Ecofeminism and The Tough Crowd of 213x

Caitlin Scarano

ENGL 601

Heyne

1 April 2012

Reading Response 3: Feminism

            As you may now know, reader, I’ve been teaching my ENG 213x course on various forms of nature writing – the class theme is “Writing and Imagining the Environment.”  In the course, we spent some time generally dealing with nature writing and the big names to know (Thoreau, Wendell Berry, Barry Lopez, etc), and then I taught a section on writing that regards our specific environment – Alaska.  Students at UAF, I’ve found, love talking about Alaska and how Alaskans are othered by the Lower 48. 

            This all relates to feminism in two relevant ways:

1.)   I want to teach them about ecofeminism, but for some reason I don’t feel knowledgeable or prepared enough.

2.)   I believe that I teach from a feminist pedagogical perspective, but until this week, I hadn’t realized how underrepresented women authors are in my course readings.

Now, before I get into #2, let’s revisit #1.  Ecofeminism is defined as “a contemporary approach in feminist studies that assumes that patriarchal societies are relatively new and that society’s original condition, known as Feminist Eden, was matriarchal.  Whereas patriarchal societies, say ecofeminists, are detrimental to women, children, and nature, matriarchal societies protect the environment, natural resources, and animal life while caring for women and children” (Bressler 340).  Sorry, this may be a clunky definition on ecofeminism, but I am trying to utilize our fine textbook.  Bressler, I’m guessing, may not identify as an ecofeminist, but he gives you the main points.

 I believe that ecofeminism founds itself on the following claim: the system that oppresses women is the same system that oppresses the environment – patriarchy.  The idea is that women are more connected to nature than men, because women are more empathetic to the condition of nature, and the possible exploitation done by men.  If we deconstruct the damaging components of patriarchy then the oppression and damage done to both women and the environment will decrease. At least, this is my interpretation.

But how to best teach the concept of ecofeminsim to a classroom of (seemingly mainly male, mainly while, mainly conservative) students who have probably never heard the term?  I want to give the students at least a brief introduction to ecocriticism, ecofeminsim, and ecopoetry – I feel this is my responsibility as an instructor, to at least expose my students to new and challenging concepts.  But the Alaska nature writing unit has been so successful, I am not sure if I want to switch it up this late in the semester.  So this reading response is my brainstorming process, I suppose.

I am still thinking about how to handle this, but in the mean time I am looking for good ecofeminist authors and texts that I might use (if you know of any, please share!).  A helpful introductory article could be “Ecofeminisms in Process” by Richard T. Twine, which has an academic-based focus on debates, theories, and potentially problematic or outdated ideals of ecofeminism: “The argument that ‘women’ are ‘closer to nature’ and ‘more embodied’ than ‘men’ is premised upon the problematic notion that (some of) humanity is separate rather than situated within nature, and attempts to subvert this mastering narrative by reproducing it are inevitably problematic” (Twine 3).   This specific quote highlights the issue of separating humanity (whether looking at the male or female gender) from nature.  My students and I have discussed this issue at length, especially considering the main points of William Cronon’s “Trouble with Wilderness.”  I could use this text or others like it to connect the topic of ecofeminism to our already ongoing class discussions.

Out of the thirteen authors we’ve read in my ENGL 213x course, four are women (Annie Dillard, Annie Tupek, Sherry Simpson, and Susan Kollin). I think I will soon teach Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, or at least some of it.   I want to represent more women writers in the few short weeks that I have left in the course.  Fundamentally, if I am representing the environment mainly from the perspectives of male writers, I feeding into part of the problem that ecofeminism points out – that men define and dominate what is around them (in writing and other means).