Dear Al-
I'm sorry I don't have time to completely define feminism for you but
it's clear that you don't have a very good sense of it. I
was going to write to you yesterday because I saw that you
mentioned liking the feminine but not necessarily the feminist.
I was going to ask you to define feminism because I suspected that
you had stereotypical ideas about feminism. Some of your comments
today support my theory.
Your ideas of feminism sound like you understand it as
liberal feminism--just getting our place in the patriarchy. You said:
>Feminists clearly want to do everything men do
I couldn't disagree more. This was a goal for early feminists (and
conservatives of today) but most feminist theory I'm aware of
seeks to dismantle patriarchy. The hierarchical structure makes it
inherently oppressive for many people. There are many, many books and articles
about basic feminism.
I'm sure that many others will be responding to your post so I'll rely
on them for more information. It seems that many people who want to
argue about ecofeminism don't have a basic understanding of feminism or
believe that it's necessary. I think it will be hard for ecofeminism to
advance contemporary thought if people still don't understand/embrace
feminism.
Keep up the dialogue,
Shawn
