2021/03/28

May Sarton - Wikipedia

May Sarton - Wikipedia

May Sarton

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May Sarton
May Sarton.jpg
BornEleanore Marie Sarton
May 3, 1912
Wondelgem, Belgium
DiedJuly 16, 1995 (aged 83)
York, Maine
Resting placeNelson, New Hampshire
OccupationNovelist, poet, memoirist
NationalityBelgian, American
GenreFiction, non-fiction, poetry, children's literature
Notable awardsSarton Memoir Award
PartnerJudith "Judy" Matlack

May Sarton was the pen name of Eleanore Marie Sarton (May 3, 1912 – July 16, 1995), a Belgian-American poet, novelist and memoirist. Although her best work is strongly personalised with erotic female imagery, she resisted the label of ‘lesbian writer’, preferring to convey the universality of human love.

Biography[edit]

Sarton was born in Wondelgem, Belgium (today a part of the city of Ghent), the only child of historian of science George Sarton and his wife, English artist Mabel Eleanor Elwes. When German troops invaded Belgium after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, her family fled to Ipswich, England, where Sarton's maternal grandmother lived.[citation needed]

One year later, they moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where her father started working at Harvard University. Sarton started theatre lessons in her late teens but continued writing poetry throughout her adolescence. She went to school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, graduating from Cambridge High and Latin School in 1929.[citation needed]

Sarton won a scholarship to Vassar but felt drawn to the theater after seeing Eva Le Gallienne perform in The Cradle Song. She joined Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Theatre in New York and spent a year working as an apprentice. However, Sarton continued to write poetry. When she was seventeen, she published a series of sonnets in December 1930, some of which were featured in her first published volume, Encounter in April (1937).[1][2]

When she was nineteen, Sarton traveled to Europe, living in Paris for a year. In this time, she met such literary and cultural figures as Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Bowen, Julian Huxley and Juliette Huxley, Lugné-Pöe, Basil de Sélincourt, and S. S. Koteliansky. Sarton had affairs with both of the Huxleys.[3] It was within this environment and community that she published her first novel, The Single Hound (1938).[4]

In 1945 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, she met Judith "Judy" Matlack (September 9, 1898–December 22, 1982), who became her partner for the next thirteen years. They separated in 1956, when Sarton's father died and Sarton moved to Nelson, New Hampshire. Honey in the Hive (1988) is about their relationship.[5] In her memoir At Seventy, Sarton reflected on Judy's importance in her life and her Unitarian Universalist upbringing.[6] She was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1958.[7]

Sarton later moved to York, Maine. In 1990, she was temporarily debilitated by a stroke. Since writing was difficult, she used a tape recorder to record and transcribe her journal Endgame: A Journal of the Seventy-Ninth Year (1992). Despite her physical difficulties, she maintained her sense of independence. Endgame was followed by the journal Encore: A Journal of the Eightieth Year (1993), a celebration of Sarton's life. She won the Levinson Prize for Poetry in 1993. Her final book, Coming Into Eighty (1995), published after her death, covers the year from July 1993 to August 1994, describing her attitude of gratitude for life as she wrestled with the experience of aging.[8]

She died of breast cancer on July 16, 1995, and is buried in Nelson Cemetery, Nelson, New Hampshire.[9]

Works and themes[edit]

May Sarton wrote 53 books, including 19 novels, 17 books of poetry, 15 nonfiction works, 2 children's books, a play, and additional screenplays.[10][11] According to The Poetry Foundation, Sarton's style as defined by critics is "calm, cultured, and urbane."[12] In much of her writing, Sarton maintains a politically conscious lens, but what is considered May Sarton's best and most enduring work lies in her journals and memoirs, particularly Plant Dreaming Deep (about her early years at Nelson, ca. 1958-68), Journal of a Solitude (1972-1973, often considered her best), The House by the Sea (1974-1976), Recovering (1978-1979) and At Seventy (1982-1983). In these fragile, rambling and honest accounts of her solitary life, she deals with such issues as aging, isolation, solitude, friendship, love and relationships, lesbianism, self-doubt, success and failure, envy, gratitude for life's simple pleasures, love of nature (particularly of flowers), the changing seasons, spirituality and, importantly, the constant struggles of a creative life. Sarton's later journals are not of the same quality, as she endeavored to keep writing through ill health and by dictation.

Although many of her earlier works, such as Encounter in April, contain vivid erotic female imagery, May Sarton often emphasized in her journals that she didn't see herself as a "lesbian" writer: "The vision of life in my work is not limited to one segment of humanity...and has little to do with sexual proclivity".[13] Rather she wanted to touch on what is universally human about love in all its manifestations. When publishing her novel Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing in 1965, she feared that writing openly about lesbianism would lead to a diminution of the previously established value of her work. "The fear of homosexuality is so great that it took courage to write Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing," she wrote in Journal of a Solitude, "to write a novel about a woman homosexual who is not a sex maniac, a drunkard, a drug-taker, or in any way repulsive, to portray a homosexual who is neither pitiable nor disgusting, without sentimentality ..." [14] After the book's release, many of Sarton's works began to be studied in university level women's studies classes, being embraced by feminists and lesbians alike.[1] However, Sarton's work should not be classified as 'lesbian literature' alone, as her works develop many deeply human issues of love, loneliness, aging, nature, self-doubt etc., common to both men and women.

Margot Peters' controversial biography (1998) revealed May Sarton as a complex individual who often struggled in her relationships.[15] A selected edition of Sarton's letters was edited by Susan Sharman in 1997[3] and many of Sarton's papers are held in the New York Public Library.[16]

Bibliography[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Jump up to:a b May Sarton: A Poet Archived February 3, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Harvard Square Library.
  2. ^ "May Sarton: A Poet's Life". digital.library.upenn.edu. Retrieved November 30,2018.
  3. ^ Jump up to:a b Sarton, May, 1912-1995. (1997). May Sarton : selected letters, 1916-1954. Sherman, Susan (Susan Jean), 1939-. London: Women's Press. ISBN 0-7043-4535-8. OCLC 43125718.
  4. ^ "May Sarton: A Poet's Life". digital.library.upenn.edu. Retrieved November 30,2018.
  5. ^ Pobo, Kenneth (2002). "Sarton, May". Chicago. Chicago: glbtq, Inc. Archived from the original on August 15, 2007. Retrieved August 29, 2007.
  6. ^ "May Sarton". Unitarian Universalist Historical Society.
  7. ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter S" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved July 25, 2014.
  8. ^ "May Sarton: A Poet's Life". digital.library.upenn.edu. Retrieved November 30,2018.
  9. ^ "May Sarton". Poets.org. Academy of American Poets. Retrieved May 10,2009.
  10. ^ "May Sarton". Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation. November 30, 2018. Retrieved November 30, 2018.
  11. ^ "May Sarton Selected Bibliography". digital.library.upenn.edu. Retrieved November 30, 2018.
  12. ^ "May Sarton". Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation. November 30, 2018. Retrieved November 30, 2018.
  13. ^ Sarton, May (1992). Journal of a Solitude. WW Norton & Company.
  14. ^ Journal of a Solitude, 1973, pp. 90-91.
  15. ^ Peters, Margot. (1998). May Sarton : a biography (1st ed.). New York: Fawcett Columbine. ISBN 0-449-90798-8. OCLC 39440918.
  16. ^ "archives.nypl.org -- May Sarton Papers". archives.nypl.org. Retrieved January 13, 2020.

External links[edit]



VINE VOICE


Top reviews from other countries

jclark@gathorne.u-net.com
3.0 out of 5 stars DisappointingReviewed in the United Kingdom on April 6, 2019
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May Sarton calls this ' a journal of solitude' but she was actually just living alone in a fairly ordinary situation and much of the time she is talking about lunches she has with friends, trips that she makes to New York, etc. So it was a very peopled kind of solitude, very unlike that undertaken by, say, Thoreau at Walden Pond, which had a real purpose and focus. There are some nice observations and quotes here and there, but overall I did not feel that she any great wisdom to convey, and in fact, in several places but especially in the last sections, she reveals herself as rather a selfish and undeveloped person. Cat lovers beware of this book!

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Boorie
1.0 out of 5 stars Don’t buy it.Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 27, 2020
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Another boring book. What a boring woman she was! Spend your time reading something interesting, don’t waste your time on this book.

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SWS
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing delivery and bookReviewed in the United Kingdom on April 27, 2020
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Fantastic service and an amazing book
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B Gray
5.0 out of 5 stars Five StarsReviewed in the United Kingdom on June 11, 2016
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Great read .

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Charlene D. Jones
3.0 out of 5 stars Oh wellReviewed in Canada on October 25, 2019
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I didn't really understand this book.
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Top reviews from the United States

LILY
1.0 out of 5 stars TOTALLY DISAPPOINTED AT THE END
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2019
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After enjoying the musings of her daily life, almost at the end of the book she writes about trapping a feral cat that had trusted her over many months. The cat was taken by the Humane Society to be put down while she discusses keeping the kittens. I was enraged even though she claimed sadness. You had an animal trust you and you caused her death. I will not read anymore of her books, ever.
37 people found this helpful
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Mary D. Salai
5.0 out of 5 stars Pay attention to yourself.
Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2017
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Twenty years ago, this book taught me to enjoy what was in front of my face, in my gardens, and in my home, and more importantly, that my need for quiet and solitude was as necessary as oxygen. You don't have to be a poet to need respite from intrusive interruptions from the universe. This book and that lesson never get old.
30 people found this helpful
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Running Deer
5.0 out of 5 stars Opening doors
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2017
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This was a fascinating read--a journal by a woman who was battling loneliness and depression later in life. You can feel the struggles in her words, as you feel her trying to lead a "normal" life and deal with setbacks and trials and doubts, while still dealing with the depression. It's not a book for everyone, of course--nothing happens here, and there is no resolution to any of the problems. This is one to read when you want to ponder life and living and meaning and love and who you are as a person, for May opens some doors for you that you might not have thought to open.
25 people found this helpful
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L. M Young
VINE VOICE
3.0 out of 5 stars Quiet Days
Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2019
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Ms. Sarton's books, especially this one, were recommended on another book blog that I read, and this appeared to be one of her most noted ones, so I picked it up when I saw it. I can't say I was disappointed, but it was different from what I was expecting. Sarton, a poet and essayist, chronicled her thoughts about living alone—she found she could not concentrate on her poetry when surrounded by family, friends and day-to-day tumult, so she would stay solitary between book tours in order to concentrate on her art. She talks frankly about her bouts of depression and the positives and negatives of a solitary life. However, I think I was expecting something more like the Stillmeadow books. (It seems I spend a lot of time searching for someone else who "sounds like Gladys Taber.")

Still, this is a nice quiet introspective book, perfect for a relaxing day's read with a favorite beverage and a cat in the lap, perhaps cuddled in a favorite afghan.
7 people found this helpful
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Donna Hill
4.0 out of 5 stars The poet May Sarton Bares Her Soul
Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2015
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This book contains all the pleasant reading we have come to expect in May Sarton's journals. She writes beautifully about her home and garden, her writing, and her friends. But this one has an extra special quality--she really bares her soul. She confesses to us that she has a wicked temper, mood swings, and grapples with the yearning for a complete love relationship while knowing that she is probably more suited to a life of solitude. I found many of her observations resonating with me. I almost wished that we could speak. She seemed like such a beautiful person. I am not what one would call a true nature lover, so I'm more fascinated by the workings of Sarton's mind and emotions than I am interested in the layout of her garden and yet the flowers do offer a pleasant respite to the confessional part of the journal. I'd give it 4.5 stars if I could.
21 people found this helpful
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Kilian85710
4.0 out of 5 stars A necessary tension
Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2017
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May Sarton constantly dealt with the contrary desire to be alone, to write, with the need to sign books, to make appearance, to entertain friends, and to be available. Happiest at home, with her pets and her garden, she found herself juggling the demands of her public.

This journal of a year shows the cost of meeting contradictory demands on her time. To have a poem gestating in her mind, and yet to be called away to speak at a university or at a book signing she had agreed to month prior, set up a necessary tension in her life.

Much as she complains about it, I think part of her liked the attention.
5 people found this helpful
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Lisa C. Tener
3.0 out of 5 stars Too Much of a Downer and Self-Absorbed
Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2020
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I expected more. Sarton is an excellent writer but i just found this too depressing and self-absorbed. If you are looking for a deep dive into that kind of thing, this may be the ticket. Or maybe it gets better. I could only slog through about 1/3 of it. Maybe her poetry is more inspiring...
2 people found this helpful
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Linda Rabbit
5.0 out of 5 stars Moved me to tears...
Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2018
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...and that takes a lot for me. Mostly NOT sad tears, but tears of recognition. The writing is sublime - I knew, with every word, just exactly how and what she was feeling...what a very, very interesting, compassionate, intelligent, beautiful woman May must have been. I feel I know her, now, and I have come back and bought each and every other one of her books that are available. When literature moves one in this way, it has accomplished everything it should...
2 people found this helpful
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2021/03/27

「近現代日本の民間精神療法」　国境越えねつ造された起源を暴く　朝日新聞書評から｜好書好日

「近現代日本の民間精神療法」　国境越えねつ造された起源を暴く　朝日新聞書評から｜好書好日

「近現代日本の民間精神療法」　国境越えねつ造された起源を暴く　朝日新聞書評から
評者： 柄谷行人 ／ 朝⽇新聞掲載：2019年11月16日

近現代日本の民間精神療法 不可視なエネルギーの諸相著者：栗田 英彦出版社：国書刊行会ジャンル：健康・家庭医学


ISBN: 9784336063809
発売⽇： 2019/09/13
サイズ: ２２ｃｍ／３９９，１５ｐ

催眠術は明治に輸入されて大正期に霊術・精神療法へと発展。これは西洋の近代オカルティズムと並行する、グローバルなオカルティズム運動であった。近現代日本の民間精神療法の全体像…
近現代日本の民間精神療法　不可視（オカルト）なエネルギーの諸相　［編］栗田英彦、塚田穂高、吉永進一

　私は学生の頃から、催眠術、西式健康法、野口整体、手かざし、静坐法などをやってきた。医者に行ってもどうにもならない問題があったからだ。一定の効果が感じられる以上、それらの療法を斥ける理由はなかった。それらにどういう「科学的」根拠があるのかわからないが、そのうちわかるだろうと思っていた。まだ、そうなってはいない。ただ、「民間療法」と呼ばれる、これらの療法に関する研究は進んできている。私は以前に『癒しを生きた人々』（１９９９年）という本を読んだことがあるが、本書はそれを受け継ぐとともに、もっと本格的に考察を広げている。そのことは、巻末の「民間精神療法主要人物および著作ガイド」を見れば明白である。
　その中に、私にとってなじみのない療法が一つある。それはレイキである。私は聞いたこともなかった。臼井甕男（うすいみかお、１８６５～１９２６）が考案したとされる「霊気療法」が一九七〇年代にアメリカなどに伝わり、レイキヒーリングとして大流行したあと、日本に「レイキ」という名で逆輸入される形で戻ってきて以来、その起源がさまざまに論じられるようになったのである。禅の修行をした後で京都の鞍馬山で断食を行ったとされたり、チベットでも修行したとされたりする。また中国思想の「気」の概念で説明されることもある。
　しかし、臼井に先立って「霊気説」を唱えた玉利喜造（１８５６～１９３１）は、すでに西洋から来た催眠術（動物磁気の理論）に立脚していた。また臼井自身も、ヨーガのプラーナの概念や呼吸法を取り入れていた。さらに、彼が取りいれたヨーガの理論は、インドのラマチャラカが書いたと思われているが、実は、アトキンソンというアメリカ人が書いたものだ。こうなると、どこが起源ともいえない。本書には、海外から三人の著者が参加しており、それぞれねつ造された起源についても論じているのが面白い。
　それらが示すのは、起源がそう信じられているように、インド、中国、日本などにあるのではないということである。それはむしろ、一九世紀後半、アメリカに生まれたオカルティズム、あるいは、神智学などにある。鈴木大拙の禅がアメリカで流行したことも、それを示すものだ。実は大拙は、日本に一八世紀の神秘主義思想家スウェーデンボルグを翻訳紹介した人である。編者の吉永進一が示唆するように、このような傾向をグローバル・スピリチュアリズムと呼んでもよいだろう。私の考えでは、それはグローバル資本主義と切り離せない。しかし、それに対抗するためにも、本書のような研究が不可欠である。
　　　　◇
くりた・ひでひこ　1978年生まれ。愛知県立大非常勤講師（宗教学、思想史）▽つかだ・ほたか　1980年生まれ。上越教育大助教（宗教社会学）▽よしなが・しんいち　1957年生まれ。舞鶴工業高専教授（近代仏教史など）


柄谷行人（からたにこうじん）哲学者

　１９４１年兵庫県生まれ。著書に『漱石試論』（群像新人文学賞）『マルクスその可能性の中心』（亀井勝一郎賞）『坂口安吾と中上健次』（伊藤整文学賞）『日本近代文学の起源』『隠喩としての建築』『トランスクリティーク』『ネーションと美学』『歴史と反復』『世界史の構造』など。２００５年４月より書評委員。


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「記憶する体」書評　自分の中の「他者」と付き合う｜好書好日

「記憶する体」書評　自分の中の「他者」と付き合う｜好書好日



「記憶する体」書評　自分の中の「他者」と付き合う
評者： 都甲幸治 ／ 朝⽇新聞掲載：2019年11月16日

記憶する体著者：伊藤亜紗出版社：春秋社ジャンル：福祉・介護


ISBN: 9784393333730
発売⽇： 2019/09/18
サイズ: ２０ｃｍ／２７７ｐ

階段のおり方、痛みとのつきあい方…。「その人のその体らしさ」はいかに育まれるのか。障害をもつ人の１１のエピソードを通して、体に蓄積する記憶と知恵を考察する。春秋社のウェブ…
記憶する体　［著］伊藤亜紗

　起きられない。とにかく痛い。今まで使っていた体が突然、意思に従わなくなる。そうした体とどう付き合えばいいのか。本書で伊藤は考える。
　登場する人物は様々だ。そしてその多くが、体の機能や部位を中途で失っている。まずやって来るのは絶望だ。だが、生きることを選んだとき、彼らの探求は始まる。
　例えばバイク事故で片腕の神経を切断した森さんは「人間をやめる」ことにする。なぜこうなったのか。他の人にできることがなぜできないのか。普通に生きるとは、そうしたことを考えて生きるということだ。
　だが山にこもった彼は、禅に学びながら「なぜ」を問う心の動きを止める。そして手負いの動物のように、「ただ生きる」ことにする。自分をコントロールしない。他人と比較しない。辛いとも辛くないとも考えない。そうした態度を「セルフセンター」と彼は呼ぶ。
　あるいは、神経の難病で常に体が痺れているチョンさんはどうか。何かをしようと考えすぎるとできなくなる。だからなるべく意識しない。そうやって、自分の体の予測できない反応を観察しながら、少しずつ体の使い方を発明していく。彼は言う。「できないことを考えてふさぎこむんじゃなくて、今できることは何なんだろうと考えたら、いろいろ物事が動き出して、外にも出られるようになりました」
　他人は思い通りにならないことは僕らも知っている。でも、自分だって思い通りにはならない。意欲はなかなか湧かないし、記憶は勝手に甦る。面倒くさいけど、この体に生まれてきた以上、どうにか付き合っていくしかない。
　だからよく観察する。お願いする。少しでもできたら大いに褒める。なんだ、これって他人との付き合い方と一緒じゃないか。人に寛容になるには、まず自分に寛容になること。この本を読んで納得できた。
　　　　◇
いとう・あさ　1979年生まれ。東京工業大准教授。専門は美学、現代アート。著書に『どもる体』など。


都甲幸治（トコウコウジ）早稲田大学教授＝アメリカ文学・翻訳家

　１９６９年生まれ。著書に『今を生きる人のための世界文学案内』『世界の８大文学賞』『きっとあなたは、あの本が好き。』『読んで、訳して、語り合う。都甲幸治対談集』など。
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「科学する心」書評　文学で味付けされた自在な科学考｜好書好日

「科学する心」書評　文学で味付けされた自在な科学考｜好書好日



「科学する心」書評　文学で味付けされた自在な科学考
評者： 黒沢大陸 ／ 朝⽇新聞掲載：2019年05月11日

科学する心著者：池澤夏樹出版社：集英社インターナショナルジャンル：自然科学・科学史


ISBN: 9784797673722
発売⽇： 2019/04/05
サイズ: ２０ｃｍ／２６１ｐ

大学で物理学を学び、作品に科学的題材を織り込んできた池澤夏樹。「科学する心」を持ち続けた作家が、人工知能、進化論、永遠と無限、日常の科学などを「文学的まなざし」を保ちつつ…
科学する心　［著］池澤夏樹

　科学の探究は、大学の研究室だけのことではない。体験や見聞きしたことが事実なのか考え、真偽について思いをめぐらせれば、意識しなくても「科学する」ことにつながっていく。
　雑誌に掲載された１２の科学エッセーで構成された本書が、科学思考の世界に導いていく。料理の手順の意味を考えること、鳥や昆虫の観察、本を読んで気になった内容の整理。題材が既知の事柄でも、その運びと切り口に、著者の思索の冒険に同行して一緒に発見している気持ちになる。
　環境の激変による不条理な絶滅を語った『理不尽な進化』、人類の歴史を巨視的に捉えた『サピエンス全史』、話題となった本の読み解きも目を引く。
　文学で味付けされた自在な展開は、関連づけの妙にうなりながらも、ときに話題の飛び方にいらだつこともある。それも悪くないのは、思いつけない視点であり、固定的な発想への戒めになるからかも知れない。あわせて読みたい

「人類が絶滅する６のシナリオ」書評　地球史レベルでみる「私たち」　
変わる科学、変わるＳＦ　作家・円城塔　
歴史的発見をタイプ別に紹介　「科学史ひらめき図鑑」　
永田和宏「もうすぐ夏至だ」書評　科学と短歌、通底する形式とは　
「童の心で―歌舞伎と脳科学」書評　科学と芸能の精髄を語り合う　

黒沢大陸（くろさわたいりく）朝日新聞大阪編集局長補佐

1963年、長野県生まれ。朝日新聞入社後、社会部、科学部、編集委員（災害担当）、オピニオン編集部などを経て、2018年4月から現職。著書に『「地震予知」の幻想』。18年10月から書評委員。
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Women and nature: Towards an ecosocialist feminism | MR Online

Women and nature: Towards an ecosocialist feminism | MR Online

Marxist ecofeminists

Women and nature: Towards an ecosocialist feminism

Posted Mar 15, 2021 by 
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Originally published: Rupture by Jess Spear (March 10, 2021)  

It was hot outside that day. In the remote area of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa a young man watched as five men approached him on the porch. “Could we have a drink?” one of them asked. As they finished the water they asked if they could go inside and thank the woman that lived there. The young man led them in the front door. Moments later shots rang out as the men gunned down the young man’s grandmother an environmental organizer, Fikile Ntshangase, and raced out.

The death of Ntshangase removed a thorn in the side of the Tendele Coal mining company. They had been pressing for over a decade to get the small number of remaining families to vacate their land so their mining operation could expand. Like Berta Cárceres before her, the resistance of Ntshangase and her community is part of a long history of people defending nature as part of defending themselves, their history, their culture, and their future. The role of women like Ntshangase and countless others in defense of nature and with it, life, illustrates the connection between the exploitation of women and the exploitation of nature.

The rise of ecofeminism

Wherever the forces of destruction attempt to cut down trees, pollute our air and water, and rip away the earth for minerals, women have been leading the resistance. In the cities and communities, women have fought for clean water, air, and land for their families to flourish. From the very first “tree huggers” in the Chipko Movement in India and the Comitato dei danneggiati (Injured Persons’ Committee) protesting pollution in Fascist Italy(1) to the peasants in La Via Campesina, the people of Appalachia fighting mountaintop removal and indigenous defenders of the Amazon, women have been and are today leading communities in struggle against capitalist destruction of our environment.

The rise of second-wave feminism alongside environmental movements in the 1970s led to the emergence of ‘ecofeminist’ politics which saw “a connection between the exploitation and degradation of the natural world and the subordination and oppression of women”.(2) The term ‘ecofeminism’ was coined by the French feminist Françoise d’Eaubonne in her book Le Féminisme ou la Mort (Feminism or Death) published in 1974. One of the first ecofeminist movements is the Green Belt Movement – aimed at preventing desertification by planting trees – in Kenya started by Wangari Maathai in 1977.

Of course, many men are also fierce campaigners against capitalist destruction, organising mass movements to defend the forests and land, like Chico Mendes in the Amazon and Ken Saro-Wiwa in the Niger Delta, who were both tragically murdered for their activism. However, the most well-known environmental activists today are undoubtedly women: Vanessa Nakate and Greta Thunberg, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Naomi Klein, and Vandana Shiva. Even here in Ireland, Maura Harrington helped to lead the Shell to Sea campaign and today the most well known radical environmental activist is arguably Saoirse McHugh.

Big Chipko MovementThat both women and nature are dominated and exploited is undeniably true. The question for ecofeminists and ecosocialists is why and what can be done about it?

Ecofeminism, patriarchy & capitalism

For some ecofeminists, women’s affinity to nature comes from ‘their physiological functions (birthing, menstrual cycles) or some deep element of their personalities (life-oriented, nourishing/caring values)’.(3) In this way they “understand” nature, whereas men do not and cannot. Women have a spiritual connection to “Mother” earth. These ecofeminists locate the exploitation and oppression of women and nature in patriarchy, where men control, plunder, rape, and destroy both. Climate change is literally a ‘man-made problem that requires a feminist solution’. The feminist solution, in this case, is more women’s voices, more women in positions of power, and more women at the table discussing their experiences and their ideas on what to do about environmental problems.

HarvestingUndeniably society is patriarchal (see box). We know it from the statistics and we women know it from the million and one experiences we’ve had that reinforce the idea that men are better, stronger, smarter, and overall more capable.

Patriarchal ideas, norms, and behaviours have devastating impacts today on women. Not only from the discrimination, abuse, and violence they face from men as well as the state and state-supported institutions. The highly gendered division of labour in society means women are not only working outside the home to ensure their families have all they need to live, they are also putting in on average three times more hours than men at home. In Ireland, women labour in the home an extra 11 hours a week compared to men. This impacts the kinds of jobs they can take, which affects salary and wages, working conditions, and whether they are free to fully develop their interest and talents.

Women are also at the frontlines of environmental destruction, toxic pollution, as well as climate and ecological breakdown. In Flint, Michigan it was the women in the community who raised their voices when the effects of lead poisoning became clear, and who today, six years on, are still fighting for clean water. As subsistence farmers, producing half the food globally, and in the global South, planting and harvesting as much as 80% of the food, women are forced to reckon with desertification, lack of nutritious food, access to clean water, and destruction of nature in general more than men. In a natural disaster, women are also 14 times more likely to die.

The experiences of these women, who make up the majority of the poorest people on the planet, who have and will be more impacted by the pandemic and its aftermath, should be brought to the centre of discussions about solving climate change and ecological breakdown. Not only because they are most affected, but also because they have unique knowledge and skills that will be key to planning how we can establish a more harmonious interaction between society and nature. Vandana Shiva explains that,

In most cultures women have been the custodians of biodiversity. They produce, reproduce, consume and conserve biodiversity in agriculture. However, in common with all other aspects of women’s work and knowledge, their role in the development and conservation of biodiversity has been rendered as non-work and non-knowledge.(4)

Women in farmer and peasant organisations.The involvement of women in farmer and peasant organisations expanded the struggle for food sovereignty to include combating gender-based violence and equality for women. The women within La Via Campesina for example ‘defend their rights as women within organisations and society in general…and struggle as peasant women together with their colleagues against the neoliberal model of agriculture’. They help organisations understand the many obstacles preventing women from joining and contributing to movements, in particular ‘the division of labor by gender [which] means that rural women have less access to the most precious resource, time…’

Central to ecofeminism is a rejection of human domination and control over nature in favour of a recognition of ‘…the centrality of human embeddedness in the natural world’.(5) As John Bellamy Foster(6) and other metabolic rift theorists have contended, this is also a central point in Marx’s critique of capitalism. Marx wrote that “[human beings] live from nature…nature is [our] body, we must maintain a continuing dialogue with it if we are not to die. To say that [our] physical and mental life is linked to nature simply means that nature is linked to itself, for [we] are a part of nature.” Unless we struggle for a complete transformation of our society-nature interaction, where production is organised in an ecologically balanced way, the rift between nature and humanity will worsen with devastating consequences for human health, environmental destruction, climate disruption, and irretrievable biodiversity loss.

Capitalism & Patriarchy

Capitalism emerged from a patriarchal feudal society in which male private property inheritance demanded women’s bodies and lives were subordinated to the needs of the family. All kinds of sexist ideas supported women’s supposed inferiority to men, though the forms of oppression women experienced was of course uneven across class and racial lines. Peasant women certainly weren’t forced to learn multiple languages and the basics of etiquette to attract a husband. They worked in the fields and in the home. But they were nonetheless affected by the ideas and culture that emanated from the top of society because as Marx explains,

the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas… The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships, the dominant material relationships grasped as ideas…

Patriarchal norms and behaviors, and crucially the laws that enshrined men’s right to own property (including the women of their family), meant that men would become the first capitalists, not women. While rich women were confined to stuffy drawing rooms, crocheting and waiting for the day they would marry and ensure property inheritance continued along the male line, working class women and peasant women, who had no property, laboured as mothers, carers, and domestic servants, regardless of how much they had to work outside the home to survive. Today this continuation of social reproductive labour by women means that even though in many countries they’ve gained political and civil rights–through persistent struggle by countless women as well as LGBTQ+ people and men–the ability of working class and poor women to exercise these rights continues to be restricted. It is hampered by both capitalism’s dependence on the free labour they perform in the home, the undervalued care work and often precarious, part-time work they do in the formal economy, and the sexist ideas that persist and ensure the gendered division of labour is reproduced year after year, generation after generation.

Ecosocialist feminism

Indian Women DancingWhile ecofeminists rightly point out the subordination and domination of women and nature as having a common cause, Marxist ecofeminists (or what I would call ecosocialist feminists) disagree that women’s connection to nature is rooted in their reproductive biology. The essentialism of some strands of ecofeminism leads us down a path of biological determinism that so much of second-wave feminism was fighting to destroy, and we are still struggling against.(7) We also need to reckon with the revolution in the gender/sex binary demanded by trans, intersex, and gender non-conforming people who do not and will not fit into the simple male/female categories and all the cultural baggage that goes with it.

While we recognise the unique knowledge women have in care work, for families and for nature, we don’t accept that it’s inherently female or feminine, as some ecofeminism suggests. Cleaning the house, cooking meals, raising children, farming to feed your family, or gathering the daily water is not “women’s work”, but rather the needs of society forced onto their backs. “Saving the planet” is not inherently women’s work or responsibility either. We want to end the gender division in and outside the home and we demand this work is organised amongst the wider community, for example through free public childcare, community laundromats and canteens. This would have the effect of freeing women from this work now, but would also opens the door to a society in which the community is responsible for organising social reproductive work and sexist ideas about “women’s” vs. “men’s work” can begin to wither away. Women will then be free to choose what work they want to engage in, including the farming, environmental/ecological work so many already perform, enriching all of society by their contributions.

In contrast to “essentialist” ecofeminism, ecosocialist feminism sees women’s “connection” to nature and our environment as socially constructed and reinforced for material reasons. “[W]omen are not ‘one’ with nature…[we’ve] been ‘thrown into an alliance” with it.(8)

Capitalism treats nature and women’s social reproductive labour as ‘free gifts’, completely outside the formal economy (and therefore without value) and yet absolutely central to its ability to generate profits. For example, the value of an old-growth forest is not accounted for when the trees are felled and the wood used to make furniture. Under capitalism, the value of a commodity (whether it’s a shirt or a house) is based on the average amount of labour power used to make it, including the work that went into acquiring the materials, but not the “value” of the raw materials in themselves. It’s the same for domestic labour. Labour in the home – the cooking, cleaning, and shopping – ensures workers are fit and able to labour in the workplace day after day;and the labour required in birthing and caring for children ensures a new generation of workers is prepared to enter the workplace and create wealth for the capitalists. This is all done primarily by women and for free as far as capitalism is concerned. These ‘free gifts’–from nature and women–are ‘expropriated’ by capitalism. They are taken and consumed in the process of capital accumulation without compensation, cheapening the cost of production and externalizing the real costs onto the rest of society.(9)

Woman in NatureFor Marxist ecofeminists, the domination of men over women in society and nature at large is therefore not a result of patriarchal ideas alone. Their continuation and utilisation by capitalism maintains divisions between women and men (alongside black/white, straight/LGBTQ, cis/non-binary) workers and poor people to ensure profits continue and their rotten class system endures.

Most importantly, ecosocialist feminists underscore the crucial difference between working class or peasant women and women who make it to the top echelons of power. Ecofeminism can sometimes “over-romanticiz[e] women and women’s history…” and “[assert] a ‘totalizing’ image of a universalized ‘woman’,… ignoring women’s differences”.(10) While all women experience sexism, the needs and demands of “women”, even working-class and peasant women, are not uniform. Not all working-class women were forced into the role of housewife. As black revolutionary socialist Claudia Jones explained in her essay ‘An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Woman!’, capitalism’s structural racism meant that black women in the 1940s were often the main breadwinner in the family and had to work long hours, usually cleaning or childminding for white families, before they came home to labour for their own.(11)

We also need to keep in mind that the call for more women’s voices is all too easily met within capitalism with the Josepha Madigans, Angela Merkels and Ursula Von Der Leyens of the world. The new Biden administration in the U.S. is the most recent case in point with the first black and Asian vice president and the first indigenous woman to lead the Department of Interior.

The rise of the new women’s movement alongside a growing climate justice movement gives impetus to ecofeminist ideas, which is overall positive (despite the essentialist arguments, which must be strongly countered). Yet, as long as private property rights are upheld for corporations to do basically whatever they want to the forests, land, and water with impunity and as long as states act in their interests against ours, whether it’s by the hands of men or women, nature will continue to be destroyed, the climate disrupted, and women will disproportionately suffer (with poor, black and brown and marginalised women suffering the worst). We must go much further and demand an ecofeminism that is unflinchingly anti-capitalist and socialist and move towards an ecosocialist feminism that sees our labour as the beginning of the way out. Under patriarchal and racial(13) capitalism, working women and peasants labour in and outside the home. This dual role gives them an insight into the unsustainability and destructive character of capitalism. It’s why so many movements for radical change are led by women, despite the extra barriers in our way. But it is in our labour in the workplaces and where we produce for capital that we have the most power to fight and win.

Like fuel to the engine, profit is what powers capitalism, and all profit comes from our labour in the workplace. Whether we’re cleaning the floors, staffing the till, or operating machinery in a production line, our labour is what keeps the capitalist system going. If we decide to take collective action, to slow down our work or even go on strike, for an hour, a day or indefinitely, it would bring businesses, cities, and even whole countries to a grinding halt. This means workers, which comprise the exploited and oppressed majority, actually have tremendous potential power when we are organised.

Women workers alongside the men in their workplaces have used their power to fight back against the sexism they experience–as McDonald’s workers did–and to go after big oil–as teachers in West Virginia did. When the INMO went on strike in 2019 they made clear that their demands for pay and retention directly impacted the inadequate healthcare we all receive, and while they didn’t win everything they demanded, they won more than the government was originally offering. We need to build on these examples and countless others from history, strengthen our ties in workplaces as well as the community and get organised to challenge patriarchal capitalism wherever it attacks life, in society and our environment.

Notes:

  1. Ledda, Rachel, 2018. Women’s presence in contemporary Italy’s environmental movements, with a case study on the Mamme No Inceneritore committee, Genre et environnement.
  2. Mellor, M. (1996) ‘The Politics of Women and Nature: Affinity, Contingency or Material Relation?’, Journal of Political Ideologies, vol. 1, no. 2.
  3. Ibid
  4. Mies, M. and Shiva, V., 2014, Women’s Indigenous Knowledge and Biodiversity Conservation” from Ecofeminism, Zed Books, New York.
  5. Mellor, M. (1996) ‘The Politics of Women and Nature: Affinity, Contingency or Material Relation?’, Journal of Political Ideologies, vol. 1, no. 2.
  6. See Marx’s Ecology (2000) by John Bellamy Foster and Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism (2018) by Kohei Saito.
  7. Marx, Karl, 1845-6, The German Ideology, Part I: Feuerbach. Opposition of the Materialist and Idealist Outlook B. The Illusion of the Epoch.
  8. That is, reproductive ability should determine (and in many cases, limit) your role in the home and in the workplace to those deemed “women’s” work – childminding, cooking, cleaning, teaching, nursing, and so on.
  9. Mellor, M. (1996) ‘The Politics of Women and Nature: Affinity, Contingency or Material Relation?’, Journal of Political Ideologies, vol. 1, no. 2.
  10. See monthlyreview.org
  11. Mellor, M. (1996) ‘The Politics of Women and Nature: Affinity, Contingency or Material Relation?’, Journal of Political Ideologies, vol. 1, no. 2.
  12. See Spear, Jess, ‘Lesser-spotted comrades: Claudia Jones’, Rupture, Autumn 2020.
  13. ‘Racial’ capitalism denotes the history of capitalism’s development was a history of brutal chattel slavery, the genocide of indigenous peoples, and immense destruction of the natural world. “Capital” Marx wrote in Capital Volume 1, “[came] dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt”.
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