Subs. They said this was their favorite!

3. Cheesy Zucchini Casserole, the kids were very partial to this recipe, I want to give it a try!

This family was able to save 3 pounds of seafood, 5 pounds of beef and 6 pounds of chicken for the week!!

The Chicken Lovers are Family 2:

They did much better than I thought they would, and I give them props for even giving this a serious shot in the first place. As a group they were able to go 3 days with no meat, but the remaining 4 they gave in to temptation. I spoke with the boys specifically and they said they were starting to feel really week from having what they called no ‘real protein’ in their systems, and it was starting to effect their work days (they’re essential personnel). So when they started eating meat again the two girls quickly followed. The young girl specifically said she wished she had ignored the boys’ good looking meals and continued with the vegetarian dishes because she was enjoying them. Their two favorite dishes they tried were…

1. Strawberry Banana Smoothie Bowl, which they all agreed would start to be a regular breakfast, so that’s something.

2. Easy Vegetarian Calzones, this was their favorite and looked really good!!

Although they didn’t stick to it for a whole week, according to their regular consumption they were able to save 5 pounds of seafood, chicken and beef. They did way better than I thought, I really didn’t think they’d make it over a day so I’m more than happy with these results!

My Family is Family 3:

Much to my surprise we were all able to go a whole week without meat, well besides the dog…she loves her chicken! To align with Family 1 we all agreed that the first three days were really hard to get past, my brother kept smelling his beef jerky…he asked me to hide it for the week :). But we did it. My mother doesn’t eat much meat besides chicken to begin with, so this transition was relatively easy for her, she pretty much kept the rest of us on track. Day three was a very cranky day for everyone in the house, but we all kept busy and got through it. I think my mother may just continue with the vegetarian diet because even though our week ended on Saturday night she hasn’t eaten meat since. My sister and I discussed how we may just start eating meat for dinner, none for breakfast or lunch, which is more than I expected to give in to, but I actually see it as being more than manageable. My brother, practically counted down the days he could eat meat again, he asked if he could make a roast beef sandwich on Sunday morning at like 1 am. So I don’t see his diet changing much, but at least he made it a week! We tried a lot of different types of things, some we liked some not so much but here’s my favorite three!

1. Caramelized Zucchini Flatbread, we tried a few different flatbreads, which was fun to play around with but this was our favorite.

2. Broccoli and Cheese Baked Potato Casserole, we make a similar dish to this one with hamburg in it, but we barely noticed it didn’t have any meat in it. My brother was very partial to this dish, we made it twice.

3. Veggie Breakfast Sandwich, this was my mother’s favorite. We made a few different versions of this too and enjoyed all of them!

I had a ton of fun with all the new recipes and It’s definitely something I plan to keep up with because I think variety is really important so we don’t get sick of the same old things. I’m happy with how my family did, and pretty impressed we were actually able to do it. Together we saved 3 pounds of seafood, 5 pounds of beef and 8 pounds of chicken.

This is Family 4:

They were able to make is 6 days without meat, they called it quits on the last day. They were all pretty mad with themselves wishing they had just stuck it out one last day. I really thought they were going to be able to go a whole week no problem. The guy said he thinks he was feeling it much more than the women because he regularly eats way more meat than they do. Unlike the rest of us they said it only took them two days to get into the swing of things but as the time went on it got harder until they just gave in. They all agreed that even though they don’t envision themselves living a vegetarian lifestyle that they’d start eating more vegetarian meals. The younger girl said she’d like to be able to go maybe every other day without meat, but only eating meat at dinner time. I think this is a great step in the right direction and I’m glad they were all able to give it a serious try. They didn’t eat too many excitingly new things, they mostly ate generic vegetarian dishes, eggs, cereal veggie burgers etc. But the one new dish they did try seemed pretty interesting.

They tried a recipe called Cauliflower Mac and Cheese, and they said they’d be adding it to their regular dinner menus.

With their 6 consecutive days without meat they were able to save 2 pounds of seafood, 2 pounds of chicken and 3 pounds of beef! I’m happy with these result and glad they participated in my project.

Last but not least, Family 5, my Memere and Pepere!

They’re adorable I know. They did way better than I thought they would, apparently I didn’t have much faith in my family but being their age and having eaten meat everyday for so many years they did fantastic. They were able to go 4 days without meat!! Not in a row but I’m still proud of them. They went Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday without meat. They had a good strategy for getting as many days as they could without eating meat but still not feeling the headaches the rest of us were. After talking with them neither would consider being a vegetarian but they said they’d consider eating vegetarian breakfasts from now on. Although I think they only said that to try and please me. Regardless I’m proud they attempted it in the first place, how can you be mad at these cute faces? They didn’t have any cool recipes I could share but they were able to save 1 pound of seafood, 1 pound of chicken and 1.5 lbs of beef!

Here’s a few graphs to show the results more clearly…

From April 5th to April 11th our meat consumption as a family looked like this…

YIKES!

Then from April 12th to April 18th our meat consumption was as follows…

Although not everyone was able to completely cut out meat our results are pretty drastic. We went from 34 pounds of chicken to only 12! 25 pounds of beef to only 5.5! And 14 pounds of seafood to 0!!! Saying it out loud shows just how drastic the results really are. I’m proud of us all!

As far as the effectiveness of my plan goes, I think I did pretty good. I really didn’t think the results were going to be this good but I kinda wish they were better. 🙂 Still I think my discussions with all the families is what made them give this a serious try and now try to change things up more realistically for each of their lifestyles. I’m looking forward to see some of the changes everyone makes and see if they really stick with it.

I’m happy I had to complete this project because now my entire family is making positive changes!!

This is it Y’all! It’s been a pleasure to educate and entertain you! I wish you all the best with the end of your semester and your own activism projects!

Stay Safe and Healthy!

Ecofeminism in My Own Life

Hey Y’all Welcome Back!!

We are nearing the end of this blog very quickly! I hope you won’t miss me too much!

This week’s post is going to be part one of a two piece blog. This week I’m going to walk you through my plan to implement ecofeminism into not only my household but 4 others.

This is the crazy bunch of us that will be making some changes over the next few weeks.

Looking back at all the materials we’ve gone through and everything we’ve learned together I kept going back to the week in which we discussed not only being a vegetarian but how women are often compared to animals in very crass ways. So I decided, since my crazy family has more than enough time on their hands in quarantine, that we would all eat vegetarian dishes for the next seven days. We will then be able to see how many animals total, that we saved. *I have a feeling that number is going to very high.* I have five families and 18 people participating, I’m surprised I was able to convince them all to give it a try!

On Weekly Average…

Family 1 (4 members) eats 6 lbs of chicken, 5 lbs of beef and 3 lbs of seafood.

Family 2 (5 members) eats 15 lbs of chicken, 10 lbs of beef and 5 lbs of seafood.

Family 3 (4 members) eats 8 lbs of chicken, 5 lbs of beef and 3 lbs of seafood.

Family 4 (3 members)  eats 3 lbs of chicken, 3 lbs of beef and 2 lbs of seafood.

Family 5 (2 members) eats 2lbs of chicken, 2 lbs of beef and 1 lb of seafood.

I’ve made a graph to look at things a little easier.

Yeah, Family 2 really likes chicken.

I think many of us will struggle for the first few days especially the men in Family 2 but I really hope they are able to push past that so we can see some serious results.

My hope is that we (myself included) will be able to see that living a vegetarian lifestyle is doable and even healthier for us. I also hope to educate the rest of my family about ecofeminism during this process. I’ve challenged them to read a few different materials that we’ve already gone through while learning about ecofeminism. The most important and effective source I sent them was the Animal Kill Clock. I hope this has some sort of effect of everyone, but at the very least I hope it gets them through the next week.

We are all starting our seven day animal cleanse tonight! My family is going to make Butternut Squash Pasta, which we actually make a lot but it’s delicious! I’ve linked a recipe similar to ours, give it a try!

Creamy Butternut Squash Pasta Recipe on twopeasandthierpod.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m looking forward to hearing about the recipes the other families try. I encourage you to try to find more vegetarian recipes to incorporate into your own diet. If you have any good ideas please share! I’d love to give them a try or send them along to the other families.

I’ll be posting the result within the next few weeks!! Fingers crossed we are all able to make some adjustments!!

Stay Safe and Healthy Y’all!!

Until Next Time!

Intersectionality and Ecofeminisim

Hey Y’all Welcome Back!!

We are so close to the finish line of this hectic semester. I hope you are all able to find the motivation so you can finish it off strong. Then we can be trapped in our houses with absolutely nothing to do.

This week we are focusing on intersectionality and the place it holds within the ecofeminist discussion. I hope you’re not too surprised by this topic, for intersectionality is a major player within any conversation about someone’s identity and how those identities are often simultaneously oppressed by the patriarchal system.

“The term intersectionality, which is generally attributed to Kimberlé Crenshaw, began as a metaphorical and conceptual tool used to highlight the inability of a single-axis framework to capture the lived experiences of black women” (Kings, A.E. “Intersectionality and the Changing Face of Ecofeminism.” Ethics & the Environment). Since then, intersectionality has become this sort of umbrella to define anybody’s multiple factor identity. But how does it fit into ecofeminisim?

Thus far we have discussed extensively how women are connected to nature and thus equally oppressed. But we haven’t talked about the specific types of women this encompasses. In the article The Necessity of Black Women’s Standpoint and Intersectionality in Environmental Movements by Cacildia Cain, she talks about how the ecofeminist thought leaves out the black woman by instead focusing on white women in the middle class. This creates a complete lack of intersectionality. I found this to be particularly interesting especially considering, just last week we were discussing Wangari Maathai and her great accomplishments in the positive changes of our environment. This specific article was written in 2016, so it’s more than possible that within the four years there has been a serious advancement within ecofeminism and the addition of intersectionality but I’ve never felt as though ecofeminism only encompasses white women. This aspect could fit into our conversation that there is no one ecofeminist ‘bubble’ or as Karen Warren would assumingly say, ‘there is no one ecofeminism‘. Some ecfeminists’ thoughts may include intersectionality while others’ don’t.

There are many ecofeminists with many different beliefs and perspectives. I believe that how you learn of any topic creates your view of it. The specific materials in which I have gone through to create the ecofeminist thought and blog I know have has created my view of it to include intersectionality. Materials such as The Movement, Vandana Shiva, and Wangari Maathai all include conversations about different types of women and how they’re effected differently by nature. I think it’s more than possible that my view could lack intersectionality had I been given access to materials that left out women of color in regard to ecofeminism. I am thankful for the ecofeminist perspective I have and that intersectionality is a big part of it. I wonder, do you feel the same? Does your ecofeminist thought already includes intersectionality based on the materials I’ve provided you with? Prior to this blog did you mostly picture white women as the center of our conversations?

90% of people worldwide found to be biased against women | The ...

When learning of ecofeminism and how it encompasses intersectionality, the article Intersectionality and the Changing Face of Ecofeminism was a real eye opening piece. I highly recommend you at least scan it because it will really contribute to your understanding of ecofeminism because there is always more room to learn. I think the most important take away from this article is “that by applying the lens of intersectionality to analysis, one is better able to understand and assess the complex relationship between humans (specifically women) and the natural world” (Kings, A.E. “Intersectionality and the Changing Face of Ecofeminism”). Really, by including intersectionality into your ecofeminism perspective it only strengthens that perspective because it now addresses a wide variety of people and the multiple contributions to these peoples’ identities. I really do wonder how one’s ecofeminist perspective can exclude intersectionality, especially in today’s day and age.

What Is Intersectionality and Why Is It Important? | AAUP

One last thought to leave you with from Beverly Tatum’s The Complexity of Identity: Who am I? “Our on going examination of who were are in our full humanity, embracing all of our identities, creates the possibility of building alliances that may ultimately free us”. How do you see this quote as being very much connected to this conversation about intersectionality among ecofeminism?

Stay Safe and Healthy Y’all

See you next week!!

Ecofeminism Activism

Hey Y’all Welcome Back!

I don’t know about you but these weeks seem to be flying by, lets hope this continues.

We have a lot a materials to cover this week, but I don’t want to overwhelm you so we’re going to break it into sections. Our main goal, especially with all the knowledge we now have about ecofeminism, is to be able to go through these materials and make connections of oppression between women and nature. I’m pretty confident in our ability to do so.

The first source we’re going to talk about this week is about “Brazilian Slum Children Who are Literally Swimming in Garbage”. Which is a perfect place to start our discussion. I encourage you to have a look at this article yourself, but for the sake of being on the same page the short article discuss children living in poverty in Recife, Brazil. The government does very little to help these children and their mothers. It wasn’t until this article came out that the government decided to put the pictured boy and his family on welfare. I can say with some amount of certainty that this was only done because the spotlight was put on them, so they felt forced to do something. This was the featured picture…

Yes, the child pictured is a boy, but what is also made clear to us is that this young boy is being raised by his single mother, the father is clearly not in the picture. This is where we are able to see a connection between both oppressed women and nature. This boy is standing in a canal underneath one of the city’s so called ‘majestic’ bridges. If this is how to government treats the environment near a well known landmark I don’t want to know what the city looks like in the ‘forgotten’ corners, and how the people living there suffer because of it. Much like last week, we can see a connection between Brazil’s treatment of women and nature, both are being ‘swept under the rug’. I would also connect this article to a conversation earlier on, environmental degradation. We can see women and children being equally effected by this trash just as, I’m sure the once beautiful canal, is being effected.

This next source, is hard to read. The video attached is even harder to watch. It’s about Native Americans, specifically women fighting against police brutality, harassment and overall inhuman treatment. I do encourage you to watch the video, which is very captivating because of the honest truth of it all. I’m going to summarize a little bit but I think every little detail is really important for the bigger picture, so if you are able to at least look over the above attached link, it would really add to you knowledge about ecofeminism from different aspects.

What is made the most obvious to us within this case, is first the mistreatment of an entire group of people, based on their religious beliefs and they way they choose to live their lives. As the article and short video goes on we see that the Native Americans’ land is being ripped to shreds for a pipeline. This land is a burial ground where their loved ones and ancestors are buried. Although my knowledge of the beliefs Native Americans hold is very limited, I do know that digging up the deceased is extremely disrespectful and leads to the disruption of the deceased’s spirit. All in all, the dead is not to be touched upon burial. The Dakota Access Pipeline came in and completely uprooted this burial ground, disrespecting the people and their beliefs. While holding no concern for the damage of the surrounding nature. Which Native Americans are also very connected to. We can easily see the oppression of nature here, but what about women? Well within this same tribe the women are often targeted by the local police. The women pictured above was arrested along with her friends without any probable cause, taken to the local precinct, asked to take her clothes off for a strip search. She refused. From there I would argue she was sexually assaulted, by both female and male guards as the forced her clothes off and left her in a cell. The Crime and Justice Studies major in me really wants to lay out a very obvious criminal case, but that’s not the knowledge I want you to leave my blog with. Sadly, this is not an isolated case, Native American women across the country are being harassed and mistreated by the authorities while their land is being ripped apart to benefit our ‘modern’ world.

While our world is full of people that fall victim to the system like Prairie McLaughlin and Paulo Henrique, we also have people and movements fighting to prevent this and rallying people to educate the public about it. Wangari Maathai is one of those people. Wangari Maathai founded The Green Belt Movement in 1977 which “is an environmental organization that empowers communities, particularly women, to conserve the environment and improve livelihoods.” Maathai was able to create an entire organization out of an ecofeminists’ two most important interests. Another known movement that was very active during the time The Green Belt was founded is the Chipko movement, which is based in India and fights against deforestation. Chipko is more focused on one aspect of our environment while the Green Belt is more broad, nevertheless they are both creating positive change.

I encourage you to have a look at Wangari Maathai’s website. There’s a lot of really great information on there.

Now that we’ve discussed a few different very modern cases in which both women and nature are being equally suppressed there’s a much bigger question we should be asking ourselves. Do you think that behind the material deprivations and cultural losses of the marginalized and the poor lie the deeper issues of dis empowerment and/or environmental degradation? I know, that’s a loaded question but let’s think about it in pieces, because the answer is right in front of you. With things such as, social class, religion, economic status and race set aside is dis empowerment and/or environmental degradation the root of the problem? I know it can be hard to set those things aside as we have been conditioned to see them as the most important within our society, but it’s important to be able to answer this question. I want you to be able to develop your own answer and opinions for this question but I believe both dis empowerment and environmental degradation have a prominent place within ecofeminism and the foundation of it. However, I think it’s nearly impossible to set such things aside or think in terms of ‘behind it all’ because they are such important parts of this conversation. Class creates certain issues and so does race and religion. People hate change, which is the core of most issues within our society. All factors need to be considered to create a solution.

I want to leave you with a quote from Wangari Maathai’s Speak Truth to Power speech that really stuck with me. “The clarity of what you ought to do gives you courage, removes the fear, gives you the courage to ask. There is so much you do not know. And you need to know. And it helps you get your mind focused. Now, you are out of the bus and moving to the right direction. They will see you move with passion, conviction, and persistence. You are very focused.”

Stay Focused Y’all!

Until Next Time….

Women In Power!

Welcome Back Y’all!

Hope you are staying inside and practicing ‘social distancing’ as much as possible. As always I hope my blog can be both informative and fun to read.

This week we are focusing on the government and public policies and of course an ecofeminists’ view of them. While we have discussed contemporary issues before, especially last week. I find this week to be especially important because the role our government has within our society is a very powerful one. What we’ll be discussing centers around gender and the lack of the attention to it within our government, specifically in regard to environmental politics.

In order to successfully contribute to this week’s blog and provide my audience with the most accurate and detail oriented information I referred to the article Gender Equality and State Environmentalism by Kari Norgaard and Richard York. I think it’s important to point out the obvious, that Kari is a woman but Richard is a male. A male who contributes to a paper that focuses on ecofeminist thought. This just furthers my point, I’ve made in practically every blog post; that an ecofeminist can quite literally be anybody. If you are interested in reading this article yourself I will attach the link to the end of this blog. Although I’m hoping my overview of their article and thoughts will be enough for you to grasp the concepts they dive into.

So let’s get into it. In the first few paragraphs of their article they make it very clear that their overall message/thesis is that there is a connection between women in political positions and environmental policies being put into place. What is that connection though?

They importantly note that states within our nation who have more gender equality are more equip to protect the environment. “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” (Kari Norgaard and Richard York; Pg. 508). With this in mind, we can come to the conclusion that women should be equal to men in every sense, especially within a government setting/occupation because of the influence the government has on our nation. The gender gap is so closely related to and discussed in terms of environmental issues because historically, women have always been more connected to and dependent on nature than men have. This is most commonly seen in what is described as a woman’s ‘traditional’ role as a caregiver. I would argue that because of this role, women understand nature and it’s importance because they’ve seen first hand what it provides for us. Resulting in the inequality of genders and the lack of attention to environmental policies.

“If women are more prone to supporting the environmental movement than are men, increased representation of women in government might be expected to influence the behavior of nation-states with respect to the environment” (Kari Norgaard and Richard York; Pg. 509). However the continued presence of sexism continues to prevent this from happening. Norgaard and York discuss how sexism and environmental degradation have the same roots, so if sexism were to by some miracle disappear or significantly decrease within our government, the hope is that environmental policies would become more widespread and create a ripple effect of some serious change.

Despite the multiple conversations Norgaard and York have throughout their article their results remain clear as day, they “show that nation-states with a greater proportion of women in national Parliament, controlling for other factors, typically are more prone to environmental treaty ratification than other nations” (Kari Norgaard and Richard York; Pg. 519). To refer back to my question, what is the connection between women in political positions and environmental policies being put into place? Well it’s everything we’ve discussed, but the biggest and most important factor in answering this question is that women and nature are connected, thus making this an ecofeminist conversation.

To continue with the idea that women in power leads to more effective or simply any environmental policies, I did some general research. By simply typing in ‘the fight against climate change’ into google I came across a Time article. You should definitely go check it out but to sum it up it speaks about 15 different women who are fighting to stop climate change, all in different ways. One woman who stood out the most to me, especially after reading Norgaard and York’s article, was Tessa Khan. She “realized the courts could be a powerful tool to fight climate change” (Tara Law; Tessa Khan). She now fights against climate change from within the system, living in London and is a prominent member of the Urgenda Foundation. Just as Norgaard and York’s research suggests, a woman within the system is creating more positive and effective change, than if a man was in her position. I was also able to find a brief article that really contributes to Norgaard and York’s research. The article is only from a few weeks ago, it was written as a sort of Woman’s Day contribution piece. If you’re going to read anything that I’ve attached within today’s blog it should be this one. It’s a very quick read. It’s all about how no matter what a woman’s physical occupation is or what country she resides in or how much money she has, women will always be at the front lines of the fight against climate change, despite how hard it may be for her to do so compared to men. If women are fighting against climate change from all over the world, just imagine the impact we could have within positions of power.

To wrap up with week’s blog I’d love for you to go to this website which you can play around with to see the statistics of gender equality in a specific list of countries. Then take a look at this following photo, which shows the statistics of counties fighting against climate change.

If you look closely enough you can make the following conclusions; within the top ten countries of both gender inequality and climate change statistics, six of the countries are the same. In the top twenty of both statistics, fourteen of the countries are the same. This directly proves Norgaard and York’s ecofeminist theory that countries with a greater gender equality society are more likely to activity and effectively participate in the fight against climate change.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s blog.

Hope to see you next week!!

Until then Stay safe and healthy y’all.

Bodies

Welcome Back Y’all.

We are certain living in some crazy times right now, so I hope my blog can distract you a little from the chaos for a while.

With that said, this week we’re going to discuss abortion and its connection to both feminism and ecofeminism. But most importantly we’re going to discuss an ecofeminist’s views on abortion.

In regard to abortion there are primarily three stances surrounding it. “the extreme conservative view”, commonly known as the ‘pro-life’ debate,  “the extreme liberal view”, commonly known as the ‘pro-choice’ debate, and “moderate views which lie between both extremes”. For ecofeminist, Ronnie Zoe Hawkins, the ‘pro-choice’ stance most closely aligns with her belief system, but it’s not really about either side of this argument, but rather the facts that support her ecofeminist thought. To align with the theme of my blog I not only feel inclined to support Hawkins’ views but I also find doing so to come most naturally. Her ecofeminist thoughts only strengthen the pro-choice debate while adding some rather important factors into the conversation, factors that I had never really considered to be a strong back bone to this topic. Nevertheless, now that I’m aware of these factors and the ecofeminist view of abortion my stance on pro-choice is only strengthened.

But what are these factors? What is it about an ecofeminists’ perspective on abortion that creates a whole new aspect to the conversation?

Well, as we’ve learned an ecofeminist is primarily concerned with issues that surround and connect feminist problems with ecological ones. At first glance though, abortion doesn’t seem to be an ecological issue, or does it? Hawkins starts off her essay with “While much as been said about the morality of choosing to abort a human fetus, too little attention has been given to the moral implications, from an environmentalist perspective, of deciding whether or not to add a new human life to the planet”. Right away my eyes were opened to a completely new way of approaching this conversation. There is a much bigger picture involved with abortion than I thought. According to the Worldometer our world currently has a population of 7,771,512,530 and it’s rising by the second. Although we have thousands of deaths everyday, our population continues to rise rapidly. The idea of ‘over population’ is starting to become a reality. Although within the United States we don’t see it being as prevalent as in places like China or India, we are still one of the largest countries in the world, population wise. So how does abortion fit into all this? Well according to Hawkin, specifically South Korea, without abortion it is said that their population would be 22% higher than it is now. And in the grand scheme of things South Korea is a small country, this year alone there have been 8,903,422 abortions, and counting. This is an extreme number of potential people that could have added to our current population, only limiting our resources even more. Most people don’t realize it or acknowledge it, but our planet does have a max capacity, and resources will one day run out. When they do, I don’t want to imagine how many more deaths we’ll start having per day.

Although the abortion conversation makes people very emotional and very ‘stubborn’ in regard to their beliefs, Hawkins forces us to look at the bigger picture, to forget about all the emotion and noise surrounding the conversation. Maybe this is what the topic needs, some perspective, this sort of ‘outside looking in’ concept. Maybe it’s not as complicated as our society has made it. If we can start stressing ‘pro-choice’ from an ecofeminist perspective, maybe that will open people’s eyes or at least make them question their own beliefs on abortion. What do you think? Has abortion become a way too complicated debate? Will simplifying it give people a better understanding? Had you ever thought of Hawkin’s views on abortion or at least made the connection to overpopulation? I certainly hadn’t. I’m also curious to hear from those who don’t agree with Hawkins, do you think her ecofeminist perspective is irrelevant to the abortion topic?

Thanks for joining me this week!!

See y’all next week!!

Until then….

Please stay inside and wash your hands!!

Women-Nature Association

Hi Ya’ll Welcome Back!!

We’re going to have a little bit of fun this week, lots of pictures will be involved :).

We’ll be talking about a few different things this week but for the most part we’ll be discussing the similar treatment of animals and women, and how women are often refereed to as animals in a very negative light.

The following images depict different things, but all together they highlight the ‘normalized’ oppression of both animals and women.

new zealand ACT party leader David Seymour.jpg

This picture is quite repulsive to my eyes, as if the shirt wasn’t offensive enough, they are assuminglygrilling steaks or burgers or some type of meat with the biggest smiles surrounded by weird signs about ‘meat’. God men are weird. Carol Adams, an American writer, feminist and animal advocate discusses 9 critical points about feminist-veganism. The very first point states “Meat-eating is associated with virility, masculinity. Meat eating societies gain male identification by their choice of food” (The Politics of Carol J. Adams, Carol Adams page 13). I think this above picture might be exactly what Adams had in mind when writing this point. This whole displayed scene does a great job at highlighting the oppression of both animals and women within the same context. Quite literally, they put the head of a cow on the body of a woman. Personally, I wouldn’t consider myself to hold the same extensive beliefs as Carol Adams, as I eat meat. Mostly chicken and fish, but occasionally I’ll have a bacon burger. Yet I still find the above picture ridiculously offensive. *It’s important to note that ecofeminism is greatly flexible, so you don’t have to share the exact same beliefs as other ecofeminists.* Whether you are a vegetarian or no you can still be an ecofeminist.

from Rachel Krantz.JPG

Now onto the next picture, take a minute to really look at it before reading the following…

Much like the above picture there’s a lot going on here, it’s just a bit more subtle I guess you could say. First off the most obvious, once again a woman’s body is being combined with meat, except this time it’s dead meat. Which is even more offensive, I mean seriously? The little bubble that says “eat me” is quite obviously a sexual innuendo in regard to the woman’s body. This might just be me reading a bit too much into it but, the placing of the sign; a street late at night, and the woman’s fish net tights with tall red heels definitely insinuates the stereotype of a ‘prostitute’. Honestly the whole thing is just sickening. When I came across this photo it automatically reminded me of Carol Adams’ idea of ‘Pornography of Meat’. “We see how pornographic photographs, like advertisements, are carefully constructed: nothing that appears in the photograph or the advertisement is there by accident” (Carol Adams, The Pornography of Meat). This advertisement is very carefully constructed all the way down the the spelling of ‘nite’ versus ‘night’. The shorter spelling has a very flirty connotation to it. The entirety of the advertisement is exactly how Adams describes it to be, clever, specific and degrading.

skinny-cow-2.jpg

Now would you look at this beauty. Beautifully insulting, degrading and just plain arrogant. In Carol Adams’ interview they discuss the “feminization and sexualization of animals”. This whole concept is very demoralizing for both females and animals. Adams’ specifically says “Animalizing women and feminizing animals helps…..because it renders women and dead animals used as flesh as commodities” (The Politics of Carol J. Adams, Carol Adams page 15). This picture really has a lot to it and I’m going to try to not spit all my thoughts out at once. Firstly, the cow is obviously made to have the shape of a woman’s body while still clearly being an ‘animal’, this is degrading to a woman while portraying a very wrong image of a cow. The position she is in has a very sexual sense to it, or at the very least a flirtatious one. Frankly this is really disgusting to me, sexualizing an animal, well that’s a conversation we don’t need to get into, but I hope we can agree it’s very degrading and just plain wrong. Lastly, the measuring tape around her waste, this is the kicker. Stereotypically, men want a ‘fat’ cow and a ‘skinny’ woman. So what even is this picture? It’s clearly portraying a woman so I think the measuring tape is implying that a skinny woman makes for a sexy woman. Yet the bigger a cow the more meat they get, so that part makes very little sense. But then again most things men do doesn’t make much sense to me. This picture and the conversation that developed from it made me wonder is it easier for men to degrade women and see them as less than if they think of us as animals? What do you think?

Through images like the ones above we can learn a lot. We learned that the objectification of women is often connected to the oppression of animals. This is often done through the sexualization of women/animals in sometimes a very vulgar way. Our patriarchal system is very much to blame for this as the white man, surprise, surprise, believes he is above and better than all. It’s people like Carol Adams who are doing the work to pick the entire thing apart to highlight the absurdity of the whole system, that’s hopefully going to spark some change.

To wrap things up today I want to discuss one more picture.

Image result for advertising degrading animal-women

This image is an ad from 1970 for the slacks that the man is wearing. There’s a lot going on in this image. Similar to what we saw above, a female and an animal are portrayed to be physically connected. Much like the restaurant ad, a dead animal is connected to the woman. Although this time we have a man in the picture, showing a clear display of domination over the woman and skinned animal carpet. “Lots of ads appealing to white, heterosexual man seem to be rebuilding what feminism and veganism have threatened” (The Politics of Carol J. Adams, Carol Adams page 16). This ad is clearly aimed towards the white cyst man, in which it attempts to normalize the dehumanizing of women within any household. How do you feel about ads like this?

Thanks for reading Ya’ll!!

See ya in two weeks!

Enjoy your Spring Break!!

Vegetarian Ecofeminism

Hey Ya’ll Welcome Back!! It’s been a while so lets get into it.
This week we are going to discuss Vegetarian Ecofeminism. Yes this is a thing and we’re going to learn all about it
Person carving a joint of meat
Why is this a good picture to depict this week’s conversation? Well a big part of the discussion involving Vegetarian Ecofeminism, is this idea of ‘gendered foods.’ As discussed in Meat Heads: New Study Focuses on How Meat Consumption Alters Men’s Self-Perceived Levels of Masculinity by This was what I found for ‘men eating’…

Image result for men eating

And this is ‘women eating’.

Image result for women eating

Society has connected men to fatty meats while women have been connected to seemingly dry and tasteless salads. Of course this entire ideal is extremely absurd, but why is it that we’ve gendered certain foods? I think it simply goes along with the other absurd stereotypes put on women in our society. We are weak and petite, steak and ribs are certainly not for weak women. We should stick to fruits and vegetables are bodies will appreciate that more. Think about your own life, are you a woman? Do you eat red and fatty meats? Are you a man? Do you like fruits and vegetables? What does this all mean?

So back to my original question about the first displayed photo. Why is it good for this week’s conversation? The person handling the meat doesn’t have a gender. There isn’t one feature that would persuade us to believe they’re either female or male. It could be anyone. This is important in regards to our discussion on gendered foods and who ‘should’ or ‘shouldn’t’ be enjoying them.

With that in mind, one way I have experienced gendered foods in my own life is on Thanksgiving day. As a kid I would watch my parents team up and prepare a big Thanksgiving feast for us and all our guests. Year after year I watched the same thing. My mom peeled potatoes, cut the squash, mixed the stuffing and made the cranberry sauce. Meanwhile my dad took her prepped stuffing and put it into the turkey, then he was in charge of cooking the turkey for the day, he of course was also in care the turkey right before we sat down to eat. The closest my mom ever got to the turkey was when we sat down to eat it. As we got older my sister and I would help my mom and my brother would help my dad. I never questioned it, at the time I guess it made sense. But if the opposite had occurred it would have seemed weird. But why? Why has society defined and restricted us so much that there are certain foods we should or shouldn’t bee cooking because of our gender. This idea is another reason the first photo is so good for this week. The gender less character proves that anybody can cook the meat, carve the meat, and eat the meat.

Now that we have a better understanding of the connection between food and gender, how do ecofeminists see non-human animals and our relations to them? And where does vegetarianism fit into all this?

In Greta Gaard’s paper, Ecofeminisim on the Wing: Perspectives on Human-Animal Relations she focuses on the connection between the oppression of animals and women. She says “Feminists and ecofeminists alike have noted the ways that animal pejoratives are used to dehumanize women, pointing to the linguistic linkage of women and animals in such derogatory terms for women as “sow”, “bitch”, “pussy”, “chick”, “cow”, “beaver”, “old bat”, and “bird-brain.'” I think using these terms to degrade women has been used for centuries, and it simply aims at putting us ‘lower’ than men. To relate us to animals really highlights the patriarchal system we can’t seem to get away from. For Gaard she believes that its hard to decide if it’s the animals we consume or the pet we oppress that is a more common form of a human-animal relationship. While Gaard focuses on the human-animal relationship in terms of women, Deane Curtin discusses this idea of ‘moral vegetarianism’. While this concept is a rather philosophical one it’s still important within the conversation of ecofeminists and their views of our relationship to animals. She explains it as “Vegetarianism has been defended as a moral obligation that results from rights that nonhuman animals have in virtue of being sentient beings (Regan 1983, 330-53). However, a distinctively ecofeminist defense of moral vegetarianism is better expressed as a core concept in an ecofeminist ethic of care.” In layman’s terms, she believes that ecofeminists have a moral obligation to make the connection between animals and nature, and in turn, refrain from eating meat as it’s at the center of ecofeminists belief.

Both of Gaard and Curtin’s view bring an important aspect to this conversation. For me, I don’t think there’s any one belief about how humans and animals should interact. Interpret it for yourself. What do you think? Should all people who claim to be ecofeminists refrain from eating meat? Should these same people never own pets? Can we still be ecofeminists without having these beliefs? Or acknowledging them but doing nothing to change your behavior?

We had some thought provoking conversations this week, I hope you enjoyed.

Be sure to come back next week, we’ll be talking about the association between women and nature, you’re not going to miss that one.

Until Then…See ya’ll later.

Where is Your Spot?

Hey Ya’ll Welcome Back!!

This week we have some exciting things to talk about. So lets get started!

This is Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. If you haven’t heard of this lake before let me help you out with the pronunciation. win-ee-puh-SAW-kee. 

A few fun facts; this lake is HUGE, its shore hits seven different towns, it has over 250 islands, its shoreline is roughly 178 miles total, oh and Adam Sandler owns a house on the lake. Now that you know a little bit about the lake lets get into the real discussion.

Can you pick a photo of nature that encompasses who you are? Where is that small corner in this big world that you feel the most at peace? This is mine…

Don’t get too excited I don’t own this beautiful home, I have no idea who it belongs to. I’ve never even been inside, yet its the first thing that came to mind when thinking of a spot in nature that has my history. When I was about 12/13 my parents bought a boat, they had been saving up since before I was born it was a life long dream of theirs and they finally accomplished it. They decided to keep the boat up at beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee. During the season we would go up there every weekend, and during the summer we’d spend weeks on end using that boat. Our favorite thing to do with the boat was drive it out to this small house island, anchor the boat nearby and just spend the day there. My siblings and I would jump off the boat for hours swimming around and exploring the islands nearby. My parents would sunbathe and occasionally join us in the water. It became our spot, we felt safe there, away from the rest of the world in just in our happy bubble. My dad use to joke around with us that he would buy it one day, to my young eyes that became one of my first real life dreams, to this day I still want to own this house. Unfortunately, the boat became more of an expense and we have to sell it when I was about sixteen so I haven’t been to our spot in quite some time. Yet it’s still my little corner of this big bad world that I will always carry with me.

Terry Tempest Williams who is a writer, educator, conservationist, and activist developed a sort of theory that attempts to explain the relationship between us and our earth, more specifically that piece of earth we feel most connected to, that holds most of our history. She calls this theory the Bedrock Democracy. There are many factors to this theory but she best captures its essence when she says “As the world becomes more crowded and corroded by consumption and capitalism, this landscape of minimalism will take on greater significance, reminding us through its blood red grandeur just how essential wild country is to our psychology….The hope of a bedrock democracy, standing our ground in the places we love together.” My little corner of the world does just this. It’s a place where all the ‘noise’ disappears and I can get some perspective on our crowded world. My biggest take away from this concept, is that it’s important to remember that despite all the evil our world has, nature is something that has never failed us. It’s always been there to quite literally support us, and if this is something we can remember then as a community I think we’ll be okay.

“Wildness puts us in our place. It reminds us that our plans are small and somewhat absurd. It reminds us why, in those cases in which our plans might influence many future generations, we ought to choose carefully. Looking out on a clean plank of planet earth, we can get shaken right down to the bone by the bronze-eyed possibility of lives that are not our own” (Barbara Kingsolver). I have to say that I agree with Kingsolver, who is a writer. In today’s world I think…no I know that many people become way too confident, they forget who they truly are and often times become something very unpleasant. But as Kingsolver would say “wildness put us in our place”, the enormity and beauty of nature reminds us that we are in fact a very small portion of all of existence. It shows us what’s really important and in turn makes us live better lives. For city dwellers I think it’s hard to have nature’s support because of the obvious lack of actual nature within cities. We as humans have done a really good job at creating tiny living spaces with little to no nature. I think city dwellers are still able to have a connection with our earth and their own history through it but not so much with nature in it’s purest form. I wish nature was bad a bigger priority within our culture.

 

That’s it for today folks. Thanks for listening.

See Ya’ll Next Time!!!

Different Ecofeminist Perspectives

Hey Ya’ll Thanks for coming back!!!

What shall we talk about this week? More ecofeminism?….well duh. I have a lot to say you know. I love to talk!!

Now that we know what ecofeminisim is or we at least have a basic understanding of it, we can talk about how certain issues that fall under the ecofeminism umbrella affect certain groups of women. Within our western culture it’s important for us to remember that even if we can’t see certain issues happening within our own society that doesn’t mean it’s not someone else’s reality.

In the global south, otherwise defined as our third world countries, women are affected by a number of different environmental issues because they don’t have the access to resources on a regular basis that we (western civilizations) do. Arguably, the biggest way women experience environmental degradation in our poorer countries, is their water access, or lack there of. Within the culture of most third world countries it is primarily the women and girls who are responsible for the household’s water.

{While water is the main conversation here, it’s also important to acknowledge the issues women face that thrives off their lack of water. Issues such as sanitation, hygiene, menstruation, and even being excluded from occupations and education.}

The responsibility of water for women does more damage than you may think. Unlike our western world, water is generally stored pretty far from most families’ homes within low-income countries. The actually process of collecting water and bringing it back to the home is extremely time consuming, and puts great deal of strain on a woman’s body, as the walks are far and the ‘containers’ they lug the water back in are made to be as heavy as possible but still carry-able. If this wasn’t enough to deal with, women doing this are usually in a very vulnerable position as they venture out to collect water, using every ounce of energy they have. This makes them susceptible to attacks as they are alone and physically weak from the strenuous work they are responsible for. Both of these issues are only made worse when a women is on her period or pregnant.

I believe that the most important thing to take away from this conversation is that the fact that women are disadvantaged and boarder line victimized by certain environmental issues that men just aren’t. If this can be acknowledged on a wide scale I think we’ll start to see some serious change.

Thus far when we’ve discussed ecofeminism, we’ve discussed it in terms of how the western world interprets and believes in it. However, there are many more perspectives of ecofeminism, and how women and nature are and should be connected. Unlike what I discussed last week, an ecofeminist by the name of Benal Agarwal has a very non-Western perspective of what ecofeminism is. While Warren and Hobgood-Oster, (western ecofeminists) focus on explaining how environmental issues and feminist issues are both caused by our patriarchal system, Agarwal suggests that certain environmental issues are the cause of feminist issues. The way Agarwal presents her perspective, I believe to be rather important to the perspective as a whole. She essentially breaks her paper into two conversations under the ecofeminism umbrella. The first speaks of women as victims to certain environmental issues such as the women and water issue discussed above. The second one discusses how women have always been very active in protecting the environment, probably because they are so often affected by it, especially within third world countries.

I think the difference between the two different perspectives simply comes from the difference in the cultures. While women in third world countries are often being put at a significant disadvantage because of an environmental issue, women on the other side of the world don’t experience anything like that, especially those within a higher class. It’s important to remember that despite the different perspectives all ecofeminists have the same overall goal; to protect our planet and the women living on it.

While I believe both perspectives to be intriguing and representative of their culture, if I had to choose the most appealing I’d have to choose our western view. Yes, it doesn’t include how certain environmental issues create or worsen feminist ones, but our culture doesn’t see that on a day to day basis. However, it does include; in fact it’s probably the biggest factor within ecofeminism in the western world; that our patriarchal system is the cause of both environmental and feminist issues. Although the details of a patriarchal system differ between cultures, it remains a fact that we live in a male dominated world and we can’t ignore that in reference to ecofeminism. I think it’s important to include this conversation within all perspectives of ecofeminism. Regardless, all of these different perspectives only contribute to the larger idea which can only be a positive advancement for women and our environment.

 

That’s all I have to say today!!

See Ya’ll Next time!!