I think the image was chosen because of the cliche that men are considered to be the head of the table and are chosen to be the ones to carve the meat. I also think it chooses meat because society has completely gendered meat and view it as a men’s food. This might be a stretch, but I think the fact that this person doesn’t have a face or show any expressions is an example of how people don’t care that they’re eating animals that were once alive.

When thinking about gendered foods, yogurt immediately popped into my head. Yogurt is always marketed towards women. I can only recall seeing women eating yogurt in commercials (that’s not to say men aren’t in them as well but I’ve seen more women). I also recall seeing a yogurt commercial with John Stamos where he is trying to seduce a woman with yogurt and if that isn’t blatantly obvious I don’t know what is. I also immediately thought of energy drinks. Every commercial is about male athletes needing energy drinks but never females because of the stereotype that women can’t play sports. After reading about gendered foods, I can’t help but think of all of the gendered foods right in front of me. 

Ecofeminists see animals as our equals and believe that we need to stand up for animals since they can’t do that themselves. Greta Gaard says that “feminists who politicize their care for animals see a specific linkage between sexism and speciesism” (Gaard, 19). Terms for animals are often used in negative ways to hurt women and ecofeminists believe that “speciesism is a form of oppression that parallels and reinforces other forms of oppression” (Gaard, 20) and this directly links the oppression that women and animals face. Gaard also goes into detail about why she believes having animals as pets is wrong. Gaard says “to be a pet is to have all one’s life decisions controlled by someone else… the pet-owner relationship constructs humans as masters in a way that few people would be comfortable treating other humans” (Gaard, 21). I understand where Gaard is coming from and I would love nothing more than for all animals to be free but we can’t do that. That would’ve worked years before we domesticated animals. If we stop taking in these animals they will be killed in shelters or they will die in the wild because they have been domesticated. In my opinion, I think it’s more humane to give these animals a chance to live than to throw them out in the wild to die. If someone like Gaard were around years ago, maybe we could have stopped the domestication of animals but we didn’t and we can’t change that. Gaard also believes that society should try to stop eating meat and become vegetarians. She says, “many people in first-world nations can choose healthy vegetarian diets, thereby reducing the suffering of other animal species confined in factory farming operations, and reducing our own suffering of ill health as well” (Gaard, 21). While Deane Curtin believes in vegetarianism, she understands that some cultures must have meat or that it’s just not possible for some people to live without meat. I agree with Curtin on this, I think vegetarianism is a wonderful thing and if you have the ability to be a vegetarian please do it. I can’t be a vegetarian, I have a Selective Eating Disorder that makes it very difficult for me to eat many, many foods and it so happens that chicken is one of the few foods that I am okay with eating. I would love to stop eating meat completely but if I do that, I won’t get enough protein and I won’t have many options food wise. Like Curtin says, “I cannot refer to an absolute moral rule that prohibits meat eating under all circumstances. There may be some contexts in which another response is appropriate” (Curtin). I agree with more of Curtin’s points than Gaard’s because she is more understanding about real life and still wants vegetarianism but understands it’s not realistic for everyone.

Works Cited:

Curtin, Deane. “Contextual Moral Vegetarianism .” The Animal Rights Library, www.animal-rights-library.com/texts-m/curtin01.htm.

Gaard, Greta. “Ecofeminism on the Wing: Perspectives on Human-Animal Relations.” Academia.edu , 2001, www.academia.edu/2489929/Ecofeminism_on_the_Wing_Perspectives_on_Human-Animal_Relations.

The summer before first grade, my family moved us from North Carolina to a small town called Locust Grove – located in central Virginia. This was a place that I had been trying to leave since the moment we got there. Our house is located in a gated community that was originally meant be settlement of vacation homes for retirees but that later changed. My home town was a paradise for conservative southerners. My house is located on the corner of Battlefield and Confederate and right outside of our community are multiple battlefields from the Civil War. I was surrounded by many farms and many, many Confederate flags. My family never fit in and we never felt like we belonged there. As many negatives as I have about my hometown, I can definitely appreciate the beauty I was surrounded by for so many years. I lived close to many hiking spots, lakes, beaches, and mountains that were breathtaking. My hometown has definitely dealt with things similar to what Williams was going into. When Williams spoke up about how residents need to stand up for the wilderness surrounding us so it isn’t “destroyed under the banner of progress, expediency, or ignorance” it reminded me of something that happened at home. Members of our planning commission approved a re-zoning application and they wanted to replace an agricultural zone with a high-density residential area. 90% of local residents requested for denial when they voted on this but the application was passed. It was extremely frustrating but my community came together to try and stop what Williams was saying we need to stand up for. 

(This is a photo I took of the lake that is in my housing development)

Thankfully, I was the first one in my family to get out of Virginia. Once I graduated high school in 2017, I moved out to California for college and attended school in Bel Air for a year. I left the college (too expensive and snobby) but I decided to stay in Los Angeles and I got an apartment with my boyfriend and two other roommates in Reseda. I had been wanting to move to California for forever because my aunt lives out here and my family would visit her every year. As much as I love California, I hate Los Angeles. It’s very dirty, overpopulated, and it’s just too much city for me. As much as I hate the countryside like my hometown, I also hate cities. My adventures with moving aren’t over yet; I just have to figure out where to move next. 

(This is a photo I took while crossing the street to the bus stop by my apartment)

According to Barbara Kingsolver, people need wildness in their lives and I agree 100%.  Kingsolver says that “people need wild places. Whether or not we think we do, we do. We need to be able to taste grace and know once again that we desire it”. I don’t think people realize how often we need a wild place and how it can bring one back to reality, “wildness puts us in our place. It reminds us that our plans are small and somewhat absurd” (Kingsolver). Wildness really does put us in our place, it makes all of your problems and everything going on completely insignificant when you’re in this space. I absolutely think that someone living in the city can experience this. I’m currently living in a huge city but there are plenty of hidden gems where one can be with just the planet. 

Works Cited:

Kingsolver, Barbara. “Knowing Our Place .” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/now/printable/transcript_smallwonder_print.html.

Williams, Terry Tempest. Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert. Pantheon Books, 2002.

Women in the Global South are affected by environmental degradation in many, many ways. In the Global South, the women are the main gatherers of fuel, fodder, and water and a workday for them is around 10-12 hours (Agarwal). Due to environmental degradation, many of the drinking water wells have dried up or have been rendered unusable, fertilizer and pesticides have contaminated waters and have destroyed fish life and polluted the water (Agarwal). Often times, people claim the cause of environmental degradation is excessive population growth when in reality, trying to control the population growth can lead to environmental degradation (Agarwal). Environmental degradation could cause reduced education for young girls, fewer employment options for women, decline in income due to fodder shortage, and this has led to an increased number of suicides among young women in the recent years (Agarwal). 

Hobgood-Oster describes ecofeminism as a connection between the oppression of women and nature through the patriarchy. Hobgood-Oster wants to tear down this oppression by destroying the patriarchy, the main focus is to “make visible these “women-nature connections” and, where harmful to women and nature, to dismantle it” (Warren). Hobgood-Oster also explains that if we view the oppression of nature and women separately, we will never change it. 

Unlike Hobgood-Oster, Agarwal believes that the relationship women and men have with nature is “rooted in their material reality, in their specific forms of interaction with the environment” (Agarwal, 8). Due to the “gender and class (/caste/race)-based division of labor and distribution of property and power, gender and class (/caste/race) structure people’s interactions with nature and so structure the effects of environmental change on people and their responses to it” (Agarwal, 8). For her perspective, Agarwal uses the term “feminist environmentalism”. 

I found Agarwal’s ecofeminist perspective to be the most appealing. Agarwal has a very realistic approach to ecofeminism and I understood every point she made, unlike Hobgood-Osters approach. Agarwal is trying to help change things for others and herself without putting the blame on everyone else like Hobgood-Oster. 

Works Cited: 

Agarwal, Bina. “The Gender and Environment Debate: Lessons from India.” Feminist Studies, vol. 18, no. 1, 1992, p. 1., doi:10.2307/3178217.

Warren, Karen J. “Warren’s Introduction to EcoFeminism.” There It Is . Org, Michael E. Zimmerman, 29 Mar. 2015, thereitis.org/warrens-introduction-to-ecofeminism/.

Hobgood-Oster, Laura. “Ecofeminism: Historic and International Evolution .” 18 Aug. 2002, users.clas.ufl.edu/bron/pdf–christianity/Hobgood-Oster–Ecofeminism-International Evolution.pdf.

I have picked the article, Animals Used In Research. The article goes into detail about the horrors that is makeup testing and what exactly some makeup manufacturers do. They explain that these animals “are used to test whether ingredients will irritate eyes or skin and are sometimes forced to eat or breathe toxic substances. They are often killed after testing” (Rosane). This article is explaining how California is “banning” animal testing but they’re still allowing companies to test if they’re selling overseas. As it pertains to  Warren’s introduction to EcoFeminism, this fits in mostly with Warren’s third woman-nature connection– Experimental and Experiential Connections. Warren and other scholars   “argue that… animal experimentation, hunting, and meat eating are tied to patriarchal concepts and practices.” Animal testing in the name of cosmetics negatively affects the environment by taking creatures out of their natural habitats, which could lead to an alteration of that ecosystem and the decrease in population of whatever species is being used for tests. The tie-in that I find interesting is that many of these major make-up brands are headed by men. Makeup and cosmetics have come a long way in terms of being “re-claimed by women” (many women are building business empires with their own makeup brands, starting careers as makeup artists, etc.) yet makeup is still considered, by many, a patriarchal tool used to keep women “pretty” so that others will find them attractive enough to court.

EcoFeminism can be described as a connection “between the domination of women and the domination of nature.” (Warren)  A main focus of ecofeminism is to “make visible these “women-nature connections” and, where harmful to women and nature, to dismantle it.” (Warren) Due to our male dominated society, ecofeminism became a movement that brings together ecological concerns with feminist concerns. 

Warren goes into detail about the eight women-nature connections involved in ecofeminism. The eight connections are: Historical connections, conceptual connections, empirical and experiential connections, symbolic connections, epistemological connections, political connections, ethical connections, and theoretical connections. I found the empirical and experiential connections to be the most interesting. The greatest example of this would have to be the Flint water crisis. Flint is a city where 45% of the residents are living below the poverty line and the majority of residents are black (Denchak). In 2014, residents started to complain about their water and it was found to contain lead. Studies found that the contaminated water was doubling/tripling elevated blood lead levels in children (Denchak). The water was found to also contain fecal coliform bacteria and to correct this, the city decided to add more chlorine to the water. This created a whole new problem, “elevated levels of trihalomethanes, cancer causing chemicals that are by-products of the chlorination of water” (Denchak). Today, Flint does not have clean water and it became very evident that the Flint water crisis is a direct result of systematic racism (Denchak).

Works Cited:

Denchak, Melissa. “Flint Water Crisis: Everything You Need to Know.” NRDC, 16 Nov. 2018, www.nrdc.org/stories/flint-water-crisis-everything-you-need-know.

Rosane, Olivia. “California Passes First U.S. Ban on Animal-Tested Cosmetics.” EcoWatch, EcoWatch, 1 Oct. 2018, www.ecowatch.com/animal-testing-cosmetics-california-2609265994.html.

Warren, Karen J. “Warren’s Introduction to EcoFeminism.” There It Is . Org, Michael E. Zimmerman, 29 Mar. 2015, thereitis.org/warrens-introduction-to-ecofeminism/.