In my choice of praxis I decided that I would shop local and at small minority run businesses, in particular a local Black grocery store. At the time of my choosing I knew and had laid a foundation as to why this was an important option to display my own ecofeminist social justice praxis. In the beginning stages of my own thoughts on this I know capitalist practices serve as the main form of dominion over the environment so it was important to me to serve as a direct actor that would attempt to course correct this power that patriarchy and capitalism have or those under them in a social hierarchy . As multiple scholars attested to, capitalism serves as a form of domination over women and nature, ecofeminist “Shiva also published, with Maria Mies, a German, Marxist sociologist, Ecofeminism: Reconnecting a Divided World (1993). In this book the authors connect the capitalist-patriarchal economic system with the oppression of women in both the northern and southern hemispheres” (Hobgood Oster page 7). With that being said my main goal in my social justice praxis was to consciously spend my dollars with smaller local shops /businesses to potentially drive economic attraction to them as we know from activists like Shiva, women and marginalized peoples endure hard economic realities as compared to their male counterparts.

 My belief for where I could do the most good was intrinsically rooted in consciously spending my own dollars. For the marginalized people who are affected by harsh individualism, I thought how could I be in community but also  shift the monetary dominance dynamic into the hands of the marginalized. This Black owned grocery’s store, which sources a lot of their produce from local and ethical means, seemed like a great place to divert my funds. I hope that through my own personal awakening with this ecofeminist practice, that more attention and thus people’s pockets  will come to shop small and local more and more.

From visiting Bumpys’ over the course of my praxis I learned that Bumpys’ Natural andOrganic Foods Store got its name from the owner, Derryl “Bumpy” Gibbs. Bumpy, the owner, struggled most of his life with severe allergies and had to switch to a vegan plant based diet in his early adult life. Bumpy, who I met one afternoon in his grocery store, was very welcoming and actually took it upon himself to chat and walk around the store with me for a bit while I told him about my school assignment but the larger picture, he listened while I spoke about my intentions for shopping  to support small local shops  in the community. He agreed and said that based on location he was excited to be a pillar of wellness and connection through ethically sourced food for the people of Springfield, Ma.

 What I also appreciated very much is that all of the workers in the shop were women too. I have included a picture from an article on Bumpy’s where there are two women who work in the grocery store. I did find that buying entirely organic is more expensive per grocery trip, but I was still finding why to cut the costs a bit. What I found by visiting Bumpy’s over the course of this assignment is that Bumpys’  is a source of good for the plant, people, and place. They compost their food straps from their juice bar, take a percentage off your purchase when you bring your own reusable bags, and  have a section dedicated to Black owned food brands. I do feel as though this plan was successful, however tangible economic results will have to be achieved with more time, people and attraction to shopping smaller. I would love to continue going there regularly, having great conversations with the owner about the traffic into the store. I plan to continue to visit, bring food straps and be a patron at the Bumpy’s and any other stores and entities  that align with supporting these communities.

The sky’s the limit when it comes to putting the ecofeminist principles into motion. The most important thing is to approach this subject matter with clarity and practicality. I thought up until the last few moments on what I would put into practice for the end of semester praxis project. Ultimately what really resonates with me is “thinking carefully about where I spend my money”, similarly like the article says 13 simple ways to support feminist activism on International Women’s Day” says, “Choosing to shop with ethical brands that ensure a fair wage and a safe working environment is an act of feminism and a huge push towards equality, not only bet

ween genders but also between different groups of women” (Devaney & Crockett). My idea for the practice is to intentionally shop/ buy from only small, local, women, ethical, and environmentally conscious stores/ brands for the next fourteen days. It is also my hope to incorporate more of the sustainable practices I am familiar with like recycling and plastic free lifestyle. There is a Black owned mini grocery mart named Bumpy’s Natural and Organic Foods, about 25 mins from my house that I have shopped at a few times in the past. This will be my go to place for food until the end of the semester.

I hope to achieve a better dependency on the local businesses in my community. I also think one of my hopes is that I have enough success that it inspires other people in my ecosystem to intentionally shop from small minority owned businesses. I think this plan will be effective because when I implemented this before in 2020 in my personal life I saw a lot of people doing the same. In the height  of the pandemic social media platforms like Instagram would highlight small businesses through hashtags that you could seen based on location. I myself used that to find the minority business in my area to support and highlight.

I included the graph below because long term if eco-consciousness was to be at the forefront of the decisions we make in our communities the graph depicts how the health of a community would grow.

The connections between the oppression of women and the oppression of nature that I saw from the Vice article, “ The Brazilian Slum Children Who Are Literally Swimming in Garbage”, were that nature and women are deeply suffering and being neglected. Approximately 2500 children from two under-resourced areas in Brazil are living in conditions not suitable for life. The physical environment in these areas ie: the water,  are not conducive to life but even through that, people in these specific parts are paving their own way and surviving. 

The clear antonym to the previously mentioned realities of the Brazil communities, is the Greenbelt movement in Kenya. Wangari Maathis, environmental activist, and Greenbelt founder, writes potently about the nature of women and their unagreed upon social responsibility. Maathis says this, “Throughout Africa (as in much of the world) women hold primary responsibility for tilling the fields, deciding what to plant, nurturing the crops, and harvesting the food. They are the first to become aware of environmental damage that harms agricultural production: if the well goes dry, they are the ones concerned about finding new sources of water and those who must walk long distances to fetch it. As mothers, they notice when the food they feed their family is tainted with pollutants or impurities: they can see it in the tears of their children and hear it in their babies’ cries” (Maathai, 2000). I kept what Maathai said about the closeness of women and the environment in mind, as an environmental advocate she worked her entire life to protect land but also worked land appreciation.  So I half heartedly agree that “behind” the material deprivations and cultural losses of the marginalized and the poor lie the deeper issues of disempowerment and/or environmental degradation because ultimately I believe that both of these two things are happening simultaneously. Our ecofeminist author this week, Ivone Gebara, says this, “While these discussions are going on, lots of women and children are starving and dying with diseases produced by a capitalist system able to destroy lives and keep profit for only a few” (Gebara page 94). Gebara’s work from this week dives into global power structures and their relationships to those oppressed as a result of power structures.

Over the course of the last 2.5 months we have learned about dynamics like intersectionality, the web of domination, and now religious patriarchy, all having their own at times separate but equal connection to a multitude of equality movements, specifically ecofeminism. When I was reading the story of Recife in Brazil I was immediately reminded of the general quote, “You get out what you put in”. Up until a semester or two ago I believed that quote. However I do not  believe this is the case for people living in the global south, specifically women, who as we have established are the primary environmental workers. I think that quote doesn’t take enough about all that is extracted from those living in the Global South.  Life in the Global south is described as jail by Gebara.

Gebara points out cycles of persistent poverty within another Brazilian community as a way to showcase what happens when marginalized people are disempowered, “Daily life for poor women is like a jail…Most of them stay at home. They have nothing to cook. They wait for the children to return from school. They hope the children have already eaten, but they have not…The cycle of domestic jail finished today and now women wait to begin again tomorrow” (Gebara page 96). The example I highlighted from Gebara’s essay talks about women and children. We know that men tend to, because of patriarchy, sit closer to the top of this power structure.

However when men have identities like race, socioeconomic status, and location that are outside of the normal western patriarchal heteronormativity identities they become susceptible to oppression. Such would be the case as men living in the Global South where our original example in Gerbara comes from. Since we know intersectionality praxis can be applied globally when trying to end oppressive systems like patriarchy, its place in the conversation on disempowerment and thus environmental degradation. 

The term Intersectionality is quite vast, in its first form it was used to describe the interdependent relationship between race and womanhood as experienced by Black Woman coined from the scholarship of Kimberle Crenshaw. A more contemporary approach uses intersectionality as, “an analytic tool by feminists, hoping to address and resolve the most fundamental and contentious of concerns within feminist scholarship i.e. the existence of differences between women” (Kings, 64). The intention for using intersectionality in this new type of way is to prove and show, “the interconnectedness of race, class, gender, disability, sexuality, caste, religion, away age and the effects which these can have (in their many and uniquely constituted forms) on the discrimination, oppression, and identity of women and the natural environment” (Kings, 64). With that being defined intersectionality is versatile it’s had the ability to be leveraged as a, “complexity (McCall 2005), a continuum (Mehrotra 2010), a lens (MacGregor 2010), a paradigm (Winker & Degele 2011 and Hulko 2009), an axis or axes (Yuval Davis 2006), a crossroads with a roundabout (Garry 2011), a critical praxis (Hill Collins 2015), a matrix of domination (Bilge 2010 and Hill Collins, 2015), a framework (Anthias 2012), a ‘nodal point’ (Lykke 2005), a rhi- zome (Lykke 2010) or even a mountain with liquids of uneven viscosity running down it and mixing together (Garry 2011)”(page 65). And just like intersectionality’s original purpose, as detailed by Crenshaw, there is an analytical avenue that dissects and pairs the socially constructed identities. It’s related to Agarwal’s way of teaching ecofeminism because it, “tak[es] into account the influence of class, gender, and caste on the structures of power. Agarwal claims that the relationship women share with the environment is not biologically determined but rather one which is variable” (King, 76). We know from Agarwal guidance and pioneering this space that, “the ‘closeness’ of their relationship and the greater interest that women may take in the preservation and protection of natural resources, as compared to their male counterparts, has more to do with their role in society as based on class and caste than it does with any necessary or biological connection” (King, page 76).  So the basic study of ecology is deemed important in this ecofeminism space because as defined by Webster’s dictionary, “ecology is a branch of science concerned with the relationships between living things and their environment. : the pattern of relationships between a group of living things and their environment” (Websters, 2023). 

Eco Feminist interconnected “web” is an additional layer. While the focus of intersectionality this far has been on social identities like race, gender, and sexuality. There is an added layer of this concept. Now more commonly depicted as a “web” we add and thus connect dynamics like privilege, domination, and oppression. This concept is more commonly used under an eco feminist view. The ecofeminist web can assert that women’s lives are vastly different from each other, because each identity brings along its own differentiation that can impact said lives from person to person. Described in greater detail, “A person is likely not simply “oppressed” it is the idea that we hold multiple categories of identities within each of us. It is possible and (likely) that society enforces both advantages and disadvantages at the same time” (Blackboard). 

*To the left is an image of the web of Intersecting Axes if Privilege, Domination, and Oppression

A prime example I picked up of this was in this week’s reading “A Question of Class” by Dorothy Allison. She talks extensively from her viewpoint starting from childhood. One of her social identities is her economic background. She says this in defense of the treatment of low income women similarly situated to her, “the poverty I knew was dreary, deadening, shameful, the women powerful in ways not generally seen as heroic by the world outside the family” (Allison, paragraph 11) because Allison is white she addresses the experiences of the poor working class women she grew up around to connect the reader to the interconnection of oppression and privilege. It was an awakening for Allison that she uncovered that not every household in America was the same. Having primarily matured around people with similar identities to herself. Allison, “met there had not been shaped by the rigid class structure that dominated the South Carolina Piedmont. The first time I looked around my junior high classroom and realized I did not know who those people were not only as individuals but as categories” (paragraph 20). This awakening from Allison is clearly explained under the ecofeminist web of connectivity.  We have to acknowledge that this intersectional dynamic is a web, because many scholars and activists before us have brought the interconnectivity of  Ecofeminism, Intersectional Feminism and environmental feminism, to name a few. Even Beverly Daniel Tatum points out this circumstance and quotes the fabulous Audre Lorde saying, “many of us are both dominant and subordinate. As Audre Lorde said, from her vantage point as a Black lesbian, “there is no hierarchy of oppressions.” The thread and threat of violence runs through all of the isms. There is a need to acknowledge each other’s pain, even as we attend to our own” (Tatum, page 5). Not only do all aspects of this week’s readings teach us about the importance of intersectionality’s relationship to ecofeminism but this semester has navigated us to a position where we can see how all life is tangled and if analysis we can find commonality. 

The Norgaard and York hypothesis shows examples of changes involving “social theorists identify[ing] environmental concern as a major factor leading to the reshaping of nation-states during the past century” (Beck, Giddens, and Lash 1994; Spaargaren and Mol 1992) (Norgaard & York page 506). It is argued in this week’s essays that the changes in state are concentrated in the environmental conditions of politics and how women’s role in society is significantly impacted because of the environment. Their thesis: “Does the degree of gender equality in the political realm within a nation have an impact on state environmental policy? Focusing on the nation-state, we aim to assess the association between gender equality and state environmentalism, as indicated by the ratification of international environmental treaties” (page 507). Serves an exploratory bridge between gender’s power over politics in relation to  governance and policy. 

The introduction to York and Norgaard essay interrogated societal power dynamics, “in an unequal society, the impacts of environmental degradation fall disproportionately on the least powerful” (page 508). We know that in western society and in heteronormative patriarchy places women, regardless of occupation, in one of the lowest rungs on the social totem pole.  Now to add another “system” into that equation of power, politics and gender collide when environmental policy is dissected.

Now back to the thesis of the two scholars, where does gender equality come into play for environmental policy?!? Ecofeminist teachings already have extensively explored the concerns of women and the environment because of patriarchy in various parts of the world. 

Once Norgaard and York  connect women’s operational effects of state and patriarchy’s capacity  they focus in on how gender works at level with environmental policy and the disparities women’s are regulated to because of it. Keeping in mind because of the normalization of these dynamics, “ 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” (508). And because we know the bond between the state of the environment and gender equality is closely linked we can assume that women’s position in the state is also a reflection of the status of the environment and subsequently its policies. York and Norgaard describe the systems themselves as gendered. 

 Stockholm Environment Institute reports that “Outdoor air pollution is linked to preterm births” 

 “Study links outdoor air pollution with 2.7 million preterm births per year”

If the solution for increased birth rates lies in the quality of air it is imperative that ecosystems for birthing people are conscious of gender equality and public and environmental health standards. Switzerland is ranked as having the best air quality and subsequently since women have received the right to vote in 1971, the amount of women represented in their representative democracy has grown to 42%. 

Female Leadership in State Environmental Landscape

Maathai’s a environmentalist political activist, the first woman to hold a doctorate degree from central east Africa formerly educated in the U.S. because of advanced educational opportunities in the U.S.  Maathai, as a key political activist working in the environmental space, spearheaded an initiative that allowed women in African villages to “improve the environment by planting trees to provide a fuel source and to slow the processes of deforestation and desertification” (encyclopedia Britannica ) . What is important to note is that women were paid to plant trees and any tree that lasted past three months, women were compensated for. This is crucial because in countries like Kenya women performed labor intensive jobs like gathering firewood and water as the care takers in their villages. Payment for labor leads to more equal treatment between men and women, so they fact that women were being paid for the productivity of the trees planted is essential. Her own environmental organization is responsible for 30 million trees being planted and inspiring a handful of other organizations to begin this same work.

In 1989 the Kenyan government sought to deforest Uhuru Park to build a skyscraper.  Maathaai organized nonviolent protests with women from the state to oppose the destruction of the park and was successful. The protest prevailed and Maathaai went on to become a member of parliament and the Assistant Minister of environment, natural resources, and wildlife.

In the reading this week Norway’s ability to strive for gender equality in their state is highlighted, made possible by leveraging a certain percentage of female political talent for cabinet roles under her leadership. Similarly in the Republic of the Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine was voted in the top 20 political leaders working in the climate space. Her first order of business required her to make major state environmental decisions, President “Heine took charge in January and immediately declared a state of emergency over a drought so dire that water was rationed in the capital, Majuro” (Milman and Ryan, 2016).

Another key indicator to strong state environmentalism lies in the population of the state. Mass migration (20,000) is a state environmental issue for RMI, the impact of a worsen climate ecosystem, caused by the unstable conditions of the RMI. Heines’ top priority as president involves stabilization of the state which would lead to greater gender equality among its constituents as we know that women will be hit with the hardest impacts of the harsh effects of the climate crisis in RMI. Heiene’s has used her big platform to advocate for the people of the Global South that face the effects of environmental degradation far more than those living in the Global South while contributing significantly less.

Above is a picture of the Republic of Marshall Islands and surrounding territories.

Works Cited 

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Green-Belt-Movement 

https://www.scu.edu/environmental-ethics/environmental-activists-heroes-and-martyrs/wangari-muta-maathai.html

5 ways reducing pollution can improve equality for women

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/15/marshall-islands-climate-change-springdale-arkansas

Objectification of women is an action so deeply ingrained in us that it does sit on a spectrum of least to most visible. However some of the images under Carol J Adams website jumped out at me as outrageous, one of them was the “we’ve got the best racks” image. I nearly gasped when I was scrolling through because it was so clear the imagery and marketing was trying to convey. The women in this particular image are looking straight to camera, they are outfitted in dresses that show their cleavage. Also the word “racks” has several connotations, one meaning referring to a cut of meat and the other to parts of a woman’s body. I make a note on the placement of both of these images because the women are both looking straight to the camera but their bodies are gravitating towards the rack of meat on the table situated beneath them.

What do we learn from the objectification of women and animals? This week the beginning of the reading spoke about hierarchies and when I applied the ideas of both objectification, hierarchies, and patriarchy I saw it clearly in the image. The man (patriarchal figure) is sitting center stage like a, “symbol for what is not seen but is always there… patriarchal control of animals” (Adams, 3) while the women’s bodies, in this case, are being used as objects under the male gaze. The objectification of women and women’s bodies in this image is used as a tool to sell non-human animals. Adams also acknowledges around page 8-9 that there is a hierarchy with humans and non humans. I can visually see and thus rank where all parties are placed in the image. The animal meat is the lowest of all three objects in this picture. The order may look a bit like this: the man is centered and unbothered, then the bodies of the two women, then the meat. In this regard I believe the consumer is male targeted. While the consumed is the women and/or animal meat because, “women are animalized and animals are sexualized and feminized” (Adams, 13). When power struggles that position people and animals to be either eaten or do the eating there are two outcomes in that scenario. 

This image sexualizes the pig in the same way we sexualize women. Verbiage like “high maintenance” is used to associate the value of women who are deemed better to the value of feminized pig or even more subtle verbiage like “advance” in this context.

I also learned from Adams that, “consumption is the fulfillment of oppression, the annihilation of will, of separate identity” (page 14). So I believe that objectification is a tool of oppression. Just as the term anthropornography that Adams’ coined  can be used to describe what is happening in this image of the feminine pig.

This was one of the images this week that while filtering through the slideshow my  mouth fell open in shock. It is peak objectification and extremely dehumanizing to women. I’m reminded of the point that Adams was making around page 7 about dehumanization as a tactic “ when a group is deemed not human, oppressors have several options for establishing just who they see them as” (Adams, 7). About women first needing to be seen as human to not be objects of the male gaze. But this meme would suggest through sexually charged comparison that women can be served up like we do meat. All of this is based on a hierarchy of species, that is outlined from most powerful to to least.

 Adams illustrates this on page 8. I have listed the order of living things under speciesism below: 

Top 3

▶️human being

▶️Subhumans

▶️The  devil

Bottom 3 

▶️ Reptiles

▶️ Insects

▶️ “Material” nature- Earth

This particular image jumped out at me because it clearly is not only sexualizing women but adds another layer of manipulation because it implies that women are inherently more dishonest than men and/or lying to men about their needs with to cis gendered men. Also as far as imagery goes the biggest thing in this photo is the food. This is also a more current marketing as far as some of the other photos we looked at go. This idea that food marketing that centers the objectification of marketing will have very similar points to it  because, “advertisements that sexualize and feminize animals have been around for more than thirty years, and during this time, they have become more widespread and more explicit” (page 14). Back to my initial feelings about seeing this image from at least from 2000’s of a famous socialite, it is very sexualized, Paris Hilton in a bathing suit and comments like “it’s gonna get messy”, all added to enhance the sexual nature of women. 

Many ecofeminists like Greta Gaard see animals and humans very similarly, for instance “from an ecofeminist perspective, speciesism is a form of oppression that parallels and reinforces other forms of oppression. These multiple systems of racism, classism, sexism, speciesism are not merely linked, mutually reinforcing systems of oppression: they are different faces of the same system” (Gaard, 20). We have studied and learned about how women are harmed at large under various forms of oppression and elements of hyper capitalism, now when we examine non-human animals we can start to understand that they also can experience the same levels of oppression.

I think it’s important to note that oppression was given a very reliable and clear definition this week… From Gaard’s article, “Ecofeminism on the Wing” another feminist writer,  Marion Young describes oppression as a “condition in groups” and with groups there are different types of oppression, Young breaks them down to, “ exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism and violence” (Gaard page 20). When it comes to an ecofeminist perspective on non-human animals, key elements that ecofeminists address is that speciesism is just as relative as any of the widely known “isms” and within that non-human animals are still susceptible to the conditions that oppression brings that Young described.

Power: There is a large population of this country that eats non-human animals. Around the time of me visiting the Animal Kill Clock there had been roughly 8.1 billion non human animal deaths this year. As a meat eater who knows that the food and agriculture industry could be safer and more ethical. This number was alarming to me because we are only just now at the end of February. Non-human animals do sit at the bottom of our social hierarchies. I say this somberly but with more awareness moving forward. In Gaard reading, power dynamics were at play greatly. The writers brought home this idea that non-human animals don’t necessarily consent to the treatments and experiences that go through to be food in our food system and for human consumption because, “transfer of energies from one group to another to produce unequal distributions and surely the labor of wild and domestic nonhuman animals. their reproduction and their bodies as well have been exploited by humans” (Gaard page 20). And like Curtin addresses under perspectives of moral vegetarianism, “I cannot refer to an absolute moral rule that prohibits meat eating under all circumstances” (Curtin Page 1). Curtin  perceives non-human animals in their analysis of vegetarianism and the importance of when it would morally be okay to exhibit any oppression to non-human animals.  What’s more is that Curtin elaborates on the effects of speciesism when “ethics of care” are considered for non-human animals as it relates to the cultural imperialism element of oppression that is bound to happen between human and non- human animals in this food system. Like in Japanese culture there is , “Shinto ceremony that pays respect to the insects that are killed during rice planting” ( Curtin page 2). The ceremonies are an amazing example of the idea that ultimately while trying to keep humans fed in Japanese society smaller less powerful creatures are killed, this awareness and homage from the dominant group will go a long way for the oppression and ethics of care for non-human animals.

Gendered Eating:

Example 1: Man and woman are out at dinner, women order a salad, man orders a steak. 

Explained: Men are seen as needing to be more masculine and strong. So when it comes to eating and especially in an intimate setting like a date with a woman he will socialize to present and order something heavy and strong like red meat. Women are seen as feminine and dainty so they would be conditioned to order something light and subtle like a salad. 

Example 2: Women wash dishes after a long day,  men watch t.v. after dinner and unwinds. 

Explained: Women are seen in domestic roles under patriarchy. So for a woman to be taking care of the dishes and the home as a form of unpaid labor, this would be the norm. 

Image: At first glance I assumed the image above was of pillsbury dough boy, a mascot for a bakery company. After further examination I see the small white figure cutting through meat with two knives. I think this image was chosen for this week because we were all discussing how deep vegetarianism and ecofeminism runs. In my opinion if the white figure in suppose to represent pillsbury dough boy, a baking goods company, then replacement of dough with meat symbolizes the treatment of non human animals in this society.

I have lived in towns and cities in Massachusetts all of my adult life, only venturing out for quick 

vacations and work trips to places that are also classified as towns in cities. While my time in Massachusetts has really informed my disposition in this world. It isn’t my place, I took a trip to Los Angeles in April of 2022 and it changed my life. The revelations that I came to greatly shifted my world. What resonated with me on this trip was that my professional career had truly taken over my life. I was living to work.

 And for what good reason? This phenomenon of being displaced from oneself was incredibly sad to realize. 

This theory that bell hooks writes about in “Touching the Earth”, is one that brought up a lot of feelings around this specific displaced time in my life. In her essay she writes about the displacement of Black people from southern farmer land as the Industrial period in America began. As I read I envisioned myself on the land she described so vividly, using words like “richness, shining, warmth, sparkle” to name a few. All of these inviting descriptors are by hooks when she describes Southerns lives on farms and how she speaks about the North and the language she uses when talking about displacement are antonyms. The cadence of this part in the reading invoked that same sadness in me. 

Even though hooks is writing ,at one point, from the perspective of the industrial revolution, the writing holds up well for 2023. I was even able to relate directly to it. 

The psychological effects of displacement in my case were felt before and seen all on that work trip I took to LA in 2022.  Hooks brilliantly explains the epiphany I had about placement of the body’s relation to place, labor, and oppression as, “working in conditions where the body was regarded solely as a tool (as in slavery), profound estrangement occurred between mind in the body. The way the body was represented, became more important than the body itself. It did not matter if the body was well, only that it appeared well.” (hooks 366). In my case I was operating as a tool for the company to make large sums of money, my thoughts on how a business should be run did not matter as long as I served as a vessel for the store. 

With all of that being said, I believe that city dwellers may experience a connection wit

h earth but it may look similarly to Chantal’s homestead experience but just on smaller scales. Access to community gardens in larger cities is happening all over the country. I have included a list of community gardens in the Boston area that are entirely managed by local residents. Bringing nature to more greenery to cities has already happened. The connection should be sustained and increased through more community engagement with places like community gardens and outdoor terrain.

List of Boston Community Gardens 

https://thetrustees.org/content/list-of-boston-community-gardens/ 

After coming to my2022 epiphany I quit my very demanding job at the beginning of the summer and focused on self care and my personal wellness. It was in the quietness of the summer that I realized balance was going to be key in the next chapter of my life. It felt great to be still and focus on taking care of myself. The quiet only took me so far until my internal clock kept going off, letting me know I needed to return to work.  Emerging back into the workplace Fall 2022 was all about balancing all of my environments. Kingsolver talks about quietness frequently throughout the essay, “Knowing Our Place” explaining her own preferences when writing, “blessed emptiness of mind that comes from birdsong and dripping trees” (Kingsolver 2).

*The above picture was taken of me in LA, the writing behind me says Support Black Art.*

With all of the quietness I experienced in my time away I grew to appreciate the noise, so I agree with Kingsolver we need wilderness. A healthy balance of both is what is necessary for humans because the duties of our lives can swarm us but,“to be surrounded by a singing, mating, howling commotion of other species, all of whom love their lives as much as you do, and none of whom could possibly care less about your economic status or your day-running calendar” (Kingsolver 2). When I had the opportunity to place myself back in a more natural environment to rest and then remerge when the time was right, so that now I have a healthy relationship with both work and my environment.

  Women living in the Global South are affected by environmental degradation everyday through aspects of their physical surroundings and abstract happenings. Environmental conditions like, “water- logging, creating what the local people aptly call “wet deserts” (Agarwal) are largely affecting women and girls who are normally designated as the people who perform daily tasks like caring for the home and water gatherers. Regions surrounding countries in Asia and Africa, specifically India as showcased in this week’s reading that, “degradation in India’s natural resource base is manifest in disappearing forests, deteriorating soil conditions, and depleting water resources” (Agarwal). What causes more of an alarm to me when it comes to this matter (women and environmental deterioration) is this alarming point that Agarwal brings up. She says this on women in regions of India, “groundwater levels have fallen permanently in several regions, including in northern India with its high water tables, due to the indiscriminate sinking to tube wells the leading input in the Green Revolution technology. As a result, many drinking water wells have dried up or otherwise been rendered unusable. In addition, fertilizer and pesticide runoffs into natural water sources have destroyed fish life and polluted water for human use in several areas” (Agarwal). The conditions are exacerbated for women because like the United Nations Reports says “women and girls usually have the responsibility of fetching water. This can be a dangerous, time-consuming and physically demanding task. Long journeys by foot, often more than once a day, can leave women and girls vulnerable to attack and often precludes them from school or earning an income” (UN Article).

**This week I was exposed to the acronym of W-A-S-H from the United Nations article. WASH stands for Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene.

Western ecofeminism perspective will prioritize an, “approach to transforming relationships of domination and the removal of hierarchical thinking” (Last week’s reading). 

While under a non -western perspective of ecofeminism, the priorities of ecofeminism include:

1. There are important connections between domination and oppression of women and the domination exploitation of nature.

2. In patriarchal thought, women are identified as being closer to nature and men as being closer to Nature is seen as inferior to culture; hence, women are seen as inferior to men.

3. Because the domination of women and the nation of nature have occurred together, women have a particular stake in ending the domination of nature, “in healing the alienated human and non-human nature.” 

4. The feminist movement and the environmental movement both stand for egalitarian, archical systems.

Which Thoughts on Ecofeminism are more interesting?

In my opinion both streams of thoughts on ecofeminism are so interesting. For this week I will say the non -Western ecofeminism introduced a few new points to the conversation. Upon reading Agarwal’s work this week the idea that society places women more connected to nature than men and the idea that oppression of women and nature are always occurring at once is a new perspective that resonates with me deeply. Many of these non- western ideas  I had never thought about but I feel will more than likely be a recurring theme in ecofeminism.