Litter of the runts

Mother Nature. Gaia. Mother Earth. Earth Goddess. For centuries, humans have regarded Earth as a living, life-giving creature and, therefore, as a mother. This is only natural. Only in the core text of the patriarchy, The Bible, could a man give life. In nature, nothing is born from a rib, and everything has a mother. Not everything has a father. Numerous creatures, including some types of insects, salamanders, fish and plants, can reproduce by parthenogenesis, without any male involvement. Recently, Komodo dragons and hammerhead sharks have been added to this list. Even in single-celled organisms, where gender has no meaning, we speak of ‘mother cells’ and ‘daughter cells.’
Because it is so natural to think of the Earth as a mother, feminists and environmentalists have been allies during the history of both movements. Back when Hellbender Press was run by four white guys, we knew this was not as it should be. Amid our squabbles, boyish jockeying and drinking contests, we often bemoaned the lack of diversity among us, and the inclusion of women in editorial meetings brought welcome changes when it finally happened. More women in more prominent roles would serve us well elsewhere in environmental circles and in society as a whole.
In Seneca Falls, N.Y. in 1898, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott and Jane Hut stood before the Women’s Rights Convention and declared independence from the patriarchy. In 1920, their women’s suffrage movement succeeded in securing the vote for women when the 19th Amendment was added to the Constitution. Just half a century later, women were back on the streets demanding equality. In 1972, Congress adopted the Equal Rights Amendment, but only 35 of the needed 38 states ratified it. It has now expired. The U.S. Supreme Court guaranteed reproductive freedom for women in 1973, but the landmark Roe v. Wade decision has never been treated as the final word. Who can blame women for feeling disregarded and denied respect?
Fortunately, the Women’s Liberation Movement gave women courage and tools for tackling such frustrations. At speak-outs and consciousness-raising meetings women shared intimate stories of rape and domestic violence, botched abortions and disrespect in business and academic worlds. Speak-outs became protests, which turned the tide of feminism forever.
Within the environmental movement, rooted in the pioneer spirit of men like Teddy Roosevelt, women felt treated like second-class citizens, jeered during conferences and expected to keep house rather than lead. Too often this still happens. Men talk over women, passively facilitate meetings, or take on “manly chores” like fire building or setting up tarps while women are left to cook and tidy the camp.
Betty Freidan’s “The Feminine Mystique” explored the inadequacy, helplessness and emptiness many women feel when doing laundry, ironing, washing dishes and keeping house. Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” was published around the same time. Women began to connect the subjugation and domination of women by men with the environmental pillaging of the planet, and a philosophy called ecofeminism emerged.
Ecofeminism brings feminist analysis to environmental issues. It draws parallels between a patriarchal culture that confines women to subservient roles and asks them to carry their rapist’s baby to term and imperialist domination of the continents. Just as a man in a patriarchy believes he owns his wife, explorers believed the riches of new worlds were theirs to claim, regardless of the people for whom those worlds were not new at all, but ancient homes. Such forced and uncompensated extraction of wealth persists today in places like Bolivia and Indonesia, and those who resist face the same kinds of threats and taunts feminists face in the struggle to keep abortion legal.
Because the struggle for equality never seems to be won, some feminists seek to eradicate sexism wherever it may be found, even in words. ‘Mother’ and ‘father’ make nice companions, unique, but poetically linked. We have ‘boy’ and ‘girl,’ ‘son’ and ‘daughter,’ but what of ‘female’ and ‘male’ and ‘woman’ and ‘man’? To some women, these words are insults, with men getting the root word, women a derivation. Sexism and patriarchy are plain in historical texts of the Christian and Muslim traditions, but not so clear in murky etymologies. Whether the history of these words supports this modern interpretation is a matter of dispute, but some women prefer alternate spellings like ‘womyn’ or ‘wimmin,’ or even ‘wom,’ which evokes the womb. Since the Y chromosome is just a runt molecule with very few functional genes, perhaps women can think of ‘man’ and ‘male’ not as roots, but runt words that need to be made whole. On the other hand, that might just reinforce the inadequacy that seems to drive men to dominate and destroy.
Women’s struggle for equality and respect is ongoing. Particularly in the environmental community, men should be cognizant of the ways they marginalize women, even unintentionally. Heroic urges to save the planet have their place, but what we really need is more regard for the life-giving qualities that created beautiful forests and rich seas in the first place. Destruction wrought by men is what put us in a circumstance where so much must be rescued and saved. Perhaps the would-be heroes need to step back and help women birth a new way forged from their perspective as mothers and daughters and sisters.