What an extraordinary woman. Being of a philosophical bent I particularly liked the broadening of the colonial project to include the exploitation of women and the working class. The precursor of all this seems to me to be the existence of a ruling class which has, perhaps opportunistically, developed increasingly controlling methods to both retain and increase power and wealth.
The hierarchy that flows from this is a particularly pernicious tool as referenced in the section about employers having power over workers within which white workers had power over black workers and both had power over women. Hierarchy dominates so much that the only way to survive is to accept the premise and fight for your own platform to control from. A real divide and conquer strategy.
This led me to thinks more widely about the eco part of ecofeminism and how important it is that growth in all its forms has to be creative and that creation is an act of faith - we have intentionality but leave the outcome to the forces of nature and the truly universal pulse of life. In turn, it leads me to think that the reason the world is in crisis is because of the stifling rigidity that humans - and, yes, men in particular - have imposed on this fundamentally creative planet that needs the freedom to breathe and flex and for us to rise and fall with the ins and outs of its respiration.
Thanks Rachel. Quite a few new names dropped to research. I watched the video on Youtube and was able to find most of them with the exception to the French scholar mentioned (possibly Julie Gorecki?). I did find Francoise d’Eaubonne, who introduced the term ecofeminism in her 1974 book, Feminism or Death. The transcript on Youtube is horrible, especially with names. Hoping you can fill in the gaps.
I just read an interesting article by one of the female anthropologists that Federici mentions; Gül Deniz Salalı “To Raise Children, We Must First Raise Parents” https://www.sapiens.org/biology/to-raise-children-we-must-first-raise-parents/ It seems to me that what we need most is a feminist movement that goes back to the future by examining the handful of human societies that still live in a semi-autonomous, non-hierarchical manner, e.g. the Ba Yaka in the Congo River basin, The Kogi in Columbia, Navdanya movement in India, perhaps the Zapatistas in Mexico and Rojava in Syria, among others. The male-supremacy hierarchy has been masterful in co-opting modernist feminism by focusing on equality between the sexes. IMO, history has shown that being equal to men is an extremely low – and toxic – bar. Women deserve much better than participating as a partner in the patriarchy by being a bigger “dick” than most men. We all do.
P.S. The catch 22 of modernism is that parents were first children.
Thanks for this Rachel. It was an interesting conversation and very valuable to hear Federici speaking in person. I was a little surprised when you asked the question ‘where are the big feminist texts’ of the last decade that are continuing this materialist/embodied scholarship? as from my perspective there is no shortage of really good material in this genre. However, since we only know what we know, here are some quick recommendations, and people who might be amazing guests too. The Marxist feminist Nancy Fraser’s (2022) Cannibal Capitalism is a great recent and powerful take-down of the ways in which capitalism is consuming our politics, our capacity for care, the biosphere and our bodies. Jane Caputi’s (2020) Call your Mutha is one I’ve mentioned here before and a thoroughly embodied revival of earth(l)y radical feminism for the twenty-first century, Leanne Betasamoke Simpson’s (2017) As We Have Always Done is a good example of an indigenous bodily recipe for radical resistance against extractive capitalism. I should then add that within philosophy there is an incredibly exciting and dynamic feminist materialist genre that emerged during the last decade-and-a-half. Coming under the heading of the new materialisms and materialist feminisms you’ll encounter the works of Jane Bennett’s vibrant materialism (see her Vibrant Matter, my favourite book of 2010), Karen Barad’s agential realism, Stacy Alaimo’s work on trans-corporeality (literally how we are criss-crossed by and enmeshed in diverse materialities), Donna Haraway’s ongoing superlative work, although most recently on the capitalocene, plantationocene and chthulhucene. Anyway, I suspect you know some of these women, but reconceiving the human relationship with material flows in a more processual, embodied and dynamic manner is very much a lively and productive area of feminist scholarship at the moment. Bennett, Barad, Alaimo or Haraway would all be amazing guests.
I should probably do a shout out for all the feminist pagans, wiccans and other spiritual feminists who have been weaving spirituality, embodiment and matter/mater/mother for decades too. My own publication Goddess as Nature taps into a lot of this, especially around the female generativity and natality of nature. An ecofeminist activist and pagan/witch like Starhawk would be an amazing guest to weave many of these themes and threads together with.
Being someone who breaths air, drinks water, wants to be treated with dignity and wants to have more equality, cares about ecology, nature and future generations ….. Thank you both!
What an extraordinary woman. Being of a philosophical bent I particularly liked the broadening of the colonial project to include the exploitation of women and the working class. The precursor of all this seems to me to be the existence of a ruling class which has, perhaps opportunistically, developed increasingly controlling methods to both retain and increase power and wealth.
The hierarchy that flows from this is a particularly pernicious tool as referenced in the section about employers having power over workers within which white workers had power over black workers and both had power over women. Hierarchy dominates so much that the only way to survive is to accept the premise and fight for your own platform to control from. A real divide and conquer strategy.
This led me to thinks more widely about the eco part of ecofeminism and how important it is that growth in all its forms has to be creative and that creation is an act of faith - we have intentionality but leave the outcome to the forces of nature and the truly universal pulse of life. In turn, it leads me to think that the reason the world is in crisis is because of the stifling rigidity that humans - and, yes, men in particular - have imposed on this fundamentally creative planet that needs the freedom to breathe and flex and for us to rise and fall with the ins and outs of its respiration.
Thanks Rachel. Quite a few new names dropped to research. I watched the video on Youtube and was able to find most of them with the exception to the French scholar mentioned (possibly Julie Gorecki?). I did find Francoise d’Eaubonne, who introduced the term ecofeminism in her 1974 book, Feminism or Death. The transcript on Youtube is horrible, especially with names. Hoping you can fill in the gaps.
I just read an interesting article by one of the female anthropologists that Federici mentions; Gül Deniz Salalı “To Raise Children, We Must First Raise Parents” https://www.sapiens.org/biology/to-raise-children-we-must-first-raise-parents/ It seems to me that what we need most is a feminist movement that goes back to the future by examining the handful of human societies that still live in a semi-autonomous, non-hierarchical manner, e.g. the Ba Yaka in the Congo River basin, The Kogi in Columbia, Navdanya movement in India, perhaps the Zapatistas in Mexico and Rojava in Syria, among others. The male-supremacy hierarchy has been masterful in co-opting modernist feminism by focusing on equality between the sexes. IMO, history has shown that being equal to men is an extremely low – and toxic – bar. Women deserve much better than participating as a partner in the patriarchy by being a bigger “dick” than most men. We all do.
P.S. The catch 22 of modernism is that parents were first children.
Thanks for this Rachel. It was an interesting conversation and very valuable to hear Federici speaking in person. I was a little surprised when you asked the question ‘where are the big feminist texts’ of the last decade that are continuing this materialist/embodied scholarship? as from my perspective there is no shortage of really good material in this genre. However, since we only know what we know, here are some quick recommendations, and people who might be amazing guests too. The Marxist feminist Nancy Fraser’s (2022) Cannibal Capitalism is a great recent and powerful take-down of the ways in which capitalism is consuming our politics, our capacity for care, the biosphere and our bodies. Jane Caputi’s (2020) Call your Mutha is one I’ve mentioned here before and a thoroughly embodied revival of earth(l)y radical feminism for the twenty-first century, Leanne Betasamoke Simpson’s (2017) As We Have Always Done is a good example of an indigenous bodily recipe for radical resistance against extractive capitalism. I should then add that within philosophy there is an incredibly exciting and dynamic feminist materialist genre that emerged during the last decade-and-a-half. Coming under the heading of the new materialisms and materialist feminisms you’ll encounter the works of Jane Bennett’s vibrant materialism (see her Vibrant Matter, my favourite book of 2010), Karen Barad’s agential realism, Stacy Alaimo’s work on trans-corporeality (literally how we are criss-crossed by and enmeshed in diverse materialities), Donna Haraway’s ongoing superlative work, although most recently on the capitalocene, plantationocene and chthulhucene. Anyway, I suspect you know some of these women, but reconceiving the human relationship with material flows in a more processual, embodied and dynamic manner is very much a lively and productive area of feminist scholarship at the moment. Bennett, Barad, Alaimo or Haraway would all be amazing guests.
I should probably do a shout out for all the feminist pagans, wiccans and other spiritual feminists who have been weaving spirituality, embodiment and matter/mater/mother for decades too. My own publication Goddess as Nature taps into a lot of this, especially around the female generativity and natality of nature. An ecofeminist activist and pagan/witch like Starhawk would be an amazing guest to weave many of these themes and threads together with.
Being someone who breaths air, drinks water, wants to be treated with dignity and wants to have more equality, cares about ecology, nature and future generations ….. Thank you both!