Women and the Environment

Issues of place and location are intricately related to women’s agency, or their ability to determine and decided their own lives and identities. A person’s location will be a large determining factor for their economic standing in the world, both in terms of the work that they will do and their proximity to the worst facets of environmental destruction.  In “The Story of Stuff,” they talk about the material economy and its five parts: extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal. The book refers to an “ethical dimension to living in any location,” but these ethics are not followed when the parties with power to control materials and production, and in turn resources and the labor force, live elsewhere (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 535). The movie mentions that 51 of the world’s 100 largest economies are corporations, which explains why so many governments around the globe have sold the rights to natural resources to corporations, privatizing industries like water and electricity. This global restructuring of the world’s economy has drastically changed women’s work. As the agribusiness is taken over by corporations, women’s role as cultivator of locally grown foods diminishes, and her work changes. The work of providing food for her family, deemed unproductive, is replaced with something else, perhaps factory work, that will be “productive” because value is given to those who consume, therefore it is vital to have a work force there to produce. Because of the linear and expanding nature of the material economy, new resources and industries must always be created. Water is privatized to become a for-profit industry, at the same time as “water supplies are polluted,” making more work for the women who have to travel farther distances to provide clean water to their families daily, or who have to find greater income to pay for access to a resource which was assumed to be “available to all to fulfill our basic needs” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 545).

This system, in addition to women’s work, affects the ways in which women organize. Women are likely to organize around issues that affect them and their environments, so depending on what aspect of the market economy a woman is most directly implicated with, she will likely identify accordingly. If she lives in Mexico and work in a Maquilladora, she may organize around labor reform. She also may organize around issues of pollution and reproductive justice, as her location has determined the effects on her environment, which will affect her health and the health of any future children. These issues of production, consumption, labor, and the environment are all connected at intersections, all of which will shape women’s work, identity, and autonomy in these decisions.

Kirk, Gwyn, and Okazawa-Rey, Margo. “Women and the Environment.” Women’s

Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. By Kirk, Gwyn, and Okazawa-Rey, Margo.

New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 2010. 535-549. Print.

Activism Blog 2

Activism:

Take Back the Night was held on Thursday, March 22. I arrived early to set up, directing organizations and representatives of student groups to their tables, handing out nametags and ribbons, and sharing the night’s itinerary with all speakers. Kelly, Nicole, and I worked well as a team to facilitate and direct the event. The schedule had to be rearranged when one speaker could not attend, and I had to do an impromptu introduction for the representative from Victim’s Services of Central Florida. I never made up new chants, and was disappointed with the problematic nature of the ones we used.

Reflection:

Chants like “We are women, we are men. Stop the violence, make it end,” are not inclusive, as they do not acknowledge the presence of the LGBTQ community within the discourse of sexual and domestic violence, both as victims and survivors, perpetrators, and allies. The LGBTQ community should have a prominent voice within this dialogue; as a community they have been “subjected to intimidation, physical and verbal abuse, and hate crimes” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 258).

In the future, Take Back the Night-UCF and NOW events in general should strive to be more inclusive. This is not to say that NOW UCF does not currently strive for inclusion—of the first speakers, typically marginalized groups (within the discourse of sexual and domestic violence) like queer bodies, women of color, and surviving men were represented. It is important that

Take Back the Night is a space for agency, where survivors and allies can tell their stories, which is vital to turning the dialogue away from victimization and toward reclamation, “the need and obligation to leave victimhood behind,” to have every “part of aliveness,” and live up to the responsibility to take charge of things (Morales 284).

Another aspect of the shifts that need to occur in this dialogue is confronting “the myth that rape is about sex…rather than power and control” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 267). This can be done by incorporating the issues of sexual and domestic violence into the broader discourses on gender, race, class, heterosexism, white supremacy, and nationalism.

NOW at UCF can begin to address the intersectionalities of these issues, both with the work and community engagement it does, and in its own organizational body. Inclusion does not mean tokenization, and one voice cannot speak for all Others.

Reciprocity:

This semester has been a time of great growth and cultivation for me as a woman, student, and feminist, and being. I have been challenged to examine my views, my self, and my loyalty in the midst of a politicized world. I’ve come to one of many conclusions—I must continuously allow myself space to reflect and grow, I must always ask questions and communicate without regard to fear of misstepping, and I can have multiple loyalties. Things are not mutually exclusive, and I hold my own particular space within a discourse. I’ve made the decision to bring my limited but ever-expanding knowledge on what inclusion looks like to NOW at UCF, as I hold with those who deradicalize and disidentify, who recognize their flaws and limitations, but refuse to be made complicit in them.

Kirk, Gwyn, and Okazawa-Rey, Margo. “Violence Against Women.” Women's Lives:

Multicultural Perspectives. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print.

Morales, Aurora Levins. “Radical Pleasure: Sex and the End of Victimhood.” Women's

Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. By Kirk, Gwyn, and Okazawa-Rey, Margo.

New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 283-284. Print.