Masculine and Feminine gender polarity...shout out to Aristotle, Hippocrates , and Galen.
I realize I should probably explain my train of thought here...
After each reading for Environmental Ethics (or during depending on how much my brain is boiling) I open my sketch book to help me mull over what I've read. Goodness knows what will end up on the page though. It often ends up being only partly related to the topic or in fact requires research of its own. This lasted post, after reading Victoria Davian, Greta Gaard and Lori Gruen , is from that bit of my mind that is fascinated by historical gender perceptions and Greek dudes and fed by a history classes.
The low-down:
Eco-feminism, in part, plays upon the shared domination over women and nature under patriarchy. Reading about the mutual oppression of Woman and Nature my little mind went straight to thoughts about gender polarity. Traditional theory per Aristotle says that male and female are fundamentally different. Opposite, in fact.
Female/Male
Cold/Hot
Left/Right
Circle/Line
Earth/Sky
Underworld/Heaven
Wet/Dry
Chaos/Order
Body/Soul
Opinion/Wisdom
Crooked/Straight
Left/Right
Circle/Line
Earth/Sky
Underworld/Heaven
Wet/Dry
Chaos/Order
Body/Soul
Opinion/Wisdom
Crooked/Straight
You get the idea...
Probably not what the eco-feminists had in mind? Not very "feminist" at all? And while some go to pains to remind us that the masculine and feminine are inherently related (patriarchy created the "feminine," etc.) there are voices out there that are exalting Women above Men in this polarizing fashion, simply in reverse to the traditional.
Mariner Felix Riesenberg wrote:
ReplyDeleteThe sea has always been a seducer, a careless lying fellow,not feminine, as many writers imagine, but strongly masculine in its allurement. The king of the sea, with his whiskers of weed and his trident and dolphins, truly respresents the main and gives it character. The sea, like a great sultan, supports thousands of ships, his lawful wives. These he carresses and chastises as the case may be. This explains the feminine gender of all proper vessels.
But why, I ask, does nature have to be masculine OR feminine? Can the sea be one then the other depending whether the tide is going out or coming in, or both as it subtly advances or angrily withdraws. And why can't a feminine ship sail on the powerful waves of a mothering sea?