Ecofeminism

Observations, reflections, & learning: a place for environmental musings, and a journal for both my independent study class on Ecofeminist Philosophy & Activism in Fall 2012, and my Feminist/Ecofeminist Philosophies & Activism Comprehensive Exams class in Spring 2013.

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Definitional angst during the dissertation blues

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Due to the subject matter of my dissertation and proposal, I’ve had to include a Glossary. Dear heavens, what a headache. Here’s my introduction to the Glossary, with reasoning: Because of the ever-changing nature of the English language, the definitions of words can be slippery to pin down. This issue is compounded when particular words…

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Reading & voting: Williams’ “Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family & Place”

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As I write this I’ve just spent the past two or three hours sitting in the tire shop and waiting for a tire change. It was busy there; fortunately I knew it might take a while and planned ahead so I had my drink and one of my textbooks to read. The book’s cover is…

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Thoughts on V. Shiva’s “Staying Alive”

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I’m reading Vandana Shiva’s Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, & Development for an on-line class on Ecofeminism which I’m TAing. The following are two comments made on the class forum at different times. While reading both the book and the forum comments, I was reminded of a study I read about many years ago (which means…

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“Toward A Queer Ecofeminism” by Greta Gaard

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The following is a quick review of an article read for the Ecofeminism class in which I am a TA — yay! I’d like to figure out how to TA more… though apparently you cannot TA for a class you haven’t actually taken. Considering the changeover in classes occurring in my program in the past…

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Relational Reality & Tending the Soul’s Garden

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Subtly weaving the suggestion to always perform right action — based on the sometimes unrecognized fact of personal relatedness with all life — into one’s daily living patterns is one of the most powerful culture-changing tools I am aware of. In this vein, two of the most significant works on praxis within the category of…

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Reweaving the World

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While Merchant never uses the word ecofeminism in her book, a decade later ecofeminist professors Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein deliberately embrace it in order to thoroughly explore its effects and meaning. Their Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism not only exposes the ideological links between the oppressive exploitation of both nature and…

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Two by Starhawk: Spiral Dance & Earth Path

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The potential and promise of post-patriarchal spirituality is reflected in Starhawk’s 20th anniversary edition of her pivotal, bestselling, and now classic 1979 work, The Spiral Dance. Included in this version are the initial book release, the ten year anniversary notes, and an added section for the 20 year anniversary Introduction and notes. Starhawk’s original text…

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Two by Carol Christ & one by Susan Sered

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In 1998, ecofeminist thealogian Carol P. Christ’s Rebirth of the Goddess: Finding Meaning in Feminist Spirituality presents a living and embodied, woman-centered thealogy of Goddess based equally in philosophical reflection, academic historical research, and personal experience. Christ, one of feminist spirituality’s founding mothers, espouses deliberately eschewing modern society’s dependence on classical dualism, asserting that Goddess…

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Two male authors: on indigenous women & permaculture

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In a thought-provoking example of Talamantez’ urging to learn from indigenous peoples, East Asian scholar and religious professor Jordan Paper’s 1997 Through the Earth Darkly is a deliberately cross-cultural comparison of multiple non-Western, indigenous perspectives and reflections on women as the embodiment of the sacred, and the ensuing cultural “meaning and significance to females of…

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Womanspirit Rising; the Bride of Death; & the Sacred Hoop

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Written in the same year, Life’s Daughter/Death’s Bride by Kathie Carlson is an elegant example of both remembering and re-membering primarily the mother and daughter goddesses Demeter and Persephone, from the ancient Greek myth of the rape of Persephone. Carlson first deeply explores the myth in the most ancient and original forms she can find….