Week 5 Reflections
Climate Justice, Digital Activism, and Gender, Prof. Frances Roberts-Gregory
By Cormac Madden, 2/24/2019
This week's readings explore the interactions between the policies surrounding (un)natural disasters and reproductive health and gender, race, and class. The Women of Katrina: How Gender, Race, and Class Matter in an American Disaster, edited by Emmanuel David and Elaine Enarson, focuses specifically on these interactions with respect to Hurricane Katrina, in a series of chapters that detail the experiences of Gulf Coast women. "Building Coalitions and Rebuilding Versailles: Vietnamese American Women's Environmental Work after Hurricane Katrina" by Gennie Thi Nguyen recounts the efforts of second-generation Vietnamese American women in the community of Versailles to rebuild coalitions with other groups fighting against environmental racism in order to fight against the reopening of the Chef Menteur landfill near their community. She highlighted the tremendous amount of behind-the-scenes work done by these women, an observation that is shared by Elaine Enarson in "Women and Girls Last?: Averting the Second Post-Katrina Disaster." In her article Enarson argues for the necessary inclusion of women's voices in disaster recovery, arguing that Katrina should be viewed as a "highly gendered social event." Loretta J. Ross also views Katrina through a gender lens in "A Feminist Perspective on Katrina," decrying the gendered media coverage of the hurricane, the effects of the militarization of the city's rebuilding (including increases in prostitution), and the violation of human rights standards by the US government. Like Thi Nguyen, Emmanuel David also focuses on women's organizing in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, focusing instead on the "Women of the Storm" in his article "Cultural Trauma, Memory, and Gendered Collective Action." "Out of Sight, Out of Mind"and "Unexpected Necessities: Inside Charity Hospital" provide insight into the difficulties that differently-abled people faced during Hurricane Katrina, highlighting the lacuna in our disaster-recovery plans with respect to differently-abled people. "'We Like to Think Houma Women Are Very Strong'" and "Coastal Women for Change" talk about the recovery efforts of the oft-forgotten but hard-hit people of the bayou, a region with a large number of indigenous and marginalized people. In her book On Infertile Ground, Jade S. Sasser argues that neo-Malthusian population control policies represent the next iteration in a long series of Global North impositions upon the Global South. She decries the fact that Global South women, who are among the least responsible for anthropogenic climate change are given an undue responsibility in combatting it.
To me, the exploitation and double standards that are detailed in Sasser's On Infertile Ground are unsurprising but saddening. As someone who has long accepted populationist arguments without considering the people that they affect, I am disappointed in my own prior convictions and I am surprised that I had never heard the arguments against populationism in my Environmental Studies classes. I am also surprised that it was not explored in an African Politics class that I took which was extremely critical of many World Bank and UN policies. The personal stories shared in The Women of Katrina were also very touching. The blatant economic disparity detailed in "Unexpected Necessities" was shocking, and so too was Loretta J. Ross' description of how the US refused to recognize Katrina survivors as internally displaced. Without a doubt, climate disasters unveil the ugliness and inequalities that typify our society, which is extremely distressing to see.
Vocab
References
David, Emmanuel and Elaine Enarson. 2012. The Women of Katrina: How Gender, Race, and Class Matter in an American Disaster. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.
Sasser, Jade S. 2018. On Infertile Ground: Population Control and Women's Rights in the Era of Climate Change. New York: New York University Press.
By Cormac Madden, 2/24/2019
This week's readings explore the interactions between the policies surrounding (un)natural disasters and reproductive health and gender, race, and class. The Women of Katrina: How Gender, Race, and Class Matter in an American Disaster, edited by Emmanuel David and Elaine Enarson, focuses specifically on these interactions with respect to Hurricane Katrina, in a series of chapters that detail the experiences of Gulf Coast women. "Building Coalitions and Rebuilding Versailles: Vietnamese American Women's Environmental Work after Hurricane Katrina" by Gennie Thi Nguyen recounts the efforts of second-generation Vietnamese American women in the community of Versailles to rebuild coalitions with other groups fighting against environmental racism in order to fight against the reopening of the Chef Menteur landfill near their community. She highlighted the tremendous amount of behind-the-scenes work done by these women, an observation that is shared by Elaine Enarson in "Women and Girls Last?: Averting the Second Post-Katrina Disaster." In her article Enarson argues for the necessary inclusion of women's voices in disaster recovery, arguing that Katrina should be viewed as a "highly gendered social event." Loretta J. Ross also views Katrina through a gender lens in "A Feminist Perspective on Katrina," decrying the gendered media coverage of the hurricane, the effects of the militarization of the city's rebuilding (including increases in prostitution), and the violation of human rights standards by the US government. Like Thi Nguyen, Emmanuel David also focuses on women's organizing in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, focusing instead on the "Women of the Storm" in his article "Cultural Trauma, Memory, and Gendered Collective Action." "Out of Sight, Out of Mind"and "Unexpected Necessities: Inside Charity Hospital" provide insight into the difficulties that differently-abled people faced during Hurricane Katrina, highlighting the lacuna in our disaster-recovery plans with respect to differently-abled people. "'We Like to Think Houma Women Are Very Strong'" and "Coastal Women for Change" talk about the recovery efforts of the oft-forgotten but hard-hit people of the bayou, a region with a large number of indigenous and marginalized people. In her book On Infertile Ground, Jade S. Sasser argues that neo-Malthusian population control policies represent the next iteration in a long series of Global North impositions upon the Global South. She decries the fact that Global South women, who are among the least responsible for anthropogenic climate change are given an undue responsibility in combatting it.
To me, the exploitation and double standards that are detailed in Sasser's On Infertile Ground are unsurprising but saddening. As someone who has long accepted populationist arguments without considering the people that they affect, I am disappointed in my own prior convictions and I am surprised that I had never heard the arguments against populationism in my Environmental Studies classes. I am also surprised that it was not explored in an African Politics class that I took which was extremely critical of many World Bank and UN policies. The personal stories shared in The Women of Katrina were also very touching. The blatant economic disparity detailed in "Unexpected Necessities" was shocking, and so too was Loretta J. Ross' description of how the US refused to recognize Katrina survivors as internally displaced. Without a doubt, climate disasters unveil the ugliness and inequalities that typify our society, which is extremely distressing to see.
Vocab
Sexual Stewards: Idea that women are responsible for reproductive
rates and are capable of having the agency of changing these rates; focus on
individualism.
Political Ecology: Situates environmental problems in a
sociological context.
Apolitical ecology: Approach that views environmental
problems as individual or population based.
References
David, Emmanuel and Elaine Enarson. 2012. The Women of Katrina: How Gender, Race, and Class Matter in an American Disaster. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.
Sasser, Jade S. 2018. On Infertile Ground: Population Control and Women's Rights in the Era of Climate Change. New York: New York University Press.
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