Is The Environment a Feminist Issue?

Happy Women’s History Month! I’ve been looking for opportunities to explore intersectionality, last week I had a look at tokenism and hearing from diverse voices, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to look into feminism as well. The motivation here is anecdotal; in my experience there’s a huge overlap between people who care about women’s rights and about the planet. Why is that?

Tik Tok and the Environmental Aesthetic

If you don’t know much about teen culture, the words “VSCO girl” and “cottage core” might seem completely alien. Along with styles like “alt” and “plant mom” these are like lifestyles that incorporate not just clothes and decorations but also values and actions. The first time I noticed environmentalism as a ‘trend’ was with VSCO girls in 2018. This is a style that involves oversized T-shirts, scrunchies, and Kankan backpacks. Common phrases included “save the turtles”, referring to using reusable straws over plastic, and they also popularised hydro-flasks over plastic water bottles. This might seem superficial, but the popularity of reusable straws by teenage girls promoted many companies to stop supplying disposable straws altogether and made it possible for them to be banned due to environmental impact. 

Currently, another popular trend is “cottage core” which is described by Fandom as “centred on ideas around a simpler life and harmony with nature. Specific themes associated are the survival of the environment, food, and caring for people”. This incorporates plants and the environment into the clothes but promotes growing your own plants and vegetation, maybe caring for chickens or other animals on a small scale, buying eco-friendly clothes or other objects, as well as rejecting capitalism, plastic, pesticides, pollutants. This isn’t about making big changes like the VSCO girls had done but removing yourself from systems that harm the planet almost entirely.

This isn’t the first time that an aesthetic has involved environmental values, the most well known of which is the 60s “hippie” lifestyle where people lived in environmentally friendly co-ops or communes, adopted vegetarian diets, and opposed war and capitalism. The difference here is that the current movement is driven by women. Young, empowered, 21st-century women that combine femininity with empathic values. It’s interesting psychologically that that more women are drawn to these values as 16-year-old Redditor InfamousBees explains. “Cottage core, for me, is sort of a dream way of living, it’s all about softness and being gentle, and kind, and nurturing”. There’s always been a stereotype that women are more nurturing than men, which might make them more drawn to ethical issues like environmentalism.  This has been proven in many papers, however many feminists both over history and today reject the notion that women are more naturally nurturing (and should therefore be responsible for childcare). There’s also a sociological aspect to consider: are girls drawn to these values because they represent femininity today? We all want to fit in with our peers, if the most popular aesthetic is empathic and environmental maybe women are sociologically encouraged to adopt these values to fit in with their peers.  

What is Ecofeminism?

Ecofeminism is a movement from the 80s that combines the tenants of feminism and environmentalism. Britannica says, “this philosophy emphasises the ways both nature and women are treated by patriarchal (or male-centred) society”. In 1987, a leader of the movement Ynestra King wrote “Ecofeminism is about connectedness and wholeness of theory and practice. It asserts the special strength and integrity of every living thing”. I can see why it would be in the same category: western societies (and most of them today) are both patriarchal and capitalist, women have been systematically prevented from holding the positions that make decisions regarding the environment, energy usage, regulations, policy, etc. There’s also a kind of intuitive link that is difficult to describe, a kind of empathy for the natural world being destroyed as a woman who has had their power taken away by the same system, and additionally a commonality of both woman and nature being the live-giving. To upset the equilibrium of nature and construction goes against the idea of fairness and equality that are key principals of feminism. 

One school of thought, Cultural Ecofeminism believed “women have a more intimate relationship with nature because of their gender roles (e.g., family nurturer and provider of food) and their biology (e.g., menstruation, pregnancy, and lactation). As a result, cultural ecofeminists believe that such associations allow women to be more sensitive to the sanctity and degradation of the environment”. This has roots in nature-based religions and nature worship, which I will talk about in a little while. A criticism of this has been that it reinforced gender stereotypes. On the other hand, Radical Ecofeminism believes that we must demolish the patriarchy to solve both feminist and environmental issues. This comes from the idea that in society both women and nature have been associated with negative or commodifiable attributes.

Witchcraft in the Modern Era

Throughout history there has been a presence of witchcraft in lore, religion, speculation, or practise. This is a very broad term but generally means that there’s an involvement of magic and pertains to women and nature.  It’s interesting anthropically how often this comes up in cultures all over the world in different periods. It is most often associated with misogyny and oppression which strengthens the link between environmentalism and feminism. In 1484 Pope Innocent VIII denounced witchcraft and from that point anyone believed to be a witch (usually old women) were killed, and the witch hunts were led by men – male preachers, landowners, or travelling witch hunters. The stereotypes of a witch, ‘crone-like’, snaggle-toothed, sunken cheeked and having a hairy lip were assumed to possess the ‘Evil Eye’ were typically ugly features assigned by the patriarchy. Most of the 200,000 witches killed in Europe were women, 78% in New England, and 74% in Salem. Although these murders were religiously motivated, we believe they were more to do with oppressing women than fear of witchcraft. There is also a racist aspect as many indigenous cultures had practised nature-based religions which were oppressed by colonizers, which simultaneously enforced gender ideas that didn’t exist before, for example in Hawaii where their religion and the idea of a gender between male and female, ‘mahu’, was banned.

I come from Ireland which has an incredibly rich lore relating to fairies and fae folk. Some other examples of religions and cultures that link women and nature include Baltic Mythology where the sun is a female deity, Yoni in Hinduism which is representation of the goddess Shatki, Gaia goddess of Earth, and Artemis goddess of nature. This is also represented is in the idea of the ‘wise women’, a woman who is able to gain wisdom from nature or natural sources which again comes up in many different cultures, for example the Oracles of ancient Greece which were believed to be able to communicate with the gods and predict the future, or women in West Africa who practise voodoo. It’s interesting that in many societies that subscribe to the idea of a wise women don’t respect women’s autonomy but still believe in their ability to connect with nature.  

Witchcraft is still prevalent today: I come across a lot of witchcraft content on tik tok, particularly @witchofthewater who educates about pagens, wicca, deities, etc. It’s becoming more mainstream to practise elements of witchcraft, for example using crystals and tarot cards, the idea of which is to connect with a natural power to gain wisdom. This kind of witchcraft is still female dominated. The rise of witchcraft definitely coincides with the current wave of feminism and the ability of western women to feel safe from male persecution of witchcraft. Christianity is less popular since religion is no longer prescribed by male authority figures, meaning that alternative religions such as hoodoo, voodoo, paganism, wicca, and other nature-based religions are more popular and mainstream.

Another result of this is that a lot of women now describe themselves as ‘spiritual’ rather than following a particular religion. This has connotations of engaging with yoga and meditation – seen as more of a female practise in the western world – which have the goal of connecting oneself not with a higher power but with nature, the universe, and oneself. In the spiritual community people often talk about “energy” and “vibes” as a kind of psychic force of the universe that we can control through practises like “manifestation”. This is a contemporary take on nature-based religious beliefs and a modern version of the “wise woman”. 

Is There a Link Between Environmentalism and Feminism?

I’ve always been aware of the overlap between feminists and environmentalists, but I’ve never been able to describe why. I assumed it was to do with having an empathy for one sociological cause made it intuitive to support multiple. But I am so interested in the link I’ve discovered in my research between women and nature that is so prevalent in so many cultures throughout history. It makes me wonder if my passion for environmental sustainability is more than just self-preservation, but an innate sense of empathy for nature that has expressed itself in so many ways over history. It’s also so interesting to see the link between appreciation of nature and oppression. It’s so clear to me now that environmentalism is and always has been a feminist issue.