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Recommendations for revising the article 'Queer ecology'

[edit]

Written revisions in big bold font

  • Add an image (Rainbow over forest in Alaska) for interest. (Put at beginning of WikiArticle or next to 'overview' section?)
  • Add template 'LGBT sidebar' (LGBT topics: Academic fields and discourse).
Rainbows have been reclaimed by the LGBTQ+ community as a symbol of pride.
  • Written section on Jonathan Gray writings about 'OUT for Sustainability' organization in 'Heterosexism and the environment'. [1]
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Copied content from Queer ecology: see that page's history for attribution.

(Not my original content unless in bold font below.)

Heterosexism and the environment

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Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way' Foundation is a social advocacy group that has promoted youth mental health [1] and raised money for LGBTQIA+ youth.[https://www.elitedaily.com/p/starbucks-2019-pride-partnership-with-the-born-this-way-foundation-is-everything-17947070

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Queer ecology recognizes that people often associate heterosexuality with the idea of “natural,” in contrast to, for example, homosexuality, which people associate with “unnatural.” These expectations of sexuality and nature often influence scientific studies of non-human wildlife.[6] The natural world often defies the heteronormative notions held by scientists, helping humans to redefine our cultural understanding of what is “natural” and also how we “queer” environmental spaces.[7] For example, in “The Feminist Plant: Changing Relations with the Water Lily”, Prudence Gibson and Monica Gagliano explain how the water lily defies heterosexist notions. They argue that because the water lily is so much more than its reputation as a “pure” or “feminine” plant, we need to reevaluate our understandings of plants and acknowledge the connection between plant biology and models for cultural practice through a feminist lens.[8]

Jonathan Gray talks about the need for LGBTQ+ identifying environmentalism groups such as OUT for Sustainability. Heteronormative notions falsely assert that the environment is "too natural" and LGBTQ+ people are "unnatural".[9] False dualisms of treating humanity as if they can't be a part of nature[10] have already been reclaimed in the common LGBTQ+ slogan "born this way"; Therefore it makes sense for the LGBTQ+ community to be involved in environmental advocacy.[11].

Queer ecology and human society

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Queer ecology is also relevant when considering human geography. For example, Catriona Sandilands considers lesbian separatist communities in Oregon as a specific manifestation of queer ecology.[12] Marginalized communities, according to Sandilands, create new cultures of nature against dominant ecological relations. Environmental issues are closely linked to social relations that include sexuality, and so a strong alliance exists between queer politics and environmental politics. “Queer geography” calls attention to the spatial organization of sexuality, which implicates issues of access to natural spaces, and the sexualization of these spaces. This implies that unique ecological relationships arise from these sexuality-based experiences. Furthermore, queer ecology disrupts the association of nature with sexuality. Matthew Gandy proposes that urban parks, for example, are heteronormative because they reflect hierarchies of property and ownership.[13] “Queer,” in the case of urban nature, refers to spatial difference and marginalization, beyond sexuality.

Queer ecology is also important within individual households. As a space influenced by society, the home is often an ecology that perpetuates heteronormativity.[14] Will McKeithen examines queer ecology in the home by considering the implications of the label “crazy cat lady.”[14] Because the “crazy cat lady” often defies societal heterosexist expectations for the home, as she, instead of having a romantic, male, human partner, treats animals as legitimate companions.[14] This rejection of heteropatriarchal norms and acceptance of multispecies intimacy makes the home into a queer ecology.[14]

Queer ecology also works its way into feminist economics, which are centered at childcare and reproduction.[15] Anti-capitalist feminists use queer ecology to disentangle the gender binary, including the ties between the female body’s reproductive potential and the responsibility of social reproduction and childcare.[15] Historically, queer women rebelled against societal expectations of reproduction being "the natural purpose of women's bodies" by acting in ways that society thought of as "unnatural".[2] Today, we see critiques of queer women being outcasted from maternity such as in Okparanta's book of short stories, 'Happiness, Like Water'.[16]

Chinelo Okparanta write's a short story called 'America' which shows how societal expectations vary between two different countries as it relates to LGBTQ+ maternity. The story shows how fictional character Nnenna's intersectional identities of being a queer, lesbian, and Black Nigerian immigrant in the U.S. combine to create a different experience. Her Nigerian mother doesn't treat her daughter's lesbian identity as "sinful" like the discrimination tied to religion in the U.S., but Nnenna still faces discrimination. Her mother treats her as if she's confused, saying "[a] woman and a woman cannot bear children". Nnenna's mother questions if her lesbian partner is stopping her from finding a husband. Her father encourages her and her partner to immigrate to the U.S., deciding it will be a safe place with "[n]o husband, no children". Once Nnenna is in the U.S. studying environmental engineering, she reflects on issues such as Black children in the U.S. being exposed to negative environmental impacts such as oil spills in community rivers.[17]

Reimagining scientific perspectives

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In disciplines of the natural sciences like evolutionary biology and ecology, queer ecology allows scholars to reimagine cultural binaries that exist between “natural and unnatural” and “living and non-living.”[18]

Timothy Morton proposes that biology and ecology deconstruct notions of authenticity.[19] Specifically, he proposes that life exists as a “mesh of interrelations” that blurs traditional scientific boundaries, like species, living and nonliving, human and nonhuman, and even between an organism and its environment. Queer ecology, according to Morton, emphasizes a perspective on life that transcends dualisms and distinctive boundaries, instead recognizing that unique relationships exist between life forms at different scales. Queer ecology nuances traditional evolutionary perspectives on sexuality, regarding heterosexuality as impractical at many scales and as a “late” evolutionary development.

Other scholars challenge the contrast that exists between “human” and “non-human” classifications, proposing that the idea of “fluidity” from queer theory should also extend to the relationship between humans and the environment.[20]

Darwin's theory of sexual selection has received criticism when cross-examined with new data. Darwin’s idea that males compete for females in bird species has been disproven by data showing rare surplus of males causes aggressive male competition for females.[21] Homophobic religious groups justify their anti-LGBTQ+ bias using Darwinian theories that homosexuality will lead to human extinction.[22] Roughgarden argues that Darwin’s theory of sexual selection is false, claiming that “diversity reveals the evolutionary stability and biological importance of expressions of gender and sexuality that go far beyond the traditional male/female binary.”[23]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Gray, Jonathan M. (2017-09-01). "Heteronormativity without Nature: Toward a Queer Ecology". QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking. 4 (2): 137–142. ISSN 2327-1590.
  2. ^ a b Alaimo, Stacy (2000). Undomesticated Ground: Recasting Nature as Feminist Space. Cornell University Press. pp. 108–130. doi:10.7591/j.ctvtv93cc.10. ISBN 978-0-8014-8643-2.
  3. ^ Chaskes, Daniel (2019-06-01). "Decolonizing the Immigration Narrative: A Queer Ecology in Chinelo Okparanta's "America"". MELUS. 44 (2): 115–131. doi:10.1093/melus/mlz011. ISSN 0163-755X.
  4. ^ Huxley, Julian S. (1938-09). "Darwin's Theory of Sexual Selection and the Data Subsumed by it, in the Light of Recent Research". The American Naturalist. 72 (742): 416–433. doi:10.1086/280795. ISSN 0003-0147. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ Rohy, V. (2012-01-01). "On Homosexual Reproduction". differences. 23 (1): 101–130. doi:10.1215/10407391-1533538. ISSN 1040-7391.
  6. ^ Seymour, Nicole., author. (2013-05-15). Strange natures : futurity, empathy, and the queer ecological imagination. ISBN 9780252094873. OCLC 1004347447. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Gaard (2011). "Green, Pink, and Lavender: Banishing Ecophobia through Queer Ecologies, Review of Queer Ecologies: Sex, Nature, Politics, Desire, Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands and Bruce Erickson, eds". Ethics and the Environment. 16 (2): 115. doi:10.2979/ethicsenviro.16.2.115. ISSN 1085-6633. S2CID 141843845.
  8. ^ Prudence Gibson; Monica Gagliano (2017). "The Feminist Plant: Changing Relations with the Water Lily". Ethics and the Environment. 22 (2): 125. doi:10.2979/ethicsenviro.22.2.06. ISSN 1085-6633. S2CID 148965893.
  9. ^ Gray, Jonathan M. (2017-09-01). "Heteronormativity without Nature: Toward a Queer Ecology". QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking. 4 (2): 137–142. ISSN 2327-1590.
  10. ^ "Orion Magazine | How to Queer Ecology: One Goose at a Time". Orion Magazine. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
  11. ^ Gray, Jonathan M. (2017-09-01). "Heteronormativity without Nature: Toward a Queer Ecology". QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking. 4 (2): 137–142. ISSN 2327-1590.
  12. ^ Sandilands, Catriona (2002). "Lesbian Separatist Communities and the Experience of Nature : Toward a Queer Ecology". Organization & Environment. 15 (2): 131–163. doi:10.1177/10826602015002002. S2CID 58915674.
  13. ^ Gandy, Matthew (2012). "Queer Ecology: Nature, Sexuality, and Heterotopic Alliances". Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. 30 (4): 727–747. doi:10.1068/d10511.
  14. ^ a b c d McKeithen, Will (2017). "Queer Ecologies of Home: Heteronormativity, Speciesism, and the Strange Intimacies of Crazy Cat Ladies". Gender, Place & Culture. 24 (1): 122–134. doi:10.1080/0966369X.2016.1276888. S2CID 151767469.
  15. ^ a b Bauhardt, Christine. Ed. Stacy Alaimo . Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks, Farmington Hills, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, 2017.
  16. ^ Chaskes, Daniel (2019-06-01). "Decolonizing the Immigration Narrative: A Queer Ecology in Chinelo Okparanta's "America"". MELUS. 44 (2): 115–131. doi:10.1093/melus/mlz011. ISSN 0163-755X.
  17. ^ Chaskes, Daniel (2019-06-01). "Decolonizing the Immigration Narrative: A Queer Ecology in Chinelo Okparanta's "America"". MELUS. 44 (2): 115–131. doi:10.1093/melus/mlz011. ISSN 0163-755X.
  18. ^ DUNBAR, R (June 2004). "Is sexual selection dead?Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity Gender and Sexuality in Nature and People by Joan Roughgarden. University of California Press, 2004. US$dollar;27.50/E18.98 hbk (427 pages) ISBN 0 520 24073 1". Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 19 (6): 289–290. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2004.03.023. ISSN 0169-5347.
  19. ^ Morton, Timothy (March 2010). "Guest Column: Queer Ecology". PMLA. 125 (2): 273–282. doi:10.1632/pmla.2010.125.2.273. ISSN 0030-8129. S2CID 55848011.
  20. ^ Giffney, Noreen 1975- HerausgeberIn. Hird, Myra J. Prof. HerausgeberIn. Queering the non/human. ISBN 9781138247789. OCLC 992744467.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  21. ^ Huxley, Julian S. (1938-09-01). "Darwin's Theory of Sexual Selection and the Data Subsumed by it, in the Light of Recent Research". The American Naturalist. 72 (742): 416–433. doi:10.1086/280795. ISSN 0003-0147. S2CID 84100158.
  22. ^ Rohy, V. (2012-01-01). "On Homosexual Reproduction". Differences. 23 (1): 101–130. doi:10.1215/10407391-1533538. ISSN 1040-7391.
  23. ^ Roughgarden, Joan (2013-09-14). Evolution's rainbow : diversity, gender, and sexuality in nature and people. ISBN 9780520280458. OCLC 900440849.
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