Ecofeminist Perspective Research Articles

The post-urban gaze and Hong Kong independent cinema: An ecofeminist perspective

The city has always been a prominent subject in Hong Kong cinema. Land has been seen only as a profitable commodity, controlled by property developers and the wealthy. Instead of exploring the countryside and the traditional farming and fishing villages, people shifted their focus to Hong Kong: its skyline became the only valid point of perception. This marginalization of nature, however, was challenged in 2008 during the dispute between the villagers of Choi Yuen village and the Hong Kong government regarding the construction of Guangzhou–Hong Kong High-Speed Rail Link, which would demolish the village of 500 people that lay along its path. This article looks at Jessey Tsang’s documentary Flowing Stories (2014) and adopts an ecofeminist perspective on the ways in which Hong Kong’s cultural imaginary has been reinvented in films. The role of documentaries in the independent film scene will be reviewed, especially the social-issue documentaries that have become popular since 2008. An ecofeminist approach to our understanding of Hong Kong could shift the paradigm of our stagnant cultural imaginary – the urban city – and resituate Hong Kong in a closer connection with its surroundings and the world.

Technological Innovations Tackling Biodiversity Loss: Solutions or Misdirection?

Using original data derived from the thematic analysis of three international agreements and the 2016 Conference of the Parties (COP) and Meeting of the Parties (MOP) Decisions, this article examines the incorporation of technology and technological innovation in the biological diversity regime. It finds that that the biodiversity regime incorporates discourses of ecological modernisation and prioritises technological innovation for biodiversity loss, particularly in the 2016 COP and MOP Decisions.The empirical analysis indicates that themes regarding progress, 'improving' the environment and the role of technology in mediating economic growth and development are embedded in references to technology and technological innovation. Drawing on an ecofeminist perspective, this article examines how these themes highlight the prioritisation of technological innovation to prevent biodiversity loss. The author concludes that this prioritisation inhibits opportunities to fully engage with developing alternative approaches towards resolving environmental problems as these approaches require a re-evaluation of the societal institutions and practices that exploit and destroy the non-human environment.

The Contrasting Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Always Coming Home: An Ecofeminist Study

This study analyses from an ecofeminist perspective the contrasting worlds of the feminist character in Ursula K. Le Guin’s most prominent novel Always Coming Home (1985) (abbreviated as ACH). The central subject of the novel focuses on oppressed women and nature as inferior to men and how they are dominated in patriarchal Condor. It also examines the interrelatedness of both women and nature through the experiences of the heroine, Stone Telling in two different worlds of Kesh and Condor. Additionally, it presents profound ecological consciousness of Kesh society and the severe deterioration and exploitation of Condor society. This research displays the concerns of ecology and feminism in relation to equality because by equality nature will be protected through the participation of both genders. The study sums up the conclusion that through the partnership of both genders humans and nature will be protected from any future deterioration

Justification of multiple ecofeminist perspectives: Diversity really matters

Ecofeminism has grown, developed and transformed itself as a theory and made progress to encompass many different philosophical stances today. Cultural, social and radical ecofeminism are just some of the forms that ecofeminism can currently take. All of these sources of knowledge have contributed immensely to ecofeminist thought in general, although they have often been confronted by and supportive of different epistemologies. For instance, cultural ecofeminists have been accused of being essentialist. On the other hand, social ecofeminists relying on constructionism, as opposed to essentialism, have fiercely attacked capitalism as well as other isms (like classism, racism, sexism) aiming at the pillars of power upon which patriarchal society is constructed. This paper will try to reconcile the said opposing ecofeminist theories and highlight their importance in the development of ecofeminist perspectives. It will give an overview of ecofeminist viewpoints and show how they can be complementary.

From “Meat Culture” to “Cultured Meat”: Critically Evaluating the Contested Ontologies and Transformative Potential of Biofabricated Animal Material on Culture and Law

This article calls into question how different the parallel ontologies of meat are in terms of the realities they enact. It argues that while biofabricated animal material is expected to transform the production and consumption of meat, the material’s ontologies reinforce existing interrelationships between the dominant meat culture and the law. Additionally, the expectations surrounding biofabricated animal material vests the material with transformative power, even though it does not challenge the structural factors, namely law and culture, which underlie the exploitation and commodification of animals. I begin by delineating the co-constituting relationship between law, the realities of meat production and consumption, and meat culture. I then unpack the interface between different ontologies of meat and consider why the contest has taken place in legal terrains. From here, I consider the key expectations that have assigned transformative power to biofabricated animal material. I suggest that these expectations work to reinforce existing meat culture, and the configurations of power that benefit from it, as supported via legal instruments.

Communicating the Quest for Sustainability: Ecofeminist Perspectives in Sarah Orne Jewett’s ‘A White Heron’

The objective of this article is to study the relationship between men, women and nature in Sarah Orne Jewett’s ‘A White Heron’ by using ecofeminist perspectives. The cultural and moral vision of Jewett is imperative to the scope of American regionalist writing and her work characterizes the extreme concern to representing the region from which the author comes. The setting of the story holds its relevance even in the twenty-first century when the world is facing a deep ecological crisis. In ‘A White Heron’, Sarah Orne Jewett narrates the story of a 9-year-old girl Sylvia, exploring the grounds around her home in search of a prized white heron. Therefore, I suggest, it is through this relationship that the author demonstrates regional sustainability through clearly defined repressive gender roles, feminizing the concept of submissiveness while masculinizing attitudes of dominance over nature and competence in dealing with the challenges that nature presents.

(Re)viewing the Warrior Woman: Reading the Old English \u201cIceberg\u201d Riddle from an Ecofeminist Perspective

The Exeter Book’s Riddle 33 depicts its subject, an iceberg, as a warrior woman who can cause damage to ships with her physical prowess and powerful curses. This article discusses the riddle’s union of woman and iceberg from an ecofeminist perspective, exploring the deep-rooted andro- and anthropocentric anxieties that lie behind it. It explores the riddle alongside some of its analogues, including Beowulf, the metrical charms and the Icelandic “wave” riddles, which contain destructive female figures who are associated with dangerous and destructive elements of nature, including water and disease. As well as exploring some of the riddle’s connections with these analogues and their underlying anxieties, it also brings the riddle into dialogue with modern ecofeminists. In doing so, this article also considers how the union of the iceberg and warrior woman might offer an empowering metaphor beyond the stereotypical association of the female with fertile land.

Women in the Ancient Athenian Context: From an Ecofeminist Perspective

I discern in Greek myths of the goddess Athena traces of the idea of domination of mind over senses, and that men were seen as superior to women because of their naturally ruling mind. The Athenian, Platonic, androcentric, hierarchical worldview saw women as physically inferior to men. Behind courageous, wise Athena, lies Plato’s dualistic philosophy of reason, and the ideology of control. We must make a distinction between a dualistic philosophy and a holistic approach to reality. Ancient goddess Hestia’s inextinguishable flame as energy of all life extended to the entire world can be read as symbolizing the interrelatedness of all life.

An EcoFeminist Perspective on Sylvia Plath and Zhai Yongming

Abstract This article is particularly concerned with the interrelation between experience and expression, womanhood and creativity. It examines the extent to which Sylvia Plath's and Zhai Yongming's writings are informed by political, social, economic, and environmental changes in a cross-cultural context. In so doing, it reveals a somewhat hidden ecofeminist awareness shared by the two poets in a cross-cultural context, which facilitates authorial reflections on the intricate relationship between womanhood, nature, and urbanization. Gendered images and symbols, as well as physical and spiritual scars experienced by womanhood, are emphatically addressed to showcase Plath and Zhai's ecologically informed confessional poetics.

The Feminine (He)Art of Caring and the Power of Feminine Divine as New Ethics of Peace and Ecojustice

AbstractThe article addresses the question of how femininity and the maternal body are also important in shaping the discourse of giving, forgiving, and caring (also in caring for nature). Consideration of a view of the maternal body as signification, conceived of as an embodiment of ethics, is investigated. To bear someone like a maternal body suggests that one need not be a mother, or even a woman, to bear responsibility for the Other (including nature). Cultivation of giving and forgiving as embodied experience and examination of inter‐connectedness of giving and forgiving from an ecofeminist perspective are explored. Cultivation of loving hearts and living through our hearts as a feminist principle, and the possibility of understanding forgiveness as transcending anger through an act of love, is understood as a virtue. In this way forgiveness as love directly furthers self‐interest through serving the welfare of others, including nature.

Ecofeminine Consciousness in Sarah Orne Jewett’s “A White Heron”

The dominating human practices and discourses regarding nature were questioned in 1970s in the USA with the emergence of eco feminism that talks of affinity between female and ecology. It is an academic form of the movement targeting to critique the exploitation of nature by human beings as of the women by men. This paper aims at analyzing close relation between women and nature in Sarah Orne Jewett’ “A White Heron” from eco-feminist perspective. The project is based on the conflict between culture and the nature in the story represented by a male and the females respectively. The discussion will reassert the repressive and submissive; or destructive and protective gender roles over the nature

An ecofeminist study of Flora Nwapa’s ‘Efuru’

This paper identified the great contribution of Flora Nwapa’s Efuru to ideas of ecological consciousness, and environmental protection, using theory that interlaces ecocriticism cum feminist criticism. The methodology therefore involves the conversation or ideas on the images of women and nature in ‘Efuru’, the association between the oppression of women and exploitation of nature by male chauvinist, thereby enslaving the female and nature in the commercial market value. From an ecofeminist perspective, this paper discovered that Flora Nwapa inculcates her novel with a theme of feminine and natural liberation from domination and violence. Flora Nwapa foresees the establishment of symbiosis, in which there is no male oppression or environment exploitation.Keywords: ecological conscience, male oppression, ecofeminism, domination, interconnectedness

Gender Inequality and Environmental Well-Being: A Cross-National Investigation of Ecosystem Vitality and Environmental Health

<p><em>Ecofeminist perspectives assert that issues of gender and the environment are intertwined, where increasing women’s status will lead to more efficacious environmental policy and improved environmental conditions. We investigate the relationship between gender inequality and environmental well-being by employing a distinct set of indicators to better capture women’s status in relation to men across a variety of contexts (e.g.</em><em>,</em><em> health, economic, education, political), as well as a comprehensive environment index that includes a variety of ecological and environmental health measures. The results demonstrate that countries with higher levels of gender inequality are associated with poorer environmental well-being, net of other relevant factors. This lends support to the argument that addressing gender inequalities leads to better results for the environment and human health, and that women need to be included more prominently in environmental policy and planning. </em></p>

“Madness in its Place”: Ecofeminism in Janet Frame’s Faces in the Water

In the twentieth century, placing madwomen in mental institutions was considered a civilised and progressive idea. Mental institutions were said to provide a soothing and calming environment for the patients in order to help them heal. However, Istina Mavet, the (mad)woman protagonist of New Zealand author Janet Frame’s Faces in the Water (1961), records her unforgettable experiences of being locked up at the Cliffhaven and Treecroft Mental Institutions for being “different”. The material space of the mental institutions influences Istina’s emotions and further distresses her. The aesthetic space of the mental establishment is superseded by its oppressive material space, which facilitates containment and exercises control over its female inmates. Hence, the healing process serves as a form of punishment to inmates. The spatial separation of the madwomen in the mental institution mirrors their patriarchal oppression. The comfort of the patients is pushed aside and their natural surroundings ignored. This paper adopts the new materialism approach as a complement to its ecofeminist perspective. It examines the “healing spaces” that have ironically affected the inmates’ mental well-being and disrupted the recovery process. It argues that although Istina is labelled a “madwoman,” she challenges the notion of “sanity” by displaying a sense of realism in her narration and by using it as a strategy for survival. Madness is therefore perceived as part of her “landscape” to aid her identity construction.

Gender and nature in the matrilineal society of Meghalaya, India: Searching for ecofeminist perspectives

ABSTRACTThe ecofeminist perspective of the matrilineal society of Meghalaya, India, is intriguing in that it has descent through mother, is matrilocal and daughters inherit parental property, but the different genders possibly do not agree about the relationship between women and nature. Ecofeminism has not yet been studied in a matrilineal society. The purpose of the study was to investigate qualitatively the students' ecofeminist perspectives among the Khasi, Jaintia, and Garo tribes of Meghalaya, through students who were studying in North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, India. The sample consisted of 33 students purposefully selected to complete an open questionnaire and unstructured interviews. The responses showed that the women of this matrilineal society seem to be more ecofeminist compared with the men. However only a minority of both male and female expressed an ecofeminist worldview with respect to nature and development indicating that this concept is at early stage of development.

The Eco-space and Female Agency in Bole Butake’s Lake God

Abstract The ever-increasing environmental crises and the subsequent decay of the earth is a veritable call for concern which has stimulated man’s consciousness vis-à-vis his own very existence and his natural surroundings. There is therefore, the need for continuous resistance against the socio-cultural, political and economic manoeuvres that place man and his environment at extreme ends. This paper, therefore, focuses on the study of Bole Butake’s play: Lake God. It adopts both the eco-critical and eco-feminist approaches and hypothesizes that Butake’s depiction of a panoply of issues that centre around the female body and the land foreshadow a quest to overcome ecological and female oppression in order to render the land a more fertile ground for sustainable development and female empowerment. The paper contends that Butake’s play resonates a feminist self-consciousness which is suggestive of the need to seek alternative means of combating land exploitation in order to sustain a symbiotic relationship between man and his eco-space. In reading Butake’s work from an eco-feminist perspective, this paper intends to show that the characters he creates and the milieu in which they are positioned place the woman in a precarious state. Drawing therefore, from the global tenets of eco-feminism which posit that the woman and nature are related based on their history of domination and exploitation, this paper intends to revisit the eco-space and female agency in Butake’s work to postulate that the woman has the power to preserve the land and to create a healthy and conducive atmosphere. The paper, thus, exemplifies the author’s admiration for one’s native land which must be treasured and protected.

Meat-ing Demand: Is In Vitro Meat a Pragmatic, Problematic, or Paradoxical Solution?

Even in the midst of an ecological crisis, population and income continue to increase and so too does the global appetite for meat. One response by scientists has been to work towards making in vitro meat (IVM) a commercial reality, which would allow meat to be produced on a large scale without the husbandry and slaughter of enormous numbers of animals, as under the current industrial meat production system. Proponents of IVM technology claim that it could cut hunger, offer public health benefits, mitigate the environmental effects of conventional industrial meat production, and improve animal welfare. However, taking a critical, ecofeminist perspective on IVM highlights the need to assess not only the technical attributes and possibilities of the technology but also its underlying worldview as well as the unintended social and environmental consequences that could result. Reflecting on the question of whether IVM is a pragmatic, problematic, or paradoxical solution to the ills associated with industrial meat production and increasing meat consumption, this article argues that optimistic claims trumpeting the promissory potential of IVM are over-simplistic and warrant closer scrutiny. The importance of careful deliberation on the implications of emerging technologies like IVM cannot be understated because how the ethical discourse unfolds in the early stages will be significant in influencing public perception and social acceptance as well as shaping policy and regulatory design.

Susan Howe’s Historical Ethics of Space and Puritan Spirituality: An Ecofeminist Reading of Souls of the Labadie Tract

This essay explores ecofeminist perspectives in Susan Howe’s Souls of the Labadie Tract (2007) by examining the relationship between the ethics of space and the Puritan faith of the Labadists, Wall...

An ecofeminist perspective on new food technologies

New food technologies are touted by some to be an indispensable part of the toolkit when it comes to feeding a growing population, especially when factoring in the growing appetite for animal products. To this end, technologies like genetically engineered (GE) animals and in vitro meat are currently in various stages of research and development, with proponents claiming a myriad of justificatory benefits. However, it is important to consider not only the technical attributes and promissory possibilities of these technologies, but also the worldviews that are being imported in turn, as well as the unanticipated social and environmental consequences that could result. In addition to critiquing dominant paradigms, the inclusive, intersectional ecofeminist perspective presented here offers a different way of thinking about new food technologies, with the aim of exposing inherent biases, rejecting a view of institutions like science and law as being objective, and advancing methods and rationales for a more explicitly ethical form of decision-making. Alternative and marginalized perspectives are especially valuable in this context, because careful reflection on the range of concerns implicated by new food technologies is necessary in order to better evaluate whether or not they can contribute to the building of a more sustainable and just food system for all.

Women as victims of environmental crime and the relation of their victimization to the victimization of animals: An ecofeminist perspective

Ecofeminism, as a socio- political movement/ ideology, emphasizes the conceptual connections between oppression against woman and oppression against nature. On the other hand, environmental crime victims are the subject matter of green victimology, which defines environmental crime in the wider sense, so that it consists not only of criminal offences, but also of all the non-incriminated ecologically harmful acts. As its victims mostly appear to be women, nature/ ecosystems, animals and vulnerable groups, therefore ecofeminism serves as the fundamental theory in exposing the andocentric context of their victimization. Taking that as a starting point, an overview of the victimological patterns and roots of victimization by environmental crime, as it is defined in green victimology, is presented in the paper. This is done from an ecofeminist perspective. The focus is on the most frequent victims of environmental crime - woman and animal. The objective is to find certain common denominators of their victimological patterns and roots of victimization in order to make proposals for a more adequate response to their victimization.