Editorial Introduction: Ecofeminism

This editorial serves two purposes. First, it introduces the thoughtful and provocative articles in this issue, to include special focuses on environmental feminism, actions and constructions of women who live outside the United States, and feminist ethnography. Second, it describes exciting changes happening with Feminist Formations that will affect our readers, contributors, and the publication landscape for feminist scholarship.

Similar to our issue last summer (22.2) that focused on the Politics and Rhetorics of Embodiment, the special focus on environmental feminism in this issue (23.2) was not actively sought. However, the many high-quality submissions we received convinced us that this topic was one of great interest to many in feminist communities. It is clear from the articles that feminist conversations about how to engage environmental issues are far from settled. Henceforth, we are pleased to offer an extended cluster of articles focused on ecofeminism.

Our opening article, "Pioneers of U.S. Ecofeminism and Environmental Justice" by Susan A. Mann, provides a scholarly overview of the history and origins of ecofeminism. Informed by poststructuralism and intersectionality theory, Mann traces "how women of different classes and races addressed environmental concerns in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through their involvement in the municipal housekeeping movement and/or early conservation/ preservation movements." She notes that most of these early women were not feminists; however, they made intellectual and activist connections among gender, class, and racial oppression and environmental issues. Mann advocates that in reviewing our feminist history, we need to ensure that the experiences and contributions of marginalized people are included. Our second article, "Ecofeminism Revisited: Rejecting Essentialism and Re-Placing Species in a Material Feminist Environmentalism" by Greta Gaard, extends the focus on the historical development of North American ecofeminism to consider feminism's resistance to and characterization of ecofeminists' contributions. In her argument, Gaard asserts that while its history is conflictual, ecofeminism is an important part of feminist, anti-racist, and environmental movements.

Emily Gaarder, in "Where the Boys Aren't: The Predominance of Women in Animal Rights Activism," analyzes how women animal rights activists "use, revise, or reject cultural discourses of sex and gender to develop accounts of both their own activism and the predominance of women in the movement." While Greta Gaard resists essentialized understandings of women in ecofeminist movements, Gaarder notes that many of the women animal rights activists in her study drew on biological and social discourses that essentialized gender to rationalize their participation (and men's lack of participation) in animal rights activism. Her analysis suggests that gender inequity is a "motivating factor" in her participants' activism, and that this inequity empowered women to connect their experiences with those of animals. As Gaarder points out: "The fact that women dominate the animal rights movement need not be equated with the idea that women naturally feel a greater affinity or compassion for animals. This distortion might suggest that women activists are simply following a biological calling, when, in fact, they make a conscious choice to become political and ethical activists."

Sara Hosey's contribution on "Canaries and Coalmines: Toxic Discourse in The Incredible Shrinking Woman and Safe" analyzes two sources of media—Lily Tomlin's The Incredible Shrinking Woman and Todd Haynes' 1995 film Safe—to explore how "the protagonists are doubly-disabled: First by toxicity and second by unaccommodating and disbelieving communities." Hosey's article draws attention to the intersections and disruptions of discourses associated with sociocultural expectations, scientific reasoning, health, and ecofeminism. Specifically, she focuses on the many ways in which women's perspectives and experiences are invalidated in order to leave intact existing understandings about women's agency and "scientific reason."

The last article in this cluster is "A Scottish Ecopoetics: Feminism and Environmentalism in the Works of Kathleen Jamie and Valerie Gillies" by Laura Severin. Severin's article considers contemporary Scottish poets Kathleen Jamie's and Valerie Gillies's efforts to explore the boundaries of and find the connections between nature and humanity. Specifically, Severin asserts, "Their work suggests that a feminist environmental art requires an equally feminist aesthetics, one that breaks down boundaries—between various art forms, between art...