The Plan has come Together

Although the inability to have a diner party was not ideal the next step was to deliver the food to my friends and collect donations to send to my choice organization, which is, Heart-Head-Hands (https://heart-head-hands.com/). They are an online organization that does, blogging, research writing, e-courses, workshops, coaching, consulting, and speaking focused on “everyday living for justice”.

One of the focuses of the organization is ecofeminism and vegan eating which supports my cause. One of their many feminist goals is, “Connecting this personal question of why vegan? With the political work of ecofeminism and movements for social, racial, gender, economic, and environmental justice” (Godbee). Organizer Beth Godbee is an educator, former professor, researcher, feminist and vegan herself. In her blog she writes about her ongoing efforts, struggles, and attitude toward maintaining living everyday for justice. After some research I felt this organization had a cause I wanted to support. I was so compelled to learn more about Beth being a vegan because I made the choice to try eating vegan myself, that I read her blog and found encouraging entries such as “Why I’m Vegan: Doing Something Small and Sustained” that reminded me why I was doing this is the first place.

In ecofeminist thought choosing to be vegan or even a vegetarian “marks a daily bodily commitment to resist ideological pressures to conform to political standards, and to establishing contexts in which caring for can be non-abusive”, (Curtin) therefore refusing to conform to patriarchal standards that encourage the mistreatment of animals for human consumption. By organizing this dinner party and explaining to my friends I created; for my friends, and myself a greater understanding of what being a “vegan” is. It’s not a fad or a bandwagon you should get on, its purpose has a deeper meaning that rests on feminism. I was surprised at how I was able to have a conversation about ecofeminism without preaching!   Reading Beth Godbee’s blogs highlighted the importance of what I was doing with the dinner party and my small personal change of eating like a vegan. I think the dinner party was a success in that my friends now see a connection between human and non-human animals and the oppression they share. Furthermore I was able to raise $150 for “Heart-Head-Hands”(there is also an option for monthly contributions) and although I have strayed somewhat from my vegan diet I have gained valuable knowledge to make better and more informed choices in the future and have saved some animals in the process.  That was my personal goal.

By making a small personal change I was able to educate other people about my cause. My personal decision to eat and cook vegan became political in the way I shared my experience and reason for my choice with others. Not only did I create awareness about vegetarian ecofeminism to my “dinner party” guests but also to my family, and co-workers who also observed my new eating habits (my family also participated in the 5-day vegan plan). I may not have converted anyone to veganism but I have planted a seed of ecofeminism in many of my friends and family, which is, in part what activism is about. I showed how ordinary people could contribute to doing something for the environment, and animals, even if it’s small. I think people were surprised that doing something like I did was considered activism. Which lead to a conversation about activism and then about feminism and so on. Like I said I might not have converted anyone to be a vegan but I feel I helped people understand the connection between meat and women and create awareness around the violence and mistreatment against non human animals so  they can make more informed choices. Whether your activism is big or small you have the ability to create change.

I have included the links to the recipe’s I used for the dinner party if you would like to view (or use) them. My favorites were the Creamy Mushroom Risotto and the Snickers Cheesecake!

Vegan Dinner Party Dishes

Spring Minestrone:

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/food-recipes/a43221/spring-minestrone-recipe/

Hearty Spaghetti with Lentils and Marinara:

https://cookieandkate.com/hearty-spaghetti-with-lentils-marinara/

Creamy Mushroom Risotto:

http://wallflowerkitchen.com/creamy-mushroom-risotto-vegan-gf/

Churro Banana Bites:

https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a51527/churro-banana-bites-recipe/

Vegan Snickers Cheesecake:

https://minimalistbaker.com/vegan-snickers-cheesecake/#_a5y_p=5095848

 

Bibliography

Curtin, Deane. “Contextual Moral Vegetarianism.” 8 February 2020 <http://www.animal-rights-library.com/texts-m/curtin01.htm>.

Annotated bibliography:

Godbee, Beth. Heart-Head-Hands.com: Everyday Living for Justice. 31 March 2020. 6 April 2020 <https://heart-head-hands.com/>.

Beth Godbee is the founder and creator of “Heart-Head-Hands” website. Beth lives in Washington D.C. and is a educator, researcher, entrepreneur, and public writer. She also is a former professor at Marquette University. The website features a blog, online courses, coaching, and workshops all focused on feminist issues such as environmental justice, racial justice, gender and economic. Beth herself is a vegan and centers a blog around her choice to be vegan and her journey of commitment for justice.

It All Starts With a Plan

One of the major issues facing ecofeminist is our relationship to non-human animals and how we perceive them. Vegetarian ecofeminism is a theoretical view attached to sympathy of non-human animals. Millions of animals are killed, or worse unnecessarily everyday in the U.S. alone. These animals are rendered powerless to the hands of humans. Furthermore non-human animals are oppressed by the same patriarchal structures that oppress women. Greta Gaard confirms there is a “specific linkage between sexism and speciesism between the oppression of women and the oppression of animals” (Gaard). In that respect there is a connection between feminism and veganism and thus is an ecofeminist central issue. In order to raise awareness regarding this important aspect of ecofeminism I plan to enact a personal/political idea. In feminism, the personal is political.

My choice of activism will be to donate. I will support my cause by raising money for a charity related to ecofeminism, ideally one specific to my interest of vegetarian ecofeminism. My original plan was to host an entirely vegan dinner party and request my friends “donate” what they would normally pay to go to a restaurant to attend the dinner party. I would then donate that money to an organization that supports my cause. However, in lieu of the pandemic that we’re currently experiencing I have to get more creative and modify my charity dinner. Instead of having guests come to my home I have decided to prepare an all-vegan dinner and do “take-out” for the friends I invited. They have all agreed to still participate and accepted “take-out” as an alternative. In addition, to further expand my activist action I have decided to challenge myself to become a vegan for this period of 5 days (or longer). Although I’m currently a meat eater, to completely represent the change I want to see, I will have to “practice what I preach” to support my cause.

In order to organize the dinner party I would receive donations for I would first need to prepare a vegan menu. This is a challenge as I mentioned before I’m currently not a vegan and I’m not used to cooking like this for my family or myself. I looked up recipes for the “dinner party”. Here is what the menu will consist of:

First course

• Mixed greens salad with garlic and lemon vinaigrette
• Spring Minestrone

Main Course

• Hearty Spaghetti with Lentils and Marinara Sauce
• Creamy Mushroom Risotto

Desert

• Churro Banana Bites
• Vegan Snickers Cheesecake

I hope that my dinner will initiate conversation with my friends and family about why I choose to do this and give me the opportunity to discuss veganism as a ecofeminist perspective.  In addition, I also hope as a result of changing my eating habits others will recognize the possibility of contributing to making a change as well.    In other words I hope my eating choices can reinforce the message that small change can make a difference.

Bibliography:

Gaard, Greta. “Ecofeminism on the Wing: Perspectives on Human-Animal Relations.” Women & Environments (2001): 19-22.

Activism and Ecofeminism

Ecofeminist believe that women and nature are both oppressed by patriarchal power structures. Activism rooted in Ecofeminism seeks to tackle the oppression brought forth by economic, political, and other patriarchal structures. All over the world women have suffered as a result of environmental degradation. Some women suffer as a direct result of depleted resources and some women suffer as a result of defending the resources they rely on For example, Native women in South Dakota have been sexually assaulted by non-native men as a result of oil booms where “man camps” have been established to house oil workers (Levin). Women at Standing Rock were fired at with rubber bullets, imprisoned, and harassed by local police for speaking out against the Keystone XL pipeline. Unfortunately President Trump restarted the Keystone XL approval process in 2017 after former President Barack Obama blocked construction in 2015 and the project will commence after the COVID-19 pandemic ends (Brady) despite their efforts. Other women are suffering from the environmental degradation happening as a result of political and governmental refusal to act on their behalf.

In Brazil for example women and the environment are in dire straits because of patriarchal structures that fail to recognize acknowledge consequences of capital gain. In the Metropolitan area of Recife you will find beautiful bridges dressed with colors of yellow, blue and red. Despite the structures seemingly beautiful appearance what’s beneath it reveals a devastating reality.   The river is filled with garbage in the slums. The pollution of the river infects the water source, food supply and health of all of the impoverished people that live in many of the slums of Recife’s north side. “Larissa Silva, a ten-year-old has chronic ringworm covering 80 percent of her body” and is a result of the pollution in this area of Brazil (Correa) an article from Vice reports. Its stories like these that remind us of ecofeminist struggles to create awareness of the oppression that women and the environment experience.

Activist that organized the Green Belt Movement in Africa and the Chipko Movement in India were motivated by the guiding principles of ecofeminist in order to protect the resources that not only help them thrive but also helped sustain them. In 1973 activist from the Chipko movement were successful in preventing the trees from felling for developers to build a sport goods company (edugreen). Greenbelt activist recognized the responsibility they had to till the fields, nurture crops, and harvest food meant that they would be the first to notice the environmental degradation that was going on; and they did. Despite kickback and brutal resistance from the government and local police Wangari Maathai successfully lead the movement to stop a skyscraper and statue from being built on one of Nairobi’s largest parks and the planting of millions of trees (Maathai).

Ivona Gebara on Feminism

Ivona Gebara takes a religious stance that the patriarchal values that encourage the oppression of women and the degradation of the environment stem from religion in Brazil. She argues that while feminist, ecologist, and ecofeminist are trying to figure out how to theorize, destruction of forest, rainforest, and other eco systems continues. Her version of ecofeminism that she calls an “eco of feminism” focuses less on theorizing and more on concrete solutions. Using Recife as an example she talks about making a difference there to the problem that most women don’t know how to help themselves and feel they are in “jail” as Gebara puts it. Her solution is to move beyond theology, “official theologies are cultural products of our hierarchal and masculine philosophies and ideologies. They can give life and strength for a while but they need to be renewed” (Gebara 98). With that she asserts that with new understandings applied to religious traditions a new fresher perspective can be born, a new utopia. She encourages us to put our individual theories and utopias together and create an ecological, social, and political order for the common good of women and the environment, one where patriarchal institutions don’t shape out lives. “The new understanding needs a critical analysis of what is going on in our world in order to clarify what could be a common utopia for us” (Gebara 100).  Her term “eco of feminism” seems to move beyond ecofeminism theory and usher in tactics of activism to support her utopian vision for justice of women and the environment.

Bibliography

Correa, Talita. The Brazilian Slum Children Who Are Literally Swimming in Garbage. 30 January 2014. 1 April 2020 <https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/kwpwja/the-brazilian-slum-children-who-are-literally-swimming-in-garbage-0000197-v21n1>.

edugreen. The Chipko Movement . <http://edugreen.teri.res.in/explore/forestry/chipko.htm>.

Gebara, Ivona. “Ecofeminism: A Latin American Perspective .” Cross Currents 53.1 (2003): 93-103.

Levin, Sam. “At Standing Rock, women lead fight in face of Mace, arrests and strip searches.” The Guardian (2016).

Maathai, Wangari. The Green Belt Movement . 4 May 2000. 1 April 2020 <http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/wangari-maathai/key-speeches-and-articles/speak-truth-to>.

Annotated Bibliography:

Brady, Jeff. Builder Of Controversial Keystone XL Pipeline Says It’s Moving Forward. 31 March 2020. 1 April 2020 <https://www.npr.org/2020/03/31/824445928/builder-of-controversial-keystone-xl-pipeline-says-its-moving-forward>.

In this article legislation by President Donald Trump reinstates the Keystone XL oil pipeline project. Despite its past former President Barack Obamas decision to stop the project construction is expected to resume. The article touches on the environmental concerns such as greenhouse gas effects and highlighted the economic advantages such as jobs and revenue to the restart of the project. Also the article discusses the COVID-19 pandemic that is now the only thing standing in the way of construction of the 1,210-mile pipeline.