M. L.
Adriana Jimnez Rodrguez
V Congreso Internacional de Lenguas Modernas
December 2016
Paper Proposal 1
A Brief Survey of the Field of Ecofeminism
Ecofeminism remains one of the most contested areas of feminism, and the
basis for some of the most interesting branches of contemporary critical theory, such
as queer ecologies. In order to understand the attacks that ecofeminists have faced
through the years, it is of fundamental importance to track the various origins of the
field, in theory, activism, and literature. The misconceptions about ecofeminism all
stem from ill-informed misinterpretation and ignorance. In general, the fields
detractors accuse ecofeminism of essentialism and sentimentality, both in reality very
far from the truth. Ecofeminism deeply analyzes the interconnectedness of all forms
of oppression (sex, class, race, gender identity, sexual orientation identity) and how it
informs speciesism. Speciesism is the (almost universal) belief that human animals
are superior to non-human animals and therefore entitled to exploit their bodies for
profit or entertainment as they see fit. It also refers to the human value system that
holds some non-human animals in higher esteem than some other non-human animals
(such as protecting the rights of dogs and cats while still eating baby pigs and cows).
Veganism then becomes one of the basic issues in ecofeminist discussions, but it is
only one of the aspects that we address. Ecofeminisms deepest roots lie in the
committed activism of environmental justice movements and animal liberation fronts,
and extend into a deep critical stance that seeks to unravel the interconnections
between the oppression of environmental racism, to name just one example, and the
undeniable relationship between misogynist violence and the farm factory system of
brutality of the meat-eating industry / culture. Ecofeminism offers complex readings
of phenomena that appears distanced but are based, founded upon, capitalist
patriarchal strategies of domination like the ownership and decision power over the
passive bodies of the earth, women, racial / sexual minorities, and non-human
animals. Ecofeminists talk government policy, corporation tax-breaks, breast cancer
as a direct consequence of environmental sexism, the fight for food sovereignty, the
connections between meat-eating and domestic violence, the relationship between
massive fishing and human trafficking overall, the struggle against death, the death
of the earth. This body of theory / ideology / activism has paved the way for many
contemporary theories that study how the capitalist patriarchally-imposed way of
living of the last 100 years has worked to destroy all natural resources, but also the
ways in which it has permeated basic socially-constructed concepts, such as human
identity, heteronormativity, racism, and yes, even the writing of theory and literature.
Works Cited
Adams, Carol J. The Pornography of Meat. Continuum, 2003.
---. The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory.
20th anniversary edition ed. Continuum, 2010.
Adams, Carol J., and Lori Gruen, editors. Ecofeminism: Feminist Intersections With
Other Animals and the Earth. Bloomsbury, 2014.
Emmerman, Karen. Inter-Animal Moral Conflicts and Moral Repair: A
Contextualized Ecofeminist Approach in Action. Adams and Gruen, 159-173.
Gaard, Greta Claire. Ecological Politics: Ecofeminists and the Greens. Temple UP,
1998.
---. Toward a Queer Ecofeminism. Stein, 21-44.
Kaalund, Valerie Ann. Witness to Truth: Black Women Heeding the Call for
Environmental Justice. Stein, 78-92.
Mies, Maria, and Vandana Shiva. Ecofeminism. (Critique. Influence. Change.) ed.
Zed, 2014.
Stein, Rachel, editor. New Perspectives on Environmental Justice Gender, Sexuality,
and Activism. Rutgers UP, 2004.
Unger, Nancy. Women, Sexuality, and Environmental Justice in American History.
Stein, 45-60.
Biografa:
Adriana Jimnez labora como docente en la Universidad de Costa Rica desde hace
catorce aos. Sus reas de especialidad son el ecofeminismo vegano, las ecologas
queer, estudios sobre la sexualidad de las mujeres, pornografa / erotismo feminista y
la literatura de mujeres, entre otras. Le interesa sobre todo la vinculacin inter y
multi-disciplinaria y el posicionamiento de las interconexiones de opresin como base
de una poltica personal, acadmica y artstica radical y transgresiva.
