When I first heard of eco-feminism I thought it was an out-there far-left ideology supported only by hippies, wacky professors, nature freaks, and extreme radical feminists. Even as someone who is a liberal feminist and an environmentalist who will become a vegan when she turns 18, the idea that feminism, environmentalism, and animal rights could intersect seemed wacky and strange. However, after doing more research on the topic and reading the book Ecofeminism: Feminism Intersections with Other Animals and the Earth, a collection of eco-feminist literature edited by Carol J Adams and Lori Gruen, I realized that environmental issues, animal rights, and women's rights intersected in many different ways I never considered. Here are two ways I realized they intersected.
Climate Change and Women’s Education
Climate change will increase the likelihood and worsen the impact of natural disasters and create natural resource shortages. These will both impact impoverished communities and developing countries the most. Since women compose, a majority of people in poverty, they are more vulnerable than men to natural disasters and natural resource shortages.
Women and girls in developing countries are primarily responsible for getting water and other natural resources. When natural resources become scarcer and harder to find, young girls have to spend more time looking for them and less time in school— further widening the gender education gap that exists in many developing countries.
Feminism’s Connection to Animal Rights
The definition of objectification is to present something, usually a living thing as an object. Women are often objectified by society. They’re treated as instruments for men’s sexual pleasure in music, movies, and stories and feminists rightfully fight against it. When you treat something as an object, you strip it of all of its value and treat it as an instrument for your own pleasure. Like women, animals are treated as objects by society. That is what allows people to torture, rape, and kill animals for consumption, entertainment, and science experiments and not feel any remorse.
One of the main parts of modern feminism is its focuses on intersectionality, which is why they see how different systems of oppression interconnect and fight against these systems of oppression. This is why modern feminists should fight against the oppression of women, people of color, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and animals, because the oppression of all of these groups all stem from the same root— a homophobic, white supremacist, patriarchal society.
Reader, what do you think of the intersection between feminism,animal rights, and environmentalism? Please share your opinions and debate with each other in the comment section.
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