In her essay, clinical psychologist and environmental activist Hande Aydın defines the relationship between feminist women’s and environmental movements. She argues that gender equality and environmental issues should be included in society’s economic and political agenda.
Hande Aydın
The development of ecological feminism or ecofeminism began in the 1960s when feminist women’s and environmental movements came together due to their common subjects both in theory and practice. Historically, the main factor that brought these two movements together has been the exploitation of women and the environment by the male dominated system. Both movements were struggling for existence. Ecofeminism, which has made significant contributions to the awareness of the destruction of natural resources, the basis of our life, also play a vital role in the struggle against global climate change.
“I” and the “one that is not me”
Similar mental processes support the control mechanism of the male-dominated culture over nature and women. Understanding the world, in such processes, always begins with the separation of the “I” and the “one that is not me”. In other words, a person can only know itself and what it can do in the world if it can know the one that it is not. In the early ages of humanity, in a time when survival was hanging by a thread, it was necessary for the “I” to always be on the alert against the “other”. Therefore, we can trace the word “othering” to its use today, where it denotes the attitude of “marking the other as separate and hence not a human being like us.”
“Othering” has also shaped relations between the genders. “The woman” has been seen as becoming disadvantaged while protecting herself and her baby during the birth process and having no ownership over the process of getting pregnant. In contrast, “physical” power is central in the concept of “man”, which is seen to conflict with the concept of “woman,” which instead possesses such adjectives as “other”, “powerless”, “weak” and “slave”. Gradually, the scope of these adjectives has been expanded and defined as “woman”, acting “emotionally” against the “rationality” of men, being “unpredictable,” or being an “other.”
The interests of the male-dominated world
Likewise, in parallel with the categories of man-woman, dual categories such as master-slave, mind-nature and mind-feeling have been created. Within these dualities, one category is always understood to be more important than the other, in a way that reflects the interests of the male dominated world. While such categories of significance and insignificance benefited the master or the male sovereign, they caused women and nature to be seen as a tool: according to this understanding, the woman is a tool for the survival of family life, and nature is a tool for the technological development and economic welfare of the masters (of society). From this point of view, the identification of woman with nature is not about her fertility, being a caregiver, or an aesthetic expression of her body, it is rather because she is subject to a similar exploitation system with nature.
Belvederes, wild groves
Principally in the 17th century, with the advances in physics, chemistry and mathematics, the control and exploitation of the male-dominated world over nature increased. This was followed by the idea that the more humankind made use of nature, the more profitable it will be. This was because nature was seen as perpetually regenerating itself. This dominance of the male-dominated world against nature was not limited to industrial matters such as obtaining energy from natural resources. In Europe, where these developments were taking place, even in the areas such as parks and gardens, man has claimed to see a reflection of the mind and has arranged it in a way that there is not a single bush or flower bed that is not limited or controlled by humans. In addition to these belvederes, groves and bushes, which maintain their wildness, were considered as contradictions that should be controlled.
Agriculture and water policies
The manifestation of a similar understanding in Turkey has been the imitation of modernization. With an enthusiasm for uncontrolled industrialization, concessions were made on education, the path for migrating to the city from most of the village and town households was set, and an uncontrolled urbanization and concretization (betonlaşma) was accepted. According to the data of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, more than half of the agricultural production in most of the developing countries such as Turkey is acquired by women’s labour. However, agricultural and water policies are managed by the neoliberal capitalist market system, which defends the interests of companies. This system only observes market conditions and ignores social welfare. Women living in areas that have become agriculturally inactive have to migrate with their families and suddenly find themselves as a cheap labour force and as the only or the most important source of income for the family. In addition to revitalizing the domestic economy, women are expected to go directly home, unlike their brothers or husbands, to do housework after work. They are excluded from the public sphere because they leave behind their lives in their villages or towns which include parameters like neighbourhood solidarity or socialising day and night by gathering in chairs in front of the door. The risk of women being subjected to psychological and physical violence also increases. In big city life, women are deprived, unsupported and lack the social support networks they are used to. In regions where Hydroelectric Power Plants are being built, the villagers living in detached houses were told that they must leave their houses within a period of a day or a week and move to 50 square meters of concrete houses. These changes primarily affect the lives of women who are more engaged with domestic labour. Yet, humans need psychological and social resources to survive, even if all its biological needs are met.
Solastalgia – Consolation pain
In recent years, a diagnosis has been proposed by Australian mental health professionals to describe mental health problems that arise due to environmental destruction in the natural world in general, particularly for those living in the areas of destruction. Thus, the definition of Solastalgia has begun to be accepted as one of the mental health disorders. Solastalgia is derived from the Latin term sōlācium (consolation) and the Greek words -algia (pain). It is a concept that describes a form of physical or existential stress caused by environmental changes, especially due to environmental destructions. Solastalgia can occur in the context of destructive mining methods, droughts, extinction of species, and climate change. As a result, feminist women’s movements and environmental movements have come together on a common ground against the similar exploitation and destruction system applied to nature and women. The common denominator of both movements is the concern that in the neoliberal economic system, natural resources are not considered to be exhaustible and that even if they are not exhausted, damage to natural life will be a boomerang that will return to humankind as diseases, famine and natural disasters. The reports of the United Nations indicate that women and children are the ones who suffer the most from migrations during and after wars, economic and social crises and natural disasters. It is a known fact that those who tend to harm nature, plants and animals display a similar aggressive attitude towards humans. For this reason, it is necessary to include both gender equality and environmental issues together in the economic and political agenda of the society as the same and a single issue. Because both gender equality and environmental issues are public health issues.
This article was published as part of “the Future You Will Leave Me” (Bana Bırakacağınız Gelecek) – Girls and the Climate Crisis by the Istanbul Women’s Museum.