Impact-Driven Conversation — Save the Patriarchy or Save the World — The Choice is Ours!
“My own definition is a feminist is a man or a woman who says, yes, there’s a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it, we must do better. All of us, women and men, must do better.” ― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists
When I first thought about writing this post it was going to be called “All Feminists are Eco Feminists.” But today I was speaking to my friend Serena on some topical issue. The interesting conclusion we came to was this — even when lives are at stake, it looks like we are hell-bent on protecting the patriarchy.
Survival of the fittest. Something derived from Darwinism. Reading that you immediately think of physical fitness. And that is part of the problem. There was a time in humanity when physical prowess defined us. But is that what defines us now? We don’t need to define gender categories based on biology.
The stereotypical male-female marriage and parenthood don’t exist anymore. If children can be raised by two dads or two moms why then do we have to define gender using biological constructs?
My friend Aryssa from Wicked 7 and I recently drew a cause and effect map to show the connections between gender inequality and the death of nature. To say it was a revelation would be an understatement. What we found were such deep-rooted, historical, and cultural issues that underpin gender inequality.
How do we save the planet without solving gender inequality? This got me thinking about eco-feminism. It was so interesting for me to learn more about eco-feminism. The term was created by Françoise d’Eaubonne in her book Le Féminisme ou la Mort, in 1974. The title of the book reads Feminism or Death.
In an article written by Beatrice Ricketts on Françoise d’Eaubonne, here’s what she says about eco-feminism:
She asserted that the patriarchy views both women and nature as wild and unruly, and that in a utopian world, there would be equality under the harmony of nature, with all organic functions respected. — Source — https://www.literaryladiesguide.com/literary-musings/discovering-francoise-deaubonne-pioneering-ecofeminist/
What then is patriarchy?
Patriarchy as defined by feminism is more nuanced.
Patriarchy refers to the male domination both in public and private spheres. Feminists mainly use the term ‘patriarchy’ to describe the power relationship between men and women. — Source — https://www.banglajol.info/index.php/AFJ/article/view/12929/9293
The keywords here for me — power relationship.
Nature is defined as a female. Poets, writers, playwrights have all drawn parallels between women and nature. Most of them were men.
If patriarchy is male domination and the power relationship between men and women. Then naturally nature is subjected to that very same patriarchy? Is that why she is subjected to the same inequality as women?
All over the world millions of women and children are forced into marriage. Robbing them of their basic rights — their right to choose. Here’s the first article in the universal declaration of human rights:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. — Source — https://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/eng.pdf
Leaving aside the obvious language bias in the second sentence. Rome wasn’t built in a day and all that. Let’s focus on the first line — All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
Why then are women and female girls being forced to do anything? There is a notion that ecofeminism highlights well. The patriarchy views women as wild and in need of being tamed. Guess what else is viewed as wild and untamable? Nature.
In order to successfully fight climate change, we need to address inequality. But to do so we need to eliminate the patriarchy. Take a look at this tweet from Dr. Vandana Shiva:
People in power have developed patriarchal narratives of women and nature to keep power and maintain a system of society that benefits them. Whether it's forcing daughters into marriage or calling women pushy, aggressive and emotional. These social structures and definitions have a singular purpose — preserving the patriarchy.
The climate extinction crisis is a species-level extinction that even the patriarchy won’t survive. It's mind-boggling to me that this has somehow not entered their minds. What is the plan here? Keep amassing power and wealth and then? Not to sound callous but COVID-19 didn’t back off in the face of the patriarchy. Pandemics and other extinction-level events don’t really care about nation-states or billions.
The way I see it we only have one choice here. Abolish the patriarchy and save the planet. If I learned anything while doing the gender inequality cause and effect map with Aryssa it's this:
It doesn’t matter which cause feminists are fighting for — all roads ultimately lead to climate change. So the more we raise our voices about equal pay, right to choose, right to an education, and more, the closer we are to addressing climate change.
So raise your voices and be heard. It’s only when women have equal rights will nature have equal rights.
That's the only way we will have an impact. That's the only way we save nature. That’s the only way we survive.
As Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie so eloquently put it:
“Culture does not make people. People make culture. If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture.” ― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists
PS: Do join our Wicked 7 Gender Inequality Challenge this month. Here’s how you can participate.