Week 14

For this blog, I focused on the article, Exploring youth activism on climate change: dutiful, disruptive, and dangerous dissent, by Karen O’Brien et al. This article centers around youth activism regarding climate change, and their motions to share their opinions in support and in opposition to “environmental, social, and environmental policies and practices that contribute to climate change in diverse ways..” (O’Brien et al., 1)

The vocalization and activism of today’s youth has time and time been described as “new” or “modern,” yet, this article shifts the focus from the age to the complexity, variation, and diversity within the youth movement itself: “by focusing on the diversity of climate change activism, we address different ways that the youth are challenging power relationships that are used as means to constitute, legitimize, and normalize certain imaginaries and practices that perpetuate climate change.” (O’Brien et al., 2) As the article takes a specific focus with youth advocacy against climate change in areas where there are notably high emissions, one could see  variations in advocacy between these individuals that are being directly impacted by climate change, when juxtaposed with youth advocacy in a substantially better environment. Advocacy has the ability to range based on position within society, as well as position in regards to impact of climate change.

This excerpt fo the article reminds me of the current critiques of Second Wave Feminism. Within feminism, there is this overarching idealistic ideology that all women are united and combating against the patriarchy as one. However, in utilizing or perpetuating this ideology, the intersectional aspect of feminism is eclipsed; which results in a lack of attention to the ways race, class, socio-economic status, age, etc. impact the needs and desires of individual feminists.  From this course, I have seen a lot of ties between my Gender and Sexuality Studies classes, but am always looking to make more.