There have been several womens and mens movements throughout the history of our culture. Some of them involve very extreme ideas such as having societies with all female members and no men. Others are not so extreme. Since the United States of America formed, there have been three different waves of feminist movements. With each wave of the feminist movement has come a backlash or antifeminist movement, to try and stop the effectiveness of the feminist.
The womens movement that I can identify with the most is the movement that is called ecofeminism. According to Julia T. Woods author of our textbook Gendered Lives, ecofeminism started 1974, when Francoise d’ Eaubonne published Le oula Mort, which means Feminism or Death. “This book provided the philosophical foundation for ecofeminism” (p. 79). Ecofeminism focuses on oppression and “as long as oppression is culturally valued, it will be imposed on anyone and anything that cannot or does not resist” (p. 79).
The reason I can identify with ecofeminisim better than the rest of the womens movements is because this movement focuses on the oppression of everyone and everything on this planet. Not just on how men have oppressed women for thousands of years, or that women would be better without men. It focuses on everyone being oppressed such as women and men, children of both sexes, animals, and the environment. “Ecofeminists seek to bring themselves and others to a new consciousness of humans’ interdependence with all other life forms” (p. 80). This is something that I believe in.
Yes I will admit that the female gender has been oppressed by men. Even the arbitrary symbols of words that make up language used to communicate were mostly given meaning by men. I feel if people, mainly feminists, stopped focusing only on how males have oppressed females and start focusing on how human beings as a race can stop oppression on everything, then we will start to see change. I feel that many women’s movements do nothing but blame men, some such as the Separatism movement go to such extremes as to say that an all women society would be the only way for women to live without being oppressed by men. I feel that movements like this are stereotyping themselves. Ideas this extreme will always receive criticism and backlash.
Now that I have learned about the ecofeminist movement I will do my best to make sure I do not oppress anyone or anything. I agree with this movement and think that for oppression to stop on this planet it has to stop in all areas, towards all people, and towards all living things on planet Earth.
The mens movement that I can identify with the most is the Profeminist Men’s Movement. Woods writes “Later generations of male feminists, including many men in their twenties today, attribute their feminism to parents and teachers who modeled egalitarian, nonsexist attitudes and practices” (p. 96). The reason I included this quotation is that it describes me perfectly. I am a male, in my twenties, who was raised by a feminist mother. She never pushed feminism on me, but she taught my brother and I that all people are equal and should be treated with respect.
I think women and men should be treated equally by having the same rights and privileges. They should be expected to do the same things to succeed in society. Neither men nor women should have it easier because of their sex. Reading the chapter about mens movements and especially the part about Profeminist Mens Movement made me realize that there are other people like me. Who have been raised to believe that women and men deserve the same treatment and respect. By Knowing this I now feel confident on sticking up for people when I see them being oppressed. I will try to do this anytime, in any situation I see someone not being treated fairly. Especially if it is because of their sex.
No comments:
Post a Comment