Blog #13 Eco-feminism

What do you think of ecofemisnism before you read, and after? 

Did you have any strong reactions? 

What do forms of dominance do you see in the world around you?

Well, before I did  the readings on ecofeminism I honestly didn't know much about it, but what i did know, I didn't really buy. What I knew was, very generically, that men treat the earth/nature the way they treat women, inferior to themselves. I do think that women are still seen as inferior to men in many ways, but I don't think that this has anything to do with how humans see the earth as inferior. Nature is seen as a female force, hints Mother Nature, but I think humans as a whole are abusing her. After reading...I honestly still feel mostly the same way. I better understand and appreciate the points of view of ecofeminists. 

Ecofeminism believes that Patriarchal society is built on four interlocking pillars; sexism, racism, class exploitation and environmental destruction. I think that to say that society is built on all of these very negative things is incorrect. 

I do see that men still dominate women in many ways, but I think that it's something  that is slowly changing in the world. Some places, it's worse than others, but that is based on religion as much as societal values. Humans, as a whole, dominate nature and pretty much anything else they can simply because we can. We  think that by dominating things we are showing how awesome we are. 

Blog #12 Green Democracy

Would you join the Green Party or not?  

What aspects of green values do you believe should be ideally incorporated into a "green" party?  Do these align, do you think, with the Green Party? 

Also, are the Earth First! activists justified in their actions?  

I don't think that I could ever label myself as part of the Green Party, and currently, I don't consider myself affiliated with any one party. Some parts of their platform, such as doing away with political corruption, look good on paper but would be incredibly difficult to put into practice. I like a lot of their ideas but not enough to actually join the party. 

I think that for it to be a true "green" party, all of the green values should be incorporated to the fullest extent possible. This might be unfeasible because many of the values are rather anti national government and hierarchy, but since these green values define, in essence, how to be green, I think they should be a critical component of the Green Party. 

Currently, the Green Party does incorporate many of the green values we have previously discussed in class. They are non-violent, believe in social justice, promote ecological education, and decentralization. For the most part, I think that the Green Party and green values align as well as they can since the Green Party is a part of a national, centralized, government, they will never perfectly align since the green values don't promote that type of government. Maybe in the future, as the party gains more support, it will align even closer with green values.