Ecofeminism

For class I read chapter 7, Ecofeminism, which introduced me to another type of feminism that is brand new to me. Ecofeminists think that because women are culturally tied to nature, ecofeminists argue there are conceptual, symbolic, and linguistic connections between feminists and ecological issues. They also believe that beliefs, attitudes, and values are shaped by patriarchal framework. All ecofeminists believe that women's and nature's liberation are a joint project.

As for the roots of ecofeminism:
Although environmentalists all believe that human beings should respect nature the reasons for doing so are broken into two groups. The groups are human-centered environmentalism (shallow ecology) and earth-centered environmentalism (deep ecology). Human-centered believes that when we harm ourselves we harm the environment and that the environment is instrumental to our needs. Human-centered views nature as a machine. It is criticized for being arrogant anthropomorphism. Earth-centered reverts to ancient conceptions of nature as an organism. They believe that we should preserve integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. Criticism of earth-centered poses the question of what is the source of nature's intrinsic value?

There are a few different types of ecofeminism:
Spiritual ecofeminism embraces a religious, Earth-goddess view.
Transformative ecofeminism believes that women's connection to nature is socially constructed and ideologically reinforced.
Global ecofeminism states that women are more engaged in the work of sustaining daily life and are more concerned with elements (air, water) because they need to raise healthy kids.

Ecofeminism faces criticism:
Nature ecofeminism is criticised for being reactionary instead of revolutionary and for reducing women to mere bodies.
Spiritual ecofeminism is scrutinized for substituting religion for politics and for being too out there. For instance, they are said to spend too much time "dancing in the moonlight."
Transformative ecofeminism is said to be too demanding for the degree of activism.

Some of the points of ecofeminism make sense such as how women are culturally more tied to nature but I think some of them go too far. For instance, one ecofeminist said that if we do not control our population then the government should do it for us so that nonhuman animals have enough food and space. Of course I want animals to have enough food and space too but you cannot just allow die backs as one critic said. You cannot control the population in any humane way that I can think of but perhaps there is something I am overlooking.