Ecofeminist Approach Research Articles

Wildlife Equity Theory for Multispecies Tourism Justice

The planet is facing social-environmental crises that include climate change, biodiversity loss, mass extinctions, and unsustainable consumption and production. These issues are rooted in hegemonic patriarchy and built on practices of continued inequity. Wildlife tourism could address some of these issues, but instead it is exacerbated by social-ecological challenges and various levels of hierarchical injustices. The SDGs were intended to facilitate solutions to these global problems. Yet, they do not address the fundamental underpinnings of the anthropocentric injustices exacerbating these systemic challenges, in part because they were generated via the hegemonic processes that allow for these injustices to continue. Using a transdisciplinary intersectional ecofeminist approach to analyze the SDGs, we propose a theory that adopts a posthuman ethic—Wildlife Equity as a foundation to guide principles and apply to policies that rigorously illuminate the continued injustices that are driving the decline of livelihoods for all sentient beings on Earth.

Kadın, Doğa, Sanat Bağlamında Çevreci Mücadelenin Sanatla Buluşması: Ekofeminist Sanat

60’lı yıllar birçok alanda hak arayışlarının en çarpıcı biçimiyle yaşandığı yıllardır. Yaşamla doğrudan bağlantılı olan sanat ortamı da bu bağlamda değişikliğe uğramış; alışılagelmiş sanat pratikleri yoğun bir şekilde tartışılırken bu hak arayışları sanat pratiklerine de yansımıştır. Geleneksel sanat tarihi anlatısında, modernizmin kahramansı yaratıları olan deha, ustalık, yetenek gibi kavramlar, erkeklere mal edilerek kadın sanatçılar dışlanmıştır. Feminist hareketten yola çıkan ve ataerkil toplum zihniyetine karşılık; çevreci mücadeleyi sanatla birleştiren ekofeminist anlayış da böyle bir ortamda ortaya çıkmıştır. Doğanın dişil çağrışımından da yola çıkarak sanatçılar, tahrip edilen doğaya dikkat çekmiş, kadınlar üzerindeki eril hakimiyet ile doğanın sömürülmesi arasında bir bağ olduğu düşüncesi üzerinde durmuşlardır. Ekofeminizm bu süreçte; odağına doğayı, çevre bilincini, hem kadın hem de doğa üzerinde kurulan tahakküme dair eleştiriyi koyan ve genellikle ortaklaşa çalışma, onarım, yenileme gibi kavramları içeren bir akım olarak karşımıza çıkmıştır. Literatür değerlendirmesine dayalı olan bu çalışmada bu alandaki yazın taranmış, insanın doğayla olan ilişkisine yeni bir bakış açısı sunan, sanat ve feminist hareketin kesiştiği noktada ortaya çıkan ekofeminist sanat anlayışının kavramsal boyutu ve tarihsel olarak gelişim süreçleri incelenmiştir. Sanatçılar üzerinden yapılan çözümlemeler neticesinde, sanatın çevresel farkındalık yaratmak amacıyla bir aracı olarak konumlandırılması, çalışmanın önemini vurgulamaktadır.

The Body/Land Dichotomy: An Eco-feminist Approach to the Early Modern Female Body and Pastoral Space in Mary Wroth’s Urania

The Body/Land Dichotomy: An Eco-feminist Approach to the Early Modern Female Body and Pastoral Space in Mary Wroth’s Urania

An Ecofeminist Approach to Kemal Bilbaşar’s Novels Cemo and Memo

Feminizmin ortaya çıkardığı hareketlerden biri olan ve ekoeleştirel kurama dâhil edilen ekofeminizm, terim olarak ilk kez 1970’lerden sonra kullanılmaya başlanmıştır. Ekofeminist görüşe göre kadın ile doğa arasında büyük bir benzerlik ve güçlü bir ilişki vardır. Ayrıca doğa ile ilgili değişimlerden ve felaketlerden etkilenenler öncelikle kadınlardır. Çevresel sorunlara çare bulmak için de mutlaka kadını merkeze alan feminist bir bakış açısıyla hareket etmek gerekmektedir. Buna bağlı olarak hayatın doğrudan veya dolaylı yansıması olan edebî eserlerde kadın ve doğa ilişkisini ortaya koyacak bazı örneklerin olduğu görülür. Söz konusu kategoriye yalnızca ekofeministlerin tezlerini ispat etmek için yazılan eserleri değil, ekofeminist söyleme uyan veya yazıldığı dönem ne olursa olsun ekofeminist söylemi destekleyen ifadelerin bulunduğu eserleri de dâhil etmek mümkündür. Cumhuriyet Dönemi Türk edebiyatının önemli yazarlarından Kemal Bilbaşar’ın Cemo (1966) ve onun devamı niteliğindeki Memo (2 Cilt, 1968-1969) adlı romanları ikinci gruptaki eserlere dikkat çekici birer örnektir.Bu incelemede bahsedilen iki roman, ekofeminist kuram çerçevesinde ele alınmaya çalışılmış ve dolayısıyla eserleri farklı bir bakış açısıyla değerlendirmek ve yorumlamak amaçlanmıştır. İncelemenin “Giriş” kısmında ekofeminizmin ortaya çıkışı, ekofeminizmin edebiyata yansıması ve ekofeminist kuram hakkında genel bir bilgi verilmiş; ardından romanlardaki ekofeminist unsurlar, “Kadın Karakterlerin Anlatımındaki Ekofeminist İzler” ve “Doğa Anlatımlarındaki Ekofeminist İzler” başlıklarıyla incelenmiştir. “Sonuç” kısmında ise ekofeminist çerçevede tespit edilen malzeme üzerinden iki roman mukayese edilerek birtakım yargılara varılmıştır.

“Women need not apply”: Sylvia Earle, binary oscillations, and the ecofeminist rhetoric of Mission Blue

ABSTRACT Despite its relative compatibility with contemporary approaches to criticism and flexibility in application, few media studies scholars have “taken up” ecofeminism as an analytical framework. This study marshals insights from ecofeminist theory and critical rhetoric to analyze the Netflix documentary Mission Blue. Through its depictions of renowned oceanographer Sylvia Earle, the film points ecofeminists and media scholars toward an alternative theoretical position capable of deconstructing power binaries. More specifically, we contend Mission Blue makes use of “binary oscillations.” These oscillations invite viewers to experience shifts between the extremes of a binary when depicting Earle in the film, thereby resisting the urge to see her as fitting into one side of a dualism. Implications of this critical ecofeminist approach and the notion of a binary oscillation are discussed, in addition to the limitations of the film itself in supporting intersectional feminist commitments.

Conservation after Sovereignty: Deconstructing Australian Policies against Horses with a Plea and Proposal

AbstractConservation scholarship and policies are concerned with the viability of idealized ecological communities constructed using human metrics. We argue that the discipline of conservation assumes an epistemology and ethics of human sovereignty/dominion over animals that leads to violent actions against animals. We substantiate our argument by deconstructing a case study. In the context of recent bushfires in Australia, we examine recent legislation passed by the parliament of New South Wales (NSW), policy documents, and academic articles by conservationists that support breaking communities of horses and/or killing 4,000 horses in Kosciuszko National Park (KNP), NSW. Theoretically framing our deconstruction against human sovereignty over animals and anthropocentrism, we affirm an intersectional, ecofeminist approach that values animals as relational and vulnerable agents. We uncover first the epistemic violence of categorizing horses as “pests,” and the anthropocentric nature of recently passed legislation in NSW. We analyze next the deficient ethics of NSW's government, and the argument that killing animals is justifiable when they suffer from starvation and dehydration. We close with a realistic proposal that does not involve breaking horses’ communities and/or killing horses, and a plea to the government of NSW and conservationists not to harm any horses in KNP.

Female Masculinity in the Embodied Beowulf Wetlands: A New, Radical, Ecofeminist Approach

This article argues that the embodied characterization of Grendel’s mother offers us an alternative heroic model for women, from the titular hero, Beowulf, around whose heroic life and legacy the Old English poem is structured and more usually celebrated. In doing so, it addresses the problematic legacy of the heroic, masculinist poem and its pedagogical role as a canonical text for English literature and national identity which also informs our cultural attitudes to gender-based violence. This article examines female masculinity in the embodied Beowulf wetlands to recover an alternative, powerful, legacy for feminism. Grounded within previous feminist, queer, ecofeminist, and ecocritical literary and theoretical scholarship, and the recent feminist translation of Beowulf, my analyses of the Old English poem is situated within the newly emerging, embodied contexts of what I term radical ecofeminism. Radical ecofeminist readings respond to the violence shaping early medieval female literary identities and landscapes within embodied configurations of gender, race, and the environment, and reveal situated knowledge, hitherto, denied to us because these identities and their histories have been elided or subsumed. Key to understanding how knowledge production is coercively shaped by masculinist frameworks of gender, language, and the environment, this article turns to fluidity as a theoretical and socially effective space to demonstrate how gendered configurations are framed by violence. The linguistic analysis of the Old English word fæst (solid, fixed) reveals how its usage in the poem creates contrast between (masculine-dominated) civilization and (feminine-dominated) wildness to safeguard masculine civilization against un-fæst femininity in all its destabilizing forms. This article concludes to show how the historical suppression and control of women and non-binary identities has been maintained through spatial configurations of heteronormative masculinity which recreate successive versions of male leadership in locations of their situated authority.

The Role of Theatre with Eco-feminist Approach in Combating COVID Pandemic

The present COVID-19 pandemic disaster has brought new challenges to women and shown why the environment needs more benevolent treatment. This study argues that Eco-feminism prescribes an effective way to mitigate the problems of women and the environment, by addressing the two problems together. As Eco-feminism is an activist movement, awareness about its core ideas is essential for its successful implementation. This study explores the tribal (Santhal) population in the village ‘Baragora’ situated at the Purulia District in the State of West Bengal, India, to investigate the effectiveness of theatre as a medium for creating awareness about the core ideas of Eco-feminism. On the basis of some simple statistical analysis, it observes that there exists an overwhelming preference towards theatre for creating awareness irrespective of gender and irrespective of existing concepts about the core ideas of Eco-feminism. Theatre can promote the core ideas about eco-feminism, as an important tool for tackling the COVID-19 situation present and forthcoming.

A Critical Study of the Man-Eater of Malgudi from Ecofeminist Perspectives

This article attempts to analyze how R.K. Narayan’s The Man-Eater of Malgudi draws a polyphonic picture about woman, life, and the nature of Malgudi from an ecofeminist perspective. It attempts to explore how the theory of ecofeminism that was originally hypothesized in the West is echoed in Narayan’s novel The Man-Eater of Malgudi (1961) based on an Indian setting. This work is an attempt to evaluate and analyze the roles and positions of women and nature that philosophically and phenomenally resembles each other in The Man-Eater of Malgudi with an ecofeminist approach. Ecofeminism or ecological feminism is now very valid in the academic and literary world. The present paper examines the selected novel under the lens of oriental view towards woman and nature where both are closely associated with each other. Women are victims of degradation, domination, and exploitation, yet they play the role to bring ecological harmony and sustainability. The way Rangi, though oppressed by patriarchy, attempts to save the elephant; Kumar mirrors the purpose of eco-feminism; to create a balance in nature by establishing an inter-cooperative, consistent and unbiased relationship with all creatures of the world irrespective of gender, class, and color. The interrelationship and inter-connectivity between woman and nature are strongly highlighted in this paper through the character Rangi who dismisses Vasu’s anti-ecological ventures.

Krytyka ekofeministyczna a katastrofa klimatyczna. Narracje o kryzysie w nareszcie możemy się zjadać Moniki Lubińskiej

The aim of this study was to introduce and discuss ecofeminist literary criticism and its philosophical background rooted in works of ecofeminist researchers such as Val Plumwood and Ariel Salleh. As intersectional theory, ecofeminism provides a profound analysis of the conceptual connection between women and nature. Ecological feminism is also concerned with relations between various forms of discrimination — racism, sexism, heterosexism and speciesism. Ecofeminist criticism is believed to be a method of reading that provides an interdisciplinary study of the relationship between subject, literature and environment. It examines issues such as carnality and sexuality which are also viewed as significant motifs in contemporary Polish poetry, e.g. in the works of Monika Lubinska. Research that combines literature studies and ecological themes seem to be particularly important in the second decade of 21st century — a time increasingly associated with climate crisis. The ecofeminist approach was used to analyze nareszcie mozemy sie zjadac, a debut book of poetry written by Polish author Monika Lubinska. The existence of garbage, activism issues and femininity were among the topics examined. Special attention was paid to Lubinska’s juxtapositions of sensuality and technology and to her writing method which involves the use of recycled phrases from Internet search engines, Wikipedia and her smartphone’s dictionary. The study revealed that the ecological sensibility of Monika Lubinska is deeply intertwined with her feminist awareness.

Ecofeminism Perspective on the Role of Women Concerning Nature in Miyori No Mori Anime

This paper examines the role of women in their relation to nature as represented in the anime Miyori no Mori through an ecofeminist perspective, considering that men in the patriarchal world often exploit women and nature. Especially in Japan, where this anime came from, its gender relations remain deeply patriarchal and unequal until now. This study used the qualitative paradigm and ecofeminism approach. Data were obtained from data sources in the form of an anime entitled Miyori no Mori. We chose this anime because it represents an issue about women as well as an issue about nature and the environment, two things that will never stop being discussed. The data taken are events, objects, and dialogues related to the main female character and nature. Data analysis was carried out using interpretive qualitative discourse analysis with an eco-feminist approach that focuses on the subordination of women and the subordination of nature to the interests of humans (men). In addition, a semiotic perspective is also used to interpret the signs contained in the scene image. This research succeeded in finding two things, namely (1) women's resistance to patriarchal power over nature and women; and (2) women's deconstruction of patriarchal power over nature and women.

Ecofeminist approaches of indian women novelists

Ecofeminist approaches of indian women novelists

Women’s travel writing in the cyber-world – ecofeminist and difference feminist approaches in travel blogs

This paper intends to track the development of traditional feminist ideas through the analysis of three contemporary travel blogs. These traditional feminist concepts are to be seen in the construction of a collective female identity that enables transnational and transgenerational solidarity: by receiving and transmitting inspiration, shelter and encouragement among female travellers, the narrators in the blogs create a system of female authority. Within this system, female role models as well as maternal figures become points of reference that help to revalue female attributes. This concept shows allusions to the theory of difference feminism as it is presented in the «symbolic order of the mother» by Luisa Muraro. A similar approach of revaluating femininity happens through the orientation towards ‘Mother Nature’. By staging women’s ability to give birth, cultural ecofeminists like Susan Griffin intend to affirm a close bond between women and nature. This representation of an emphasised femininity becomes a central marker in the narratives of the blogs. While this agenda might be designed to counter gendered spaces and the traditional alienation of women within travel discourse, it is problematised by exclusionary and essentialist definitions of femininity that harden engendered binaries like masculinity/femininity or nature/culture.

Women’s travel writing in the cyberworld – ecofeminist and difference feminist approaches in travel blogs

This paper intends to track the development of traditional feminist ideas through the analysis of three contemporary travel blogs. These traditional feminist concepts are to be seen in the construction of a collective female identity that enables transnational and transgenerational solidarity: by receiving and transmitting inspiration, shelter and encouragement among female travellers, the narrators in the blogs create a system of female authority. Within this system, female role models as well as maternal figures become points of reference that help to revalue female attributes. This concept shows allusions to the theory of difference feminism as it is presented in the «symbolic order of the mother» by Luisa Muraro. A similar approach of revaluating femininity happens through the orientation towards ‘Mother Nature’. By staging women’s ability to give birth, cultural ecofeminists like Susan Griffin intend to affirm a close bond between women and nature. This representation of an emphasised femininity becomes a central marker in the narratives of the blogs. While this agenda might be designed to counter gendered spaces and the traditional alienation of women within travel discourse, it is problematised by exclusionary and essentialist definitions of femininity that harden engendered binaries like masculinity/femininity or nature/culture.

The Queer Ecological Aesthetics of Wuthering Heights

This essay explores how the contemporary English filmmaker Andrea Arnold invents a queer ecological aesthetic to adapt Emily Brontë’s classic novel Wuthering Heights in her 2011 film by the same title. A queer ecological aesthetic combines queer, ecofeminist and postcolonial approaches to disavow the institutional and cultural ways in which white heterosexist patriarchy ‘sexualizes’ nature and ‘naturalizes’ heterosexuality. Arnold’s film forges subtle intimacies between nature and sexuality and the human and the non-human by focusing on Catherine and Heathcliff’s ambiguous erotic encounters on the moor. In lieu of a formal plot, dialogue and musical score, Arnold locates Catherine’s and Heathcliff’s desires within a complex mesh of ecological and creaturely narratives. Her film critiques ecophobic and erotophobic discourses in the West by depicting tactile and affective gestures between Catherine and Heathcliff that may be deemed ‘queer ecological’. This is also evident in Heathcliff’s intersectional character as a feral/non-white/non-human child whose presence threatens the white heterosexist patriarchal structures of the Yorkshire gentry. The essay reveals how Arnold revives the subversive impact of the original novel in the Victorian age for a contemporary ecophobic and erotophobic audience.

Anticolonial ecofeminisms: Women’s environmental literature in French-speaking Oceania

This article considers Oceanian women’s literature of French-expression through an ecofeminist, anticolonial lens, or through what will be termed an ‘Oceanian ecofeminist approach’. Keeping in mind Oceanian epistemological frameworks, the article examines the literary engagements of Déwé Gorodé and Imasango from Kanaky/New Caledonia and of Chantal Spitz and Rai Chaze from Te Ao Mā’ohi/French Polynesia. This article argues that while these engagements may not always resemble a Western ecofeminism, it is critical to consider Oceanian women’s voices in the ever-evolving dialogue on environmental justice and Indigenous women’s place in environmental literature, as Oceania is on the front lines of the climate crisis. These authors address the effects of settler colonialism not only on the environment, but also on the gendered socioeconomic dynamics of the Oceanian region.

Gender mainstreaming urban waste reduction in European cities

This paper contributes to gender mainstreaming and waste management literatures, which largely neglect the empirical dimensions of gender mainstreaming in environmental practices, and have a complete lacuna in waste management. Informed by an ecofeminist approach which argues that gender equality is necessary to achieve environmental sustainability, the paper, and its underpinning research, utilizes feminist and participatory methodologies for implementing gender mainstreaming in waste reduction innovations. This enables the links between greater gender awareness and more environmentally sustainable waste management practice to be explored, and the opportunities for, and obstacles to, adopting gender mainstreaming in waste management to be assessed. The largely qualitative data, drawn from surveys, focus groups and evaluations in eleven European cities, suggest that while developing gender awareness in waste reduction is complex, with many factors contributing to its adoption, a link between waste reduction initiatives achieving CO2 equivalent savings and greater gender awareness can be observed.

Planetary health justice: feminist approaches to building in rural Kenya

The planetary health concept describes the relations between health and climate. The inequities that connect these two domains are experienced most by low-resource and vulnerable populations, e.g. the impact of drought on subsistence livelihoods and associated mental health issues. Climate justice and health justice are framed through capabilities and integrated with ecofeminist approaches. Spatial justice is introduced as the ability to conceptualise how these interconnected injustices are mediated through environments. The integration of these theories can provide a justice-based planetary health approach that could overcome several barriers. Design and spatial practice offer processes and tools to understand the complexity of planetary health across scales, systems and relations; and to generate design solutions that promote equity and justice. Practical examples of Global South design projects are presented that connect health and climate. The example of a maternal health project in rural Kenya shows how a conceptual design framework for a justice-based planetary health can contribute to the planetary health. Practice relevance Global challenges of inequity are increasingly understood as complex and interconnected. The planetary health movement conceptualises a holistic view of the world incorporating an ecofeminist perspective. Addressing these challenges requires the ability to conceptualise interconnected injustices in climate and health and practical approaches, where participatory design processes can be useful. A conceptual framework can be used to design integrated solutions to planetary health injustices, relevant for built environment and development practitioners. The processes, tools and components of practice from the Global South are explored, which can be used to promote equity within the built environment.

Quest for the Self in Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing: An Eco feminist Approach

The particular paper focuses on the analysis of patriarchal domination and capitalist’s exploitation of women and nature. Through the ecofeminism point of view, I have made a depth study of Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing (1972), and found out that power, patriarchy and domination have oppressed both women and nature. The unnamed narrator, who is protagonist of the novel, symbolizes the natural and environmental destruction by the capitalists. Anna, David’s wife in the novel, represents women’s exploitation in the patriarchal society. The impact of ecofeminism is clearly discern in the novel when the unnamed narrator returns to natural world of the Quebec Island where she was grown up and associate her with nature. She burns all the stuffs that she had and reminded her of past, and decides to lead a life like the creatures of natural world. She rejects the artificial life and quest of her real self in the natural world.

LEARNING FROM ECOFEMINISM: DECONSTRUCTING THE DUALISTIC ‘SOFT’ VS. ‘HARD’ NATURE OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION

There has been little progress in increasing the diversity of engineering over the past three and a half decades. Much of the diversity work in engineering has an implicit liberal feminism and fails to deconstruct the hierarchical social categories and the underlying ideals of engineering culture. There is a growing need to critically look at the embedded culture of engineering and how this presents a barrier to diversity. This paper provides a critical review of key ecofeminist literature and how engineering education can learn from ecofeminist approaches. The ecofeminist framework aims to breakdown dualisms that artificially separate humans and nature, and rather emphasizes the essential interdependence of all organisms. The aim of this work is to better understand how ecofeminism could be used as a framework to change the culture of engineering education to create a more inclusive environment and foster a greater holistic skillset in our students.