American Studies. In “Wet, Dark, and Low: Eco-Man Evolves from Eco-Woman,” Andrew Ross observes that, at the same time feminism was calling masculinity into question, environmentalism was offering men new ways of being masculine. Perhaps more accurately, environmentalism was offering men new rationales for continuing to indulge the same old fantasies and enjoy the same old privileges of patriarchy:Among the so-called new social movements, the ecology movement has been exceptional in ceding a leading role, in theory and in practical activism, to heterosexual white men. It has been one of the few spaces in post-New Left politics where such men have felt that they can breath freely and easily, while indulging in the wilderness cults traditionally associated with the making of heroic white male identities: the frontiersman, the cowboy, the Romantic poet, the explorer, the engineer, the colonizer, the anthropologist, the pioneer settler, and so on. (220)
Environmentalism might prompt men to question their impact on the environment and their implication in an environmentally destructive economic system, but it didn’t require them to think very deeply about their gender. Keep this in mind later in the semester as we read works by John Muir, Edward Abbey, and Dave Foreman.
Toward the end of his essay Ross argues that the “wild man” phenomenon was closely tied to the yuppie generation and was giving way to the cyborgism of the young:For tourists of the soul like the Wild Man and the goddess worshipper, the forest is a place of white flight, a traditional location for regrouping and for recharging spiritual batteries with the exotica of Amerindian and ancient European myths. For their sons and daughters, the all-night sweatfests of the rave were semi-outlawed events, throwing up retrofitted memories of their parents’ pastoral hippie gatherings, once the creative social crucible for new forms of sexual and familial behavior. (235)
Is Ross basically right? Are we now seeing the replacement of the organic hippie ideal with an increasingly technological youth culture?
Update: Per popular request, I’ll set aside 30 minutes or so before the exam Thursday so we can finish the discussion of environmentalism, gender, and social class in WALL-E. There’ll still be plenty of time to finish the exam. Let’s meet again in the Haynie Center — if you need desks for writing your exams we can use the computer tables.
Tuesday, March 3
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4 comments:
I would entirely agree with that statement. Technology is replacing everything these days. I wasn't alive in the sixties of seventies, but things are dramatically different. Kids turn to the wii for exercise and play a game called harvest moon, where you are a farmer that has to plant crops and raise cattle. We bundle up all portable device to play MP3's, Video games, movies, surf the internet, and act as mass storage devices. I have a phone that does all of these things as well. I think kids these days have never been so disconnected from nature. When I asked my classroom if they had ever been camping two out of twenty four had been. Playing outside, fishing, learning about the environment, are all boring as they told me. I had one student tell me sitting by yourself in the woods trying to catch fish is the silliest thing he has ever heard! Which is odd, the generation gap between myself and these kids is only about fifteen years, but my father and generation stressed outdoor play and wilderness activity.
No, The organic hippie is not being replaced by today's technology, entirely. Technology today is making a man's job easier, more efficient by exerting less physical force. For example: A lumberjack, by simply operating a remote control or levers, his task are completed possibly without twisting an ankle or a knee, slashing his body with a chainsaw, etc... I believe that this person operating this remote control is no less a man than if he was swinging an axe.
D---
The organic hippie is in some ways is being changed from the original but not necessarily being replaced. The technology has allowed the hippie culture to find different ways of gaining the same result that are still follow their attitude toward the environment. Solar or wind allows them to harness energy in a clean way. The use of newer natural fertilizers allows the organic hippie to still grow natural foods. The hybrid vehicle gets better mpg than that old VW van. Technology has changed but the culture has not died. The technology may change but the culture is still allowed to continue its lifestyle.
yeah there are the old hippies, of course there are. but think about today's age. the hippies of today are so much more advanced that they blow the old hippies out of the water. But we all have the same feelings about the environment. we have to protect it. its just getting everyone else to believe that as well.
EMT
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