In order to understand the ‘web’ perspective, we need to go to the source, A. E. Kings’ Intersectionality and the Changing Face of Ecofeminism, where they state “I have always approached intersectionality as being more of a web of entanglement, than a traffic junction or road. Each spoke of the web representing a continuum of different types of social categorisation such as gender, sexuality, race, or class; while encircling spirals depict individual identities.” This author defines the web very similarly to Kimberle Crenshaw’s definition of intersectionality, which reads “Intersectionality is a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects.” These ideas mean that types of oppression can overlap, meaning that women of color face the discrimination of people of color, and the oppression of sexism. While the concept of the web, or intersectionality, is very simple, it is one of the most powerful tools that ecofeminists have to understand social justice and social dilemma.
I wanted to look at intersectionality through an ecofeminist lens, so I revisited an older topic, being the relationship between masculinity, meat, and the sexualization of women. I went back to the list of images that we could use for that assignment, the pieces of media that displayed these characteristics, and with one exception, there were no bodies of color. I believe this is because, stereotypically, women of color are not desired, so the marketing companies do not put people of color in their advertising, perpetuating this cycle that puts people of color down. Cacildia Cain’s The Necessity of Black Women’s Standpoint and Intersectionality in Environmental Movements describes the impact of this by stating that “Ecofeminism lacks black women’s standpoint and only focuses on white women’s oppression. Ecofeminists argue that environmental degradation and the exploitation of nature and women are rooted in the same capitalist, patriarchal, dominant culture.” Giving oppressed voices the space to speak would help us fight these problematic power structures and dynamics, as we can see from our meat example. But what about the one person of color I did see in the list? 
This image is a bit of a racist caricature, using a predatory black male stereotype, as well as the ‘black people like fried chicken’ racial stereotype. These are problems that intersectional ecofeminism can analyze and understand, we still see muscle predation, but when applied to people of color it plays off a harmful stereotype.
Ecofeminist issues are racial issues. Ecofeminist issues are queer issues. Ecofeminist issues are gendered issues. All forms of oppression are valuable in order to have a progressive framework in 2020. Expanding the ‘web’ to get more oppressed group’s voices into the conversation is something that the world has needed to a long time, and with the unifying idea that Earth need protecting, we should be able to do that.
Hey Peter, Great thoughts this week. I liked the way you approached intersectionality by showing two interpretations of it. I think it’s important to mention within the way you’re approaching intersectionality, that Crenshaw first coined the term ‘intersectionality’ but long before that ecofeminists had this concept sort of imbedded within their ideologies, they just hadn’t named it. I liked the topic that you brought up again it really contributes to this conversation. I agree that we often don’t see people of color specifically women within certain advertisements, but we do see them in media. Which usually involves some sort of sex appeal. This definitely leads into Cacildia Cain’s article as just as you established. She talks of “The critique of ecofeminism and fact that the environmental justice movement does not focus on how sexism affects black women in its intersectional approaches supports the argument that there needs to be an environmental movement centered around black women’s standpoint to create an intersectional black feminist environmental movement”. This I believe is a very misunderstood concept to existing ecofeminists, especially white women. If there already isn’t, I believe a branch of black women ecofeminists may emerge to support a sort of movement for ecofeminist thought to acknowledge the difference between the white woman and black women in regard to nature’s effect. While black women and their place within ecofeminism seems to be an established topic, what about other women of color? I believe similar to black women that this sort of developed ‘white ecofeminism’ doesn’t include them their nature related struggles. I think women of color besides black women can be left out of the conversation about women of color, which doesn’t help this sort of idea that ecofeminism should include more than just white women. Great thoughts this week Peter. Keep up the good work!
You are very right that we need to understand that intersectionality encompasses all kinds of oppression. And ecofeminists need to address these oppressions. But if they themselves started discriminating then they are not ecofeminist. I’ll call them normal people like others who think of themselves as dominant over others.
The example you chose from masculinity, meat and sexualization of women, was a bit unclear to me before I read the paragraph. But then when you explained about how advertisement companies discriminated between white and colored by not considering colored people as important as to cast them in advertisement, explained all. I have seen so many advertisements in my country that is centered in getting fair from darker complextion just because there runs a stereotype in our culture that fair people are beautiful then people with darker complextion. People in my culture need girls with fair complextion to get married with. Sometimes I have seen people giving names to darker people such as ‘dark chocolate’ or ‘coal’ etc.
Similarly, in US we find discrimination mainly between white and black/people of color. I remember when I first came to US, I heard so much about it, but I never experienced it in the beginning and then I decided to live in Dells’, that was my mistake. We were five people living together. Two white women, a Mexican, and an African woman. Except the African women the rest of them made my life hell in that place. It was so much torture that I was forced to leave that place and shift somewhere else. That was the day I decided not to be friends with any white woman. And I’m just saying woman because the Mexican girls’ boyfriend was white male, but he used to talk to me very nicely. And when I shifted I encountered one more white woman. She wasn’t as bad as others but still she was rude. She also never used to talk to me or my roommate who was Nepali, but when her boyfriend or any of her male friends come over they do talk to me. So yeah NO to white woman or any other except Asian woman. As semesters went by, I met so many other white women who were actually nice to me and at that point I realized that not everyone is the same. So, the time where I discriminated white woman, I soon realized it was wrong of me doing it. And that’s exactly what ecofeminists needs to understand, that intersectionality has no place in ecofeminism.
In the link bellow is one of the holdings from a company of ‘fair & lovely’, advertising beauty cream for fairness. The article explains in detail about how in countries like India, young girls no matter how educated, has to face societal pressure of getting whiter skin. If you like do read the article.
https://theconversation.com/bleached-girls-india-and-its-love-for-light-skin-80655
Peter,
great job. My favorite line from your blog is this: “While the concept of the web, or intersectionality, is very simple, it is one of the most powerful tools that ecofeminists have to understand social justice and social dilemma.” To this, I wholeheartedly agree. I believe this is the tool we need not only to connect people by illuminating common enemies, but also to better understand ourselves, our own privledge, and our shortcomings. While reading the story of Dorothy Allison, entitled: HISTORY IS A WEAPON, I was compelled to reevaluate the intersections of my identity in a way that might help me to enact effective change in my communities. Dorothy wrote: “There is no all-purpose feminist analysis that explains the complicated ways our sexuality and core identity are shaped, the way we see ourselves as parts of both our birth families and the extended family of friends and lovers we invariably create within the lesbian community.” Going off my favorite line of your blog, our identities are what make us powerful. Highlighting the intersections of the oppression we face only adds fuel to the fire we need to end the systematic suffering.
Hey Peter. I think that bringing back a previous topic was a great idea for this response. We’re already pretty familiar with the idea of women being viewed as food or prey, but looking at the racist connotations of the image you shared was a great idea. In fact, there’s a lot of issues with the image you’ve shared. I feel that we could actually do that with a lot of the images that we’ve looked at for the Women and Animal Association blog post. I know that during my search I also found an image with racist connotations, and I’m sure we could find plenty more images with similar tones. This way we would not only be tackling the obvious themes of sexism in these advertisements that are seen as commonplace in magazines and tv commercials, but we can explore some deeper rooted issues such as the ones you have stated. Depicting black women as animalistic or as meals is already pretty uncomfortable, but depicting black men as predatory is just as bad and harmful. And this is only one perspective. There are many other ways to look at intersectionaity in this way. I’m sure we could go back onto other blog posts and find ways to further connect sexism with racism and classism. Good job!