Let's try this again:
First of all, I'm sorry I got so hot about this, and I apologize for
flaming. But I feel passionately about this, I am a passionate person,
so on occasions I may lose it....if so let me know and I will usually
apologize, (unless there are other reasons...)
However, youd did say:
On Sun, 12 Mar 1995, Swarr
Amanda Lock wrote:
>
> I just wanted to express my feelings on the popular sentiment of many on
> this list of the earth as mother. As an ecofeminist, I find this
> sentiment counter-productive to the utopian world-view I am working
> toward. I think that the representation of a female earth aggravates
> masculine/feminine dualisms and gender roles that I would rather not
> uphold.
Now, you said that these are your feelings, but don't you see that it
would be easy to construe that you feel that this is how everyone should
behave? By saying that "the representation of a female earth aggravates
masculine/feminine dualisms and gender roles" that implies that anyone
who does so is aggravating the problem, and hence leads to the idea that
we shouldn't do it, and we shouldn't call Earth "MOther" which means that
if my religion worships Earth as Mother, then if I want to help the Mother
Earth and her daughters and her sons, that is fine as long as I don't SAY
that that is what I am doing, because I might aggravate masculine/feminine
dualisms. First of all I think that this is untrue (and besides that,
until all human beings MELD into homogenous adrogyny, we will always have
the polarities of the sexes, which there is nothing wrong with, as long as
one sex doesn't oppress the other), and even if it were true, well, then
it is about time to get things back in the balance. We have far too long
worshipped the Male Sky-God, his reign is ending and it is time for us to
reclaim the Mother, but not just reclaim Her, but CELEBRATE Her. Rescue
Her from our subconscious, consciously reclaim her and recognize the deep
psychic wound we have inflicted her by ignoring Her, and while we
ignored Her she was raped, dismembered, abused...it is just like the
fact that women rights were ignored, so women continued to be abused, but
by bringing it to the attention of society, we can start to change that.
Similarly, I find that while I strongly support that radical
> actions of groups such as Earth First!, I question their motives. I often
> feel that the ideological basis of various spiritualities and organizations
> (such as Earth First!) uphold the victimizing ideas that females must be
> protected and fought for (most often by "gallant" men). For example,
> Dancing Hummingbird recently wrote:
>
Well, first of all there are a lot of "gallant" women in EarthFirst!
What question do you have of their motives? I can understand how you
might question their methods, because they have done somethings that many
people have problems with, but their motives are pretty direct, and very
passionately held, to wit: That the Earth is being raped by the dominator
vulture, (typo, but fits) and since the Redwoods *can't* fight back, then
someone must do something. Lobbying and writing letters can make some
difference, but most often (especially with this new congress) all that
it might do is buy time, and then the forest still gets clear-cut.
The redwoods, the spotted owl, the marbled murrelet don't have the means
to fight back, so what should we do? Just not do anything because we
don't want to encourage the victim mentality, or rather the paradigm of
victimization? That just doesn't make
sense. How do we effectively protect and preserve the environment if we
don't think about protecting the environment? If we don't regard the
environment as something to be protected, then it won't get protected.
And if Joe Hippie regards himself as a knight protecting Mother Earth
from the despoilers, then why in the heck do we care? What's important
is not his motive, but what happens, and that he DOES something. And who
says the knight role only has to be relegated to men? I know plenty of
women who are warriors, it's a good metaphor, and it works well.
Besides that I don't really look at what EarthFirst! and other radical
activists as protecting something outside of themselves. We are the
eyes, the ears, the mouth and the body of Gaia, just as much as the huge
planet is. We are not protecting "the Earth" as if it is something
outside of ourselves, we are fighting for our lives, (with non-violent
resistance), which is us and is bigger than us.
Tangently, many of us in the Pagan community feel that we can't separate
the Divine, or be separated from it. That is the dominator paradigms
trip, not ours. We may say Gaia, but she is just a concentration of
immanent divinity that encompasses all of creation. Just as we are
ourselves, concentrations of Divinity. Most of us just haven't become
aware of it, and those are the folks that are still caught in the
dominator paradigm, which dissects the world and then wonders why it has
problems living. Those are the folks who still follow the dominator
model of Divinity, which looks at Nature as something to be used, rather
than something which is inherently sacred.
>
> I just don't believe that inspiring such an alternative ecofeminist ethic is
> going to incorporate the _feminist_ aspects of this ideology (ecofem) if we
> continue to martyr sacrifices to the patriarchal capitalist governments
> in the us (for example) as saving the ideal women (the earth).
First of all, this is a relatively diificult statement to understand.
I'm not sure that I understand your point here....
Are you saying that a religion which worships the Goddess/Earth would not
incorporate feminist aspects of ecofeminist ideology? That is a really
odd statement, how could it not? The Neo-Pagan movement has been
feminist since the very beginning of it's rennaissance, most of the
movers and chakers, clergy, et al, are Women who are very active in
feminist circles and in feminist issues. The religious aspect of their
lives reinforces their work, not the opposite.
And no one is "martyring" anyone! Do you think that the folks WANTED
this to happen to Darryl and Judy? That this might help their cause in
some ways? It has had no effect but to make many of us much more leary
of the gov't., and has shown how fascist the logging companies will get
if they consider someone a major threat. Believe me, these folks don't
WANT to risk their lives, they are trying to preserve life, including
their own. The fact remains that the dominator culture will try to kill
people who try and stop the atrocities that are occuring to the Earth. I
admire a persons convictions and courage to continue in the face of
possible death, it takes a lot of hutzpa, the majority of people won't do it.
I know for a fact (especially in the case of Darryl) that he would much
rather be in the woods, living with the land, but he can't sit still
because the world that he loves is being destroyed. So he does things at
the risk of losing his life to save a larger life. If that is martyrdom,
then so be it, but what else can we do?
> Personally, I am interested in stopping
the degradation of the
> environment because of a sense of social responsibility, as well as out of
> respect for the power of the earth, but _not_ because I see the earth
> gendered as female or as personified.
>
> -amanda
>
Fine, do as though wilt.
Joy Williams
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Scion in the Church of All Worlds
"The Garrulous Grok Flok"
Thou Art Goddess!
