It was a white western man, one of the objects of criticism in this book, that actually brought me to read this book.
I only spoke to him once, no longer than 15 minutes, but what an impact those few minutes had!
Ecofeminism by Vandana Shiva and Maria Mies
Doing home office since the office closed down when the state of emergency had been declared here in Portugal is giving me some more time to do more useful things. I have been reading a lot, editing loads and started a course of spiritual fitness (more on that in a future post).
One of the books on my reading list for a long time was ecofeminism and it's a life changer for sure!!
To summarize in the shortest way possible: ecofeminism explains how an idea of old days: that man is not part of nature and that nature should be used and improved for man's comfort and advancement, has created a colonialist (capitalist) world, still very alive to this present day. It then links the exploitation of the earth and indiginous people to the exploitation of women. Even linking the witch hunts to this (something I still wish to investigate further).
The book takes you on a journey through various important topics, for example:
The developing nations are not poor because they were simply unlucky or lacked resources or skills. They are poor because we are 'rich' and they have to stay poor (dependent on our development plans) so that we can stay 'rich'.
Women have been made to believe that we are incapable even of putting children on the world on our own. It's just another trick of capitalism to put us down and earn some money out of us.
I will leave you with these ideas and hope to have awakened your curiosity so you can start exploring on your own.
Ecofeminism by Vandana Shiva and Maria Mies
