Like a Natural Woman: Why We Still Need Ecofeminism

Author: Emma DeanStahl

Field of Study: Arts and Humanities

Program Affiliation: Source Project Research Program

Faculty Mentors: Will Glovinsky

Easel: 13

Timeslot: Midday

Abstract: In the last half-century, ecofeminism has emerged and expanded as a radical theory examining the connection between the oppression of women and the destruction of the environment. This theory denounces the shared patriarchal exploitation of women and nature by promoting holism and interdependence among all living things. Overtime, however, ecofeminist thought splintered into two distinct variants: cultural and radical. Cultural ecofeminism in particular, which embraces the biological and spiritual tie between women and nature as opposed to rejecting it, has faced many critiques about its apolitical, essentialist, and mystical philosophical approach. This project attempts to reinterpret and defend cultural ecofeminism by critically reexamining Mary Daly’s Gyn/Ecology (1978), a foundational ecofeminist text which identifies patriarchy as destructively exploitative and death-obsessed. It contends that the persistent necrophilic culture of patriarchy warrants an ecofeminist philosophy that is necessarily transcendental and spiritual.