Month: February 2020

 

The image chosen is a presumably male figure wearing a chef hat. The figure is “carving” slices of ham with a knife. The knife and ham in proportion to the figure are huge! If that were a real person slicing that ham on the wood chopping block it would look ridiculous! I think the ratio of proportions was intentional to reflect the articles that were read in part of the chapter. 

Two examples of gendered foods/practices are that salads are perceived to be womanly and feminine food while steaks should be eaten by men. A lot of factors contribute to this gendered food stereotype such as the perpetuation of traditional gendered stereotypes as well as the media, advertising, and culture.  

In Gaards article, it explains that pets, exotic pets, factory-farmed animals, and animals that are consumed essentially have no control over their own lives. From pets having no control of reproduction, who to play with what to do and to conform to human practices while being denied their own wild instincts and sometimes denied their own basic comforts. If this were between the same species such as human it would be called slavery. Another good point is that the animals we consume also have no control over their own lives and are often living or suffering in inhumane conditions in factory farms that are exploited for human consumption.

Gaard identifies other geographical contexts in relation to the consumption of animals and recognizes some cultures that ritualize animal consumption to bring awareness to the violence of one animal for the survival of another. Gaard’s takeaway is to reduce animal suffering all around.

While Curtin views that although meat is controlled by men, and is considered manly to eat meat, which is the suffering of another animal, it is instead talked about as something positive such as phrases like “That’s a meaty question”. A common phrase is “couch potato” which is a negative connotation of plant-based food. An example Curtin provides is “don’t watch so much tv! You’ll turn into a vegetable”. However, we could also hear this term vegetable in other negative contexts as well.  Women are also subjected to being controlled by men are also represented as meat.

Resources

1. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/meat-heads-new-study-focuses_b_8964048

Diet and Masculinity

Plant Based foods such as salads are for the female diet while a steak, or meat represents male/macho. A lot of factors contribute to this such as gender sterotype perceptions and the media, advertising, and culture. 

1. https://www.academia.edu/2489929/Ecofeminism_on_the_Wing_Perspectives_on_Human-Animal_Relations Gaard

Pets – Have no control over their own lives. Their pet owners are in control, If this were of the same species it would be called slavery. They are made to conform to human practices and denied basic urges. 

Exotic Pets- the 

Animals that we consume – also have no control over their own lives and are often in inhumane conditions that are exploited for human consumption.

“Self identity that is constructed in terms of our relationship to others”

“Feminists who act in solidarity with other animal species achieve not a moral destination but a moral direction; we can take significant actions that move us in the direction of reducing sufereing suffering. We can treat all animals with the same kindness and respect we offer out most cherished human companies. Many people in the first world n ations can choose healthy vegetarian diets, therby reducing the suffering of other animal specis confined in a factort farming operations and reducing our own sufering of ill health as well” We can limit or forego relationships with other species as pets and live instead with the longing for wild animal companions.”

Attention to suffering makes us ethically responsible.

3.http://www.animal-rights-library.com/texts-m/curtin01.htm

The feminist perspective about Plato- the body is a moral agent – the body being separate from the mind.

Women – and vegetable based foods or the power of control women being represented as “meat ready to be carved up” 

Men- meat – In culture phrases such as “thats a meaty question” gives meat positive conotions. While phrases like “dont watch so much tv! Youll turn into a vegetable” created negative conotion about vegetables.

Factory farms are responsible for most of the meat and dairy products. 

Geographical contexts – Violence against animals for food is ritualized.

 

 

Gooseberry Island is a place I have visited at many different points in my life. If we’re looking for a landscape that informs who we are, and that carries my history then this is just one image of many. The everyday image that informs my daily life would look much different. Filled with people, cars, traffic and a lot of ugly buildings. 

This image is the point of Gooseberry Island. There is a walking path through the center, that leads to the towers, but if you go past that it will lead to the farthest point which is here. The other way to get here is to walk along the beach. The long way. Which brings you through different beachscapes until you come to this. I would often take a long way, spending most of my day walking around the island. Sitting to eat or looking out into the ocean. 

The geographical history of Gooseberry Island was that in the past, it was used as a military base during WW2 to spot U ships. Before that, it was a vacation island with cottages that were taken out during the big hurricane during the 1930s. If you walk the middle path you can still see foundation remnants. Before that, there was no causeway. Instead, there was a sandbar that you could cross over when the tide was low. Now, the area is used for recreation, beaching, fishing, boating and one of the only beaches in the area you can bring your dog to swim during the summer season.

I think that the environment does play a role in society. Geographical location does affect how people live day today. If you are by the equator, if you’re in the cold, if the sun shines straight through half the year, if you’re by the water (at sea level), if you’re in the mountains, if you’re in a populated area, if you’re in the country or if you live in the desert, like Terry Tempest Williams.

In Williams’ “Home Work”, we learn that Williams lives in the desert. Although I live in New England and experience summer – I have heard it is not like the summer in the desert. He says that summer reduces “you to a lizard state of mind, no thought, and very little action. You sleep more and you dream” (page 5). This is pretty much what I do when we have cold winters.

In the image, you can see the ocean. There is a little strip of beach, random debris that has washed up on shore, logs, so many rocks, a variety of ocean life and then finally the ocean. Within this intertidal zone is a variety of species. Snails, clams, mussels,  algae, horseshoe crabs. There’s an entire ecosystem living in just this area. They survive the tide and long periods of drought and sun, the heat and the freezing cold. Throughout a tidal cycle, these critters are experiencing so much change.

Looking at this image as a whole, you can also see the many visual layers. Ocean, rocks, tidal pools, sand, beach wood, grass, dunes, sky. It’s a visual clutter. There are rocks in the ocean, rocks in the sand. Water in the rocks. Unlike Williams’ description of the desert as minimal. Which is also a statement on capitalism and consumerism.

Unlike the West, our area is mostly privately owned. A small number of beaches are available to the public. Many beaches must be accessed through the town you live in and the rest are private and generally inaccessible to much of the public.

There are many different angles to approach Ecofeminism with. In “Ecofeminism: Historic and International Evolution”, Laura Hobgood-Oster, from Southwestern University in Texas, outlines these positions and some critiques of the movement. Ecofeminism looks at globalization, religion, spirituality, science or societal structures, to name a few, with regard to patriarchial hierarchies and the relationship of female and nature. 

I think looking at art history is another way to view the ecofeminist perspective. Throughout the centuries the female nude has been painted time and again with the male gaze in mind. The female nude/s has historically been accompanied by fruit, nature, plants or water for example. Many paintings depict the female nude form in fields, oceans, bathing. Looking at ecofemnist with an art historical perspective in mind, I can see the relationship between female and nature.

https://www.manet.org/a-bar-at-the-folies-bergere.jsp

With this in mind, I will analyze the painting “A Bar at the Folies-Bergere, 1882 by Edouard Manet”. This painting was at the turn of the 19th century and an example of modernity. The viewer can see the crowded room but only in the reflection of the mirror behind the woman who is looking off in the distance, unengaged. It is obvious that the woman here is the object of the male gaze. In the reflection, the woman’s back is toward the viewer and we can see a man looking at her, not talking. It would appear that the woman is ignoring the man, or is inaccessible which could be another aspect of the male fantasy. 

 

One of Karen J. Warren’s first of eight woman nature connections is “historical, typically causal connections which focus on cultural and scientific changes throughout history that has created a “ “mechanistic world view of modern science,” which sanctioned the exploitation of nature, unchecked commercial and industrial expansion, and the subordination of women.” (Warren, https://thereitis.org/warrens-introduction-to-ecofeminism/)

Other elements, such as the ‘v’ shape at the bottom of the dress is suggestive of the vagina, the length of her sleeves and cut of her dress is suggestive that she might also be a prostitute.

In addition, even though this painting was at the height of modernity and industrialization there is still reference to classical paintings of the past and the persistence of the link between women and nature. In the forefront, is a bowl of oranges/fruit which is often a symbol of sexuality or fertility. Other elements ars roses in a glass, and flowers tucked in front and center of her chest. 

With this is mind and Warren’s historical connection a further analysis could be that this painting is a reflection that nature and the woman is the object of the male gaze.

One could also suggest there is a level of dualism within the painting another aspect that perpetuates the patriarchial hierarchy. There is male and female, crowd and one person and sense of other. 

 

https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0geK.ALUzZeuZIAhgZXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTB0N2Noc21lBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNwaXZz?p=ana+Silueta+series&fr2=piv-web&fr=mcafee#id=24&iurl=https%3A%2F%2Fthebluesuitcase.files.wordpress.com%2F2013%2F08%2Fmendieta-1.jpg&action=click

The performance artist Ana Mendieta(from the 70’s) embodies ecofeminsm. In her Siloetta series she creates “earth-body” art. She leaves imprints of her body in the soil  and decorates the absent body form with flowers, fire, sticks. Sometimes her body is present though covered in flowers. Mendieta reclaims the nature and female connection and creates references to the symbols of the goddess, spirituality, identify and ultimately suggests that her body and the earth are one. Personally, I think the connection she makes with nature is empowering.