'Mother' Nature

"... the idea that women and nature are inherently linked is a tacit acceptance of their mutual exploitation.... The term “Mother Nature,” then, although it arose from spiritually rich traditions, has come to represent the twinned exploitation of all that patriarchal society considers to be inferior to men. As such, both are expected to be perpetually available to them, and to be accepting and accommodating of their desires. As long as the reason for gendered oppression is rooted in women’s apparent closeness to nature, this kind of rhetoric provides another reason to view both women and the Earth as existing on an unequal plane with men." - -the Quartz Daily Brief

I had not thought of this before.  I embodied the idea of the connection of feminine to nature became my understanding of the ancient goddesses and a spiritual connection.  This is a new perspective to me,  When we speak of Mother Nature, write of woman as flower (any form of nature), are we not conscious of the fact that to do so migrates woman to suppression of - to domination over?  I will do much thinking on feminine spirituality of woman and nature, and whether we are feeding into the ideology of patriarchy versus inequality of feminine status in the world. 

Our role as The Feminine, and the ideology of Nature being female must have been gradually formulated in the beginning of time.  The title of MOTHER NATURE came about, in earliest times, because woman gives birth and so does nature.  Earth feeds us, nurtures us, protects us, and this quality was Mother to the earliest peoples. 

Earliest women worked the earth to produce food, shelter, coverings, etc.  She gathered from Mother Earth.  Feminine attributes are fully found in Nature.  Poets and storytellers soon picked up on the connection, still, at a time, when the feminine was seen as giving, nurturing, honorable. Women were natural at beautifying where their home was.  She borrowed from Nature to do so.  They also began to enhance their own beauty, using Nature's bountiful colors.  Then the minstrels, the poets, the artists, began taking in the view and expressing the ideology of Nature and The Feminine as one.  The role of Nature as the feminine further developed into woman/nature as romantic, and the ideology burst into all cultures, and, in doing so, the ideology took on a less spiritual role than in the beginnings. 

Do we, women writers, poets, singers, speakers, artists, further do damage to the Feminine in the ways we feminize Nature?  I had not thought of this, truly, but it does give pause now.  I realize that women are trying to take back the negative connotations of all things feminine that were bastardized by male dominance ideology.  Do we push forward the dominance of nature equaling the attitude that women, too, were to be dominated?

This gives me great pause and reason to continue to ruminate over this new way of thinking, for me.  Had you considered this?  What do you think, sister-friends?

©Carol Desjarlais 3.12.19