the point about the purpose of the metaphor is an important one, i
think. It was interesting to read the dialogue about the dangers
of the metaphor of Earth as mother; the argument seemed to be that
by seeing the Earth as female, we may justify treating "her" as
badly as we treat women. I tend to think of it the other way
around; that by highlighting the parallels between the
mistreatment of women and of nature, we can help people understand
the underlying frame of mind that perpetuates oppression of both.
Yet I suppose it could also work the other way around.
As I wrote earlier, my purpose for exploring the metaphor of
"earth as mother" is to highlight the two aspects of 1) earth as a
living being; and 2) earth as a living being upon which our lives
depend.
Yet, given all of the negative feelings towards mothers in our
culture, and the repressed fear and anger that childhood
dependency may provoke in many men,, this may after all not be a
good strategy, at least in some circumstances. (this line of
thought
is based on Dorothy Dinnerstein's work.) On the other hand, it
could be that just this very mother-hatred is at the root of
ecocide, and by making the parallels conscious, we disarm the
psychological projection mechanism. (Has anyone else noticed how
many of the
I certainly do see the danger that women be expected to be "Earth
mothers"; nurturing, all giving, passive, etc. etc. etc. Yet i
think that the main way that wo that women have been hurt by an
identification with matter has been in being presumed as less
intelectual, creative, active, spiritual, mental, etc. than men:
men=sky, women =earth.
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tue Mar 28 23:03:14 MST 1995
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 1995 21:59:52 -0800
From: Rose Zubizarreta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Usefulness of metaphors
aack! I accidentally sent the message I was working on while I was still
editing it. In the interest of coherence, could it please not be posted?
thank you...
Rosa
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wed Mar 29 08:53:28 MST 1995
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 1995 10:53:26 -0400 (EDT)
Date-warning: Date header was inserted by acs.wooster.edu
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Susan Clayton)
Subject: yet another earth as mother comment
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
One objection I have to the earth as mother metaphor, which doesn't seem to
have come up yet, is based not on how human relations will influence the
way we treat the earth but on how our view of the earth can influence human
relations. That is to say, describing the earth as our mother because it
nurtures and provides for us perpetuates the idea that men cannot be
parents -- that "fathering" means something very different than "mothering"
(as of course it does, colloquially). I believe that men can be nurturing
too, even if they are not always, and describing every source of nurturing
as a mother implicitly takes that ability away from them.
Susan
