THE FEMININE PRINCIPLE: The Sense and Sustainability of It
by Marilyn Casselman © March 2009
for
‘Sense and Sustainability’: Green Approaches to Reading and Writing
Graduate Student Colloquium of the
Département d’études anglaises, Université de Montréal
13-14 March 2009
INTRODUCTION
Theme
In keeping with the purpose of this conference – which is to address the theme of nature and how the environmental crisis affects the English language – I shall speak to this, but in the reverse. Nature, in this presentation, is woman and Mother Earth; and the point I will make is how the feminine principle and the language of feminism can inform the environmental consciousness at the most basic level. Not surprising, this, as I have written a book, TALKING THE WALK, whose subtitle, The Grassroots Language of Feminism, refers to women’s expression at the mainstream, or everyday level. To my mind, things don’t get much more environmental than that.
Sustainability; Earth Summit
The concept of environment and sustainable development gained traction in 1992 at the Earth Summit – The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development – and at the preparatory conferences in New York which led up to the main event in Rio de Janiero. 172 governments participated, not including the United States – where George Herbert Walker Bush (or “41") was president at the time. Al Gore, then a Senator from Tennessee, did attend and thus began his identity as an environmental guru.
The conference resulted in a number of agreements, such as Agenda 21 calling for global action in the 21st century, and conventions and statements on climate change, biological diversity, forest principles and the like. Canadian Maurice Strong was Secretary General of the 1992 conference and of the 1972 UN Conference on Human Environment which launched the world environmental movement.
1972 was also around the time the feminist movement was gaining critical mass and I was a part of both of these phenomena – working on a newspaper for the Earth Summit in ‘92 and as a feminist activist in New York in the 70s. And for the record, the UN did not start the environmental movement. Scientist and ecologist Rachel Carson did with her book the Silent Spring, published in 1962.
Where I Stand
So we’re having a crisis! Let me acknowledge where I stand on this – which is here, there and just about everywhere else. There is no border in climate change. The cultures and identities and politics of here and there are impotent in its power. The problems in play are the same for everyone. That would apply to the 300 million there in the U.S.; 30 million here in Canada; and 110 million in Mexico. For where is a feminist or any other of we near-half-billion North Americans supposed to live in the face of global disaster? Is the ground on which all of us stand capable of sustaining human life?
This is a continent where we have poison air, polluted water and bizarre health syndromes and diseases popping up out of nowhere; we are losing the ability to produce food; our forests are infected. There are recurring patterns of devastating weather and drought and our icecap is melting. Our infrastructures are collapsing and we’re all in a twist about where to dump our interminable garbage, which Mother Earth never wanted in the first place. And we are surrounded by oceans whose vital signs are fading. They are becoming saturated with carbon dioxide; and plankton, which produces half the world’s oxygen, is on the decline. If the oceans die, we die. So there you have it – land, sea and air, all shot to hell. Whatever happened to Eden?
RESOURCE DEPLETION
All of the jargon about sustainability and ecological footprints and carbon offsets is just political blather to distract attention from the fact that the whole earth is in grave trouble – and we are running out of natural resources.
Living Planet Report
The Living Planet Report 2008, authored by the WWF, one of the worlds largest and most experienced independent conservation organizations, describes what this means. [Source: http://assets.wwf.ca/downloads/lpr_2008.pdf] It means that: [point]
• that humans are using 30% more resources than the earth can replenish each year
• populations and consumption keep growing faster than technology finds new ways of expanding what can be produced from the natural world
• when human demands on the planet’s capacity exceed what is available, we erode the health of the Earth’s living systems which loss threatens human well-being
• 50 countries are already experiencing “moderate to severe water stress on a year-round basis”
• global biodiversity has declined by nearly a third since 1970
• over the same period (38 years) the ecological footprint of the human population has nearly doubled
• and at that rate humans would need two planets to provide for their wants in the 2030s – which is only 20 plus years from now. This figure does not include the risk of a sudden shock or “feedback loop” such as an acceleration of climate change.
Evidence: 22 February 2009
Evidence of all of this abounds. On one day in the New York Times I noticed the following stories relating to resource depletion.
• French oil giant Total now developing natural gas in Yemen – meaning fossil fuel is running out
• Drought in California’s Central Valley, the country’s biggest agricultural engine – meaning loss of employment, market, food
• Depletion of oil in Gabon leads to developing national parks – meaning loss of natural habitat for wildlife
• Clinton in China talking about curbing greenhouse gases – meaning poison air and climate change
• Raising sheep in U.S. has dropped 60% in 15 years – meaning loss of agriculture
And there’s more: job loss; Japan’s economy continues to deteriorate after 10 years; propping up automobile makers and bankers; home owners losing houses they couldn’t afford in the first place. And that was just in my daily e-mail. I didn’t read the whole paper. And oh yes – we’re running out of money. They call it the economic crisis, but it’s the same crisis.
To the rescue
So who’s controlling here? The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum was held a few weeks ago in Davos, Switzerland and the theme was “Shaping the Post-Crisis World.” 170 business leaders attended, among them 5 woman delegates. And there were other women there, too – skiing wives and upscale usherettes to show the Big Machers to their seats. Ruth Sunderland, columnist of The Observer commented on this situation (1 February 2009).
"The idea that this can be achieved [she’s referring to “Shaping the Post-Crisis World”] while excluding half the population is breathtaking in its arrogance and shows that the male Davos elite remains mired in its own preening self-regard and complacency. They have wrecked the world economy, but seem oblivious to the idea that they may not be the best people to rebuild it."
Sunderland commented further:
“Women are the single biggest – and least acknowledged – force for economic growth on the planet. This is not a claim made by rampant feminists, but by the Economist, which suggests that over the past few decades women have contributed more to the expansion of the world economy than either new technology or the emerging markets of China and India."
But beware of the “force for economic growth” that Sunderland mentions – which in the here and now means bigger and better consumption. The planet’s 6.7 billion people are in a near-death experience and if we think the solution is more of anything... then we have indeed achieved equality. In delusion.
And speaking of Big Machers with rescue fantasies – the Pope has taken to making statements about sustainable development and as one Vatican analyst said, “his ministry could even culminate in a papal encyclical on the environment... [giving] a powerful signal to the world’s Catholics about the need for environmental awareness....” [Source: “Protect God’s Creation...” John Vidal, et al, The Guardian, 27 April 2007]
It’s ironic that popes and bishops are now claiming moral authority over the very force that has terrified them throughout history and still does – mother nature and the eternal feminine: woman. After all those centuries of storing up treasure in heaven, what a comedown it must be to have to pay attention to something as mundane as Mother Earth. After centuries of telling people how to die now they’re trying to tell us how to live. It should have been the other way around, Pope.
As an aside – there’s a weird undercurrent working here. The global power cabal – to which Davos types, popes, and all Big Machers belong – continues to pound on about the demographic “emergency” of Western women needing to have more babies and the need for creating immigration schemes so our countries will continue to “progress;” which means more people to produce more stuff, to create more profit, to pay more taxes – so that the cabal can steal more. And to create more junk.
THE FEMININE PRINCIPLE
Values
What value should we place on the competence and willingness of the power structure to reconstruct the brave new world which must become our future? They have demonstrated that outside of clawing their way to power and amassing material wealth, they have no idea what they’re doing. How will their models and edicts and guaranteed cock-ups serve the goals of sustainability. How will their vain projections fare in the reality of environmental, technological, economic and political uncertainty?
On the backside of all problems we humans create is a confusion of values. And this crisis boils down to the big one: what is valuable and who defines it? The feminine principle is the force of life, thus the primary value. It is therefore the fundamental truth and basis for reasoning what is valuable.
Definition [excerpted from book]
While writing my book I tried to find an acceptable interpretation of the feminine principle and as I could not, I decided to define it myself. And this is what I discovered.
At its core, the feminine principle is the authority of female being, in and of itself—essential and without domination. It identifies the primary process of a woman’s life as it incorporates the rules and values of natural law. It represents the integrity inherent in human nature fundamental to the body, mind and spirit of human wholeness.
The first expression of the principle is... [quote]
Survival of the self;
and the procreation and protection of life.
At it’s simplest, the female principle—as motive force and controlling idea—is survival. Women’s natural state embodies the privilege and responsibility of procreation. This fundamental principle of women’s existence relies on her individual health and wholeness. Any woman can create a life and women are therefore first and foremost creative. Women create community at its most basic level.
When our survival is threatened, it requires that all normal reservation and social constraints are to be dispensed with immediately. At these times, naiveté and passivity are the worst traits a woman can have: duplicity and violence are often required. Your moral obligation is to live and the action that drives the life force is heroic, not shameful.
Fulfillment of human nature;
development of all potential to its highest ability.
The feminine principle operates on the personal and communal levels. On the personal level, it requires us to enjoy our lives, use reason freely and avoid suffering. In turn, it requires us to turn our compassion and tolerance toward others. Women have knowledge of the needs of all living things and recognize the essential cooperative nature of human existence. We have a specific, operational wisdom for what one needs in order to thrive.
As a normal part of the interrelatedness of things, all the -isms, -ologies, -arians and theories of all other principles are there to be understood for their prejudices and limitations and rejected except for those parts which recognize and compliment the feminine principle. As women define themselves, we also define the quality and quantity of our concern and sympathy for others and other species, based on reason and proportionality according to the principle of the development of our highest—and not our lowest—abilities. The feminine principle is not tailored to empathize with impotent idealism and the shape of others’ grievances where they do not relate to women’s common priorities.
Embodiment and will of the principle.
The feminine principle plays out its meaning in our individual lives and our interrelationship with all living things. The will of the feminine principle completes itself in relationships. The moral and political rules of nature are within us and extend themselves in the development and mutuality of all people. It is a precept from which other truths are to be derived and clarified. Embodying one’s own humanity, expressing it and manifesting it is the challenge of the will of the feminine principle.
The aim of this will is to establish women’s values in the culture and reflect them to all people and at all levels of society. Inherent in these values is the expectation and obligation of men to uphold their own responsibilities in the mutuality of human development, the holistic progress of society and culture, the preservation of our natural world and sustaining and caring for our offspring.
Examples of the Feminine Principle in Action
Here are a few recent examples of the feminine principle in action.
• A few years ago in Liberia, a brutal civil war was waging between then president Charles Taylor and the rebels trying to oust him from power. The violence was excruciating. People were dying by the tens of thousands. Rape was epidemic and children were starving. In 2003 the women rose up and demanded an end to the madness. An all-women peace initiative began to spread among the Christian churches. Then to Muslim women; then onto the streets. They established their headquarters in an open-air market in Monrovia and thousands of women answered the call to demonstrate and showed up day after day and embarrassed Taylor to hearing out the rebels. For 3 years these women kept on the pressure and pushed the warring sides to the peace table. Finally, in 2006, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was sworn in as president of Liberia – the first woman ever elected president of a country in Africa. [Source: “A Crazy Dream” by Bob Herbert, New York Times, 31 January 2009]
• A different example concerns funds for family planning in the economic stimulus package in the U.S. During the Congressional caucus meetings, a claque of congressmen couldn’t help snickering when the words “stimulus” and “family planning” were used in the same sentence. One participant reported, “They acted like they were in junior high. It made me realize that not only did they not understand this issue, but that they are uncomfortable even talking about it.... These issues are second nature to the majority of women in Congress, so when we talk to women members or their staffers about the connection between family planning and women’s economic security, they don’t need an explanation. They just get it.” [Source: “Lessons from the Stimulus Debate...” by Jodi Jacobson, RHRealityCheck.org, 29 January 2009]
• Here is another – a recent statement in the Guardian. “Investing in women in emerging markets pays dividends for the wider community; they reinvest 90% of their incomes in their families and communities, compared with men, who reinvest only 30 to 40%.” [Source: “We Need More Female Heavy Hitters at Davos,” Ruth Sunderland, The Guardian, 1 February 2009]
• And another. In a report from Dispatches on the CBC recently (8 February 2009) a farmer in India, described the problems of development and loss of his land. He said of the farmland, “This is our goddess.” He knows what sustains life – and it’s not call centers.
• And lastly; feminism, itself, is the primary language of the feminine principle. It is language which creates knowledge that leads us to understand why, exactly, we do what we do and what we are talking about.
SOLUTIONS
We don’t need any more lip service about “more women at the top” and our “unique strengths and approaches to problem solving” and “less testosterone-driven hyper-competitiveness.” In a crisis of the magnitude we’re in we must seize upon our lost authority to determine the solutions for the future. We do not know what sustainability is and women must be very aggressive in determining what it must be. At it’s core it’s simple. Less is more. Less consumption; more consciousness and principled action.
The women of Iceland are putting the feminine principle into action. In the past year, Iceland has virtually collapsed and now, with Johanna Sigurdardottir as prime minister, women are running the country. The men blamed for the crisis have vacated their posts and women have stepped into the forefront for the cleanup. Their strategy is to create a more balanced economy which they argue should incorporate overtly feminine values. For instance, Audur Capital – which is a fund investing in green technology – follows these guidelines.
• Risk awareness – they will not invest in things they don’t understand.
• Profit with principles – investments must have a positive social and environmental impact.
• Emotional capital – they do emotional due diligence; they look at the people and whether the corporate culture is an asset or liability.
• Straight talk – the language of banking and finance must be accessible.
• Independence – financial independence for women provides the freedom to become who they want to be; this results in unbiased advice (meaning the power to say what you mean – or no ass-kissing).
They also hire men and they say, without irony, that if they have two equally competent people, they discriminate in favor of the man because they want balance.
Women throughout the entire system in Iceland speak openly about the “womanly and maternal qualities they bring to the boardroom.... They do not see this as a men versus women situation but a question of different value systems.” And if they fail? As one businesswoman says, “There is a risk, but as women we cannot claim we are capable and then turn away because of that risk.” [Source: “After the Crash,” by Ruth Sunderland, The Observer, 22 February 2009.]
CONCLUSION
To conclude – yes, we are in a crisis. The feminine principle in play means expanding our awareness and sharpening our perspective of what is happening around us. FIRST, we must survive. We must discriminate between the good and the bad – to know who’s lying and telling the truth, to understand the strategies of those who dominate us and disown their burdens. SECOND, we must find solutions for the millions who cling to the sinking ships of corruption and carelessness and give them a hand up. And THIRD we must build a philosophy and practical ethics which challenge any ideology that does not reflect women’s sovereignty, equality and values.
And there are two points I want to return to before I close. One is the magnitude of what women have contributed to the economy in the last few decades. The other is Eden.
The value of what women have put into the wealth of our countries is mind-boggling. And what’s our pay off? Economic collapse! That this ownership which we have created in our societies has just disappeared is unspeakable. We must use this loss – our squandered equity – as emotional and intellectual leverage as we determine what and how we want our future to be; and how we want to run it.
And back to Eden. Mother Earth is not the garden of Eden. Eden is a fictitious place where a big muck-a-muck, male metaphor, kicked Eve out. I don’t like that place and I don’t like that story. And I don’t buy it that some storybook deity gets to tell any woman whether or not she can eat an apple. So poubelle with the Eden bit. The earth is our mother, the source of life and the meaning of beauty. And we are the mother of humankind and the feminine principle is the eternal vigil reminding all of us not to forget it.
Thank you.
- - - ## - - -
THE FEMININE PRINCIPLE: The Sense and Sustainability of It
by Marilyn Casselman © 2009
mc@freebornproject.com
