Oldal 38 [38]
36 — JUDIT FARKAS
(1993: 370, cited in Hubbell — Ryan 2022: 120). Not only are people capable of
behaving in this way; it is also their moral obligation. Since the protection of
nature is at heart a social problem, it reguires social actions, i.e., human intervention:
we have to serve natural evolution so as to preserve diversity and complexity. The
decentralized society he envisioned is highly practical on the one hand, applying
renewable energy sources, bioagricultural methods and measures to reduce
pollution." On the other hand, it tackles social relations and political structures
which underlie the inequalities hindering the flourishing of people and nature. In
his vision, the new social order involves domination over nature and through it
the elimination of the ecological crisis (Bookchin 1982; 1993).
The term ecofeminism was first used by the French writer, feminist and
environmentalist Francoise d’Eaubonne (1920-2005) in her philosophical work
Le Féminisme ou la Morte, written in 1974. She laid the foundations of ecofeminism
with a statement which stresses the special relationship between women and nature
and which points at toxic masculinity as the root of all the harm done to nature.
The idea that women have an inherent connection with nature, and, therefore,
the fight for nature is their job inspired several researchers at that time, including
Sherry Ortner (1972) and Carolyn Merchant (1980), to name the two best-known
authors. A year after the publication of D’Eaubonne’s book, Rosemary Radford
Ruether’s collection of essays titled New Woman, New Earth appeared in 1975 as
one of the first publications of ecofeminist thought (Ruether 1975; Hubbell — Ryan
2022: 114).
Ecofeminism has several strands and rallies diverse — converging or competing
— philosophical positions, so its basic tenets are hard to summarize. “Ecofeminist
critique declares that climate change, its ecological consequences, as well as the
oppression of women and the minorities, the exploitation of nature beyond
regeneration have acommon root. To understand the situation, it is important to
explore the social-economic logics which may help a more profound comprehension
of the situation” (Kiss 2020).
Early ecofeminism was strongly influenced by the argument that there exists a
special interrelation between women and nature, a sort of female sensibility that
forms the basis for women’s effective role in the protection of the natural
environment. However, this “female culture” rooted in the essence of womanhood
was discarded by other trends (see Plumwood 1993). Ecofeminist thinkers reject
the Western dualist worldview and its application to the genders (such as nature
— woman vs. culture — man, emotion — woman vs. reason — man, affectivity —
woman vs. cognition — man, body — woman vs. mind — man, etc.), and claim that
the patriarchy which governs the contemporary world is an oppressive ideology
that legitimizes oppression by means of this dualism. Ecofeminism is also a critique
of capitalism: in this concept of dualisms, nature and all beings associated with it
are degraded and used as exploitable resources. Capitalist logic approaches natural
Some of his concrete proposals include: decentralizing cities; forming communities that respond
sensitively to the specificities of their natural environment; ecotechnology, designing multifunctional
industrial equipment; making tools that serve several generations; the primacy of manual work;
spending leisure-time usefully; shared property belonging not to the producer but to the community;
ecological society consisting of grassroots organizations and communities. Bookchin’s idea of the
ecological society has been elaborated in fiction — see, for instance, Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia
(1975).