Dear Essex Group:
I am afraid you misunderstood what I said in my response
to your query, and perhaps the use of the word reductionist
in describing your question was misdirected. To reiterate,
I am suggesting that we need to be careful in our attempts
to aim eco critiques at Rdominant masculinistS traditions in
the West, because the Rmasculinist traditionsS to which I
assume you are referring cannot be understood outside of
race, class and species considerations.
I agree with your statement that there are non-essentialist
ecofeminists pointing to the problems in a simple celebration
of the feminine--however, I would caution that similar
problems arise when we engage in a RsimpleS problematization
of masculinist traditions. To begin, how would you seek
to define Rmasculinist traditions?S Are you arguing that
there is an essential RnatureS in masculinity that can, indeed,
stand outside of race, class and species considerations?
If so, I would like to know what it is.
Any reformulation of masculinity in light of ecofeminist critique
must take place amidst a similar reformulation of feminine
constructions, as well as class, race, and species constructions.
None of these reformulations can take place in the absence of
the others; for just as the master identity constructs the Rother,S
so too does the RotherS serve to construct the master identity in
some very significant ways.
Further, I must point out that I did not say that the Rdualism of
masculinity/femininity serves to order our world as a useful
heuristic.S And yes, some gender difference can be perpetuated
as long as its understood as difference. What I said in my
response to you was that DICHOTOMIES (ie. distinctions)
. . . allow us to make substantial accommodation to difference.
(Val Plumwood makes this argument eloquently in
Feminism and the Mastery of Nature.) It is when those
dichotomies or distinctions are placed within the power
context of domination that they become destructive.
We can maintain dichotomies and distinctions while
simultaneously disrupting and the dualisms
(or the privileging of one binary over the other) that arise
out of that context. This is why it is so vitally important to
recognize the dominant ideology of the west as a Rmaster
identityS and not a Rmasculine identity.S To do otherwise is
to fall victim to the possibility of uncritical reversals which do
nothing but turn the construction upside down. (Ecofeminists
would do well to learn from the history of feminist theory
in this respect.)
Again, my comments were aimed only at cautioning you to
be careful in reducing what is best understood as a
Rmaster identityS to a masculine identity. I hope my
clarification helped your confusion. If you wish to
continue our conversation, I encourage you to send email
to me directly. I wish you well in your study.
Sincerely,
Karen Barnhardt
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sat Nov 11 14:33:41 1995
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
id <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Sat, 11 Nov 1995 16:33:11 -0500 (EST)
Date: Sat, 11 Nov 1995 16:33:11 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Radioactive Waste Threatens Aquifer
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Organization: Indiana University of Pennsylvania
From: NetMail%"[EMAIL PROTECTED]" "L-Soft list server at MIZZOU1
(1.8b)" 11-NOV-1995 16:10:33.27
To: NetMail%"[EMAIL PROTECTED]" "Joseph Register"
CC:
Subj: File: "DATABASE OUTPUT"
Return-path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
id <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Sat, 11 Nov 1995 16:10:29 -0500 (EST)
Date: Sat, 11 Nov 1995 15:10:30 -0600
From: "L-Soft list server at MIZZOU1 (1.8b)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: File: "DATABASE OUTPUT"
To: Joseph Register <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> s * in activ-l
--> Database ACTIV-L, 9665 hits.
> print 09616
>>> Item number 9616, dated 95/11/09 19:50:22 -- ALL
Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 19:50:22 CST
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sender: Activists Mailing List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: Workers World Service <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Radioactive Waste Threatens Aquifer
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Nov. 9, 1995
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
RADIOACTIVE WASTE THREATENS AQUIFER
By E.G. Allen
San Francisco
On Oct. 25, the Ward Valley Coalition organized a
demonstration outside Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office here.
The coalition is composed of five Native American tribes: the
Fort Mojave, Chemehuevi, Quechan, Western Shoshone and
Colorado River. Other members of the coalition include
Greenpeace, BAN Waste, California Communities Against
Toxics, Alliance for Survival and the National People's
Campaign. The issues important to each group ranged from
environmental safety to the recognition of Native American
sovereignty by the U.S. government.
Presently Congress and the Department of the Interior are
racing to transfer land to California's jurisdiction for use
as a radioactive dump site. Once the land transfer is made,
Gov. Pete Wilson plans to transfer all land rights to the
company U.S. Ecology, which would become the Ward Valley
dump operator.
U.S. Ecology has built a number of radioactive dump sites
in Kentucky and Illinois. Each site was guaranteed to stay
put and last for centuries, yet each moved from its original
location in less than a decade.
The government would have the public believe that, outside
its value to the Native American tribes as a sacred
homeland, Ward Valley in the Mohave desert is of little
value to anyone.
However, the aquifer beneath its surface and the nearby
Colorado River provide water to 20 million people. If the
shallow, unlined trenches above the aquifer should leak, the
water could become contaminated by long-lived radioactive
waste from nuclear power reactors.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint
granted if source is cited. For more information contact
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED])
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sun Nov 12 08:44:35 1995
Sun, 12 Nov 95 10:47:17 GMT+3
From: "Yolanda Coppolino" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Organization: Ryerson Polytechnic University
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sun, 12 Nov 1995 10:46:53 EDT
Subject: content analysis - org.change
I need your help! I'm writing a paper exploring the changing trends
over the past 10 years in organization theory textbooks
relating to the corporate treatment of women and the natural
environment. If you can sugggest one or two management,
org.culture,org. behaviour texts that you perhaps studied from or
have used in your teaching or just as a reference source published
within these past 10 years, please let me know. Thanks. Yolanda
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sun Nov 12 08:58:10 1995
From: "Kirstin Dow" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Sun, 12 Nov 1995 10:58:07 -0500
In-Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"CRITICAL ECOFEMINIST PROJECTS" (Nov 11, 1:42am)
References: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: CRITICAL ECOFEMINIST PROJECTS
Dear Essex ecofemist study group and others,
I suggest adding Jaques (Jodie) Emel's recent paper on wolves and hunting as it
addreses issues of masculinity.
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sun Nov 12 09:11:52 1995
From: "Kirstin Dow" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Sun, 12 Nov 1995 11:11:49 -0500
In-Reply-To: "Yolanda Coppolino" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
"content analysis - org.change" (Nov 12, 10:46am)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: content analysis - org.change
Have you looked at Joni Seager's "Earth Follies" Routledge 1995? I think
it would be a good starting point.
Kirstin Dow
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sun Nov 12 13:44:17 1995
Mon, 13 Nov 1995 09:43:32 +1300
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 1995 09:43:31 +1200
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Regina Scheyvens)
Subject: Re: Greenham Common,Love Canal,Chipko Indians - footage
Dear Niamh,
Here is Jennifer's email address:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Regina Scheyvens
Lecturer in Geography
Massey University
PO Box 11222
Palmerston North
NEW ZEALAND
Phone: +64 6 3505910
Fax: +64 6 350 5644
