TOW ARDS BODY-RECOVERY: A COLLAGE O F ORALITY

HERSTORICAL POETRY-TELLINGS WITHIN FEMINIST
AND ECOLOGICAL FEMINIST NARRATIVES
by

Maria Walther
B.A., University of British Columbia, 1994

THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS
in
GENDER STUDIES

Maria Walther, 2003
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA
March 2003

All rights reserved. This work may not be
reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy
or other means, without the permission of the author.

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APPROVAL
Name:

Maria Walther

Degree:

Master of Arts

Thesis Title:

TOWARDS BODY-RECOVERY HERSTORICAL
POETRY-TELLINGS WITHIN FEMINIST AND
ECOLOGICAL FEMINIST NARRATIVES

Examining Committee:
O-

Chair: Dr. Robert W. Tait
Dean of Graduate Studies
UNBC

Supervisor: Dr. Si Transken
Assistant Professor, Social Work Program
UNBC

Committee MemB^: Dr. Robert Budde
Assistant Professor, English Program
UNBC

Committee Member: Dr. Theresa Healy
Adjunct Professor, Women’s Studies Program
UNBC

External Examiner: Dr. Antonia Mills
Associate Professor, First Nations Studies Program
UNBC

Date Approved:

ABSTRACT

This thesis presents an exploratory eSbrt in the local-global ecologial feminist quest to
further stimulate debate o f ways in which we-women, within our selves and the eco-social
context o f our communities, may acknowledge and honor biologically anchored gender
diGetence. As such it is premised on the recognition o f women's biological diSerence as a
further building block towards a cross-cultural feminist understanding and appreciation o f all
our unique, diverse, uncontainable identities in this world-earth-home. The diesis is written in
the hope diat we may, out o f this honoring o f biological difference and its
ecological/sociological effects, collectively move beyond multiple oppressions towards crosscultural alliances in efforts to redefine the human journey o f life on this planet. I thank all
those women who have come before me and passed on their empowering legacy o f strength
and hope.
Set within an ecological feminist framework, this inquiry into Western cultural body
politics and its effects on women is a multi-layered collage o f intermingling textual analysis,
creative writing and herstorical testimonies. Contextually ^propriate poetry threads through
the textual montage, linking the writer's personal experiences into the larger fa m e o f women's
experiences as evidenced in local and global ferninist research Through this unconventional
format I hope to o ffa readers new paths o f entry into the debate.
In surmnaiy then, the thesis explores how women-we can acknowledge our material
bodies in ways that are affrming, celebratory, liberating and lead towards new expressions o f
self determination - an embodied self-determination which moves f o m personal b o ^
validation towards collective herstorical awareness o f the stark socio-ecological consequences
contained in Western masculinist devaluation/exploitation o f women's bodies in corporate
global politics.

u

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract
Table of Contents

111

Dedication

iv

Introduction

Reader's blueprint, what the thesis is all about and why

1

Chapter One

Who benefits, herstorical position, herstorical foremothers,
grounding her body/language

9

Chapter Two

Women's bodies, women's texts, (Western) feminist dilemma
of essentialism, images of women's biological cycle

23

Chapter Three

Debate of women-nature, ecological feminism as
transformative politics for all, ecological feminist allies,
our hopeful potential, what it means

87

Conclusion

Musings on a hopeful future, curving the meanings of language
to afBrm embodied difference, continuing their-our tellings

117

Glossary

134

Bibliography

136

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IV

wornem^
wAof?
this is a proverbial flood o f ancient tears
a poming o f rage
bursting into a love song
a prayer not a meditation and
though not a missionary
by trade
o/men will suggest I act like one
like die wor(l)d belongs to me also
attached to a defnite nirvana

&o MwomgM
organic bowels move
chests sound 6om within
mumble hideously
babble ghastly
nasty gossip
schane vigorously on the sly
(with attention to detail the way only we are still expected to purr/fbrm)
plot 6ir an/o/ther escape
7 wf// nwert
ao Aglp me women
7 w reo/
they are the steaming compost heap o f my thoughts
\^ c h
having outwitted their objectifying gropings
slip past neurological control
jump 6om nerve end to pea
screen to paper
see how they dance across the page
love
how they
dance
into
body
space

EXTRODUCTION
Reader's bkeprmt, what the thesis is all about, and why

Before I begin the story-telling, dear reader, let me quickly explain the technical blue-print o f
this narrative collage so you will easily Gnd your way through the various layers o f its journey. As I
mentioned in fhe abstract, this thesis consists o f a series o f l^ e r s representing women's voices, taken
from interviews, texts and personal poetry. Together, they build into a chorus o f aithusiastic and
determined voices, which th a t explores various aspects o f herstorical body-recovery, never all at the
same time, but taking turns, over and underl^ping and continuing where others left o ff I have
alternated personal inquiry into certain issues with other women's comments and musings. The thesis
topic is intense and I wanted to evoke the feeling o f excited, dynamic conversation, o f multiple voices
carrying on at the same time or almost, just the way we might have them at someone's kitchen table.
Citation clusters seemed an appropriate choice to approximate animated debate among the writers.
They alternate with poetry clusters which chart my pasonal experience in this herstorical journey and
guide my reflections along the paths o f textual inquiry. 1 wrote this text in an effort to move out o f
the rigidly conGned conventional scholarly research text into a more dynamic, textual hybrid in the
hope that the subject matter —women and women's bodies —also becomes less conGned and
restricted, to me the writer as well as to you the reader. Thank you

I am wiitmg in die face o f impending war between the United States o f America, possible
allied countries, and Iraq. The reason seans to be potential weapons o f mass destruction in the
"wrong' hands. The cause may well be anotha c h ^ ita in the story o f Western afOuent nations
Sgbting to maintain global siquanacy - anofba round in Western imperialism.
I am writing in the face o f growing tensions among Middle East nations. The reason seans to
be extreme w a ta shortage for downstream users o f the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, caused by
irresponsible w a ta commodification and export aimed at short ta m proGts, Westem-style, among its
upstream users. The cause may be the addition o f grotesque Western neocolonialist strategies to
rein&uce power-ovgr.
The human story is all about body. Indeed, th a e may not be a single th an e in the total
perceived/constructed realm o f human storytelling that is not in some way linked to the human body.
Its lack. Its desires. Its greediness. Its needs. Its rhythms and ticks. Its hunga. Its curiosity in o th a
bodies. Its very search for fu rth a dimensions outside body contours. Its re: source-Gillness. Its
re:presentations. Its self-reGexivity. Its reflections on oAers. Its fear o f its own potential. Its hope Gar
the realization o f its potential.
Bodystories.
This story also talks about bodies. Women's bodies. The main point o f dûs story is to help
bring bodies out into the open, into air, sight, text and consciousness. Why? Because women's bodies
continue to be degraded and devalued in W estan capitalist patriarchal societies, they continue to
suffer and die, and through women's suffering, all o f humanity suffers in unspeakable and
unnecessary ways. Should the re a d a care? WTl d ia e be a tomorrow? I f we believe in the need for a
Sana world, one which h o n a s and embraces the diversity o f women in all our different identities,
then yes, the read a should care. I care. 1 am a woman. 1 want to help make women more visible, and
because 1 see women's bcxhes as the most visibly exposed and suffering object o f masculinist
oppression, I chcxae to tell this particular story, using my body as entry point into the story. And my
body-story informs me that catain rhythms o f our bodies have just not been terribly popular. They
are hardly talked about and for the most part drey are ignored, even denied. Yes, among women
ourselves. I should not say that the rhythms are denied as much as the bodies themselves seem to

conveniently dis;g)pear out o f postmodern feminist discourse^. We may talk about body as text,
image, as ingenious representation o f an idea o f who woman could be, and we profess a great amount
o f interest in visions o f the km ale sexed body as a constellation all on its/her o w n /

I will confine my next remarks to a lengthy footnote, so it may /wr take up powerful space in the main
body of my text. I am doing this to bring into relief her:stoncal subject matter, so that her:story may set the
tone, the agenda and continue to empower our becoming (as my supervisor Si Transken suggested, I am not in
conversation with Freud).

What is the fascination to the point of obsession which some postmodern feminists (I use the term
loosely) exhibit as they interpret, reinterpret and second-guess male theorists and their discourse on the origins
and /or nature o f interrelational power systems particularly regarding class, gender and the politics of
oppression? Why would women, why would we, out of our real experience living with-in-the-worid, in our
quest to define our identity and position in order to empower us, why would we even look at theory originated

within male or masculinist experience? Especially when this carefully articulated expaiatce so very Grmly
reinforces the status quo? Do we really think that we can simply take some of the formula and leave out the

rest? Or are we earnestly trying to harmonize, blend and align our selves with the dominant, universal, male
category? What can we hope to accomplish by consistently turning back as we walk forward? Chances are we
end up stumbling, maybe even tripping - we may know we are diSerent, but we still only have one pair of eyes,
and those eyes need to look ahead for us to get ahead: deciphering men's inherently sexist monologues on who
and how women are perceived and furthermore supposed to be in the eyes of men, seems a futile exploration if
we want to locate our selves - see our own reflection for a change. This will not happen if we spend precious

time trying to understand these monologues and 511 in the gaps', nor will we ever adBkct a change in the way we
are perceived, whether that is in theoretical musings or practical daily negotiations with real bodies. For,

beneath it all, male theorists like Freud, Denida, Foucault, Lacan and oh so many others, wrote what they did
because they believed it - and they happily and firmly pressed their writings within the ideological framework,

again because they believed in it: because the logic of domination which governs Western patriarchal society
quite simply seemed to make sense to them, and because it gave them satisfaction, nothing more, and nothing
less. If we want to come up with something more inclusive, more egalitarian, less phallic-oriented, we truly

need to jump off the phallus: trying to stay on fbr the ride, well, we get the picture ...we continue to ride off into
the sunset we know so well.
Somer Brodribb sums up the postmodern feminist quest to insert feminist theories into already
established masculinist theoretical dogma; "As for the idea that feminists should be ragpickers in the bins o f
male ideas, we are not as naked as all that. The notion that we need to salvage for this junk suggests that it is not
immediately available everywhere at all times. The very up-to-date products of male culture are abundant and

cheap; it is one of life's truly affordable things. In fact, we can't pay not to get it, it's so fine. So what we have is
a diSiculty in refusing, of not choosing masculine theor^cal products. ..instead, I argue the best methodology
fiar evaluating the practice of theory that is put before us as what feminists must attend to if we are really saious
about social change is whether it originates from feminist politics and women's experiences. Not a tributary to
or coincidence with male philosophy; women must be the matter and the energy: " (Somer Brodribb, Nothing

James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Toronto: 1992, p. xxiii).
My concerns are these: By elaborating on masculinist writings we add to their prominence, maybe even

popularity, yet scholars in areas other than the study of feminist critique are very likely to go on as before with
little thought given to tangential writings from less conservative and therefore less weighty, less funded
disciplines. Within the discourse o f feminist critique however, these texts have taken on such overriding
significance, that to express the desire to go ahead without allotting them energy and consideration has become

almost a sacrilege. Not only that, these writings have already produced a generation or more of follow-ups.
Revered feminists and their academic offspring have already spent much o f their lives dissecting, twisting and

turning in ongoing attempts to insert or uncover meaning. These secondary writings, by virtue of their refiective
value, add to that upon a male experience, can never successfully compete with the original upon which they are

based. Not only that, but to the woman searching fbr refrections on the original female expeience, they will
leave an unexpected sadness, and maybe a dawning conviction that many o f us still prefer to remain held
with/in the male gaze instead of working together as allies to produce lasting testimony of women's experience
and thus begin a less contaminated process towards the formulation o f a feminist politics.

Is %ho we are not enough to justify writing our selves into the discourse?

3

But when the stoiy gets to the point o f biological subject matter, o f our bodies' persistent
biological determinism, w ta t that looks and feels hke, bodies continue to be disappeared, and we are
taught to bemoan instead the entrapment o f women into an essential idea and analyze the dangers of
reducing the category women' to a (natural) essence. Whole books are written on the topic o f female
body essence. 'Women are made not bom', says feminist foremother Simone de Beauvoir. Fair
enough, considering that she was forever struggling toward a more hberatory understanding o f her
own self inside Sartre's intellectual universe. In the eclectic company o f postmodern phallocrats,
social constructionism won the day. 1 don't know all that much about men's bodies, but I do know that
women's bodies are persistent, obstinately so. Mine is. How can I say 1 know'? Ever since my Grst
period, my fanale body said hello in no uncertain terms, and since then she just refused to go away.
Certainly, my mind intermittently succeeded in imagining it/her gone - the well practiced adage
'mind over body" - how else was I able to mimic my way through masculinist text, discourse and the
rule o f die fathers at home, school, the work place and in between? Curricula, work place legislation,
societal perceptions and expectations, aU encourage(d) us to pretend that we inhabit a secondary, less
complete or defective (?!) version o f the normative male body. Even die hrst graduate seminars in
gender studies (this was the mid 90's) still presumed that ideas about oedipal complex, penis-envy,
women outside discourse - and not to be found anywhere, the paternalists' heralding o f phalhc
signihers and women's equation with (can you beheve it) lack', that these ideas constituted a sort o f
illustrious, universal truth.
Deconstrucdon h^ipened to come along just then, ready to defer, hagment, invert and keep
this kind o f truth horn evaporating like so much hot steam. And my body? Was my mind ready to
acknowledge my body back into existence? Not at all, no —in fact, had I been asked back then to
attend the Fngina MbMoipgnea, I probably would have opted to train as a cathohc nun. Imagine
hearing "It's 10 o' clock at night - do you know where your clitoris is? ...After all, the Indo-European
word cunt was derived from the goddess Kali's title ofK unda or Cunti, and shares the same root as

^ I am referring here to writers like Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva, Judith Butler, and their postmodern 6thers, as
well as to Western feminist popular culture, in which the female body continues to be critiqued as a selfsufficient self-revolving sexed (adult) subject, yet its biologically hxed cyclicality remains curiously absent.

4

kin and country."^ What preposterous truth is diis you ask? I agree. Whoever heard o f it: cunt and kin.
All the phallocrats' anthropological theorizings on kinship and countries and no one alerted us to
possibilities...Until now. Until I had come to live with A e very real, very physical, Icmg term
consequences o f my biologically determined body. In the process o f conceiving, becoming pregnant
and giving birth, I - my body - has undergone a very particular, very essemtializing', transformation.
Becoming a biological mother was my initiation into my female body, its physiological, 'real'
biological, potmtial. It has been painful, painfully ecstatic, this journey into motherhood, because, in
Nicole Brossard's words, "modieihood made hfe absolutely concrete An me
It is out o f dtis experience and its immediate effect on all aqiects o f my personal/political
daily life, diat 1 Snd myself moving towards a more intersuhjective understanding o f how the
biologically deGned physcial, shifting realities o f women's bodies are forever deeply, - deeply connected with/in/to all meanings oflife on this planet. And what it means in this neo-colonial time
o f (criminal) global monocuhuralizaticm, vhen many women, Westem(ized) feminists and ecological
feminists in particular, still persist in questioning the relevancy (or even existaice) o f female
biological determinian in the face o f women's struggles to survive in the to-be-eradicated other"
cultures on this planeL Their daily challaiges to stay alive, vibrantly so. Within the contexts o f their
children, their Aanilies, their communities, their land, which through their intricately woventogethemess sh^)es their cultures. Moana Sinclair sums up this interconnectedness inherent in her
Maori culture: "We cannot go forward without our men and our diildren; we are a collective people
linked to the land. We must liberate ourselves Grom our colonizer, Urgedier. This means much healing
and an abandoning o f colonized mindsets, by both men and women, now."^
The very process o f cohaging my experiences, sorting perqrectives and putting them into
words opaied rny self towards a growing desire to listen to die voices o f indigenous women, die
world over - qieak out, speak the meaning o f their material lives. Even as I write these introductory
paragraphs, Iknow that this process has barely begun, th a tla m on die right track however, and that

^ Œoiia Steinem in her fbrewwd to Magma
(Eve Ensler: 2001), p. xiv
^ Nicole Brossard in conversation with Janice Williamson in
(Toronto: University of
TcuontoPræs;, 1993% p. 60.

through my own desperation at the ongoing capitalist patriarchal annihilation o f planetary diversity o f
li&, I become more receptive to the wor(l)ds o f indigenous women and their determined fight fbr
survival. And fnally, I have b%un to acknowledge that all the Gght 5)r survival begins in our very
own bodies, die ways in which these our bodies are able to honor and be honored, through personal as
w d l as collective, contextualizing body politics.
All these reflections may stimulate feminist and ecological feminist inquiry, even AilGll
necessary academic requiranents. Though diis is part o f the problem, because diere my own
cmnplicity in noocolonial oppressions becomes blatantly obvious. Here I sit, at a computer which,
while ready to coll^ise (6om boredom and old age Adgue), still links me to cyber-hype i f I so
choose, which attaches itself to me as a neurotic, electronic, cyboigian extension so that I can, Bmn a
safer distance, establish my self as a legitimate scholar, the same scholar who writes passionately
about die need to reafBim ORuessed wcanen's lives while plunking away at a computer whose parts
they assemble under harrowing conditions.
Realizing that one o f die least challenged, contested and transformed sites - ccmtested by
feminist theorists - o f patriarchal logics o f domiaatioa is (still) the postmodern absence o f the female
body-experience in text/language, I explore this issue in the Grst c h ^ e r . In die second chqiter I
quickly discuss why I think stand-ofBsh notions o f essence and constructivism among haninist and
ecological 6m m ist writers are entirely redundant, even counterproductive if we intend to shape a
w om ai centred dnure. T h ro u ^ poetry I highlight personal body experimces o f menstruation,
fdxntion, pregnancy, childbirdi and the beginnings o f mothering, in rough chronological mder, and
o np h asze the problematics o f honoring the biological dynamics o f the &male body in a society diat
increasingly seems to hand it over to palhologizing medical institutions, stiU driven by masculinist
assmnptions o f the ^ n a le body's "value' as an eaqdoitable resource commodity.
Using my own reflections on women's bodies within fanmist, ecological ^ n io is t analyses as
a celebratory link, I dien move into the third chrpter, in which I explore my perceptions o f how
ecological haninist dieorics/strategies are vital to coonecdng women globally through the increased

^Moana Sinclair, "Pakcha Land Legisladon in Aotemoa: The Caitiauous Resistance by Maori Womm," Diana
Vlnding, ed.
IRwign; The RigAt 7b .4Fbice. (Copmhagen: IWGIA Document, 1998), p. 111.

understanding o f Aeir/our transformative, anpowering practices, linked as we o u r-^ lv es are to our
own bodies, families, communities and the nourishing edacities o f the land - r^ard less o f the
seemingly seductive visions/politics o f masculinist technologies around hanale body control
(technologies controlled by whom?). 1 also aq)lore the necessary personal and collective
consequences o f this analysis - if it is to have any meaning at a ll I reflect on faninist and ecological
haninist allying, the complexity o f culturally sensitive allying, the long way we have before us and
the obvious rewards o f practicing hopeful, aoss-cultural, ecological feminist coming-togetha. In my
conclusion I muse on the qniitual aq*ects o f a consciousness anchored in a feminist ecological
understanding o f body politics, and the need to shape a difkrent language morphology to express
w om ai centred meaning. Through these observations I spiral back to new, continued beginnings —
haninist language as a creative strategy in the formulation o f an exuberant ecological feminist ethics
o f care, that learns to express the keenly felt potential o f women's bodies as precious source energies
oflife as well as their (biologically and culturally constructed) roles as mediating agents between
land and its peoples.
I qqreal to readers to appreciate die exploratory aqiects o f this thesis. There is a formidable
wealth o f exciting feminist and ecological faninist literature speaking in much more detail on each
strand o f my topic. My particular madness has been to reduce seemingly complex equations o f the
faltering human/planetary journey to what I perceive - and yêef- t o be our global (i.e. androcentric)
failure (speak wmvi//mgnew) to acknowledge women's biologically anchored dif&rence as die womh
o f intarelational possibilities, ardcul^ed in the areas o f policy making and building cultural meaning.
I have spokai out o f the direct experiences o f my own realized biological difkrence as a woman,
feding my w ^ into/through die various stages ofbody experiences that mark me as belonging to die
sex-woman, g@ider-6male^. (To the feminist stratège, complex and confusing sex/gender debate, let

^ The entire notion of sex versus gender in the englisb-q)ea]dng discourse is maddenly irritating. Whereas
feminist ambiguity of terms can be an empowering, liberating strategy, it is my conviction that when
foundational terminology like sex and gendbr is tossed about uncritically in Western dominant feminist
discourse while presumed to be dxed, kminist debate quiddy diappears into meaninglessness. No one seems to
be entirely sure of their own use of the terms, nor seems there to be an agreement among writers quite howto
dedne the more intricate nuances of each, vdiich again would mean
all of us to launch into the origin of the
sex/gender ddiate. ..for fiirthe^ entertainment I heartily recommend Donna Haraway's essay " 'Gender" for a
Marxist Dictionary. The Sexual Politics of a Word" as well as Monique Whtig's "The Category of Sex" and
"The Mark of Gender" (see bibliognphy).
7

me only mention Aat q)eaking out o f my otAer Mother tongue, german, sex and gender merge into
the term "Gesdilecht" which, as Donna Haraway puts it, carries the meanings o f sex, stock, race, and
family, while the ac^ectival form 'geschlechtlich' means in Rnglish translations both sexual and
generic. How is this fbr confusion, and the obvious need fbr feninist dieorics h) be respecthdly
attuned to a people's particular linguistically rooted cultural paradigms, most particularly those that
have been marginalized and/or completely silenced?)
Out o f dûs quite basic (inter)subjective re:dedning, my text offers, thaefixe, a liberating bias.
1 don't presume this text to be a dednite answer or a statement leading to a "period', despite the
enthusiastic fervor 1 express at times. Rather, I write out o f a dawning ccmvictimi: 1 suggest,
encourage, deplore, cdebrate, and through the (hopefully) creative fbrmat o f the textual collage, write
in recurring spirals towards a renewed effort to understand reqrectfid, integral ways o f interrelational
bang within this world-earth-home. I do, how eva, rest my arguments on a dediûte, explicit
bottomline, w hidi pushes a very obvious ethical commitment throughout the unfolding o f the subject
fbroMnatter. It goes something like this:

Who bm edts ?

Chapter One
Who benefhs, heratorkal poaidon, heratorkal flwemothera, gromwlmg her body/himguage

Who beieGts and who o o ^ t to beneGt? Once those questions are asked, they can never be
swallowed back and their repeated recurrence becomes a measure o f our willingness to push
etbical boundaries. I know that every time my hiend tossed it into die ccmsensus based committee
o f die Vancouver Women's Monument Project, we were able - in the middle o f heated debate - to
realign the potendally divisive muldplicity o f our experiences and redirect our focus to what
mattered: to write into existence w om ai's names, to uncover the natimiwide, institutionalized
denial o f systemic femicide and, fmally, to Rirge alliances with Native Women's organizations
from the Downtown Eastside.
Who baieGts? Whose science? Whose knowledge? Where do I come d-om? How do I
dedne my situatedness, that guides the ways in which I locate know/et^e? Can 1 dcdne my own
cmnphcrty in the research I inherit? Who benedts? Linda Tuhiwai Smith voices her scepticism
when she concludes that "taking zgiart the story, revealing underlying texts, and giving voice to
things that are oden known intuitively does not help people to improve their current conditions. It
provides words, peihaps, an insight that enqilains certain expaiences - but it does not prevent
someone dom d y i n g .I t is with diis in my heart that I write: I am a drst generation Eurc^iean
immigrant to Canada, 1 d t the im% e o f the neocolonial global citizen in many life st)de
expectations; I am white, and, slowly recognizing my own raced colour, busy uncovering the
multiple politics of neocolrmial oppressions in their varied Ain di%uises. Until recently 1 had
persuaded nqfself to be heterosexual, and being a recently sh%le m o th a o f small diildrai, student,
ecological fouinist, qxiusal digitive and living widiin m a e sustainiog conditions^, my life has
became m a e preaous and real to me, dir my own worth as w d l as its possibihdes to sh^ie future

^ Linda Tuhiwai Smith,
jkagorcA aMK//«dl(gBmo«îPgcg*j;(New York: St.
Mmtin's Press, 2001% p.3.
^This needs to be qualided to mean: 'sustaining within Canadian expectations of what economically poor
means'

for the next genanticm. Now I have a stake where before I merely consumed my self through the
next day, risking my voice at leisure.
And w heran do I situate my feminist epistemology? If I must answer this question - in
accordance with academic rules - let me say that 1 am not at all certain o f die correctness o f these
rules. I am neith a informed nor believing enough to announce behndiand, in convincing
academic terminology, Amv I must get to where I hope to go. I can suggest possibilities, entetain
ideas and voice doubts, but I am wary o f investing in any 'proven' research meAod. I f I mud^ label
my explorative journey, I wiU say that it grows out o f a conviction A at we need to validate
women's experience As aich, I believe in Ae need and legitimacy o f feminist empirical research
and, growing out of it, Aminist standpoint Aeoiies, %Aich point towards Ae lived, silenced,
marginalized, dailiness o f w om ai's labor. I also take into account Sarxlra Harding's cautionary
note that women's experiences per se do not necessarily imply foninist analysis, since "cxpaience
itself is shqied by social r^ations; fbr example, w om ai have had to /gam to deSne as i^ ie Aose
sexual assaults that occur within marriage"^. However, I AfGa^ &om her assertion A at these
experiaices do not provide rdiable grounds fbr knowledge claims about nature and social
relations. I suggest it is precife/y our experimces which provide Ae fertile grounds fin Aminist
epistemologies. What other grounds do women have if not our lived body-experience? While I
agree wiA Ae need fbr a re-evaluation o f Aese experimces within a feminist ham e o f re&rence,
Aey and Aey alone provide feminist theories wiA matoial, 'raw' testimony. FurAamore, I Aink
Aese lived, traversed grounds' o f women's Averse lives need to be validated, brought mto fbcus
and visibilily, so that feminist evaluation can take place m Ae fhst place. This is vAat motivates
my writing.
Donna Haraway qreaks energdicahy on A e possibilities o f partial perqrectives and
mobile positioimig^°. It is Ae "propaty' trained, postmodern Western scientist m her, I believe,
who delights m such baSling, bewildering assortments o f ( ^ o n s , culminating (far me) m her
almost ccmvincing slogan "splitting, not being, is the [xivileged image fbr faninist epistemologies

Sandra Harding,

jWe/Kg? ff/xwe

(New York: Cornell University Press, 1991), p. 123.

10

o f sciemti&c knowledge."" Almost, F w m ysd^ I prefix the idea o f Ag/mg as a verb - partial,
strategic, accoimtË)le, resonating - enthralled in the process o f being. His:story has been entirely
too full o f q)lit womm, split bodies, qilit widiin themselves, within family and as a community.
Splittirg does not sound entirely whole, and whereas partial perspective - as in articulating my
own experience as excruciatingly vital, posonal testimony - adds another p o rt to the becomingmore-whole, splitting takes away, promises furdier suSm ng. And yet, partial perq)ective also
seems to be what Donna Haraway is after when die concludes, that "the moral is simple: only
partial perspective promises objective vision".'^ The quest then seems to become a meeting o f
partial perspectives towards the resonatiag landscape o f feminist intersubjectivity. With regard to
the androcentrically rooted, manipulative idea o f Western research, however, Linda Tuhiwai
Smith's speaks in a most serous tone o f her people's experiences:
"The word itself "research', is probably one of the dirtiest words in the indigenous world's vocabulary. When
mentioned in many indigenous contexts, it stirs iq) silence, it coiyures up bad memories, it raises a smile that
is knowing and distrustful It is so powerful that indigenous people even write poetry about research." "
So much for at least one creative link between poetry and research.
How about poetry or research?" I am thinkmg h o e o f die serious business o f Joy Kogawa's practice
o f poetry as "the sweeping out o f deW s betweai the conscious and the unconscioas. It's engaging die

Dorma Haraway, "Situated Knowledges" dom
QAorgs; a » /
(New York: Rrxidedge, 1991),
pp. 190 -192.
"ibid., p. 193.
" Ibid., p. 190.
" Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Decokmzmg A&rAodWpgfer, p. 1.
" I had irntially planned to talk about my use of poetry in a separate chapter, but decided othewise as the thesis
grew. So let me briefly note a &w key ideas as to vhy I feel so strongly about the incorporation of poetry in my
writing. Or any feminist writing fbr that matter.
in its total diversity, it is a perfect, malleable, transdmnational medium suited far the articulation of
women's multiple, (strat%ically) lived experience
as a minimalist voice it easily crqrtures essences, multiple concerns and issues
in its ability to doat surprisingly dee dom linguistic structure, it pmmises a healing, evocative medium to
bridge a writer's mothertongues.
the unlimited creative 'categories' of poetry allow fbr accumulative expansion of thou^its, self-reflections,
organic processes or dramatic, spontaneous statements, punch lines
as a fbrm of creative writing, its flexible, dagmentary nature dts into women's every day life, a dw lines
jotted here and there (Adrienne Rich's experience while raising children...)
the visual body of a poon, its corporeality, is fbr me, personally, very intruiging because of its BODY,
whose sum total feels more than the conventional run-on line of prose, whose body like the body of woman
undergoes gradual, ongoing, profbund changes emerging - like the poetic swellings - dom the inside out
as a creative languie, it carries the structural potential to bypass, outgrow, die master's tools; poetry as a
way of being remains open to women's hormonal ductuations - in actuality and symbolically, in creating
and mirroring her own body-rhythm curves, in poetry, I del women dnding themselves in cetain
circumstances can be true to themselves.
11

discipline o f dreams."'^ On the o th a hand, maybe it is h a him assadon on die righthil place o f
poetry that qieaks directly to my own thoughts o f die purpose-AiUness o f poetry in this thesis:
"I would like to write something that was real, too, and 1 wras trying to do diat in my poetry."^'^

poetry as a language fbrm links ancient forms of spirituality with neo-colonial postmodemity, since it was
probably the most ancient fbrm of human eiqiressicm before written languages, as song and orally recited
wisdoms. And the agelaig traction of fusing poetry as song with dance has been the acknowledged
expression of individual and collective experience: we return thus to body-rhythm;
poetry as prayer, song, song/dance, proverbs —poetry in its many guises has accorrqianied women through
the millennia, dom the lullaby to the grandmotW passing on rhymes to her grandchildren —
Joy Kogawa in Interview with Janice Williamson,
(Toronto: University of Tororrto
Press, 1993), p. 155.
Ibid., p. 157.
12

body-hum
h æ we are Ihen.
HA your head
your fbrdiead
your dieekboues
HA your scalp
remiange your collarbones,
now open your mouAi,
sing, no?
ah
can't hear
all I hear is absence
where your body resonates
close your eyes no point seeing
again breathe in slowly
that's it
no use rushing things
round them out
yes o f course your breasts
feel diem HA
soAiyrest there
included
let your breath travel th ro n g
body Auid
leisurely
sound cavities you never knew existed
detach knuckle joints
expand pelvis, loosen it
as when you hold your womb
Am out those hiplwnes
wide
wider
exhale your triangle
release the 6 a r in your knees
let breath Aow inside the contours o f each toe
vibrate your body whole

spaces that touch you
&el their swelling
hear their swelling
now sing
aaah
you hear her?

bo^-hum '^

This description is a feminist reworking of the ways in which one of my voice pro&ssors encouraged me to
consciously prepare to 'open' up my physiological body and oqierience the multitude of sound chambers which
together vibrate into the totality of airwaves
sound
language........
13

"Every gesture, evay word involves our past, preswt, and future. The body never stops accumulating. And
years and years have gone by mine without my being able to stop them, stop it... .My story, no doubt, is me,
but it is also, no doubt, older than me. Younger than me, olda^ than the humanized. Unmeasurable,
uncontainable, so immense that it exceeds all attempts at humanizing. But humanizing we do, and also
overdo, for the vision of a story that has no end, no middle, no b^inning; no start, no stop, no progression;
neither backward nor harward, only a stream that flows into anodier stream, an open sea —is the vision of a
madwoman." (Trinh T. M in h ^: 1989, p.l22)
"If you look at a large subject through the medium of a Httle book you see fbr the most part something of such
vague and wavering outline that, though it may be a Gredc gem, it may almost equally be a rrxruntain or a
bathing machine." (Virginia Woolf: 1925, p. 64)
"...In wom«i's writing we are addng 'What's reality' and 'What's hction?' because the reality we live in is a
Gction fbr women since we didn't participate in creating it. Reality has been created thror^h men's Gction,
through the imaginary menprrgected of themselves on reality. If women had built our cities, the ardiitecture
would be totally different, because we would have projected part of our bodies as men projected their penis in
military arsenals and guns. We would have projected the shapes of our bodies, our minds and our emotions in
the way we light up the cities, in architecture aixl painting. The question fbr women in playing with language is
really a matter oflife and death. Were not just playing far 6m in a kind of game. W ere Ending our own voice,
eaqrloring it and making new sense where the general sense has lost its meaning and is no longer of use. If you
want to grow, you've got to be at Ae origin of new meaning, somehow you have to honour your gender."
(Nicole Brossard, interviewed by Janice Williamson,
1993, p. 64)
I am very Artunate to be able to e?q)lore issues o f ecology and feminism witbm personal as
well as global contexts while moving within an impressive (and rapidly growing) infrastructure o f
q)iiitually inGaiming, critically sensitive and bopeftd writings by extraordinary women. Trinh T.
Minh-ha, Karen Warren, Val Plnmwood, Carolyn Merchant, Vandana Shiva, beU hooks, Rosemary
Radford Rnelher, Anne Bishop, Charlene Spietnak, Susan GrifBn, Maria Mies, Andre Lorde,
Adrienne Rich, Nicole Brossard, Donna Haraway, Winnie Tomm, they and all the 'conoete' women
in my own every d ^ life, including my mother, have inqnred me widi their enthusiastic
determination and guided my inquiry along various avenues o f ecological Aminist strategies. I am
deeply thankhil fbr their committed energies. They have articulated alternate ways o f seeing and
perceiving, conceptual frameworks, built out o f shared desires o f ecological grassroots movements
and womai's groups, linking themselves and each other into a giant network--web Wrose scope is as
large as the planet itself. And while some o f these writer/activists insist on Ae urgency to develop and
inqrlement a feminist ethics o f care, others, like my mother, suggest an inclusive care ethics o f all
relations on this planet, bom out o f the combined strategies o f Aminist, qriritual and ecological
faninist perqrectives, practiced on a daily basis th ro n g the most trivial seeming small rituals. Their
perspectives cootmuously push my self towards A e realization o f A e necessary, hopefully reflexive
interplay between Aeory and practice. Above all, they call on me to h i g h l i t the nrutual

14

mterdq)endeiicy o f any paradigmatic shifts that hcmor w om ai's diverse w ^ s o f being as rmique and
diSaent, as well as Aose that acknowledge Ae ecological interconnectedness o f all planetary life
forms and màke it relevant to myself and oAers.
"The world's emliest archives or Hbraries were the memories o f women Patiently transmitted &om mouA to
ear, body to body, hand to hand. In the process of storytelling, speaking and listening refer to realities that do
not involve jnst the imagination The speech is seen, heard, smelled, tasted, and touched It destroys, Wings into
life, nurtures. Every woman partakes in the chain of guardianship and of transmission A Adica it is said that
every griotte who Aes is a whole library that bums down. _. tell me and let me tell my hearers what I have heard
&om you vdm heard it dom your mother and your grandmother, so that what is said may be guarded and
unfailingly transmitted to the women of tomorrow, who will be our dnldren and Ae children of our children
These are the opanog lines she used to chant before embarking on a story. I owe that to you, her and her, who
owe it to her, her and her. I memorize, recognize, and name my source(s), not to validate my voice through the
voice of an authority (Ar we, women, have little authority in the History of Literature, and wise women never
draw their powers dom authority), but to evoke her and sing. The bond between women and word. Among
women themselves. To produce their dill effect, words must, indeed, be chanted Aythmically, m cadences, o d
cadences."^^
From Ae proœ alive powers and insights generated Arough women's bodied sdves to Ae
diverse wealA o f womoi's communities everywhere as knowers and healers to each oAer, to
women's care practices o f Ae human collective and, dnally, to women's Aeless rmching mto A e soil
to plant, harvest and manage A c very basis we dqiend on fbr bA itself: those are, to my
undastanding, Aur o f Ae foundational areas that provide Ae nexus o f women's lives on this planet.
All women may not aicounter these experiences m Aeir Kves, nor may Aey even desire Aem.
R%ardless o f Western feminist inquiry into essentialism or constructivism, however, Aey still are Ae
most pervasive expressions, globally, o f women's e v a y day lives. They take place within Ae
unAitudc o f oppressions which help Aape the particularity o f our situated knowledges, and Aus
deSne the site o f différences and commonalities wAich women everywhere are able to share and
analyze

inAvidnal sdfdeterm inabon as well as collective empowerment.
1 have several reasons fbr wiAing to Ascuss Aese areas o f women's experiences m more

detail: as fundamentally gendered expressions o f identity, these areas o f women's q)istemologies
continue to be made largely mvisible, and need to be brilliantly highlighted if we are to have a
meaningful future m any collective, i.e. global efArts o f women-coming-togeAer, let alone survival

Tiinh T. Minb-ha,

AtUhv OfAer, (Indianap<As: Indiana University Press, 1989),

W. 121-122.

^ I purposely use the term 'Aundational', since these are the most common areas of meaning fbr women
everywhere, not merely a privil%ed few, (most of whom are situated in the Western societies) \Ao are being

15

o f Ae human species.^ As contemporary, ;mmaiy expressions o f women's lived identity politics in
so-called Third World countries^^ and among Westem(ized) aboriginal fbnrih world peoples, Aese
essentially care-taking - practices must be admowledged, honored and celebrated, because only then
can Western feminists hope to be invited to become allies to women elsewhere.
Besides being primary expressions o f most women todty, Aese care-taking practices
contione to provide Ae key A human existence on this planet, maybe even planetary life itself As
women's traditional and contemporary roles have been Ae care-taking o f humans, non-humans and
the soil, it is through the making-visible and honoring o f Aose same roles that we can hope fbr a
future oflife on this planet. Lastly, my mterest m highlighting women's multiple care-takiag politics
arises out o f my own life experience as a hanale European immigrant A Canada, which has enabled
my own understanding o f the monstrous set o f euroceiAic patriarchal systems o f oppression, which
have been continued further A unexpected atrocities through NorA American pohtics o f so-called
global restmcturmg'. Coming inA femirust consciousness m Canada, 1 have b% un A see the
inadequacy o f current Western Aminist Aeories as potential inclusive strategies fbr Ae empowerment
o f women globally, for as long as we insist on distancing ourselves horn practices o f caring and
nurturing on our road A selAood and self-determination^. So. Let me explme how women m their
collective diversity shqre the continurty o f human liA on this planet. Shepe Ae continuity o f all li A.

deAied as pivileged in the global systems of oppression based on class, gender, age, sexual orientation, race,
ethnicity, ability, geographic location, colonization and anti-semhism, to name a few.
^ by that I imply, as a matter of course, the survival of planetary life as is, since humans are - we slowly b ^ in
A perceive this - utterly dependent on the Aincdonmg interdependence of all diverse liA forms.
"To survive, Third World' must necessarily have n^atrve and positive connotations: negative when viewed
in a vertical ranking systmn - "urxlerdeveloped' conpared A over-industrialized, 'underprivileged' within the
already Second sex - and positive when understood sociopohtically as a subversive, 'non-aligned' Arce.
Whether Third World' scaiods negative or positive also dqrends on who uses it. Coming hum you Westemaa,
the wwd can hardly mean the same as when it comes horn Us members of the Third World. Quite predictably,
you/we who condemn it most are boA we who buy in and they who deny any partkâpation in the bourgeois
mentality of the West..." Trinh T. hCnh-ha, Ifbman, AWve, OAer, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press,
1989) pp. 97-98. This excerpt, part of a longer analysis of the t«m "Third World" in the politics of rmming and
vdio names, points A the diÂcuhy of allying within a linguistic-caltural contextualization of domination
politics. For myself I am deeply ashamed of my own conplicitness, yet I have found no acceptable solution to
this ethical dilemma other than conceding my own growing consciousness around issues of complicit practices
in ecological feminist discourse. AAer long ^liberation I have decided A reAr A 'socalled Third World
countries', altematiog wiA less-industrialized', 'ntmWestem countries', and others, as opposed A 'malindustrialized Western countries'. As TrirA T. Minh-ha so put it, it all depends on the vahie-ladei context.
Please also see glossary.
^ As Titah T. Mmh-ha deAies it, "Feminism in such a context may well mean "westernization'", (ibid, p. 106).
16

TTm)ngh theii giving, growing, shiAing, absorbing, fhnd, strong and loving bodies, which are
dif&rent, OtAer - horn the masculinist norm, and so richly diverse - in th d r individual beauty.
Since the theme o f my thesis is women's bodies, their biological potmtial and their f^act o f
mothering as an hopeful, transharmative, and at the same time grounding strategy towards allying
widnn ecological feminist contexts, let me begin by saying that to retrieve women's bodies becomes a
paramount task. For I believe Aat within A e W estan masculinist system o f knowledge and
knowledge production which the hir/tory o f Western 'civilized' thought has so artfully designed and
successfully mapped throughout Ae m odon world o f capitalism, Aere lies embedded a great
landscqre o f heganmdc dualism. This landsc^e is vast. Like a man-made desert it knows no
boundaries and reqxxAs no other harms oflife, no other sy^em s o f living. When once it has
cov(her)ed this ot/her wiA its suGbcating layers upon layers o f dominant logic, has articulated,
pres0ier)ved and int(ha^^ialized its hegemonic Aought-vocabulary m its patriarchal language and
language structure, and has colonialized this other seddng to As/rgrpear its identity, Ae struggle to
re-e/merge turns into a struggle fbr bare survival. For to re/appear, she must be-cmne visible, come
into hacus, become cartered and subject to her claim o f self Become. As Nicole Brossard reminds us,
" ...patrtorcha/ menmrng coMMot a&rnd the vmhr/rty

women or u roA ca/ W yect (my italics). " ^

Yes, I am talking about A e colonization o f Ae fanale. Gender, sex, the body alone remains a
constant visible reminder o f Ae physical 'sexual' difference betw eai male and female genders. Thus
A e body becomes the crucial 'target' A objectif, to negate and act out the entire history o f
sexual/textual erqrloitation. Through Ae consciousness fbrming, reflective f a c t o f language.
"The question Ar women in playing w th language is really a matter oflife and deaA. We're not just playing
Ar fun m a kind of game. W ere fmding our own voice, exploring it and making new sense where the
geieral sense has lost its meaning and is no longer of use. If you want A grow, you've got A be at the origin
of new meaning, smnehow you have to honour your gender
Language revolves with/m Ae center o f meaning m W estan Aought-eaquMsion. The
o u t-c u rin g and shap ing o f words inA legitimated rituals o f texts, linking and haming, organizing
and re/organizing thought patterns through Ae act o f ex/pressing them, language is being held m a

^ Nicole Brossard in interview wiA Janice Williamson,
Press, 1993), p. 65.
'^Aid., p. 65.

(Toronto: University of ToronA

17

symbiotic cycle with the incqition and realization o f thought, at best a proqiwous relatimiship,
expanding the creative horizon o f both, at worst a perpetuation o f destructive paradigms,
destructive because o f their inâdious ability to construct and re/present a logic o f dominatâm, o f
power-over-relations, Wiich bends our pocqrtion o f reality to such a degree that through the
thoughts we fbrmuMe in/to Ae langu%e we qreak, we becmne witnesses and %ents, and through
Ae act o f ex/pressing thought m Ae language o f domination become corrobmatcns m the careful
maintainance o f the patriarchal power structure prevalent m Westem(ized) countries.
Looking through texts, living, reflecting with/in/through A e lived d u p es and contours o f
my body, living, reading, writing a lw ^ s m con/tact, I ask m yself'am 1 still Allowing Ae
propelling 'drift' o f my thoughts and images? Do I believe m wAat I am writing or has it become a
dangerous exercise, linking women's articulated erperiences mcluding my own, trying to provide
these testimomes wiA what I perceive as a comfortable space, safe horn aidden attacks yet open
and accessAle to mcouraging commentary, constructive critique, and, yes, A at hopeful dem ent o f
criteria - a desire A understand and build commitment - Awards w hidi goal?: towards Ae
re/creatioa o f a dwdling-m-this-world-earA-home A at is filled wiA meaning and reqrect fbr
womai, all rdatioiK and Aeir Averse 'o A an ess'.
When 1 say dangerous exercise', I am talking rAout A e risk o f wmking within A e (stdl)
rather traditional conhnM o f academic writing, particularly when situating a piece o f
representative^ writing m Ae ndghboA ood o f social sciences and afOxing the, albeit occasional,
label o f 'qualitative research'. The danger lies m A e 'choice' o f tools: A e language used, the
restricted (and m turn restricting) points o f view^, the type/direction o f research 'chosen', A e
subsequent selection process o f documented data, and the overall packaging o f the hnal project as
a work Aat is, after all, designed to win a vague nod o f - if not a^noval, then at least acceptance
by academic examiners. Piecing together, f^xicating this collage I struggle wiA my/self as Isubject, initiator, mmipulaAr o f story-bits, and 1-otAer, who hnds hei/self inscribed over and over

^ Representative as a reciprocal relaticmship: representing the academy per se A the 'outside world' as well as
re-presenting the sAdent - herself being A an extent the product of the academy - back A the academy.

18

in in the pauses, gq)s, the re-connectmg hagments and knots o f their/our lived stories, who lives
her/ self in/between the lines o f women's Aces and Aeir narratives. How can I posit as subject
trying to describe, no, enunciate womar/them/her/ I/other without adding another spiral to the
heganonic c^decfvnMdkAough&v«ndpKWMa dance? ''Is it not, indeed, always in the name o f
freedknn thatA/^ffreedkrnilurskBistostanip out those o f odiers? Isitrwotalso hrlheruniwccKrthe
masses that My personality bestirs itself to im/p@"sonalize those o f my sister-wo/men? Do the
masses become masses by thanselves or are they the result o f a th eo r^ cal and practical operatimi
o f "massihcation''?^ And more, because this is also what 1 intend: how to help re/claim the power
o f OtAer-u; for than/herself - without adding to the Aurde» o f the OtAer, our burden; how to
destabilize domirmnt language whose "claim to objectivity subjects words to a willed mearhngintention" ^
Does the clue lie in the dance o f rec/a/mmg OtAer-iw? For in reclaiming something 1
retrieve and re/place that which was deliberately lost, mis/placed, stolen and dis/placed outside the
horders' o f the universal. Reclaiming the OtAcr-ur then becomes a polylogous narrative
process-dance o f many voices and on many levels.
"h seems to me duU woman 'ckrives', 'diverts', sHAs meaning in such a way that meaning can be curved
and redirected tmvards her cxperienceaiKl to wAtU moUeM.j..] To me this also explains why women will
link narrative Aagments, poetical prose, autobiographical passages, and poetry in the same piece of writing.
Because women's experiences is marginalized in life as well as in literature, women's subjectivity needs all
genres at the same time. The way we re-route wwds to our own experience opers up* entire zones of
unknown Md unspoken dimensions of reality.
This is how Nicole Brossard erqrlains women's choreogr^hies o f curving meaning so that it
reaches the hmcr harbor o f tAerr meaning and becmnes a radical tool. 1 was extranely glad when 1
came across this passage in her interview with Janice Williamson, because 1 Alt validated in my
desire to alternate critical analysis with interview text, poetry and self^reflexive prose. When the point
o f the story becomes the sheer survival o f the storytellers, the diversity o f women's testimonies needs
to be (hqrlayed, and in the process legitimized. It is true that "[W]hem a Aminist scholar selects a

^ Point of view here addresses the linear guidelines of 'proper' academic reading/writing, as well as the entire
range of resulting paradigmatic schemata that accompany one's enclosure within the manual of academic
thought construction, Aought expression, i.e. one's 'Wekbild'.
^TrinhT. Minh-ha, IPiomanAWve OtAer, (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1989), p. 12.
^Aid., p. 53.
^ Nicole Brossard in interview with Janice tATUiamson in
p. 64.
19

pardcukr method, she choosesacertain type o f (xmhol o v a her snlgect matter andacertain type o f
fbcos,"^ cautions Shulamit Reinharz, and in this instance talks about the conversational quality of
oral bastm y methods (she terms it Atrkwy). I agree with the very qrecial qualities o f intimacy which
can turn oral hastory into such a Amdamental celebratimi o f women's odierwise obscured lives.
Moreover, oral language is ever so much older dran die written word, no m att» how spontanous die
page becomes. When asked rdiout orality in h » Native heritage, Lee Maracle speaks about die
tradition o f die Big House qieakers and storytellers as having
"a way of presenting story. In the Big House there are powerful people i^ o know the history, the 6milies, the
relationships between evayone. And they're also the people who are asked to articulate whatev» it is that
people want to decide or discuss They have a cadence and a drama when they speak, which matches up with
our songs and story dances."^'
As a Western European immigrant, die tpialides o f oral language are almost lost to me, and
part o f my perstmal journey towards htmoring indigenous women (and their societies) has bem to
qqiredate the signidcanoe o f die various roles o f orality in hwligenous cultures, and in turn begin to
undastand the criminal strategies o f colonialism designed to eradicate the cultural signidcance o f oral
story - and with it, die eradication o f the threads o f meaning that hold togedier the cross-generational
Abric o f indigenous cultures. As when Leonor Zalabata o f the Arhuacan people in north-west
Colcanbia, qieaks o f spinning as
"spinning life. Patterns are s(HO and tbrmghts are spun, and I believe that this is li&. When one qiins one thinks
about the life of what one is doing. While observing how the sun moves each day, the earth turns around the sun
and the sun moves creating the day. .and the spindle by turning rqnesents this movement and that function that
the earth has daily, the passage oftbe hours, to turn and turn. When we move the spindle we make the same
movement as Metier Earth: she is always qiitming; she is spinning life and in spinning life she is selecting. She
is creating the thread of life, the thread of history and that history is qmn by us with the ^indle."^^
The contradicdmis inherent in a resear(di»'s search to locate women's voices while using neocolonial
reasearch rules as a dam e o f reference seem insinmotmtable, particularly in the face o f Western
obsession with the more distanced, 'objecdi^dng' written word, Anther dis/placed through die
electronic devices we set up between our selves and die readers/listeners. What came as a revelation
to me were Lee's next words on the connective links betw eai poetry and oratory:

^ Shulamit Reinharz, fkmimarAArAodk
fkwarch, (Oxhard: Ox&rd Univenaty Press, 1992), p. 132.
Lee Maracle in interview with Janice Williamson,
(Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 1993), p. 166.
Lenor Zalabata, Hewing Traditions Alive", &om Aa&gBMoiw fybme»; t k jR(ghr to a Pbte, Diana Winding,
ed., (Copenhag»!: IWGIA, 1998), p 30.
20

"I suppose ûom my own background and 6 e way we speak English and the things we look at and see and
structure of Indigenous story comes a kind of poetry that's not poetry in the European sense and not story in the
European sense either. I think Marlene Philip has termed it - oratory."^
Deq)ite, or rather, because o fh er disclaimer on die dif&reoce she perceives between Indigmious and
European poetry, I fed eiKxiuraged to move findier into die direction o f Ending multiple w ^ s to
rerpresent women's voices.
Opming my writing qiace to w om w is tme o f the pleasures 1 feel in areadng my thesis
collage. Since all the citations selected are placed outside their own context, ethical ccmsidarations
must be given ixiority to avoid distortions and dishmiesty. One o f the most pertinent questions
becomes: does the placement o f the excerpt answer to the general content o f the original stmrce text?
As w dl, the custom to present small excerpt Wibs seems to aggravate the risk o f m isrepresm tii^ the
author's original intent, and, like the punchline in ad campaigns, denies die very real textual/visual,
qiace which

marginalized voices oAen struggle to inhabit. Opening my i^pace to diese less-

than-mainstream voices, I take inidative in moving Eirward in educating m yself toward becoming an
aUy - and may be less o f an oppressor, keeping in mind Lee Maracle's words:
"Always ranemb» - 1think it's a significant lesson - everything you do and every word you q)eak, either
e n ^ w a s or discmpowers And you have to always double drink. I know I have to make these decisions every
time I'm in a white audience because a momentary disempowerment in the end is a long-term empowerment. ..I
decided on a January day in 1988 it's time to take mi all tWs stujBFout there in the public world and so I do. I
started in Montreal in June of 1988 asking White women in the faninist movement to 'move over' - actually
telling them to move over In their own interest they must move over because half o f drem is missing and fm
that half. Not me pesonally, but Native womeiL There's no other way, there just isnt any other way." ^

Lee Maracle in interview with Janice Williamson,
Press, 1993% p. 167.
^ Ibid., p 168.

(Toronto: University of Toronto

21

g/fAer a caWfy o r o <6v// owf
wAof dbgf meo»
wAgwyow fovg
g/fAgrapgoAor
yow a r e A e ô ^ ^poAe» A)

7M0'6e /«We fo mqyAg
/ÜfgM
wAo jg w o t;

mow wAemj/ow
Wem m
fOjWO"

AÂk-o-woy ggy
ffr o fw W

AAeye//K^;$A
(roMcg
/Toremf
/TOem» wo$A
o fA ore

om(y
wAere <A^ fowcA

}ww

Awrf

22

Chapter Two
Women': bodk:, women's
bndogknlcyde

(Western) famW:* dBwMsa of essemd^bm, nnnge: of w*mmem':

"I know no wMnan - virgin, mother, leAian, celibate - whether Ae earns ha^ keep as a housewife, a cocktail
waitress, or a scanner of brain waves
whom h«^ body is not a fundamental ;»oblem: its clouded meaniog,
its Anility, its desire, its so-called Algidity, its bloody speeches, its silence its changes, its mutilatioos, its
rq)es and ripenings. There is Ar the Srst time today a posâhility of convating our physicality into both
knowledge and poww Physical motherhood is merdy mte dimension of our bang. We know Aat the sigk of a
certain &ce, the sound of a voice, can air waves oftcndeness in the uterus. Prom brain to clitmis through
vagina to uterus, we are lArung with invisible messages of an urgency and restlessness whidi indeed cannot be
4 »peased, and of a cognitive potentiality that we are (wly b^innmg to guess at. We are neither inner' nor orner"
«mnructed; our ddn is alive with âgnals; rmr lives and our deaths are iiBqMiraWe Aom the release (^blockage
of our thinking bodies." ( Adrienne Rich: 1986, p. 284).
"The clitohs is pure in purpose, h is the rmly organ in the body designed ;anely A)r pleasure. The chtwis is
simply a bundle of nerves: 8,000 nerve hbers, to be precise. That's a higher concentration of nerve hbers
than is fburtd anywhere else in the body, including the Gngertips, lips, and tm%ue, and it is
twice , twice , twice the number in the penis." ^ v e Ensler: 2001, p. 51).
"From the damnant group cme can see a chain reaction that goes Aom 'you're talking nonsense,' to
patemalitic listening, to guik m initatability, then n^odatirm, then eitha^ accqrtance, rejection, w
neutralization of the dominated. From the dominated group: a burst of ai%er, followed by a shaping of an
identity and solidarity, empowmnmit, then negotiaticm, then autonomy, resistance, w integration. Most of
the time guns erupt in t k pocess, and the discursive Anms are simpliAed by a cycle violence^evœge
arguments. Most of the time dominator and dominated have their own culture, values, aixl tradhkms, but, in
the case of women oM*omng men's domination, we have to conmder that, because women live in Ae same
culture as those they oppose, most of the time they are already 'integrated' or 'neutralized' by institutions
such as marriage or Mterosexian. [...] Uncoverh% lies makes space hn a new sense mid thereby transforms
meaning This is where I believe radical change can occur because thmi cme has to take into account that new
meaning The new meaning also startstoproducenewmetaphors which cbangethewayweseethings."
(Nicole Brossard in intaview with Janice Williamson,
1993, p 67).
"what do you expect of your bisband?"
"I want my husband to love me a lot."
"what dow be expect you to do?"
"he wants me to do everything he adcs me."
(Conversatimi with Fatoumata Toure, secrmd wife. D'Aluisio, Faith, and Peter MenzeL" 1996, p. 178).

What can I say other than that the politics o f patriardhal heterosexism are at the source o f gendered
(^inesaon. And it all b%ins in the ;nivate home where he still rules th ro n g ongoing politics o f
jAahocratic legitimization. Regardless o f contanpmary recmiAgurations o f what die modem Amnly
can look like, W estan languages o f representatimis (media, law, religicm, medicine) «mdnue to
presume the pater Amilias to be tim cmly legitimate head o f the family propa^. Whether or not his
physical fm m is manifest, his rule seems to be die mily culturally validated.

23

/Afy
q/'Mm
a ; ÿ " /^
OMcowpficofaf com%Mofw?»
fAaf Aecome mmcWo/y
ma OMMrMMe*6ef3
q/"M$ /eav/»g fW
7M OMf aeow (0 agrgg o»
o r mayAe
dio
Awf wAo mwW )b*ow
(Ae
fAg; go aAowf
afgwmg orcwm$&mc&y /gMonmg ofAer; /Aaf
o y ^ r aAëadoM Agcowae /A ^ W / am oAvfoua ffa?y
a» oAvïow ewAfig A? a marriage
a/Amify
even iAü orne
iAü camAai am e
iAk f({pAüÜcaiecf iM/>wirwciwre q/"gaaiegic /ie^
iAay dion VfooA a i eacA oiAer aa iAty ia/Aq^Ak fwdden diepariwre
a f iAey memiian iAe years q/^
Ai$ iAeaincai wmAfçyiness
iAe years q/'aggressive se^/^aAsorAdon
we ia/A q/^iAis raiAer iAan
iAe years q/'Ais «mceriiraied id wid.
as i^ii madie a d ^ rem ce io wAiiewasA rww
a/?erad iAai
ardess io Ave iAe same /raiiems
mayAe Aide AeAiraf iAe same iwisied va/wes
Aide
arwf even iAoagA iAey q/)er; ward io
wiiA a gaiei Ae(p/ess d e ^ r o d o n wani io
/eave Aim
iam iAeir AacAs as Ae iarned Ais
a/masi /krm iAe Aegirmir^
iAey c a n 'i
car; i seem io iarn Aim ioose mio Ais owr;
Ais own siory ordy Ae car: m anÿaiaie io swii
as /ong as iAey re/&r io Ais room AeAira/ iAe c/osed door no orK eniers
wAere among Ais AooAsAe/ves ara/ iAe A/acA radio on iAe wiraiowsi//
iAe o/d desAcordirmes errgriy
in iAe co/d corner wAere iAe san a/ways warms /asi
ara/ in w inier^i/s io rise aAove iAe
wirafowsi// a/iogeiAer.
iAe on/y visiA/e dg^rence a ^ er iwo years.
i/K cAair
Ae wsed io occwpy eacA rdgAi a i /rrecise/y eigAi jo. m
-wAi/ie dowr»6nrs iAe_^nrd/y si/endy si{ ^red dirmerAis c/osed ear iwrwd in io german radio
is gone.

24

AimAig p e h f wbff

/» fAe (gyrcBr/MMde cmfer fAey7oofp/oM
a amo/kr vgMiom q/^my AAdfA
7 Aeaifafg
wp aAove a ^o f awmAveok Aer w yj
qga;mf (Ae (oo Wzd rq^er;
/7mgs my aAadow Aoct o«( over (Ae voeonf amowacqpe
(Aof fwo/Zowg A (Ae wqy (( ywaf/ow^ o(Aer ((MrdWoZef
AAe WMe^ffo/ /ove
dormoM( Aqpef or core/eag promwef
(m(o o WKk ff/eMce comceo/ed

dwqppeormg7m«e my eyef
(Aere
Ao/owed aga;m$( o (lomipg wm(er$^
yowr &dAowe((e wa:(î
cAom fow m Aowd
(Ae amAigwowf memwre q/yowr f^oo<ÿ W /
q /k r wAo( we Aove Aeem (ArowgA
o f de»( VM((
A)g%w^ed gycAoMge
» m good Of ;( mqy ever Ae
f(z//
eve» Of 7 /eove (Ae f((e
7 wow/d Aove pre/^rred gem/e /)»ger(ÿ»
(o/Af y^Tzo/j^ me/(mg owqy /o»g »(gA(f
y7w(dAegfwzmgf
ybrmow
(Aw oe( q^AwddifpgAoofe wyowr wqy q^
powrzqg fW(gA( o// over
(Aroo(
AAe Aiffef yow eom*o( /e( go
^rw ow
(Aif Aoiwe you Aw(/d (fy&(r wormmg
(Ao(yow (mend (o mAoA((
(oge(Aer
w ^»o(paeA w p Aof^omdgo
o«(f(de q/"Aere
AzwA/owd Aeffde eo»(e%(
o AroAe» poreA door
yk(/w/f q/^Ao(r
o f mofAedpAo«e
o AoAy'f wA(mper
Aoimd qp A* (wo f q^ fmo// Aodzee Ae/omgimg
7 (AAzA(Aw w o y)?gA(em»g gwef((o»
7 AegA* (o (AAzA
o( (Aw f (oge o»y qzzefdo» wyHgA(e»z»g
f(»p/y
Aecozwe (( demorndf OMOMfwer
7 w reo/ 7 w reo/ 7 w reo7 ozzd do»'(yoz/ everyôrge(
fozz
25

AarWe-Ax*

(Aem
(ÿ*er a// (A» /gMomîMïowf (rea&Menf

wAy k ;Y(&zf we ffi/Zyeom^y (Afwe^owwg
m aw f q/^Aozr

(Acwe gMd/ggf/y fAfWMerAig gwAe; q/^wwwrfaf ^xw^fom fo Ae)p m
rememAer fAe «nmewwnzaA/e
A/eocA-A/bWdiawce q/"mmjemAoW
fAwwgA fqyeM q^gr /qyery q/^
gofmedc gkrAombom
po/ygffgr w»AA*g
fAavg(f g/r/;g fAzm
«5çxw/Mg Ae yoMMg wowW Ao/ « A e
wAeye eveyyoMg
wqy gfo/y A Aer AAA»g$ eve» a ;

aAe Ü fgo/gff myqy
fMffdle Ae coo/ ^e/ecAve gaze q/^
o p e ^ c f/y Aomqw/ cw/Am/ Aomdbge
/m$We A;^ gaze q/^ma/;gwmf owMeraAÿ

Aw;// &%Ae o// Aeryowigyeory
Aer fAorf^ x z /e ( / //^
AcoMMg blown
A

Ae p r^ e rre b conc/m/on

Aof evgyy gmap q/^/Ao$e puniAve A:g Aamok
Ae/r wgAf/y g n p on Aer co;/ q/"/waA oAonbbn
WOf
oa Aiby

/ore.

26

"Iknv c»n I say it? That we are women 6om the start. That we don't have to be turned into women by them,
labeled by them, made holy and pro&ned by them." (Luce Irigaray: 1985, p. 212).
"By stating a partnership with nature in the politics of r%eneration, wmnen are «mukaneously reclaiming their
own and nature's activity and creativity. There is nothing essentialist about politics because it is, in Act, based
on denying Ae patriarchal deGniümi of passivity as the essoice of women and nature. T k re is nothing
absolutist about it, because the neural' is crmstiucted through divwse relationships in divise settings. Natural
agriculture and natural childbirth involve human creativity and sensitivity of Ae highest wder, a creativity and
knowledge emerging Aom partnership and participation, not separation The politics of partnership wiA nature,
as it is being shaped m the everyday lives of women and communities, is a politics of rebuilding connections
and of regeiKration through dynamism and diversity.'' (Vandana Shiva: 1994, p. 142).
H e asked me if I was going to take the materials back and I told him. No.' I k said. Then TU have to charge
you.' I Aid the RCMP, That's all right, but make sure you Ast And a babysitter Ar me.' (laughter) He looked
down at the kids and Adn"t know what A do. The kids said, 'Mom, are you going AjailT I said, 140, he won't
come back.' I was wahii% for him the next momi]%. but be rmver came back. Maybe he couldnt Gnd a
babysitter. " (Karen Perley m
is Euougk .dbonlghia/ IPbmen
Oar. 1997, p. 116).
I am a woman. I am a moAer. From m y childhood throughout A c years o f my becomingfcmale-aduh, my own body has always been n y m o ^ mAnate context. Increasingly, Ae thought
occurs A me Aat our human body has always been - m its actual idysicality - the most immediaAly
visible, tangible siA where culturally constructed meanings and biological Amcdons meet and
(fmceAUy) amalgamize mA a mme or less AmctAning realization o f self. The story o f western
civilization, ie . hisrstory, has long acknowledged Ais process m the explimt deAntion o f the male as
the nmrn, notwithstanding cetain qualifiers such as able-boAed, white, heterosexual middle class.
Simultaneously, so his:stmy goes, the Amale ( b o ^ ) has been measured against A e male norm, and
has - Ailed. The Amale body has been sized, paAaged, tailored, resized, denied rmd denied again as being m itself unique and o f intrinsic worA - A A e point o f conqdAe annihilation.
We may w iA A assume that —having now entered A e year 2003 - we have Anally exposed
tins violent crime and reconstructed cultural meaning A mclude Amale difGaence. We know Ais is
not the case. However we may difkz on the labyrinA o f meanings surrounding Amale sex/gender,
however we may question and argue A e myriad o f ways m which his:sAry has m coded Ae Amale
s d f we know this at least: Aat A e iBrst and last site m this story-teHing has always been Ae body.
The Amale body. S d f is connected A body. Lives are embodied lives. When I qieak, regardless o f
dectnm ic medium, geogrtqAical place or ectmomic situadmi, I q>eak directly out A e phyâcal context
o f my emboAed self its boundaries and deep desires that is also always embedded within cultural
context. We know Ais as well: that our walking, talking, laughmg, crying, loving and delivering

27

bodies widnn W esternized) society are far ûom being req)ectAilly, unconditionally embraced as
Amale difkcmce. The same difkrence that, throughout oogmng (Western) feminist ambivalence
towards biological deteminism, is, as ever, solidly expressed in the biologically guided idœ tity o f
women's own bodies. It is this situation I q>eak to: the continued —if hesitant - n%ation o f the
biological signihcance o f d * female body, its biological liA-cycle and potential, which I regard as a
deep and utterly unresolved crisis in contemporary faninist creativity.
T h ro u ^ my writing I hope to make female bodies more visible, I make visible the
empowering qualities inherent in the biologically productive potential o f female bodies. Anywhere. I
have several reasons for doing so. First o f all, 1 suspect I am acting out o f a deq)«ate, deeply perscmal
and sdh sh need to maintain (or regain?) an acceptable form o f sanity in my lifb. The very personal
act o f writing aborU what compels me, as Shelagh Wilkinsrm says, "holds a;nomise; die wonnm who
claims the time, the freedom to work - to write - for herself o f herself gains autonmny. Such a
woman is fmidied widi being "nice.'^^ This holds true pmticularly with r% ard to feminist writing.
From a fanhnst standpoint theory, the writing down o f personal testimony enables the increasing
validation o f wmnen's varied expériences. To say in Nicole Brossard's strrmg, purposeful words, "as a
lesbian and a Qu&6coise, I belong to minorities, but I always write as if the world bdonged to me,
allowing my desire to dnqie around me die qiace I need to be what I am.

Through my writing I

thus contextualize my self within the community o f faninist experiences.
Secrmdly, I have conpleted at least half o f my h& on this planet, and could not help but
experience my self (o 8 m quite against my will) moving through various intriguing phases o f n y
physical, and very biologically determined, body. From diis intimate experience and odier womm's
told or otherwise documented Aaring, I can - with a certain d% ree o f conviction - say that the
fanale body seems to show an obstinate disregard fm "rational' reasoning. P oiods happm regardless.
Even pregnancies. Feminist thoi%hts seem to be glide uneasily around these blatant - if fluid maniAstations o f Amale biological body rituals. I am talking about not only the abstracted female

^ Shelagh Wihdnson, TBy
in
m
by Sandra Burt,
Loirmne Code, and Lindsay Domey, eds. (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1993) p. 382.
^ Nicole Brossard, in
(Janice Williamson, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993)
p. 66.
28

scxualily which feminist discourse frequency p h y s whh, but about menstruation and potential
pregnancy, and about A e possiWe (xmsequence o f giving birth, lactating, nursing and child-raising.

W hik I accq* A e difBcuhy o f embracing what patriarchal strategy his:storically devalues, I - out o f
my body context - know that only w hm we retrieve A e female body whole bom the mmihilatiag
patriarchal censure, can we move closer A em biadng A e rich totality o f our fianale oqxnence. A
writing about what I perceive as some o f the hopeful and empowering meanings o f female-bodybecoming, I ease Aminist thinking (starting wiA my own) into a more comfbrtË)le and mindAl
hicndship wiA and iKceptance o f our own bodies whose biological clock-tiddng, aAer all,
patnarchal domination politics has always " gleeAUy - c o n sid æ d A e ptimary obstacle o f Ae
women's liberatimi movement.
Thirdly, my own levelling experience wiAin m y bodied self Allowed by my attempts A
Alerate, accept, and ûnally honor the m A cades o f biological determinism, has led me A think A at
Ae female body ü Ae one powerAUy Aagile, sourceful, common damminatm o ftbe female
eqierieoce p ^ se. Globally. No matter how the body may be crmtextualized, pampered wiA
economic privileges, covered or uncovered, stressed, mamouvered through the complexities o f
personal liA, basic biological patterns seem A continne undeterred. Regardloss o f sexual (mentation
or preference, bodies menstruate, breasts become toida^, Ixxhes conceive, Aey swell, wombs eaq)arul,
contract and brrtA, breasts lactate, stories continue. ArtiGal interveoti(ms like hysterectmnies and
vasecAmies are, m my cqnnion, just Aat: artiGal interventions. MerK^nmse is the organic time o f
closure o f women's biological ;nodiKtivity and is as such only evidence o f women's intrinsic
biological difkreiKe. Women's Ixxlies arc bom wiA A e complete number o f ova (etcqA ons only
prove the rule) and carry wiAin Ae potmtial o f biological production m all its intricate cyclicality.
How this potential plays itself out over Ae (xmrse o f our liA time (through external and internal
circumstances) is, I think, A e stuS^ o f each woman's unique, mdrvidual and precious journey. What I
am attempting here is A e great embrace: rmt A Aagment, qrlit, take q*art, but A Gnd ways A come
togeAer m all our weahh o f diverse identities and jom - m all calddoscopic colours, all sbrpes and
nuances - Award recognizing a more concrete formulation ofw om m 's physiologiral (xnmnonahties.

29

Uodarstanding A c Amale body dûs way fosters in me a great h ( ^ that th a e m ty indeed be a
strong, hopeM connection that overindustrialized, white Weatem(izod) women have wiA less
privileged (ahhongh less body-alienated), more (q^rressed womea elsewhere - maybe d re a r^ next
door; that the Aminist call for allying mrd aisteiing can resonate thror%h A e vibrant, textured,
mnhqrly ritualized female body and its inherent biologism. What, I ask, have we to be a&aid of? That
patriarchal politics dangrates our body-biology? Recall, it has done so already, for longw than we
care to ronem lw . Is it not time A stand tg) fin who we believe in, namely, for our sdves as we move
within A e gloiions bodies that continne to be part o f who we are m this wodd-eardi-home? Along this
avenue lies, I am convinced, the possibility o f a more sincere, concrète and hopeful coming-togeAer,
or motWrsistcrhood o f vmmm globally, regardless ofL or let me say, egxcto/fy comrdermg race,
class, age, edmic background, sexual orientation and physical ablemess.
I also talk aboAmothermg and what it does, how it qreaksm original, cretAve ways. I
e^qrlme (limitod as I am, since this ü a two-dimaisional regrresortationm its dual version and since I
OM obligated to pèsent my version o f h e r story according to academic qrecidcations o f Ae discipline
o f gender studies) the activity o f mothering, its potential as heahng, transformative, reo/ stmy-living
- 1 talk about mothering as feminist agency. More than that, dirough personal, redective poetry I
re: visit A e experiace o f moAering as empowaing, fernhnst-envirrmmaital strat^ y , ruthlessly
benign, avaihAlo, sacred, and probably the most prevaricated upon o f all areas o f Amirnst discussion.
And why is that I wonder?
In the introduction to BogAedAfha^h/nars Winnie Tomm hints at the paradox o f a cultural
paradigm which demands that half o f the human q>ecies only contribute to its mearûng by widrolding,
m even denying, its own embodied expRience:
"The dissertatioo bad served as a sorting process. It was, however, a study of abstract ideas coming &om men's
realities. I did not team anyAing specific about bang a woman, even though I learned a great deal about
theories of being a human being (horn t k perspective of males) in the abstracL Such abstract male knowledge
was problematic for me. For example, I had given biiA to two childrm and had qrent several years raising
them. None of the ingnratxmal male auAors whom I had been studying had anything positive to say about
women, much less abmit having babies. As a woman, it was difGcult to "get it together" wiA reqrect to Ae
importaiKe of giving birA and raising children in Hght of the alleged greater importance of intellectual
knowledge, whidi implicitly denigrated the unique contributions of women. (Fortunately, I was oonsdous
eno%%h to choose for the diss«tatkm only literamre which Ad not explicitly AsmnpowR^ women).

^ \Wnnie Tomm, jSWWAÆaÿWoa»; (Wataloo: Wil&id Laurier University Press, 1995), p. 1.

30

I would go so 6 r as to maint&in that most o f the imqurational male authors o f A e tradition^
western humanist paradigm have nothing whatsoever (positive o f othowise) to say about women,
let alone babies, having babies, and Anally, moAers. I consider m yself Aatunate to have stumbled
into A e arm a o f women's and gm der sAAes, and, like Tmnm, for Ae purpose o f my own writing
as w d l as n y sanity, I Ael deeply the need A incorporate only literature which attempts A
empower women - A honour Aeh/our multitude o f bodily lived m qwmices. I Alt pulled towards
anthms whose writings on poetry, moAerhood and boApolitics have literally turned me on', m
that A ey embodry an honesty wiA words, an integrity and aS erce desire A push and prod social
change A the point o f no return. They are activists, poets, theorists, women deeply grounded m the
belief A at women-we must honor our Ixx^-stories A heal ourselves and, m doing w , the world
around us. Their w ritm g,A eirliA stories expand rne. D eqA e all A esupaim posed, theoretical
stewing m the absolute necessity o f the authority o f Ae 'AAers' and oeApal make-believers, Aey
have taken back A eir belief m women, not as a social cat%ory, Arevor and alwiqrs already
pre'scribed, but as lived eoqweocc, wading Arough the mud soig) that is liA and A at calls on
Aeir strmgths A give and share. Their writing is hopeful, because they believe women's lived and
reflective story-Alling is vital and Aundational A A c survival o f our species on this planet They
are hopeful.

31

AiaWie Aer we come MMcomgweraf
fo W o rc W vfryzm : wm
mo/;gw(/ of AfrfA
wof d>ÿW fo /xwf-weocoWfo/ jAorea
fMfAe mifMe (ÿ"my fmo// }%om
A; fAe emerfrng o/jDuAe$cem d a rt
Aer ^ Ao(^ Aon&y twew
coMfeoO
Ate /gw movmg
Ayyferfco//y
roommg wAAm Aer
ccmfexf aeemed fAe co??y/fcff i(p te ^
q/"oecefjory gfncArea focred fc r^ fio w
Aw ooy-Mour Aody AzAoo
wAwe Aody fAe t ^ f o$tmg
'%fwAer
wAom ever^ r "
o/reody cwme /i/kd
f/it :g?d/ed
Aergforfco/
/mo jpoce m Ame cmdd ever Ae ^ef o y fd e ^ r (Aü
m fr^ A fg vemfwre/
m t apd/ed comdmwea fo apd/
y7wfd
qjTwomem aAe Aoa Aeem gÿ)ed
creodve women ^wid
eoamg AfrfA
megodofmg momemA q/"mdmofe comveraodom
fgw wzfA 7(pa co-mmg/mg
word; Aeyomd word* apd/fm g^m Aer mowfA fomgwe A o ^
Amda
ngpe wdA mfemf
we mqy mof Aove Aeem Aorm Aere
fA*a w m ÿW m g Aer-ot^'-owr mofAer^ fomgwe
Am
Ate Aer cAforfa
^»ody_^Mmd
Aefweem /(pa q/]/«rfoiw deafre
we were /omg Ae/bre
Aere
conceived
in aocred ecaiocy.

32

The power which lives in women's body imagery. Reading Cixons for A c hrst time I fWt
embarrassed - o f being embarrassed at such straigkt&nward, empowering metqihors as writing wiA
our milk. Or Lnce kigaray's image o f womai's labia, the two lips already and always engaged m
discmsive, meoMAg/ir/ ecstacy. Postmodermty, Aat vague caleidoscope o f Western discourse analysis
dealers, may have ordered A e deaA o f the metahistorical siAjoct m A e quicksand o f power relations,
hoping to deflect Aom Ae fact that unless women express Aeir selves, cultural meaning will be
business as usual. But we are here, and we will articulate our selves A give ArrAer m eaning A wAat it
means for wmncm A move m te x t- f o r a wmnan A move text, beyond phallic understanding, and
rejoice. For Aen we know A at we have reached body. Meaning.

33

my

my wordk

Aerwordk
comcffve mfemf
wAfwe
^cordk ^ //o w wonA dka/gm fAowgAf ;mocw/ay<f WfA mwogeg prefcnAecf 6y a /xmK&fgmi j/jfMmg wordk
Amteef imfo (Ae /egifAMOfefy (mgxwW coAeremce q /^ rO c w /w ymAzx... Aewore fA«? 6o<fy q/^femfemcef,
Amv (Afy ffyewm/ime imfo gfrofegzc ca/cw/ofiow q/ÿonzgrqpAf cowWfdüfe!^ im/o fAemwdc
A/ocjb Aow (A^ w e 'oZyecfn'e/y' Aowmdl gwYerett comeMedi v eiW or wmveï/eff fy (Ae Ampenow;
/x w e » q/ÿoremfAefef, c^fodow, ^boAofea - Aow ( A e / r f r m m p A o m f 6f6AogrqpA;co/ coÆcf/
m w rb gemeo/qgy.
fNfme?
(M my 6oû^ Avej my wonak, ;m (AougAf^xcAorn, Jo my won& /y e my Aody, ome Aow 7 Area/Ae omd (Ae
or fwrWve.

"Ao(Aea //ve yèmw/e
fwoA (w we were
wf// Ae

(%re

we re.gemero/e Am*eapAo/ owf q/"omek qw(?Am/ypre^/mW /imeor apace W o o«r
ever preaemf Aof/yriAia/ q/"vo/wpAfowa Ae./omg/mg
(ArowgA owr eaaemAa/(;ze(() W erea/
m/o precor/ow we// Ae/mg
(Aer cA//(/k, my mA/tgO(Ak, mxyAe Aer worm-oW a/rver q/"/om((l
a/w(ya
/ArowgAowf afart mdervemAoma
a/w(ya
our Ao(Aea (MMopg (A$&W aAorea
comAmue fo rwe poaa/omafe/yj&Tma/e
^ e / y-owr oceamic yu/cea mumg/e ;m /Ae
aa/mey/u«6 (^your wom«A * /Ae aa// (ÿyowr /eara
^ e / Aormxoma/ A/oaaomia m /Ae ve/ve/ q/your aA/m
y&e/ /Aeir o/gaamAc //dia/ ha/mga
Aow /Aey ///) /umar
imemwiy wavea ;rreapec//ve q/^cw//wra/ male/vo/em/
A/gAer & A/gAer ou/ q/"wAoae /emaporo-apaAa/ coonAma/ea
ou/ q^/Ae ce//u/o/(/ ruAA/ea q/^A/a co/mcAkm/a/ /e/Z/mga
/m/o /Ae A/og?Aer/c Ae/omg/mg q^gemea
/M/o wofmemk AocAea
W o Aer umcofuAAoma/ (Aea/ma q^Ae/mg
/A/a /a a/wayaAaaAeem Aoc^aource_/Ao(^^r-Aecomi;Mg
a//, womiem'a a/eamdmg p/acem/aa
;m /Ae mwA/mg q/^womzA mxamo
we Amow wAo cam /e// wAoae mzu//ÿ/e /ru/Aa
* our mzeam/pg.;/*#// Ao(Aea' e/erma/ re/eaae
- p o w e ^ / guaAea q/"A/oo(/ wa/er m%//A
/a ever Aow we ce/eAra/e
Aumzam Aqppem/mg"
aa our Aod/ea //ve our wordk ao our wordk //ve our Aod/ea, /A/a /a Aow we Area/Ae, Aow we //ve
(mzr Ao(/y
ac//ve mzomzem/ q^Aer

34

As always, in (bis world we re:tnm to body, somewhere, someone's, somertimes mine,
and as aiw^rs, rerpresenting body in text becomes an nneasy event Which disconrse allows,
disallows r«dmt b o ^ parts along which discursive conventions, according to i^ o s e pam ission, based
(m whose strategic mis/nndcrstanding?
WhobeneGts?
Part o f the reason why exploring and creatively writing on the Acme o f mothering takes me
longer than I had anticipated has, I think, h) do with contemporary postmodern ambivalence toward
die notion o f mothering as a feminist «petience. Because o f its mahreatmoit and its strategic
confinement' into carefully monitored spaces connected by absence rather than highlighted presence
widnn patriarchal his:story, modicriag and the ecology o f m othahood as a transformative and
empowering experience within feminist consciousness have been seriously n ^ e c te d in Ganinist
theories, even hxninist body politics^. Though feminist dieories explore the &male body as
patriardial myth and as symbolic counterpoint to dm male b o ^ , it is seen nUher in to m s o f a
biologically determined hazard to self^fnlGllment and enqmwerment, the Amale self always already
inqnisoned through her body's hormonal blue-print. Outside her control. Outside her powers to
control. As a result o f this postmodern Aminist unease with a presumed essentializing' deSniticm
(however vague), the Amale body, our actual physical maniAstationofwho we may be, has not yet
been able to cmne into her own widtin westemfized) society. Has not been able to celebrate
it»-her-m y distinctive, creative, transformative potential, throughout its liA-cycle Aom the onset o f
piqierty to the settling o f menopause. And beyond.
While in A e tumults o f e^qtloiing arguments for m y Aesis I began to realize that A e very idea
o f moAering as Ganinist transformative principle became not mdy intriguing but deeply compelling

^ Probably beginning wiA Simone de Beauvoir' 3 notion of women's biological self as necessarily limiting
woman/women in tb«r Aminist self-determination, I see avant-garde Amlnist ^cholanalytical theorists in
particular, boA Prmich and American, as extremdy reticent about attanpting to reveal women's bodies. One
notable exception is Luce Irigaray, who, in be- attenqX to renegotiate the patriarchal myA of penis envy,
presents us wiA the graphic and bold image of the 'selfaufGcienf Amale genital lips (TMr jkr, pp. 205-218),
thus attempting to countering oontmnporary historical presumptitms of the Amale symbolic as lack. Yet she
prefers to limit women's potenthdity to heterosexual ooosteHadoos. "I think that man and woman is the most
mysterious and creative couple. That isnt A say that other couples may not also have a lot m than, but mao and
woman is the most mysterious and creative." (yfn Atenaew wA* Zwce Afgony, by Kiki Amsberg and Aadce
SteeAuis (Transi Robert van Kridren.) AAoate, 9, p. 199.
35

even: Aroughout œavenüoaal poshnodan (Amimst) discoDrae(s)^, m othaing as a concept is
(xmGned to Ae particnlar biological terrain that deGnes Ae care a female takes o f h a of% ning^.
Hisistory has clariGed Ae ta rn o f m oA aing to A e extent that we better be aware o f its malignant
eGects Aonld moAering continne beyrmd a stipulated number o f years. WiA considerable di% rin
moAers have been found A last enA e HA times, but hisistmy (so Ar) still p asists m declaring A e
very act o f moAering easily stiGing, deGcient and domineering, tyrannical, too much o f a Amale
naturalized imbalance'.
My personal introduction into A e postmodern reality o f the patriarchal "moAering' myA took
Ae form o f two consecutive abortirms. It was probA ly not so nmdh fear o f Ae conséquence o f
pregnancy and becoming a mother as much as the Aar o f how Ae act o f m oA aing would - I was
convinced- annihilate me as a Aminist cmning into consciousness. A oAer words, I feared Ae
political implicatioas o f personal moAerhood. It m ry have also been the (unconscious) stqiping out
o f the caAolic faiA wAidi had been poured over me Gom biiA. Finally, m Aminist rctroqrect, it
seemed to have been a despaate retaliation against my own biologically determined' boAed sdG
w hichhadgrow ntgrunderA e classic patriarchal victimization that, beingawm nan, I c o u ld naturally - amount A little more than a m otha. Years later, a an«11 passage m Adrieune Ridh's Q f
IFbmon Gom alerted me for the Grst time A the painful truA o f the situation:
"Tfo Gee woman, wiA 100 percent eGiective, nooharmAl birA cootml readily available, would 'choose'
abortrcm. At present, it is certainly likely that a woman can - through many causes - become so demoralized as
to use abortion as a Arm of violence against herself- a penance, an e:q)iation. But Ais needs A be viewed
against the ecology ( f guilt and victimization m which so many women grow up"^^

^ When using Ascoursefs) I am reAring to the various (hegemonic) discourses designed and maintained within
convMitiooal academic Asciplines, whose (deliberate) blending m Ae growing areas of intedisciplmary studio
has become an exciting challenge G* discipline junqws.
My point here is to emphasize conventional postmoden Aminist Ascourse. However, I am well aware that in
maty indigenous cultures, caring for oGspring is a collectively shared task.
AAierme Rich, QflPbman Gorw, ( New York: W.W NorAn & Conqrany, 1986% p, 269.
36

wpo# raükfm g A af * Aw

«KjQkraf awmwAof

< W a of/ ; 07MMOW
oW Aore^
(ro///Mg AgA/W
wAof

Aow / Mg«f (o //^
MKM, owf ofAer (A6%$
wAfcA wedleif /ÿ*?^
f/Ae AremA oM<f ap/nA
}«$, even wry oww
Aow my eyea were cfeor fAem
Anmm/Mg wffA ap/^e
oMAc(poAoM
offAe uMinowM
fAe womf porf ü over wow
oM(faomeAow
; om aA/f (Aere
jww moy MO(yfmf M*e (Ma/de (Ae growmg Arwwe
Aw( (Ao( 'a off ngA(
f om 060 oW (Aere
fooAfpg
MwyAe
ÿ"; Aocf o gfoaa o^rwAyreff wfme
( eowfef
a(mwfo(e
more (o$(e/wffy
o(fem (
imAf My Afooxf re(UTMa
ore you o( off f(a(eM(Mg?

37

AOW
/Aof/Awve no*
eve*y(Aô*g &ee**«
a
ecKier mow

o6on*oA

mow
à mo/more
*Aof o p a n f/m*gyoA
meo/Zy
you owgAf (0 (*y if
<$om*e (fm*g

38

When I gnally did become a m olh^, I was proven rigbt regarding Aese fears: each day has
posed a renewed diaHenge to realign patnarchal deGnititms o f mothahood*^ with &minist
visualizadoas and dedaratioas o f mothering. Is it now dmt I have become a mother'*^ that I have
begun to e q w e n c e and acknowledge the - aa I see it, deliberately fbrmulated - tension between the
westem(ized) patriarchal dehnition o f women's bodies as commodiGable sex objects while still
only' potential mothars, thus 'able' to particqmte in the whims and manipulations o f patriarchal
hunication*', and now as asexual, disregarded, unpaid and culturally unrewarded janitors o f human
ofkpring. And whereas my develc^pment as conscious self whhin the web o f human and ^danehuy
interdqrendence has unfolded and accelerated Arough my added peq)ective as biologically
determined' mother, my day-to-day lived cogeriace as mother struggling to survive has been
narrowed, obscured, and devalidated to Ae point u A ae at times I am hard pressed to Gnd my worA
as a fbnctianal being. Westem(ized) society has designed a strategically contradictory paradigm
which aims to conAse, bewilder and hnally resign Ae females o f our species to Ae 'fact' that our
bodies have been accounted for - m A e romanticized (whose construction o f romance are we
talking?) function as sex slave-mi^ress-whme, followed by inopregnatiou and Ae

role as

madonoarmoAw*^, glorihed to the point o f being vanisbed beyond an impossible horizon.
huneasingly, wmnen break out o f the conventional paradigm by proclaiming A eir selves free
agarts, m control o f their sexual destiny, and indqieodcot o f male intervention m d supervision. More
womm, heterosexual, lesbian, bisexual, celibates, are seeking to re/dehne their w m A as
wmnen-inoAers by side-stepping patriarchally colored relationship and raising children on Aeir own.

^ I use the term motbahood purposely, in the sense of Adrienne Rich's motherhood as patriarchally structured,
manageable, deSnable institutioo (1986), juxtaposed wiA the inhnite, interrdational process of moAgnnig as an
ethics of intimate nurturing and care.
^ While I Arvendy anbrace the notion of mothering as an acdvity anyone can - and ought to - share in
r%ardles8 of sex/gender, my interest and emphasis here is explore the commonality among women globally
through their shared biological determinancy, and Aeorize on the linkages thus created among women
everywhere, as well as the consequence of going through the very "real', earthy, mess of concq)ti(m, pr%nancy
and giving birth.
** I applaud wommi who actively challenge Aeir enforced subordination by seeking A realize their sexual
selves, their jouissance, within the miasma of culturally re/presented misogynist propaganda that tdls us that
women's bodies are, as of themselves, available r%ardless of our personal intent.
I use the term 'madonna-moAer' because of my own personal srtuatedness within westan, predominantly
Christian culture. And while Ae world's diverse cultures may be unable to identic wrA the symbol of the-to all
women- unattainable virginmom, the culturally constructed notion of mothers turning into scxnewhat asexual,

39

Ih W never Aougbt o fm y self as taking this s t^ . Ih ad not had the courage to choose single
mothohood, but in the process o f leaving aa abusive relathmship for the sa&ty o f the d n ld rm and
m yself in the process o f having had to re/dehne who I am as a wcnnan/person and how I move within
this world, I ^ in e d what I perceive now to be a less distorted insight into the ediics that provide the
patriarchal scaSblding o f onr society.

caretaking vessels, well past possessing value in and of themselves as sexual beings, this notion seems to exist
cross-culturally. Strangely, women tend to disaMiear once they become mothers.
40

a w W rer
or
Awmeak

2W /Æ?
fo Agr n w Agorf AgadAg mwag crW eeamg Aomg

fArow^Aoif/
a gPwiggX; wm/er
aeerngg fo /%// w more eacA düy
(owwMÙ (Ae TMW^eg eo|ge a wawAig (owv;
(owamù lAe wwk moMgoAaM/?/a:M q/"aA$orA;ngp o w e
(& aAgm fe(A;oMfa*M/Mem(
yêA m (Ae gmWrng dkqppeoramge q^Aome a fe a iA f^ ^ W /e a
aw f (Aen motk (o
wAAeM (Ae qw(e(
Aammfpg q/^/ow (emyera(wre
(Aa( ^/ow(y
y&g
Ae/ow arcAc wAa/egong
Aefov (Ae cAgjneMÏr Aear( acAe
even Ae/ow my canwg
(Ae fAÿAng q^ dkA/ypwpo$e
(m q ^ rO (a rememAer Ae-Vo»g-(Mg
ag ^ (( ma((ergg
gevem mom(Ag ^AMOf(jW/ (enrn)
Tfe /(( carwAeg aw f AwdWeg
(wide oar maAegAÿ? gAe/(er
fvew ed m(o mmA/iag coAerewee
Ay^now g dk-re.memAer(ag
Araweg wKmory AaadZea
we A*p( (Ae doors (oeAed
as ÿ^(o pro(eo(
(Ae g(ror:ge/y comgxwed dar&Megg oa(g(de
^ o m )M(0Ma(e(y (ormeM((Mg «(gAAwareg
W((A(M
MOW
OMa (raMg(eM(?g A/ougom(Mg verarndbA
/ /ooA ap^Aom my readings
(M(o
saMdqpp/ed momeM(*
(Aa(^Zwas (M(o aM0wa(e oAddreM
g(reaAzMg (Aro*(gA omd oa( q/^/os( w(M(erk dlemeoMzpg
(M(o m((6aManer(g jpir?//&g(
MOW
a/?er a (eMdW/ q/"greeM spr/rig
we oaa((oagfy re(arM
e/oHM Aome sAeAer
(Mg(de (Ae aaazzoM wdderMess q/'oar AacAyard
(Aa( w(ÿi//A'^(:A/gg wAo/e MeigAAorAooak
(M(Ae dqA o(re/gg q/"(wo dozea /^ower po(g
(Aa( pasA qgWMg( worm-ea(en ra(/fMgs
(Aeir (erm co((a sMd/es

41

«m oK f MfgAf
p « 6 e$
cW a/(AowgA MOV Aore/y po$/ MooM
!M&) ZAwaAôMMKMMg 6/we fWMMW OTC
o gfov dür&BMîMggrovg
Mgor wy Aewf
m fW vocoMf yeg)OM
vAere
vom 6 fivgg
vAgre MOV Ae; (AgproM)«g q/"
o
o/oMg
WMTMO/gaW

42

From A e maigms o f Ais existence vAich are paradoxically situated inside the patriarchal
cœter, living becomes an e a io sensation, maybe like being mside A e eye o f a hunicane, where calm
is dec^Ave, where, while A e bleak noise o f destruction surrounds you, always Areatening A tear
you a/part, you move cautiously within, held r ç , ignored, plotting your own Hbaation. And yet A e
image is wrong: having become a moAw, I have leA most fears behind, I have become A e Ae-bear,
dming anyone A intafere wiA the safisty and nurturing o f my young. I may be caught m a w A o f
pA iarthal intrigue that daily challenges my cunning as Aminist and mothor by exerting a myriad o f
pressures A raise my sons according A its patriardial symbolic mder;''^ compromise may be the only
game there is; I may have great cm cem s regarding my sons' fhtiue acquisition o f self-woaA as
^ n in is t allies - bA single m oA ehood has made me deq)ly aware o f Ae need for Aminist moAering
—as an empowering, heahng, culturally symbohc fact.
Patriarchal anAropr^ogy has mqilained A e beghmings o f earhest humanity m terms o f its
own hisistmic design, that has saved A explain man as the subArer and achieva and womm as A e
'naturally' subdued and m aintaina. This, patriarchal storytelling goes, has nocesatated the strategic
(uotection o f womm A ensure Aeir potential as societal nurturers atul bearers.
What does Adrienne Rich ask about Ae aMhty o f m oA ahood A maintain Aminist consciousness?
"I have o&en adred myself wheAer the experience moAerhood under patriarchy is Gnally radicalising or
conservatizing. A atteoqAng A give our children the security, the stability, we know they need, or we become
more obedient A a aocW order we know is morally bankrupt; do we give in to the pressures of convention, of
schools, of jobs; are our children our hostages A the State, its real saf^uard - and escape-valve- against the
anger of womm? Or do we discover, m moAerhood, the coarse, bitter, bedrodr truA of the way things are, Ae
callousness of patriarchy, its hatred of women, its mdiSweoce A new liA, even A youA itself that supposed
idolatry of American life?"*^
Who betAr than Nicole Brossard to answer oA o f her experience:
Tn Act, I became a feminist when I became a moAer. Almost at Ae same time I All m love wiA another
woman. Suddenly I was living the most common expaience m a woman's life, motherhood, and at the same
time, I was living the most marginal experience m a woman's HA lesbianism MoAeAood made my HA
Asolutely crmcrete Ar me, and lesbianism made my HA Asolute Gction m a patriarchal heterosexual woiid.
^ This thesis, particularly because its weighty and cmUentious subject matter afkcting everyone, which easily
dooms it A melancboHc reading, is nrmeAeless e^qnessly written m Ae hope that it may stimulate and enqxiwer
readers (including myself) A reflect hopefully on Aeir own ways of coming into consciousness as eco-mothers
and eco-mothering allies. As explained m the introduction, I ddiberately desist &om inserting Asempowering
AreAthers into the main text body. Their strat%ic in(ter)ventions have held many feminist theorists dutifully
enthraUed, and the logic of their presumptions has beenafbregonecrmcAsion, Ithink, precisely because oftbe
very phallocentric paradigm that (ksigned the logic. For ArAer clariAcation on deHnitAn of patriarchal
symboHc order, see glossary.
Adrieime Rich, "The Contemporary Emergency and the Quantum Leap" m On Lies,
unrf jifAnce
(New York: Norton & Company, 1979), p. 270.
43

Motherhood ah^ied my solidarity with women and gave me a feminist consciousness just as lesbianism gave
me new ideas about almost everything and cqrened new spaces for me to explore."^

Motbexhood, mofHERhood, as coarse bedrock tmdL I f nothing else (as if there is much else),
motherhood has grounded me - as bedrock- iqxm whidh to take a stand. The masculinist
in&astruGlure that is determined to keep w om m tethered to the heardi and her numerous babies, has
{«ovided & r a honeymoon' 6 om the daily job grind, has insisted on the invaluable worth o f our
children, thereby creating the illusian o f a mother's sai^ y and nnrturance widiin a participating and
stgtportive establishment. And, Atigued as any m o tk r, aAer the joyous mdeal o f nine months and
thertscMiM:j&iUdnve*llyy!%3hKli)ani,irKXM:]»au^l jgratefully haanexlinto h; bmlitnmes.

^ Janice Williamson,

p. 60

44

pemcazWe
Ae « yw/
éygf c/ogg
mg omf my Area»/
Aü demg /;«/g kxfy wMcwrb
fmwz//
qpgMf
yby" momgmA of o Amg
yüffgwg 7;Ag a f/ow wAi/g ova/oMcAg
co/kpggf * g c o f m my mwmff
ggnf/y
AmA Ay AmA wmA/mgea my /ocAgff Aody
aMff m &o dbimg^moAy /w /k my amwwW AreafA/mg
g(ÿAy
f
gaygf AacA ;m/o aWfAA/g r/yfAm:
fo fAaf (ymg (Agrg Aay«/yy&gAmg Aa(^
adknm/mg
q/"wrfdmg/wgAy amd afAgry!mg fAwgs
AgcomKf a dkfomf (rwA ; j(A/ cammaf d^ieam; im co/aw
ygf aAy&gA jmarngg/y g a y
amA Zgyf pa/g
ybr maw
/Awjmv/mkg mwagM amd wg j/aw/y AAwfam*
faggfAgr fAraagA (Ag amdomfg camfaAAg m rniazarf^ ^ m g qwarfgf
aAawgd fa A/aami wg are A: (Aü miafmgmf
wmaAagAgd
wmAanmgd
arcAfdk Ai ma amg^ gardgm
framyyA/ü away wmwgd
pgmdw/aaa gAgmcg /gama A*fa my w g ay Aamga
/gamy w/fAyârgAaeAmg
w;fA eamv/gf/am amd reAmTzA^
w/fA amg^ma/ /gam
ywA*g$ A"gymAAmg AacA AAa fAg
yqA /mytyfgmf caa/mg q/"my yarn Aary
waA/mg agaim

45

Having given birA, having been pushed by drqiping breasts and genaously S le d d in a rs (the
reusable kind) past Ae Srst two years, I have come into ctmsciousness that is quite unlike the
previous. Not keener, not e v a more lucid, at times even opaque, but the dif&rence now is - it is
a b v ^ s present Bcfiue, I could go all A e way, rant, bitch and be Ae oAside queen o f Monique
Wittig's amazons. No strings attached, I could go to A e movies A night and swoon wiA the rest o f
Aem over Tom-Dick vA afs his nmne. Maybe even, i f Ae mocm was right, you could watch me play
Ae faninine, "yes' routine and not even yawn. That was beAre moAming hnally Gxed my position.
My feminist consciousness, oscillating between the radiating possibilities o f social justice Arough
inclusive feminism, and A e de Acto/a priori always Already' inscription o f what the idea o f m oA oing
means m a society where Ae burden o f m otheing lies on A e female unrewarded and threatens to
suHbcate h a because she is amoAer/used up fanale, oscillating between those two causally related
and practically crmtradictory perceptions o f Ae mature o f womm and women's function, m y fem inist
consciousness has become someAing like a magnh^dng glass which is only efkctive i f positioned
just so. It seems I can never quiA hold it A the "right' angle, the p afec t distance from thA which
needs to bede/cqAered. My head hurts, I know I can read and I know thA whA wants reading is whA
I have m Aont o f me waiting, glaring, sniggering. Ah, I s*y, so whA if the letthers become bhnred
and I can't make oA him/her, I need to All oA fmms to fqq)ly A r diild care subsidy, where m 2003
qrparmtly it still matters if I am a Ms., Mrs., Miss., (or Mr.- hal). M othmng has turned me mto a
she-wolf Nothing less will do.
Simultaneously Aeezing me within Ae evil constraints o f pattiardial ofqxresAon and Ae
liberating accountability o f faniniA consciousness, moAeAood re/membhers me relentlessly. I muA
be accountiAle A the self within and withoA me, my pAenting muA reflect my fèmmiA ccmvicticms,
A all times. There is no more time 0 8 ^ rdendesAy I muA push to re/defne boundaries thA through
the advent o f -isms reveal hatred bom oA o f feA bom oA o f someone's power. Living by A e rules o f
a reactiAiary, conservative government vAich attonpts to chain and subjugate woman mice again to
AefAallus, experiencing direcdy the many w aysm w hichA esehm dingcA sresluqieA estA c o f my
physical, emotional and psychological well-being to A e poiA where A times I catch myself b ^in n in g
to wish thA conqiromising my "be-cmning self m Avom o f a financially secure home/lifestyle for the

46

cbildrw how ev^ patnarchal may not amount to suicide And this after my understanding o f
mothediood within the patriarcbal powerstructure had been afGrmed yet again in a m ost traumatic
and Wenliess journey........

47

y eo M /o f e r o W f A// fA m ugA & «am w
c e a a e /g ff (y w y f A// 6/eg(AMg Afxfy r w w o/oM g em j/g fg

corndlory W/wcryf AacA wxf)bnA fArowgA Âg «omg corndbm o r ofAg/v
; coMMof fg// wp üW dbwM g/gvofOM mor&g<i g m ergem cy wAerg
MO f/e a p o fg w g « o M k re if OM (Ag Mwwy &iorK
Mzy A o (^ p m A g f wp o g a / w f
/ogf
fo f o y (Aw gygMf «mwf g o wM(reofg(/
oM(f (Aof MO oMg W / r e c o v g f wAo A of gM krgff m fo (Ag
ffgr/A zg(f ggoMomy q /'A o i^ A o / w o rd k
wAgMg gygM o f o v ü z fo r^ o w woMf (o Ag
r g k o f g ( f ( A g f g ZM gwwowg cqpoA /g Aomdk
)/ow /oMg OM/y fo Ag AfW jow M oM dyb/goAgM

Agrg
MofA/Mg M

fo cAoMoe o r commoM gen^ g o W

o M gw A or»^ m ofA gr Agcofwgf o gfgam A g AA/gvgfMg(f Argowf o W

OM f/ÿÜMf MKy m fAg cowryg o/^o (ArrWMg MigAf fwm A/wg û W
Ag foAgm dowM fo
/C77 wA;/g

jpgcio/wA wgoMMg gfrggf g/o/Agf oMcf AMowmgybreAgodk
g(/gMf(y qpp g or ouf q^MOwAgrg if w fArgg fM fAg MiomfMg m uf
(fkgxtM A ü coW fffoM fM o vocoM f/y A w y MWMMgr fAof rgmfm dk OMg q /p g q p /g
7Mf//fMg oA ouf o f aoMgomg g k g 'f gm tA fofioM wAf/g fAg)/ w o i f ^ r fA ü Auy <$pgcA q /'A o c ^
O ï f ^« M < f o u f OM(y /o f g r fo a fq p

o/foggfAgr
A ^ r g fAgfr g /o v g (f AoMdk w f// oaW M w fg r gjcfrgmg gvgMA
fAgfg Aomdk

fAg&g AufAgff !g? coMggo/gff «(pprggfgff
oM W fym ouacoM four; q/^AoMdk wAo
Ao(f fAgy a:Ag(f fAgfr woxgM mogAÿ
c o u W Aovg
aq/%gMg(f fAg HfgAf
MMufe ff pordioMoA/g
Auf c o M io u ^ g g (f 03 fAgy o r g
fAgy Aggofog uMAgoroA/g fM fAgfr g m u g coM pgfgMcy
fM fAg w qyy fAgy g/ggoM f/y pofM f o W p r o ( f
oMcf q / k r o p rg g ffg fy o //offg(f fMfgrvo/
o w q y ogofM U M ru^gff
fo w o rd k o g q ^ g M wg
fo 3 0y fAw gVgMf MMWf g o UMfrgOfg(f

OM^y fAof MO OMg W / rggovgr/ûffy
fg o/fM03f fo woMfkr w fy wg rg/u3g foyîMff ofAgr wqy;
q/^Ago/fMg w A grg Aoefy o W jp f r f f Awow Ag/oM gfqg
wAgrg
wAgM w g A oW o Ao(fy
w g o k o A oW o ap frff oA 3 0 ffgAf^^

^ This poem remembers the lime when, returning &om the community hospital to my logcabin with my
newborn son, I found him growing weaker every day; the public health nurse refused to come out, saying that I
was a second'time mom and airely everything was all right. That night I saw that he had turned blue for lack of
48

It is at this point, when I talk about mothering sons and what it means, that I necessarily
retum to c la ii^ and challenge my own understanding o f m oA aing, simultaneously in A e most
personal as well as Ae Woadest sense. For it is as a moAer raising sons that 1 must be clear about my
haninist vision: m raising Ae next génération o f males within this patriarchal society. 1 may be raising
potential possibilities, but 1 am undeniably raising future context. When A diiam e Rich asks the vital
question: 'SA at do we want for our sons" (1986: 214), Ais may sound like a logical qrin on Ae quest
A r anwers A feminist moAering. What do we want A r our sons? 1 have to conAss A at -even Aough
1have been thankAl m many ways A r not raising daughters- my reasons for feminist moAering have
less A do wiA sons A»n wiA daughters, oAers' daughters, sisters, mothers, grandmoAers; Aey have,
m fact, everyAing A do wiA women. My question has always been: what do 1 want for women?
1 undestand a faninist alternative by deGniticm as enabling a more sincere, hopeful,
afGimative realization o f self for all genders, mcluding Ae male. Smce Ae heterosexual (white) male
has been decreed as A e dominant gaida^ m patriarchal westem(ized) society, 1 cannot be concerned
for Ae wellbeing o f this same male (Aough this may be my own son) A Ae same degree as Ae
wellbeing o f A e oppressed. Should he decide to Allow m A e footsteps o f the conventional ' AAers',
society's rule o f the phallus will ensure his popularity mnong boA males and male-centa^ed females.
Should he decide A clear his paA Awards becoming a feminist ally, he can be secure m Ae
knowledge that, though unpopular among the m ^ority o f males, he will be the aimointed chançion o f
most women. 1 don't deny that A e Aminist parenting o f sons within patriarchal society ofArs
complex drallenges on a variety o f levels, how eva, 1 would like to remind us A at m terms o f
heganom c powo" relations the playing Geld has not been equal for the last three A Gve miUennia.
Whereas for h^erosexual men Ae paA Awards becoming a feminist ally ultimMely is a
choice (since feminism has not yet attained critical majority, and patrianAal iuAastructure is still very

oxygen; I took him (four days old now) out A the community hospital from where we were \Aisked via
ambulance A Kamloops, then by plane A the Vancouver's Children's Hospital, where Ar three weeks I fiaught
docArs and nurses (except one) on most issues regarding his fx^oper. Le. holistic care, the Gercest of which was:
A maintain the right A breastAed Lars, and when he was too weak A nurse on his own, A continue A Abefeed
him, and when he was in a coma (due A this particular respiratory virus), A continue to punq) my milk day and
night and store it in the Geezer so the milk would not dry up but be ready Grr his use at any time. His survival I
attribute A my ongoing intervenGon into masculinist notions of care, and the ultimate triumph of mother's milk.
49

m udi in place) for women it is never a choice, and certainly never a game: for women in patriarchal
society every man is a potential rapisf

and it is ont of this understanding diat I have begun to raise

two sons. 1 am raising them in the hope that they may learn to dunk, relate, behave and conceptualize
throughout their developmental stages as boys, teens, adolescents and young adults in ways Aat I as a
feminist can respect, so that wmnen may be able to honor Aem as rightful partners m an (eco)fmninist society. Or, asm Ae words o f Andre Lorde "our sons must become m e n -s u c h men as we
hope our daughters, bean and unborn, will be pleased A live amor%."^^ She also writes "I am thankful
that one o f my children is male, since that helps A keep me honest. Every line I wriA Arieks Acre
are no easy solutiws."^ Whereas I was deqrly glad not A be Ae m o A » o f a daughter - 1 still
shudder at Ae Aonght o f patriarchal mass-consumerist-cyber-pop culture and its pomogngdnc
mandaA clawing at a daughter's selfesteem, her longing A do Ae right thing.. .the potmrtial trauma o f
rape

now I am continoously diaHenged A nurture my stms inA caring haninists (and I am still

debating wheAer a male Aminist may not be a living paradox within postmodern patriarchal culture,
particularly if he is heterosexual) who will actively anbrace and internalize the quest for akhematives
A patriarchy. Who will see Aemselves as part o f Ae soluticms. I have yet to meet Ae homosexual
man who can sustain a voluntary interest m fmninist consciousness as a hfe-a85rmh% active concqrt
wiAout at smne point m time breaking oft) escqnng inA His - (by deSnitkm o fh is being sexed
heterosexual male) privileged role. What makes me Aink A at as a moAer and rolemodel I can pull it
off? I am irrevocably depmideat tm my socio-cuhural environment, Aere is no way out. (When) will
they begin A see me as Ae problem raAer than the cultural context we live m? Audre Lorde
encourages us A maintain our social activism through a choice o f parenting which is less bent on
Ending Ae rme answrn Aan on A e ongoing process dejprte as m itself A e very best we can do.
"It is as hard An our diilAen to bdieve that we are not omnipotent as it is Ar us A know it, as parents. But that
knowledge is necessary as the Erst Aep in the reassessment of power as something other than might, age,
privilege, or the lade of Aar. It is an important step Ar a boy, whose societal destructwrn begins when be is
Arced A believe that be can only be strong if he doesn't Ael, or if he wins. " (Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider.
1993), p. 76.
^ At the time, the phrase every man is a potential r^nsf summenzed the Aundational paradigm in my
voluntem training Ar saA houses and the rape misis cmiter in Vancouver, 1995, and thus opened the Arum on
Aminist discussion among participants h made Ar exciting ddtate.
Audre, Lorde .Rsterr Oats&Ars. Esarys * .ÿeecAes byvhaAeLonA. (Freedom, CA The Crosmng Press,
2000), p.73.
Audre Lorde,
Outadkr (Freedom, CA The Crossing Press, 2000), p.78.
50

gcAoo/ d ay
)% w ex p e n e w e wwdgr fAe Aanwer c W ê e d /eor»f»g
Aecoma*
fwo fm a// Acyg co/on/zeef ZMfo
j}Wfe7Mfc f We/WMü q/"mg»
fggregafgd info pggwdb-fwpgnor gg»dgr
fMfo (Ag d;a-gmo((oMa/fzgd goTMgf( cAqppgM
q/^qproM f (rzMgY w m p p g c / w o w m d A gr aq ^ g m m g w a i$ ( (Aa( A g/d

(Aa(g?igwyow
(Ag (w fdg ow(
* ad// Ao/d_ycw wA(/g /K r Aomdk org Away pm v/d/M g
(Aoag wg//-worm a(n»ga
gvg»(wa/^ w(// poag MO naA
(Ag(r /(«ggnmg amg// q/"gar/(c-/gM((/ coaagro/g
mo /omggr cAnma Aw//d(mg-A/ocA m gm onga
(/(g(r pg77Momgm(^ )o d afo/ma
dom '( rggo// ddz7y Awa(/g grimd gro/m
m (/A aA g^ ag(_yqgwr( prgaa cAggag
p/om( wggd wo(gr gordgm Amgod dowgA mggd
jAwr m(mA/g ^ g (
gcAo
-Aqppzmgaa (a womdmg (o Ag a/(vggrwAA)/^mggra m(AA/g awggw/gm( gw(A (Ago
Ao/d om (o a(nmga (Ao( awppor( Agr dg^o((Mg womA
a(zz/g Am // ^ g d AoAe A w g ^
d/qpgy COM c/gom movg
m-o-v-g
/m(o m///mgp/m rAy/Am
* (Ag /gga(o aowp-a/zTT/mg rg/goag q/poa{cw («m omx/g/y
p/ay/mg_yow ^ o r / ( g gom g q/^a/(-om -(Ag^oor-m q^/M g
mg//ow a(nmga
}ow r aq^gmgd agoma
y r q y g d ( A g ^üm ///ar (wg q/^cwnowa /(((/g Aomda
a ( /g ^ y/rnggya po/mdmg (m womder o( go(dA/g mooag
& (rgga * Arg(zg/a / / ^ g d ( A g ovgm
Aqpp/waa /a wom(/mg (o Ag o//vg
(Agrg (a 7 Amow a reoaom wAy
oa coModd gggag a(godz/y rg(wrM^ o m aomgwAgrg A/wg
/m a Ao/dpAo/omx zAgy coawo//y
yôcwa o dz/w(gd apr/pg
_y. o w y/wzd
wmAmowzmg Aod/ga //vg
(ArowgA ddz7y p w p o a g /w / Aqppgm/mga
q^OM o/zMoa( w/zgomaczowa yow m gy.

wAgrg _yow //vg Aow_yow /zvg wAo(_yow go(
zm rg/a(/om w/(A wAo yoz/ m ay Ag

WZ(A-^ZM
w/(A

51

wAereoa/mM mo Aea/er o/"wowmdk
/ftp fte 6/o c t v t/ow mw/momW
wAo oorrfeg t e r 6 ro<x/ om t e r to c t
weovef (teir ^q/êfy mef w*/
tover* of Ae emfnamce o/^ftefr /fve$
/ fmfeW fo fwrwve
fo wofc/i weave
we//fmgwordk
oof q/^a acreem w tere 7 f if o^oorf
o f fte oo/omizeat/e ^i/emoe
a// J Amow.
my Areaft comfimwe; iA / 7ow imfoyowr /fvimg
comfimaeg fo^ow imfo
oof o f fte reve/ofoy ffreom: o f creafiom
w tere a// teimgs rezk/e
wAere gemf/er mo miore ftom
oomy/mmemf* fte mwve/ qfdKverse tio/ogy oW
woimem^ toÆea /&«/ p/ooemfOg^ e t / to d/e;
womfgm!; treo zü imto/e
ezto/e fo
t e r cAfW
te r etiW
f fqy won» fo my fomet

52

« y RMug?
ff
fAg «OMg
oAoMf M^; /(^-«pnMg

fAafk wÂgM7 WOÎ w;fA fAg
wo/vg« omf fAey oatecf M%g
dbyow woMf fo wrg«f/g?
OfMf «0 wg wgMf fo fAg Wg«f/g-MM*gr

oW we wreg^gff
fAof'« Aow Agowff/w/ o W yWg7KÜ[y fAty w g/g"

^ Three-year-old Neil on the nature of wolves and interacdve possibilities: thanks to the avoidance of
Hrdlywood culture and European hwror tales, be may yet live aware of the play&d nature of wolves and the
potential of leqrectûd co-existence.
53

fAeaggg

Anvgrnw kyw w f A e w k d W

WTK&r Ag
.qwrojAg gregngo Wgn frgg
&% iwwfg owf owf fwn nzyg
fwo mg/A%g Wweyg/Zcrw fogwea
p/ay Afdle-afM^aggt
aAzp AnwgA Ag coo/mg fAodbwf
q/]^ryf awAoMW/kw /
aw/
A*g Agir pw^Aina
rwdk^ aw / mww/ Agy rÿ?gM
(&grow fo/K/ 6g/bre p/wcAzmg zg? cowragg
ia&Ag_//igAi
yW/ maow Mri/Ag roww/ Ag rwAg Awt
Agyow/ a pgg/Agy&wg
6gyowf Ag grggMgo/dg» irgg fcaiigriMg Agr fga&am'f /avg
rggt/g&y/y aai/img imia Ag rwimg gvgmng
Aia Ag pgri/f q^Aw iaw*Ai/g war/z/
gga/g<^ cawdawf/y iw /jg Agr wiw/aw fAg//
fAg fggf Agr /avg grow Agyomf Ag wiw&zwykmdZy
fAg fggf."

iwa yW/icAiMg iagwgf
p/ay Awfg
aw / fggA Aio Ag grawAg fAa&iwf q^AgA /ivgf iAa iAg
f/awyig/Amg q/"Agir AawAraiw AwacgMcg Aai
//Ag Ag Aggmyei igw/gr Amaggmcg q/"^g^rAg
a/wayf
fa yür
a/wayf
wiAA Agr f/igAi/y wga/y Agari rg/ga$gf a f qAyÿagramgg
jpriwA/gf agaA Ag yaAi/a»i fggdk q/^/avg.

54

fggofve

A/f /zg/ zKWMg
evm (Ag (reea fwggMf g&%6om(fo»
Aorefy oiwAAZe
MOWfAg/aw
wwp» grey Aa(r fAcAmg ow(
/TMMZwfer
fAfAAom
wi//

55

Let me talk o f wwnea. LA me talk o f mothers and daagkters and how mothers pass on the
stmy o f life, Aow

when...

"Once home was a
way
a place I had Mver been to but knew out of my mother's mouth.
said that the deshe to lie with other wmnen is a drive 6om the mother's blood." "

Tlwe it is

Where does biologically determined kinship end and (sensual) desire begin? Or are the divisions
socially constructed, and shotdd we raAer ask: who bm ehts? who beneGts when mothA and daughmr
are being t a n ^ to internalize and subsequently naturalize cooGmxtaticNn and division? Who beneGts
w hai they are being t a u ^ t to compete, Gir the aSecGons o f Ae F//&Aer? And Gnally, who beneGts
when mother and daughtA have succeeded in accqAing the inevitability o f their lelAiaDship-in-crias
and go Aeir separate ways to pass on in full d e ^ a ir this myA o f moAA-daughter schism? Who?
"Whether in theological doctrine A art A sociology A psycboamdytic theory, it is the mother and son vAo
appear as the eternal, determinative dyad. Small wondA, since thedkigy, art and social theory have been
produced by sons. Like intense relatiAiships between women in general, the reladonahip between mother and
daughtA has been profbundly threatened by men."^^
The myA oftentimes explodes into A e reGexive shards o f feminist consciousness when
womAi cUmb out o f unbearable relationsh^ crisis as survivors, and b ^ in . Begin to rAnanbA.
SdecGve m anory has long been a tool fm anvival m Aisis and many womm qxmt Ae laigA part o f
their adult Kves pnctising selecGve memory games A survive the onslaught o f male o^qnession ^)eak, violAtce. Some wmnen, wiAout A e blinders A guide Gtem m this mineGeld o f patriarchal
mAming, cannot bcA A see/feel/know their own vulnerability as womAi and will not rest until
anoAA will hold and dKrish for bettA and wmse . bA bdrold Ae woman who b% ins A dteriA who
A e sees m the mirror, wiAout A e blindA, wiAout the male gaze wrtqiping hA inA Aminine
paralysis.
Just as Virginia Woolf pleads on b A a lf o f women for a room o f hA own and 500 pounds A
G)Gow hA creaGve quest, so we must plead for Gme A regenerate hA belief m hA s d f A

her

wncoverrMg Ae arAunAng dIeAfk o f Aose ^6 y ear: ofAer AcrmceraGon, the life Aat
had been a lie Gom the Grst d ^ o f n y parents' acquairttance to A e last. Given time, A e ruptures
women expAience m their hves due A separaGon and Avorce gain insights which slowly b% in to
peel ofF the patriarchaUy induced blinders and allow them A reGect on the intAdepArdencies o f all

56

pahiarchalida^ogiestoprKierveaadremfM celhemylhofmaledM nmationasM ürfwra/. Unless the
threads o f insights are sevoed th r o n g a hasty retreat into the oppressive &>ld, mothers and daughters
can b ^ in the slow and painhil, triwnphantly rewarding pilgrimage towards a place where meaning in
womm-oriented k in d r^ rdalionships is retrieved and ^rero , once the q»ace has been opened to
accept all questions and question all die intricacies o f taboos and stigma in our society vdndi turn
women into their partners' accomplices, die joy o f true hiendship is re/stored in a saA place, out o f
reach ûom comqition and corrosive, cuhnral insinuations, accessible only by mothers and dieir
d a n g h tw .

Audre Lorde, Zomi. X Aine

my Ahme, 1982, p. 256.

5; Adrienne Rich, t y lyaman Bom, 1986, p.226.

57

ÿ of

m owpo/wAgff com'emoAon-cgmmwcf ay/ZoAkf aeew fo
/orne
AwMfffmg fowm^yÿogTMgma îMfa/ïAyowgAykwfwg q^grfAoogAf
- q ^ cAomoe meowMg?

Mwof/y wffA evgyy 6reofA we wwowMce
cfofwre
wffA eve/y /me q/^Aarren amo// fo/t we coMfmwe fo
/Kfe/T owqy
g re v e r
yôrever cow e/ wAof we /m f
jo ü / aW
reo//y
Aow
we meomf
of fAe ey*/ eocA vw/f
o?W a ; oawo/
our fo/ffwdka co//qp3e wffA fAe^ f/g u e q/^de/fAerofe mûreod/ng»
//te oo7:fro//e</ Aug$ Ao$A/y dk%pe(/ /» pow/mg
omoMg/xo/ffe gfroMgeM
/Mf gu/fe o woffe
Auf Arfff/e
eoK//y fAoffered
fArougAouf o$ u$i«o/
we afrugg/e (nfo AreofA wAeezegog?
eocA crowdW AreofA we cofoA
/oot /Mw/fA fAe gw /ef^rce pow/o q^fAe o ^ g
gu/ct fA0//0Wgoagw we fuet^lom dieep Ae/ow our r%A eoge
fmo twoffed apoee AgAf/y eowfo/wd o w q y o w fe/wef Aecouae
o ap/Z/oge w ou/d^// our fArooü
y/// fAem w/fA e»^e$f ///e
^ // fAem w/fA memor/ef fAof Ao;/ fo fAe a u ^ c e
Aof pu?poge/if//y o//ve
puMgemf oud teew //te yêrmemfed oomgxwf
o r ybom/Mgyeoff
oudywff oa pofewf/o/
UMf// 7*ow we Aove mowoged our po/m
//te^efA ouw d fop/eowe
our «creoMM fucted Aoot ond //te dr/ed A/oodpee//»g owqy our fAroofe
OTu/ 0 $ our Aÿw gu/ver /udg/k/fe/y owd fweof /lever qppeory uwder our orwg?/f$
gAou/derA/odgÿ pufA Aoot Aeove &pword
af/ct ouf
momoeuvre fAe^e corq/û//y ffoged Areoaf; - fm order fo /o o t fAe porf w/fA eweey AreofA

we jfuÿôoofe -yef
a ; q/^/ofe

q ^ ro //fA a;e y ear3 //ffe»/mg
/wfe»/Mg
paef
/ayery /(^
/ooae w/fA deaperof/om

oud
meoM/pg Aeeomea

58

m
/MfAe midWe
fwdWIem/y
wifAowf wam/Mg
AAe o
A q/"wmmmW
aZanmmg iwfgAf fAof once rg/eo$g(f
regwwigf jwrnomeMce
üTkf Aeoü mfo fAe my^yvKM^ Ao/dkeaa q^a
&car
ww
q^era//fA&yejvaM nfwa6q/^WeM/Mg awaycom'eyfrngMOfAfMg
MOW fAaf fAe w a/ome
a aever A ^ r e eanof ffy fa Aer aewAoaa geafaref
reacAef ykr fAe fmf/e
evef(^
aacf a f 7 vafeA a y aiofAer n fe aacf
^«feffy Mawaqp
T^Yaa fAe eamem q/"Aer eyef
^afeffy aa/bW
Aer Ao(^
meawfy
fafo a jkA aef
ffgA
eafer
awfAerdaagAferAreafAfag

59

Once die breathing is synchronized, we can begin to tell, re/teH, inter-tell stories. Reinscribe
our selves, this in d ic t new meaning we Amnd, as old as the daremothers Trinh. T. Nhn-ha evokes
when she talks o f story-telling's cnltural signiGcance among women o f colour.
"Tradition as on-going commitment, and in women's own terms. The story is beauti&d, because or dierefbre
it unwinds like a thread. A long thread, k r there is no end in sight.. Or the end she reaches leads actually to
another end, another opening, another "residual dqwsit of duration'. Every woman partakes in the chain of
guardianship and of transmission - in other words, of creation. Every griotte who dies is a whole library that
bums down. Tdl it so that they can tell it. So that it may become larger Aan its measure, always larger than
its own in/signihcance. In this horizontal and vertical vertigo, she carries the story on, motivated at once by
the desire to dnish it and the necessity to remind hersdf and others that "ifs never Gnished'. A li&time story.
More than a lifetime. One that will be picked up where it is left; when, it does not matter. For the time is
already set. It will take a long time....', the grandmother ends; 'it began a long time ago..', the granddaughter
starts."^
"The good news is that we have a lifetime, that I am writing this book, and that my mother has nothing to
Aar.""
"Since feminist subjectivity is already marginalized, it seems, unArtunatdy, that mther we keq) focused on Ae
femirmie subject, risking repetititm - as if men never repeated themselves - or we nartralize ourselves into
poetic subject For example I know Aat, as a writer, I cannot always use the word woman m a poem, but I also
know that when, as a reader, I see Ae word woman m a poem, it does have a positive ef&ct on me. I still believe
that A write/om a woman is full of consequences. I also think that patriarchal meaning cannot stand the
visAility of women as a radical subject.

^ Trinh T. MirA-ha, fFbman Ad/fve Other. (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press^ 1989), p. 149.
^ ElizabeA Debold, Marie Wilson and Idelisse Malave, Afbther DongArer RgvoArdom, (New York: AddisonWealey Publishing Company, 1993), p. xii.
^ (Nicole Brossard, m Janice Wlliamson, &Maa6n^Z)Q^rences, 1993), p.64.

60

A o w f A a / / iwMM gn A e c o m g
oM ù f^ ÿ ien d k
A o w j A o / / f A fy

vg

reocA gocA o f A gr a
/o M g fm g A o w

Ag(p fo g o r e

^ g

03 wgyZgg
gocA OM A gr ovM rg/gMf/gM /w fA

w/gmf 3crgofM3

o c n w g A«/fMOM /oM dktxçT g 30 A roA em

dg<^

^ g T M g m fg ff
g g u y A fw gA fgr w o « W f A o f f g r
A g r gfyfMg 3f/A ow gffg fA o f w
} ? g M » g fM fo fA o f

jb r g y g r o c f q T » g )g

o j y f f g m f c A oyygM fM g
0 3 wg yZgg Wo
o f w g /A n g g R x A ff o /p o rc e A ffM f W / e a
!M w A fcA f o r g 0 3 3 w r g

A fm , A g c o u a g ff '3 o f f 3A g AM0W3

fAg 3M *o// q ^ A g r /033
0 3 w g (ffg

g o c A OM A g r o w ? :

fMfo fAof
ykrf
owf

3ff//AorM
coM fro/

rg/gMf/g33

gozg

/o c A g (f

ocgw ofM fO M ge, r e f o f f v g

MKWf 0/?gM 3pOU3g

gX

OM*:f)%f w g
WMOfMggf / 0 3 f fWfM 3M fgT3

A orefy ArgofAfMg
coM vfM cg o w r ^ g / v g f y ô r rg03O M 3 w A y
fA w cowAf o M j jAowW
OMff

o A v fo iw fy w A y w g ^ / g e f

Aow 3A0/ / T4/07MgM
A o w 3A0/ / w g A g g o m g yH gM dk

Ag

COMK fMfo gooA OfAgr 3'

/O M g ff ^
pro M ow M gg o u r 3 g fy g 3 ^ r g v g r

} b r gocA OfAgr
wffAowf /o o A fM g !g ) w A y Mof.

^ This poem is a direct reqmme to Nicole Brossard's reflections on the woman as radical subject.

61

"In 1993,1W9S walking down a street in Manhattan i^ien I passed a newsstand and was suddenly struck by a
deeply distutbing {AotognqA on the &ont page of JVewadby It was a picture of a group of six young women who
had just returned hxan a
camp in Bosnia. , Inmde the newspaper was another photograph of the young
women, recently reunited with their mothers and standing in a semicircle in a gymnasium. There was a large
group and oot one of thmn, mother or daug^liter, was able to look at the cameraT knew I Imd to go there.. .When
I returned to New YoA after my first trip, I was in a state of outrage.. Outraged that 20,000 to 70,000 women
were being r^ped in the middle of Emope in 1993 and no one was drmig anything to stop it. I couldn't
understand it. A himtd asked me why I was surprised. She said that over 500,000 women were raped every year
in this country, and in dreory we were not at war."
So writes Eve Easier in

When activists 6om SBeen European countries

went to 2[agreb to protest against rape camps set up in the Balkan War, the year was 1993, the
Archbisbtq) o f S a i^ v o had announced that rqxxl w om ai were "accqrting the aicm y into diem as
desh o f their dedi", and die Geneva Convention still had to rule that ngie was a war crime. When we
read diat "in the USA a woman is raped every 3 minutes; a woman is battered every 15 minutes; two
out o f tlmee reported violence cases occur in the home; àghteen out o f tw ^ ty wmnen are
psychologically harassed on the jo b "" it is 1997 and the USA heralds itself as the most advanced
democracy in the world. When dead bodies start turning up, a reflected hog Armer is charged and
debate cenUes on who p ry s A r his defaise, it is Canada m 2002. And when night adcr night Native
women disaf^iear m Vancouver's downtown Eastside and around A e world, and we simply

A at

Aeir nqnsts and murderers wake up Ae next day as proper citizens, it brgipais as I bardy bring
m yself to write these wmds. How can I not weep? What is it about crgiitalist patriarchy that enables,
allows, encourages men A ev ai conceive o f violent acts —m d legidmizes their behavior, through
pomogragdy, "prostitutimi' laws protecting the johns, joy-stick'-computer lingo, and A e language o f
sexism acted out m myAs and images o f the military and the electronic vocabulary o f the third
millennia A.D.?!
R^pe, A e physiological fa c t o f ngie, cannot tdce place wiAout boAes, dominated, suScring, Arced
bodies. What - 1 ask - are we up A m Western Aminist discourse, A d a y A ourselves Ae truA that
violence begins and aids wiA-m the body. H as, yours, mine. His. Our childrai's. Can we please get
down A basics?

^ Eve Enaler, The
Ariel Salleh,

(New York: Random House Inc., 2001% pp. 59 - 60.
or foAttcr, (New York: St MaAn's Press Inc., 1997), p. 27.

62

s

#
t

1

«

1

i
§

1

IKIt

B. ^
:
B
§.% §

1 1 5 "i I

e

Î

%

Bodycycles. What threats arc our bodies Aat we would rathm^ not?
"I interviewed a gnxq) of wcanem between the ages of sixty-five and seventy-Gve These interviews were the
most poignant of all, possibly because many o f the wmnen bad never had a vagina interview before.
Unfbrtunatdy, naost of the women in this age group had very little conscious relationship to their vaginas. I felt
terribly lucky to have grown up in the feminist era. One woman who was seventy-two had never even seen her
vagina. She had only touched baself when she was washing in the show», but never with conscious intention.
She had never had an orgasn. At seventy-two she went into therapy, rmd wiA Ae enc(mrag»nent of her
thenq)ist, she went home one afternoon by herself lit some candles, took a bath, played some comArting music,
and discovered her vagina. She said it took her over an hour, because she was arthritic by then, but when she
finally found b » clitoris, she said, she cried." (Eve Ensler: 2001, pp.23-24).

/earned to dkmce patrkzrc/za/
w/Kre ewergar /èe/Atg
fo/vgf regMtoMce
wAy were we a / w e n t t w own Anowmg
/ww were we (Asembod/ed
/MAe dneon» r ÿ ^ / e n moAer*
once rg)on a time fAe ^ //ed a /drg^e awkward fAtye
a /cpAg f/knato o/"grow/?^ A/pe and Aand-nre-down a&eantf
a*Aomed to tro// AeAznd oAerv
wAoever wAerever A ^ yoft/ed
fp/A ng Ae/r keen you A onto Ae f/dewa/k trrunyAondy
fAe AfAe/teved
A Ae padded Ara Aer mo Aer f trapped on Aer Ae^re
tAe entire ftore
Awt rea/;^
fAe on/y dwAe/ieved Aer own innocence
knowing A/ood wow/dg re v e r f e«p down Aer /egf
regord/eff
exoct/y wAat tAen Acppenf A A if ftory i can't yet rememAer
Aif port feenw tAe on/y /ondkccpe i wneortA
over and over a g/owing rAeamtide
fwAfidef f/ow/y
f/ow/y retPmf into a Aody nigAtmore tAat warAef Aer
down a /one/y f tretcA q/^rood towardr
one more A/oO(/y attempt a t AeA g
wAere
everyone feemf to ming/e ref t/eff/y
gorgA gon tAigAf //pf
more dead gome
o/woyf fAe waker a t tAif point
fweot running down Aetween my Aa^moon AreofA
in tAif too Aeoyy nigAt under no moon
i ^ e / fAe wontf to Ae a/ive and dance
Aut knowf not
wAofe Aody

64

This seems as 6 r as I ever moved away 6(an an ethic o f self-love and sdfsietenninalion that
would blend in with a "view o f self as nniqne and idadonal in an ontology o f interrelatedness."^ Not
surprimngly, the momait I could begin to unravel the hideous politics inhcreit in masculioM culture
and dms begin looking 6*r words to un:cover my painful search for self-in-body was also die moment
I enteed into faninist consciousness.

many years o f locating die source o f my (term ination in

anger and sadness, a powerfully inspiring well o f «notional energy, I see diat little has (Aanged in the
way our (mlture denies women's right to /nl/y, ho(6(y, participate in the public sphere. Advertisemeols
on menstrual pads and tampons notwidistanding - womm obviously do have body enough to be a
lucrative target" for (x m su n ^ o n - women/we have litde to s ^ to each odier, or the world at large,
on the cyclically shifting, shaping, biological process o f their bodies. I consider this one o f the most
bewildering mysteries o f postmodern society.
How ( ^ we ever hrqie to anpower ourselves and each otha, i f we have not yet found wmds
to create a vocabulary that will embed our phyâological sdves, the w ^ it/she aSects our lives,
within private and public qdiares o f cultural meanings? Did not the beginning o f our monthly
bleeding mmounce diGta^ice, ev«i in the thrilling depdis o f lUKxmscious girlhood? How did we dea/
with it? Or should I say, how was it dleo/t with, this unspeakable, exterraneous process? Few young
wom«i experience the onset o f their maistruation as an evm t worth r«nemb«Tng, a celebratory,
duid body shift towards be-coming. Eve Ensler records some o f these memories in Fdgma
Afana/agner. My personal m «noiy is one o f spending a lot, and I mean a /or, o f time hiding bltxxly
evidence, worrying over maistrual cranq)s, and the ways in which t k y iq*set my nmmal' life. And
n ev « ever did my mother's, my sister's or m y own periods stain conversation around the dinner table.
We made up 50% o f our Amily, most o f our household pets were faiales, so it seems more than
reasonable to assume that at any given time one or more o f us lived through m w drual experience, yet
any cons(30us identidcaticm with die organic fluids o f women's bodied selves were talxK). Winnie
Tomm suggests that
"Meostruatkm is at the womb of self-love for women... It is difScuh to imagine a balanced consciousness that
is upset regulaiiy each month f)r thirty-dve to farty years... it is unlikely fw male-identided women to identify
^ Winnie Tomm,

(Waterloo: Wil&ied Laurier University Press, 1995), p. 178.

65

women to e;q)enence mematruation positively. The power of deGning menstruatioo was takœ ever by men in
patriarchal culture and internalized by both men and women. The power of deGning the meaning of
menstruation is symbolic of the power to deSne women's bodies. Experienmng menstruation positively is
symbolic of eoqierienmng one's body more generally in a positive way. It is to take it as normative rather than
deviant ...their menstrual cycles would be taken into account as a matter of Act in the workplace, the home, and
amoi% Giends.^"
Thinking o f the in^hcations o f incorporating the hormonal inSuatce o f mcmstniatioa into all spheres
o f hefmg gives me a vague idea o f the enormous journey we have yet be&re us.
The absence o f cverydsy, mindGil vocabulary means that we as a s o c i ^ do not acknowledge
womai as a difhaent and "normative form o f humanity.^" And how can you talk about
environmental damage or health issues i f you cannot talk about menstruation in A e Grst place?
Ironically, women in the afOuent North are dutifully consuming and - consequently - actively
contributing to wvirmunental damage: (In A e UK alone, roughly 13 mülion maistruating women
diqxrse o f plastic strips, qrphcators and sanitary protection, vdiidi contain pesticides, bleach and
deodorant substances at the cost o f 160 million pounds staliog annually.)^ The persistent eSbrts o f
some feminist Aewists to question issues o f body-reahty and how it affects our ways o f being m the
world, shows only how successful phallocratie notions o f the male gender as universal category have
been - right thror%h the postmodern proposal o f the deaA o f the auAm/subjecf, because now that we
are encouraged A desist Gom theorizing A e Gmale body as difkrent, unique, real and just as
"universal", prevailing notions m myths, A e imaginary and language go uachallaiged.^
How Ais affects women's every day lives becmnes obvious when we consider that bulimia
and anorexia are still predominantly fanale conditions, and that Ao absence o f menstruation due A
lack o f healthy body A t is deGned as a raAer positive by-pioduct m a society that obsesses w om ai
wiA Ainness A Ae point o f looking - and being - malnourished (we need (mly think o f the gradual
As/^)pearing Gact m Gmale models m A e last 50 years, Gom M a r i ^ Monroe A Calvin Klein's KaA
Moss). I vividly remember my Giend's suffaings vAo, as a feminist and emerging lesbian, wodced

^A id., p. 189.
*^Ibid., p. 188.
Helen Lynn, "Women's Environmental Network", NGiiam Wyman, ed., Aveeping Ae 6%rA, (CbarlotteAwns:
energy books, 1999), p. 274.
I want A note here that Nwth American Find Nations, and indeed many aboriginal peoples elsevhere are able
A point to a long tradition of menstrual ritual, aimed at prqNaing the young woman through unique, celebratmy
Astings and qwritual-physical journeys Ar her role as sexually mature Amale. Fw Anther readings see
/rva/ 6ke a sTo/y, a cmnpilatkm of three Yukon dder hestories by Julie Cruikshank.
66

ceaselessly on behalf o f women survivors o f sexual abuse. The nourishing meals

(male paMnar at

ihe time) fed ho^, kqA her from ovaextcnding h e rsd f completely - until periods depleted her
stressed body o fn o n and otha^ vital ingredients» and it/she collapsed, and with shocking regularity
was tdrem (again by her partner) to hospital. Besides it being one instance, in i ^ c h a male has tried
to h d p transfbim a woman's internalized denial, what stood out 6)r me was that deqnte/throughout
the recurring black-outs, Janine never seemed to feel her body as a concrete, unique, insightful
expression o f self that needed to be powafuUy embraced and cared for. Beyond her body's
performance and usefulness as a mature, sexed organisn in the en*gy ûelds o f sexual negotiations,
she denied it an autrmomous voice, and treated it as necessary medium for the purpose o f
tmnqxntation and sexnal communication.
Yet, here as everywhere, I perceive subversive movanents, small revolutions which h d p to
re:de6ne our body changes. Winrne Tomm remembers that the leader o f a workshop on raising
qnritnal energy in the body owned a business in the USA in which the female cnployees have two
days am m nh o ff hom work, in addition to die normal off-dme:
"The two
include the day be&re they b%in menstruating and the Grst day of bleeding. The women are
given those days to look ader tbanselves, to go inward and pay attention to the changes that are taking place in
their bodies. The owner of the business claims that it is cost-efkctive to give the women time to take care of
thenselves. The enployees' level of production iiKxeased, the morale in the workplace improved, and there was
less time taken for sick days.
I remember that Wien my mother and I Gnally broke the tdxx), not long ago, she ^x & eo fth e
premenstrual time as die d ^ s oftrudi. The d ^ s o f truth. This is new vocabulary, because it is not
meant as ridicule but as hberatimi and celebratian o f danale insights.
"Going deep into body consciousness during menstruation is a time of renewing elemental power and
expeiencing growth through change. The sloughing off the lining o f the uterus is a ccmdition An new growth
and new possibilities. The body process is a metaphor for shedding old ideas and old patterns of behaviour to
make qiace fbr new developments, just as the snake shedding its skin is a goddess symbol of the transformation
through death to new birth.

I will not talk dxm t goddess Qmiboliaii -yet, and some o f us m ^ be more comdartable in im ^ining
a butterfly instead.

Ibid., 188.
"^IbW., pp. 190/191.

67

Regardless,6eneedfbrexpressingthesevast,agniG c8D ttim esm oorlives -a n d h o w w e a re
infbmied by diem - is eaormoTis, and growing in die &ce o f growing masculinist, udliiarian, above
all, global, interventions in women's bodies.

68

/w/W ey
ecAok/
re/eaaef w&
info
/omùcfÿwj
vAere memonea conAmue (o aeorcA
aWfAfÇW
j?7ace
AWOOf*
oA/oMg
pface (Aaf rgjfjgA
m mfervaA a ffme
fmmemwnzA/g
zM&zMgj6/g & AO owoy 6/»e
wAere
Ae AOWKf OVOMgAAôzgimg
feovgA
yow
AreofA /ggg

69

L
we gyg
fo W t oAowf A
q/*er a// we are /xwùModem
wome» a W (Aü w wAaf /xwOrnodlen! women <&)
qpeni<p
ce/e6 mfe Aer pain oW dbmmii
ief fi yZow
Azngw fAqRpmg
yow mean /
}ww fweon in^ÿoni —over iAe cownier
/fwi noi me
noi now
noiever never iA ^A egontim
iAeir ^ e e ^We inio pfMiOenifoyroaÜnee
i$n Yiiy&nny Aow Ai; growe AoW omf eArint; a i iAe
iAoffgAi q/"cwie iiiiie A/ooff e/oi;
ee^ing^yÿiom iAe enie Aüie
Awi/(% reff
we are p o ; imof^em
we are wAaA more
we wndleMionff
wefAi^ iAe
ieaAing iowpon arozmj iAe iffoe am i eonÜn*fe io
fwa/iow
afivi/ jeÿ" Aioofi ami aii

&
«nneAme;
/ wamier iAe eiiy ami
aii iAe women oecwr io me wAo
viAroie ffrAon^exçfe^o o fi Aiwe;
paie
aoaAeti wiW wiiA eromp;
iAimAngy&r a cieon ;an i o r iongxm io qnencA gw^Aing reii
y)vm vioiaüng pain$iatiMgiy noAefiporeeioin anAie;
m o fie^ r
wnnoiwrai men ami iAeir 0?er;Aave
eve/y Aonr eve/y minwie women aroifTwi me
reieoae amiyoin iAe^ « « i cyeie
a eweiiing immomi q/"
^ m oie eve/ywAere
a re<i iAie q ^ r i i i e ;weai
am i iAe iAowgAi corne; io me
iAai men Aove aiwqy; ^ e ii
;Üii fio?

70

expkrgr;
aomw Amef
oW More
wAem fAe
Moomjw /k o«r fcoAerecf memofie*
awf ow penofù rememAer
ve reocAyür
^ür Aoct fo a» owqy oo$ff
wAgre yoy
oMff oïAer fo^ Aegiw»rg3
megf/g fogefAgr m fAe düfKpwM
AefwggR ow MwgMg AreoaA
vAem cw/Tgf
ZoMfùcüpg (k^fAroofecf waferaAedk
orcA mowmAzA: fag» gfup cave Ao//owf
OMùfpo«ry&rA/f(y wavgg Wo jernowa/ &Memcef
AAeÿZâVfMgM/MMerAreezef oW
«MAwrrWpreg?KZMckf
gare yAwd/wg gaze
AoMdk
mow /lOMôiowa wifA /ove
rooM gemf/y omoMggwA;c Aair
eonyfMg a// ap/ee oW /mmoeemce

MopoM/e
om/y
(Ae go/ggo»ÿ AôïAmg
)^Mo/e dleAgAt

71

fAe
fAe
o(Aery AwzW
Aecmwg fAe AeorfAeof fAof ow e Aoit^eef Aer
Am /mf ;A femder meowAig
Am groww mfo fAe regf/mg aiZewe wmcomciom Aar$
g//e»</y fAe a^Azwdk o -ÿ w f
waf A«g Aegzw ;m«fe Aer
^wze/^ fAe wo/A:
(AmwgA o Amf&mf Ame
(Amyg
Aüo o Aor/zoM w orne Anow^ w f eveM ^Ae
ffw e Aer wWk
owf
owf q/^o JOMg «neve»
Aer /üfgMfng eygf rgfreaf & feorcA
Æ jAiA AocA Aüo Aer waîAwg Aotfy
ùW^Müf MOorne
MOfOWÜ
MO(w ve fo AeMif V(fA Aer
MOwomA fo eMfer Aer
MgA q/'/oMgîMg
m fAe TWMxkrx
«MweeiMg
mfo fAe /orge pome q/^Aw w/eo
q/^)Mo/AerAoo(/

72

mom*

!>-wg.
MOWfAof pregMaMfy wM/eofAee/
* o f g dgg? zMMgr fgmo/3 / *o«gAf
fwg/y wgfg gygfyoMg gkg f
/ w g ^ * ï c t m o g m o ^r « o * f/^
g n y f iMfo o y f o/ffWe WMOworg
* o f /o m /gM o/o»g
*of
Ate o jwrvNmg
jp g ^ ^ f ^Ag//
OggOMWOgAgff

/g ro w fwo^A/ MOW
(bMg ^Mfmg W o Mfy /w b*gr fgg)
Awfgoj
my gyg/idk anowWier * y owAgf
M/g/Hÿ

wAgM/ afore of fAg cefAmg
age MofAfMg
My AoMck freMiA/g q /k r
awd&M repeofa/ offocAa OM fAe rfafmg AreW okwgA
(/)» eoMawMW A}» AoAfmg fAgae * y ^
oa My demae Aoc^ /eoma Agow(y fnfo fAe
AffcAgM cowMfer
affrrzMg wmdler fAe freMKMdowa ocAe q/^awd&MpoaafAfAAea
or
MwyAg
yifaf
o /«Mg? q/]^or
gTiowfMg wmder My Aeorf
fAof
fMfAg gW
fAere woa oM/y one roo</
/ oAoag

73

7 never gaw «or fm e/W are /loWzMg me
/o«gq/?er fAeir
a*i// 6 &M&o«K
agff/g^ arowMf/ « y Aearmeff

foo mwcA
« y Aoo^
7 /mger
foo //A/g aro«o!(7 me /Aaf excAea me
or wamü me fo n m /ô r po^/Ao»
/Ma/eox/ A movgf
omA /Aey/wAer o/^/A A/y Areo/A f&/6 g /ne
eve/y Ame
eve/y Ame /m /6 /«e
(A&ÿo/vea me Aoet
AAo /Ae vagwemefg q/"//y growmg f Aape
/Ae /o /g e roAfOM/ o v a / q/^ a j v o / i e m g O /A erA ooA

AeA/zw/ wA/cA reAigaü
/m ore wAA eaeA /xMAfmg d k y

//y :OK/e/AaA/y^erce W /
o/z/y A) 6 *0 5 /
^wüWe/i/y
w/A; cauae
mfo /Ae m/dk/ q/"meadow^; //Ae
qqp/ea / i ^ wAA fw/wA//*e
yW/Afg Ae/Ko/A a
'« greaf /m/poae
fo Ar/gAt fo /!a/A/zow$
/oo /wm/KMw^ /r /Ae zArz// q/^wordk eve/z o r
a /over'f ^/ze fowcA
AzAy&ar/ey<y/y AeaA/zg zAe dhmz q/^
a wo/wa/z mo/zze/zZ
a wo/zza/z f fo/zg q/'AzrzA

74

7; AejwüA

Aer

emAracea
/"ememZwrAf OM(y
gvgm wAf/e f/wy occwr
/y*e Zymg m a dürk migAf fAaf Rever W f a AegfRMfag
/wfewmg fa a ^fon» fear aakfde
*Raw;Rgyow are j a ^
W nwRgyoa may e&e
AaRdk ^ cw a/ang am<f fAraagA wg/ Aocfy
j/aw(y ^ a w
eadZeffZy
a:; fAey Aave dbae m fAe AegAwfRg
^ aw mfa a warmfA / &fz// recagofze
/(Aea^f
Aecaa;e
wAere Aw A /ecf me
Ae camef fa me
AAe (me cZmgmg^ r Acgpe (&
a W W yea (ÿ^Ae/aagmg
war dlae&
A(x^ canfraÆef Aff aearcA
-Aaw caa fAe /xwffA/y (k /y Aer Awi[g%mgcarve
wmAfgwffecf
Aer Aa(^ ceaf ea fa rea emAZe
aa Zaager^ e / f rememAerecZ
Ma ZaMger we/caMie «aw fAaf evea Ae nm f
ybrwanZ fAe fwavef fAroagA fAü MiameMfaaf Ame wMpaafe(Z
Aeraa/y A(ye
Aer fpfnff wf/Z refrace f OMie awfZZne
faMK fZZm f ZZAaaeAe
( ^ me/warfef AeZiZ
(ÂfMCfMg

75

MA» A 6

vAem / came.

jfeeAyfreef

concrefg.
co/seü.

7W mzfAgy c/mg fo
co»(gny/af/ve paMk (^recamAnoM rocAr
yo/» AwMor/Mg W ^/(w m me/r mW-e^rmoow rwmA/eg
mm/ AeAfm/goMÿw^pgAcaw OMfAg &wfA SkwAafoom
facgA*/^ dbmgg maA/ie *///grwAo/gf
oW fÿfog M/gmfmg /ce6g»g$
Ag/mg.
oM/y/_/&//
prggMonf ZMfo fAw age
WTZAÿÔMMgf/
/gff fAoMywgpwW oW
fo /gfy/ow m OMa fecref
m a /oM
Aow (o fg// 7»y Ae/wga ffon «

wAom evgm
wM/g&y a cA;/(/ -

76

ïn Ae wote o/"a comef
af M7g*f «Ae rwgf
gW a; pw^ /Ae (rWo/ Aormr; /Ae düy
j?red/c/(z6 /e /nÿw /o /Ae Aa/Aroow Æ
fArAïA/ng fA/nk owf comceM/raAoM fpWM
w ÿW a Aer TMewofy
AÂe o ^dWeAemf^m/
^j^A
/eWer
Aw/ gw/cA^ (w /e(f «p agmA
wAf/e aAe grcpea ^ r
& Ao//Ze« p/Z/ow W0WM/0/M&
Aw/ewf
growg /w/o a w o w /n w
jywccayôrever aprov/m^ foAc/)Wcca q^^SpnAg
a / /Ae mopy dür//»g /Ao«gA/ï
/Aere Ae/pg om(y orne m/dwi/ê
vAere /o Aave /Ae A/r/A
fWAa/ ^ / / 'j /rwe /Aa/ / am rea//y pregmam^)
<&
oA dümm// eAe /AawgA/^ma/Ty reacA/mg /AeyWd^e
/Mmaarn/igA/ a W /ra;//pg a came/
/ WM «aie /Aere voe eame ce/e/y /e// /a ga w//A /Ae cAeeee

77

; f ü w eek (e g o
Aer /eg5 AardTy 6ew /Ae wejgA/ (ÿ"wo/er a W womA
Awe/y pwfA w ra w omo/Aer wmeve» dloy
wAof-AAe
a/;eM A(p Aow^ fWA Aer w;dk Aoe^
tweef /ocAmg m /0 eocA fm?//
f/ep
j?recwe(y /oco/e<f /o ovoW
f/ra/M on Aer /oorene^f/?wAfe Aone
& yZzWy dkmcmg Z/gomenA
wAf/e /Of/die one
A/cAf A e r ^ r o/Z o //en g ? ü /o

Z^ Zwr feZjTon/ qTa &/Ognan//defence
fAe
AeacAefZ wZw/Ze
f/ra/m/ng /o rewemAer wAa/ A waf /Aa/
fpan Aer ow/word A ^ m d f eZ/^
AeyowZ Aer foZemn cocoon
&
^ r a nKwnen/ made Z/er AeZ/eve
Z//&

78

I

I
:
&

fw&k coamic <)peMmg$ q/^o^ ee^n g 6/«g
/fvef /wve Aggwf
fAgir (yr^W y7wagrA%$ o -r^ A m ;g m foWem
gg/Affor coMÜmwm MWfwW (AmwgA g/rgff <&)&oùk}%w gof & ovoiW o;r & 6/oo(f_y(w ffrin* 6y (Agm
fnp/g Agarf Agafy amwagf ÆîohgfWk Agw/Wgra _yow (&»/y afrwgg/g fcwardk a ^xw&fmg au»
(you have yet to fe d her fluid passion during intercourse but as you now know even twins
be
conceived in therapcutiG perma&ost & semidesert)
yawpg/vM Aamw A/A aAead q/yawr Aac^
a^Tdr Aow/ a^r/M g giant mg/on
y a w f/A(gY*ahng Aae^ dbt/y grawf gmaZ/gr <&gtramger & ggntg/W & Arg(//wagw dawA/g tAg A/ood
Aaw/y gxcAanggg amnioAc^w;d tAA fw AA/ng /w nym g gfa/id/y gating mawntain q/pwp/g-vgingd
Ag/^
& (Agany pgw W ow ArgaaA
tAat Aas Aggatng yaw
tawardk a yîna/ manignt q/^
/zra/anggd AreatA/g&mggf
attgr/y conyofgd fAg /Atgna & waiA & p/ayf Grigg via/in fonatag
in cAwcA Agr tAawgAA/à//y gAgwAgrg
(& ref A (6 fwddenj^
- a^gr ning jxuK/erow mantAr and^vg day;tAe vgAgmgnt Au/gA^ a/^wArw-yaar-Aody
g/afgf * qpgnf
comgf a/ivg into mi/d agary
into tAg gAgg?yk//y marfaging Aandk q/^midwÿg & tArgg aAgndonA
wAa mavg to y a w rAytAm y a w ; a n ^ y a w r on/y yawr;
trw ty o ar mngmanig AreatA
a motAgr f tg^ in Agr wnwgd /avg /tAg gnarmity q/"i()
^ i n t witA wn/gaming
wçKf y a w gafAciow ^breAead
a AwAand wAarg gver-prefgnt regwgft my love
crwAgf yaw
/iAe a ^ n a / cw*g
Cdon't lie on me' you plead & &)ld your self away
into the privacy o f your knowing
your self forgiveness )
tArawgA tAg mortgr Agdraam y a w /xain raarr
away ^ratn you tawardr tAg fanny A a a ^ r d
tawarde tAg ftngfa^tg q/'AypatAgdca/Zy wwware cAi/drgn
()vw f ming tAg ngigAAar^
)?/A tAA cArif dan Aawfg witA prgfzmydvg (Aead q/^
wAat tAif poffiA/y mganf
tAif pagan ritwa/ q/^AamgAirtA
ngft/ing taggtAgr q/"unAnawn wamgn wAa Aavg
comg taggtAgr to
Ag./JFE
/Vnidwi^ mganf witA waman' fAg fmi/gf a t Aim fwitoA/y
% wAat/ /avg to db^
pwfA ArgatAg pwA a ^ n a / roaring

80

OM
Awga
orw» (nemA/g WKkmeofA/vepoa/eroity we/gAï
Mgver-ew&Mgpoim gwa/Kg Aof wef f (nwgy foc q/)7wW
fo (Ag womg» crooMwg
<6/o/af g ^ c « f Aer AeW MfAoWmg /iAk ;$q!%Afo'f
g/wfewMgpmA Aocfx g^eezef fAew api/k owf
'(Aere )/ow ore fweef AoAy' wA;/e fo/? /eommg Aowb
/we&y dowM w fo (Ae ap(//ô^ w(erw$
(o AoW o eecow f one m j?/oce

}"ow ree/a(M your «orne
Aecome cowoom
AO^A/OMOTM
(Ae AeovfMg /owgAfMg aAe// y o u Amow w(/( JOOM A e/org
M geM((y r o / W oM(o jyow AocA
}Ywr (AwgA(er rAAmg o(cg7 g/fwgwef o voy( f/A(ero(e worAf
wA(/e (ArowgAow( (A« moMe»(ow$ evem(

givfmg AoMüb AoW
oW W e/
o feven /Touwf Aocfy (zomAW (mowHoAe (k k / wove
(Ao(^00(6 Ak ^W ef/ Ao%$ ;«$«& j/o w eom(nzeAMg w(enw (owordk zm)»(MeM( dbmger
(OWOMÙ AreeeA AinA

(wherMs in the dis-enchanted age of mechanical Antqis &
a man's bulkier hands wearing their selfmposed dWntuition
this same event would -Aongh with negligible regret- record two dead one almost and merely female)
MOW
/rve woMzeM ayMcAroMzze o r owe ^zMzz/zor Aond
(Ao( f z/gM(/y Mzovef oM (op orozezd oeroas A/oodrooAed f Aee(r
^ M ! wAzeA growzMg rrvzz/e(r q/^A/ood^ow j:Mzoo(A/x

/?red;c(oA/y
ZM(o (Ae wozdMg deo(A
jereoMzr rAotter Mzy AonzoM A tyond co/ozzr

grever r (ofMMzyrozz(/
yzve woMzeM zzMAeonzA/y AMAed zM(o (Aezr Awow/go^
o/"wAo( Aappenr (MreeoMdr
yozzr (onMgM(ed Ao(fy AezMg
ogoW (yozzr rereoM» Aeoved over (Ae Aed'.r eoTge

o/reoz^ Aer M(MzA/e Aond Mzover Wzdg yozzr rAzzdkWzMg woMzA

(even now, m death's radical advance, a husband systemically adjusts the angle of his camera)
fAe yzMdr reorroM gef (zzrw * /w / 6 (wzM 19
(ArozzgA o yiMo/ ezpW/oM (Ao( w yozzr /xzAz eodzdÏMg w((A Air Aeod
ozd
zzp
(M(o rg f ezzei(o(ZMg Aondr
f(ÿ) fo(ôzy we/coMze

(zz/ÿzr (zpeMiMg
WZZMgff
wAz(ewoxeMrAppg g re y rAzM
(zzrwr A/zze (zzmr gr^irA -pznA
Aere

81

fAe rgmyakmfMg q^/ÿê Ag^%w)br
m aw e/
& fAe origimaf aeorcA )b r Aeove»
a fW!M
a mofAer% Aremf

82

"Fall Time Hoasdœepii% $380-$450 per week w $I9,760-$23,400
Cbildmmding $300-$380 per wedc or $15,600-$19,760 per year."®

year

These Bgures, aroogh esdmate by an Australian insurance company, were calculated by
adding rq* an Australian "housewiAV estimated sevmty hours o f uiqMÛd domestic labor (twice the
hours o f tbe standard' paid woddng wedc). None of this labour is included in a nation's GNP. Even
the United Nations calculations cannot hide the "universal scandal o f Amininc marginalization, where
women own less than l% o f all proper^ and do two thirds o f the world's work for 5% of all wages
paid."^ However, none o f this includes the primary labors women pfoükce which ensure the
physiological survival and emotional balance o f the human species: laboring for 9 mrmths (if all goes
well)

every child bom, the life-death risk in Mrth-lalxn, the labor o f diildrearing in unrecogrdzed

capacities as nurse, counselor, educator, n^otiating the uninterrupted, precarious safety o f children
throughout their unfolding.
It is with proAund, recurring amazement that I began to realize this: only wmnen conceive
and becmne ^n^nant (apart from tedmological eoq)aiment8 in some o f these masculinist-driven
areas), only w om w give birth and nurse children. Only womoi are the essemW, anbodied source o f
life-production. Through their menstruating, and most oAen conceiving and pregnant bodies women
engage in biological time and the organic mediating o f irmer and outer qiace, to the 100% exclusion
o f the male gender. Men, to the extent that their bicdogical determinism is participating, are semenproviders. It is throu^i badogical ^nocesses like p re n a n t bodies that women becmne visible as
biologically dif&rent othas. It is the source-ability women personi^ which marks them hfe givers
and it is through all the lived practices o f nurturing mid care attached to the process o f giving liA A at
wmnmi enAld humanity into the fbundatimial qiiral that w

Is meaning. Here is where die

question o f essentialism becmnes truly obsolete —and, I suggest, lingers in masculinist vocabulary to
divide and dehne it as a viable resource, raw matter, to exploit and manage. I need to remember and
write into my:stmy - men are never the biol«%ical bearers o f liA, and since diis mWces women the
only ones who truly can produce in a most essentially competent, organically conqilete w ^ .

® Ariel Salleh, Ebq/kmWaM arfoZ/dcr, (New York: St Martin's Press Inc., 1997), p. 89
™Ibid., p. 88., quoting j&om The Anmam Deve&ÿimgMr
(New Ymk: UN, 1995)

83

masculimst comstnicts o f domination must, by deGnidon, negate any cnltwal, owfoMonKwy meann% o f
self-identity that belongs to women alone.
And this is what emerges: that the commonality o f women's opp% sion n n d * palriardial rule
lies in the fact that women are wmnen, not moL This essential' (speak b io k ^ cal) difGawce
undopins all othws, I bdieve. Indigmous and Third W odd women under patriarchal (corporate
neocolomal) rule may be raced others', yet their oppiesâon becomes two&ld: as one - the raced
otho:' —they suf&r in solidarity with dieir male partners, while as "women odter" they suf&r under a
further oppression wi&in their own communities. It seans to me that the tragic irony o f vhite
Aminist theories' failure to work together with indigenous and Third World women lies in the w ^
they identi^ women: away Gom biological determinism and the degrading, e^qdoitative ways in
which masculinian has equated w om ai and nature. Yet, while we struggle to pretend that through
technology women can liberate diemselves 6 cm biological ties, c# italist patriarchal politics o f
transnational credit accumulation works simultaneously to reassert control o v a women's bodies
dirongh control o f the tedmological medium and the laws governing its usages - while making us
believe that it is all in our onancipatoiy interKt - as weD as pudi Third W odd and indigenous wmnen
hinher into traditional female roles under patriarcby, vdnle taking away A e structural, qiiiitual safety
o f Aeir land, Aeir men and their communities. And how can it be otherwise under cqntalist
patriardiy which draws on both li& sourcw to 'fund' its oppressions?

84

kferfkpgNfWf

am ùwmgnmf t /îma/ comAxg o«f &*6oA mof&erg

dW_yo« Ww_yow wowW « « f &p Aere
crcMMJ (Ae Aa/fwayy^om (Ae mow aAarndbmeff fwaxfer AedfAwm
wAere -AocA (Aew- (Ae dowA/e Aed dÜvAkd Ay a cwrfom ao y w cmdd db AooAAeepiMg (Mdo (Ae
7wgA( and mo( dk(wA Aü a /e ^
()wM are mernqpawaat yaw don '( a/eg?, Aeazdea, Ae «ever Ae(pa w((A Awainea;^
dfdyow Anowyow wow/d end ^g(((ye A? (Ae (Ay nxwm a/yawr eWea( aon wAo
/g? Agôre Ae ezAered/ee/Aiga
on (Ae aeeond^oor A; (Ae aow(Awea( com er (Aia
ramA/Aig /ogAowae (Aa( a((a aAove (Ae W e
Awra(A(gw((A vege(aA/ea j?e(a a(oredyfow%r aeedk (eaa AerAa dig?/oced mefnor(ea
and (Aa(yknc(ea yow ao mwcA, (no(Aer, yowr Aear( acAea a( (Ae (AowgA( q/^/eawng
even^Ar a ddy?
proAaA/y (wen(yyeora ago (o (Ae dlay
wAen anow ad// covered (Ae nor(Aem a/qpe
/even (AowgA (Ae ear/yMarcA awn a k e a ^ Acted (ender c(rc/ea
arownd Awdd(ng coA<»nvood and jptp/ar )
we came (oge(Aer agaAi dw(ÿW, eager (o p/eaae
j?ro/kwnd/y wnconacfowa (Ae paA* (Aa( awaAowa (^gi<nc((ona/^&m(Aea,
we came (o w ort Aard _/wr(owa
(o pwA end/eaa roo(a, Awm a/aaA /?dea dKg (rencAea more (rencAea aAove/ deg?er
and a/waya (Ae Aowae (n nwnd
moaa(ve aprwce k g s rowgA/y W d (n(o one ano(Aer
growing and awe//A;g in(o an amAer Aome wAen we were gone
a/wayayowrs, (o^a(Aer,
^ r Aad and worse
a n d / rememAerAow
down (Ae Aid in (Ae o/d Aomeaiead
over (Ae gfeaming A/acA and wAiie ename/ woodaiove
yow /eaned
ao Ared nervowa, anxiowa/y con(en(
yow a(id Ae/ieved w e'd come (ogeiAer
a d (Ae wAi/e a(irring /en(d ao&p a(reama q^aweai rwnning down
yowr acAing Aody,
Aare^ recovered/)omyowr idneaa
yow coated^ve mea/a a day (o teg? wa rwnning
ywa( rwnnA%:........
(Aen aomedmea
aa (Ae evenings grew /onger in /aie v4pri/
qder dinner an d aa i/^Ay cAance we wow/d ga(Aer a( (Ae pkieaw
rea( owr AreaiAa and (Aen
awgwnded in a co//ec(ive (ran^wi/ momeni
ease in(o (Ae viArodona q/"Aow a// re/adona.
gaze a/ow/y down (Ae aow(A a/qpe wAere (Ae Aea( ad// ro se^o m awndried need/ea wAere
A/actAirda, cAictodeea and/H ai^ roAina airwded
Aearing (Ae aq/?ea( /icAen and AoraeAair down
gaze /ioYAer (o (Ae /ate w/^re (Ae g?ring riiwa/ q/^(Ae /oon a arriva/ cawaed (remora among
ama//er reaidenia —oa i( mwa( Aove /oaiyear, (Ae year Agbre an d a/wqys and Aeavera roamed
according (o (Aeir eiemo/ r/y(Am q/^core and q^Spring
gaze wp Bo/dy AA wAere pw/p/e awnaei a/ivera ran ocroaa (Ae alpines and
in(o (Ae re(readng a ^

85

/Am ovgy aW Aoct dknm /o wAere
jefay*/ m eet c m ^ w awjg^eif m a
«K/gimg fzMge coAomwoff greew, $a^ oW A/M/zMg
dkwm (a Ae oAf Aomea/eaef wAere a// wAf/e v a //^ peap/e Aatf //ve<f wAem (Ag/ came
aiMce Ca«gar-B;f/ A /90&
^wa//y re/wm a w gaze /a Ae mew g-pace we p/amme(f /a aec&gy
Aw a w pfa/eaa
wAa$e vefy aA" earf/er Aw mam/mg aAn// w/A Ae /iw/ a/paw ef faw f
Awzg
a/ame af/e»/ aaw
aW wAfwe a w e aa^ aa// - maw %(p/wme(/ dir/ed wawmdk
a p*/ace game dle(^w/A^HgA/
/<^ e/wAefW w/A grea/ mamg/e^/ eedür Aamea
a?K//rememAer
a ; we aa/ am_yaumg amt/yawmger a/wmgw A Aw /emder Ara/ae a/"a /a»W
/a/memAmg ere?y ae*/er a fmam//&aA
amf/ aZ/AaagA we </Ww / jw e// we dW care /a awAmz//
ÿyâr a Ane/"mw/mem/ a/^dkA/aiw ww^
/a Ae p e ^ c / preawmç?/aawameaa q^/wAam a
aa Ae)/we miave w/A/m A/a Aea/AA /amdkccpe
a/)^/(% ^ r / a m
a/wZ //te /Ae c/earca///mg
/m Ae emd
/Ae cama/a/emcy a/^aAiw/ve r/A a/ /Aa/ aa prec/ae^ Aad eroded aw^mm//y
evem aa we/f acadered /ArawgA /Ae cawT//y
/m Aw greem Aa///e-wea?y /amd /Aa/ / woa Aeg/mmAg aga/m
A ad/awe /e/)_yaw AeA/md/
wmder a/ege
a AiwAamd'a cam/ro///pggeaAre yaw ao aAAAarm/y
amx/awa/y
mwa/aatj6r /ave aver amd aver A jP7yeara
amd ad// Aw/ Aaw w/Kre we ai^ppaaed /a Amaw
A A/a Arotem aymccpa/Zam
//me d/v/ded Ay apace
wAere a// re/a//ama rec//e
gr/e/S/r/ctem
ye/ com/mg aw/ /ArowgA a w
"wAere are yaw?
wAere Aaveyaw Aeem?
amd wAa am /

cam '/ Aamor y.awra? "

86

Chapter Three
Debate of womeo-nature commecthm, ecoXogkal femmbm as trans&rmathre pohtks far aU;
ecological fmmdst aHks: oar hopelol potential, what it means
"I g(* to some of the white women's conferences, like The Feminist Connection' in Winnip% and a women and
r e li^ n con&rence in Thonder Bay (qwnsored by the Women's Inter-Church Coumnl). Now, that was an
interesting (me, (laughs). I was amazed when we got there. They had a list of work shops to choose 60m, and a
Native womanlknewwent in just ahead of me. She identiGedhersdf as Native and gave her name. The
r%istration woman replied, "Oh yes,' and put down "poverty". So the Native woman t(x* me aside and said,
Theyte going to put you automatically in "poverty" becxmse you're a Native woman.' I said. They'd better not
because I have my eye on something else.' They had things (m power and I was imerested in learning more
about the power struggles women go th ro u ^ Sure enough, when I signed in Tm (Aviously Indian, and die
vronmn at the desk said, "Oh yes, poverty.' I said, Tve already marked off the workAops Tm going to attend,'
and passed her the pf^ier. She said, "Wdl, the Nabve women are gtnng in the poverty one.' I said, "ReWly? Is that
where you keqi Native women? She got all flustered, said, "But we were inAirmed..' I said, "By whom? I neve^
in&rmed you.... We wwe sitting thee talking ab(xit it, getting very upset, when a woman &om Latin America
ovoheard us and adced. Did they put you in poverty too? I said, 'Yes ' She swore in Spanish and said, Tt's not
right, whaf8 happening. Let's meet in my room lat* on.'" (Shirley Bear talking to Janet Silman in ÆmowgA is
Fhong*.' 1997, p. 192).^'
Tlfe wmdd not be where we are, doing vhat we are doing, with the skills and access we have, if we did not
have the (xilour, gender, sexual orientation, appearance, age, (dass, or physical abilities we have. Resources
and power continue to come to us because we are members of the dominant group in rdaticm to the
particular form of oppressions vhere we sedr to be allies." (Bishop, Becommig
1994, p. 97).
"We are a groiq) of nrnthas Wio were arrested (m the morning of August 11th and 13th at the Kennedy
Ri\w Bridge. Our ages range horn 24 to 60. Some of us are new mothers, some are motl^-s of grown-up
children..We come 60m a v a r i^ of spiritual backgrounds. Although we have differW themes in our
pesonal lives, our cmnmon experience of nurturing, and loving our children led us to take action to defend
Clcxpiot Sound, one of die last remaining tenqierate rain&irests on Earth. ..We did not want to End ourselves
re;noached in later years by children who asked us why, when die Earth was threatened, we did nothing.
Being arrested and accqrtii% the conse(iuences gives a strong message to our (hildren that we will do
whatever we can to protect their hitures. What is the use of raising our children with care, ifthe planet has
no trees to provide them with oxygen? If our planet is to survive, we must each take personal respcmsibility
fbr its survival, and we must modd this reqxmsibiHty dir our children. We hcqie that our children, sedng us
standing up dir our beliefs, will learn 60m int%rity and responsibility. We require the hdp of the world's
peeves. We do not regret our stand on the bridge. We fear only that what we have not dcme will haunt us.
Where there is no vision, the people will perish."
(Maclsaac and Champagne, CZqywgworAdm 7no6: p. 142)
E v a since I began on my academic journey o f anchoring my self within feminist
ccmsciousness, and the weahh o f lived, indnmed herstories, I have also been vastly amused,
ccmfused and bew ddaed by the pieocxmpations o f theotizii% feminists widi the seemingly
oppositianal terms of'essence' and 'cultural construct'. Entire seminars seem to cxmstruct
themselves around the unrescdvability o f the two meanings As Salleh puts it^ "a postmodern
acadmnic retreatism has weWcened daninisn dean within. The sqiaration o f head do m hand.

Shirley Bear talking to Jan^ Silman, ed.,
jSrhMan. Toronto: Women's Press, 1997), p. 192.

6 EnongA vfhoMgmo/ IRamen

Ont /Ir A16/ ro Jhwr

87

theory from praodce, is what gave rise to destructive dualisms [...] in the ûrst place. It is no
smprise then, that salaried (hscourse Aeorists claim there is "nothing natural" about A e body"^. To
my understanding, a belief in the divisabili^ o f these two terms is artrGcial and presrqrposes a
belief in a patriarchal, value-drenched equation o f essence and - wztwe. And therein lies - 1 Aink
- the hnal answer to Ae success fimnula o f patriarchal logic o f domination. Because most
(Western) faninists" fear that A e (patriarchally decreed) devaluative qualities o f anything
n u y attach thonsefves A any undastanding o f womar's biological bodies has
resulted m a triple "wammy": many mainstream Western fanhnst Aeorists continue A shy away
fA m any bold body-discourses tm biological determinism, discourses which would help to bridge
the necessary g ^ m Armulating efkctive, transformative and allying faninist strategies that
would beneGt disadvant%ed women m Ae FtmrA W odd^.
And thirdly, this refusal A reidehne, rcicontextualize A e celebratory, functional stray of
women's biological potential within A e larger body o f this planet, has resulted m Western
faninists" unwilhngrœss A mcorpwaA the patriarchal stmy o f ecological dominatioa as the final
piece o f the feminist puzde towards an all-inclusive honoring o f women's AfBaence. Beginning
wiA body-dif&rence - biological determined diSerence. Charime Spretnak suggests that "now,
as A e natural world beyond human society has become critically degraded and dysfunctional, the
possibility that A e meaning o f Ae human is anchored m A e meaning o f nature is hightening A
many peo%de."^^ She points A postmodern, deconstructicmist declarations A at truAs are socially
inoduced, saying that Aey are artihcial, because truA
"is pluralistic in that it is relational and intersubjective - but humans are not the only subgects in the
univase.,. .When we cultivate sensitivity toward other forms of being, we b%in to recognize the value,
requirements, and movement Award satisGrction that are located in plants, animals, communal structures,
events and place. In such a condition of receptive awarenea:, the truth we grasp has greater depA than that
arrived tkougb a denial of engagement .

^ Ariel Salleh, iScq/knoMûm
pp. 105-6.
^ I emphasize again that I do not re&r A scholarly works on rape, keast cancer, women and aging and a
myriad of wommi/heakh -fdated Gelds of study, but Aat I re&r A feminist theorizing which focusses on
biologically anchored gendar diffkence and its sodo-cultural consequences, particularly its meaning in
corporaA ^obal politics.
Charlaie Spretnak, AloAs ^ Grace, (New York: HarperCoUins PuWishers, 1991), p.212.
^ Ibid., p.212.

88

An ecological ianim st perq)ocüve is by dejBnidoo a long-term perqwctive woddng towards a
sustainable, liveable future. Through uncovering Westem(izing) patriarchal politics o f oppressicm
and their structural intelinkages, intra- as well as cross-cultural, its strategies aim to redehne the
ways in which we look at the intoconnectedness o f all life forms (m dns planet It is not surprising
then that ecological fbmimst thoughts and practices concern themselves deeply widi the oppressive
politics o f rezproduction, its mascuhnist mythology, its misogynist discourse, and their combined
disempoweing continuation in the contradictory expcnœ ce o f motherhood, designed to shrg)e Ae
growing person into yet another product o f the W esternized) logic o f domination, vdnle
disenqmwenng and absencing women-as-moAers m Aeir roles as primary nurturcrs, educators
and providers o f immediate social environments.
W W her or not we agree that the focus ought to be on women-as-moAers instead o f boA
biological parents, we need to admolwedge that globally it is women who carry Ac greater increasingly sole - responsibility o f caring fbr Aeir children, and Aus aU Ae household activities
attadied to child raising R ^ardless o f Ae slow change m A e way male partners share diild care
responâbilities, and regardless o f some fem inists' rejecbon o f Ae essendalizing' direction which
Ae debate takes m supporting women's roles as the most immediate nurturers o f chddrai, let me
say this: nothing wiH, no - can - change, fbr as long as women have the biological edge'. A that I
am talking about a duster o f biological determinants vhich wonaen's bodies inhabit, regardless o f
sexual mientatioo, which arable us to Aster intimacy wiA A e child growing within and Ae
newborn m unique ways: we have 9 months (if all gOM w d l) to connect to A e growing child
wiAin^^, to become - Arough actual body-experience - attuned to Ae new liA; the crisis ofbirA
(wheAer as a celebratory release or a painAl journey) which, again through our bodies, unfblds m
its traumatic extremes, provides A r A a potential A r Ae most mtimate bonding; and finally our
breasts w hidi (if mvironmental and bodily Axins are at a "manageable' minimum) are made A r

^ I am not presuming that women are necessarily lookii% Arward A pr%nancy but am talking about the Actual
(xmaiderations of pregnancy a woman Gnds herself io. I am w dl aware that it takes time, patience, and the
acceptance of commitment Awards sdf and other in order A grow hUo and out of pregnancy. I went through
depression and reasted knowledge of my second pregnancy. It took me until my son's s tn ig ^ as an inAnt A
survive a lifie-threatening reqihatory virus, A accept this child - and, again, my self
89

mirsimg bË)ies ia the moat i»actically eG&âent, noariAing oW m ntim ng ways, strenglhea our
intiinate cooaecticm with 6 e child for long after the actual event o f giving birth.
For an ecological feminist perspective to become relevant it needs to admowledge and
work w ith in actual hfe situations. Children are the weakest m anbers o f A e human community
and will Aereftae suf&r most i f we continue to regard moAerhood and Ae experiaice o f
m oA aing as a tœghgible issue within boA Aminist and ecological Aminist pohtics. Not only does
Ae low ectmomical status o f moAers worldwide—particularly angle parent-moAeis - result m
poor heahh, lack o f education and high mortality rate for Ae chilAen, it also perpetuates the
mistaken notion thA women are unable A care prr^rerly', Aus justh^dng and reinfbrcing
misogynist politics o f dmnination worldwide^. Mweover, and eq)ecially m light o f horrendous
pressure put on less westernized cultures to perform according to nmltinatirmal corrqranies'
Actates, A e Ature o f childrm growing up m Aese cultures (A&ican, Indian, SouA Amaican, East
Asian) is - literally - being taken away as their homes and lands are being appropriated under new
development and tam re laws and th â r physical, «notioual and spiritual coir$ensation hes m a
consumer-oriented, diqrlaced cultural sdf^slrangem ent m the rapidly growing W e^em-style
cities. But we needn't go so far as aH Aat. The Canadian Indian Act not only managed A turn
white women mA status Indians (th ro n g marriage A a status Native), strip Native wmnen o f their
status (if Aey married a whiA man, even beyond Avorce or widovAood), no, it (they/we
colonizers) played out Ae paradox o f preventing Native wmnoi's children Aom becoming statusNatives. A ÆnougA « EnoatgA. .dhongma/ FFbmen

Out a grotq) o f Native women horn Ae

Tobique reserve (another colonial displacanent) remembers their campaign o f several years A
overturn certain parts o f A e CanaAan Adian Act that took away their membersAp as status
Indian. And everywhere they went, wAAhw Aey ware tAown out o f Aeir homes by Aeir male

^ Wtlûn Canada, we can see these regressive perspectives take hold A several ;uovinces, where liberal and
conservative parties are able A slash away at the hagile heahh and welfare policies (reduced child care
a ib ^ A ^ less basic meAcal coverage, less access A heahh practhiones, reduced legal support m strugdcs
around custody and ddld sipport, and many more) that have aSbrded single motbas - the mtyority of whom
live well below the poverty line, a minimum of security, while enfbring further Amily Asen&achisement
through work Are policies. Speaking here out of ngr own eqiericnce as a recem angle motbm wiA two small
(hildren, I can only marvd at how diGerent the world loc&s 6 om the botAm of the economic Ta&ier'. How
Aom one day A the next, legal aid evrporates, and the battle to secure even a minimally stable, marginally
economically secure home Ar the children becomes so much harder

90

partners, living in makeshiA dielters, o co çy in g Ae band o& ce or nmning the campaign trail, the
womm txx* their children wiA Aem:
"When it got really bad, we had guna in the band ofSce. We waen't going to let the objectors beat us up; we
were going to protect our kids. We told dn; RCMP Aat we had guns and they told us that we shmddnt have
them. But it wasn't their kids; it was our kids."^
My questions are: how can some haninist perqrectivcs, pmporting to qreak on bdialf o f
Averse expenences o f women world wide, ignore the every-day conditions o f extreme economic
poverty that most women and Aeir oSqrring Ace globally, as a direct consequence o f Western
patrianAal colonialism? How can Western middleclass feminists, reqxmsible A r producing,
critiquing, teadiing and consuming feminist Aeories institutionalized, (i.e. l^ id m ized ) and taught m
academic mstitutimts, how can we ignore the comqAcit practices o f (postmodern) colonialism m our
own personal every-d^ lives, ranging Aom A od consumption to clothing and A e cdebration o f our
own continued Augmented high-tech life style, whose very technological "advantages' contribute to
the cmnbmed efGxts o f poverty and cultural Asspiritedness o f women world wide m obvious ways? I
agree that Western faninist politics have come a long way m linking various isms o f dominatkm
towards a bettK understanding o f Ae global Aminhation o f poverty. We continue wiA our aitique
that the feminizadon o f poverty is rooted m Western patriarchal politics whidt (Arough colonial and
neo-colonial s tra t^ e s ) dominate the ways m which women take care o f A eir children.
Recent feminist critiques on gender and environnent have produced impressive infbrmaticm
on Ae ever mcreasing burden w om ai face m most o f t o d ^ s so-called Third World countries, due to
increased difBcuhies m fulAUing gendered labor - gathering Arewood, Axlder, herbs, foods, collecting
drinking waAr, struggling collectively against foreign (transn^kmal or domestic. Westernized) take­
overs, while caring An duldren and housdiolds - while men have switched Aom multiple tasks to
perArrming maihly one role

paid labor* - i f jobs arc available - and most oA*r outside the

household. Alongside Ae neocolonial process o f inqxnted technology and "land refbrms', the
gendered division o f labour has become exaggerated, most often A women's disadvantages, and as a
result has

^ As told to Janet Silman,
p. 129.

wÆmoagt

IPbmeMjgpeot 0«r.(T(XDato: Women's Aess, 1997),

91

"reduced the women to a state of dependency on those who control the land (the men) and this is very
imAntunatepaiticularly taking into consid«ation that they i*ovide the bulk of agricuitural labour in the country.
Without ownership, women are unable to obtain credit far tools, equipment, and otha^ inputs necessary to
increase haod production. Land is the only mryor resource, and without land to serve as security in acquiring
loans under current arrangements, women will have difficulty improving their agricultural input.

We are slowly beginning to name the many ways in which most wmnmi on this planet have been
socialized under Western colonial rule to mediate between the Im d and dieir o ffering, their Amilies,
their communities We are b%innrng to trace the linkages betw eai the continned oppression and
exploitation o f women and the eqtloitatitm o f the land they/we üve o ff Both have been objecti&ed as
sources o f labour and HA, and both w om ai and the land have been treated as e)q)loitsble
commodities.
Westem(ized) logic o f domination does not hsqq)en in a vacuum but in a rich context o f sight,
sound, touch, in a physical, embodied context. Widiout bodies to dominate and exploit, politics o f
oppression have no hold. Body-hold. I bdieve strongly that it is this ersencg wdiich we must un/cov^
and talk about. The deadly effect any logic o f domination has on the bodies w hidi are sources o f life
and labor in this our woild-eardi-home. W omm's bodies, eardr body.
"Women have title to only oi% percent of the world's land. Yet they produce more than half of the world's
Aod...Women ;xoduce more than 80 per cem of the food fbr sub-Saharan AHica, 50 - 60 p g cent of Asia's
Aod, 46 per cent in the Caribbean, 31 pe^ cent in NwthAhica and the Middle East and more than 30 per cent in
Latin America . Women make up the m^mity of subsistence &mws. In most rural cultures, it is their work
which inovides a humly with its basic diet and with any siqiplemeatary Aod that may be obtained Horn barter
or horn selling surplus goods. Underestimating the amount of agricultural work done by women is very
common, fbr statistics most often measure wage labour, not unpaid kitchen garden work. Moreover, in some
cultures men do not wish to admit that their wives, mothers and daughters do agricultural work. For these
reasons, the vital contribution that women make to Aod prothictioo is consistently undar-rqnesented.
Women's work is thus doubly âlenced: most o f the infinmation on women's situation is Hltcred
tb ro u ^ men, and a lot o f the work we do know wcnnen p afbim , growing their own foods where
posâble, struggling through the daily work load that constitutes child-rearing and housdiold tasks
- including die immense amount o f energy expended to search fbr A d , fodder, water - this work
continues to be made invisible in the country's GNP or GDP. When we recollect that "die tr^ 100
TNCs accounting A r about one third o f Areign direct mvestmait stock are all headquartered m

™Barbara Thomas-Slayter and Dianne Rochdeau, Gendkr, ISmvrommemr ÆDevdrymenr m Æe/ptt (Boulder:
Lynne Riemer Publishers, Inc., 1995) pp. 118-119.
^ Irene Dankelman and Joan Davidson, JFbmen untf EnwrommeMr m the Third Ifbrld, (Lrmdon: Earthscan
Publications Limited, 1994), p. 9.
92

mal/devdoped countries"^' we are beginnmg to see the picture o f meo-colonial/curocentiic
(expression emerge in all its capitalist patriardial glory^. A furdier, perb^xs more graphic
understanding o f Westen/Noidiem, eurocentric policies em ages in this useful reduction:
"If we <x)uld at dns time shrink the world's population to a village of precisely 100 with all existing human
ratios remaining the same, it wmdd look like this:
There would be 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 horn Nmth and Scsrth America, and 8 A&icans.
30 would be white; 70 would be coloured
30 would be Christians; 70 would be of other religions.
Half of the wealth would be in the hands of only 6 people, and all 6 would be 6 om the United States.
70 would be unable to read, 50 would suSer 6 om malnutntion, and 80 would live in sub-standard housing.
Only 1 would have a tertiary educatxm."'^

In die stmding evidence o f this conqxarison, our ccxnviction in the rightness o f our electronic
global village must 6de. In the end, the very concrete interlinkages o f poverty, racism, naturism and
sexdsm remain the stabilizing factors in t(xday's marketplace. Women in Third World (xxuatries, and
particulaily indigenous women strug^e under the consolidation o f these multiple (xpressions. And
they, invariably, exqxerience its imprint within/on dieir own bodies.^
"The annexation of women's work is reinforced with industrialization and consumerism, whether by computers,
labour-saving gadgets, or new rqxroductive tedmologiea. bkanwhile, in 'developing' regions, eiqxropiation of
farmlands fbr commodity markets, technocratic Green Revolutions, and now a gene patenting undercut die very
means of women's labour of subsistence."*^

I must mention here the hopeful theorizings o f some &minist scientists, notably Dtmna
Haraway, who also seems to lean in the direction o f ecological Aminist politics when she concedes
that "ecofcminists have perhqxs been mcxst insistent on some vmsitxn o f the world as active subject.

Gillian Youngs, "Breaking patriarchal bonds: demythokxgizing the public/pivate. Marianne H. Marchand and
Anne Sisson Runyan, eds., Gendkr waf
(New York: Routledge, 2000), p. 57.
I stubbornly cling to my idea that cqiitalist patnarchy has done a 'better' job in expkxidng earth resources,
human bodies, and all forms of life, wWe maintaining the illusion of justice, mrstainability, heedom and an
ethics of care fbr everyb(xdy. One obvious exanqxle is Garnany, Wiere, with r%ard to childcare, Maria Mies
do(mmentB that upon the reunification of East and West Gmmany, East German women had to give up "creches
fbr children, job security fbr wmkiog mothers, the r i ^ to send a child to a kindergartea, a year's paid maternity
leave, the guarantee of a flat hxr single m o th ^ and paid leave Axr mothers in the event a child's illness. In
addition, the GDR's abortion laws had been more libaal than in West Germany. East German women could
have an abortion-on demand-up to the third month of ^negnancy." Uponreurrihcation, "West German laws
were simply extended to East Germany." Maria Mies, "Women have no Fatherland". Maria Mies and Vandarur
Shiva, faÿkmûdaM, (London: Zed Books, 1993), p. 117.
** Ariel Salleh, Ecrÿ&mûnsm orfoAfrcs. p. 103 ^ativeWeb-Glen Welker gwelker@mail.limi.org, 30 May
1995.)
**&xr further rderenoes on the devious strategies of TNCs, sanctkxned by govemmerrts, in extracting irxdigenous
peo{des' tradrtirmal knovWedges in order to patent them and morxxprdize tfieir use - whetlœr it be plarrts or
human DNA samples please see bibliogr^xhy.
Ibid., p. 87.
93

not as resource to be ^pro p n ated in bourgeois, Marxist

mascuHnist projects."^ I say Ix^e& l' not

so much because I have been persuaded by her suggérions as because her theories have been
perceived with enduring and endearing enthnsiasm. And they do make some eSbrt to Wing into
Aminist analysis the advent o f cyber technology. But tgain, I am rather baSled by Ae consistent
absence o f any inquiry into Ae possible meaningfWness and q>plicability o f socalled cyborgs
towards more economic/ecologic stability m the lives o f the less privileged', m other parts o f the
world, as well as m our very own afduent nations. Most o f Aem, again, women. And I continue to be
surprised at the pevailing popular status her essay enjoys. But Aen, neiAer can I pretend to
satisActorily cmrqnehend the meaning o f Haraway's essay, nor quite the direction o f her creative
Aeoiizing, th o u ^ I read A e ngns and skim Ae surAce A r dues to how she arrived at her findings: I
ask myself - have I missed an inqxntant introductory message to all o f this, is A e notion o f the
cyborg stillm th e im%inary or are we Acre already and I have missed a stq)? / m i l supqposodto
stuidile along through A e twilight codes o f oeative n y A vosus mythical oeation, mumbling
inarticulate contradictions, madly resisting Ais schane o f gloriGcatirm o f the technoscientiGc Asion
o f organism and machine? And what does she mean bgrcgrborgk, vdhere âsthwsckcGrutior^ andhovrckies
she know A c story o f the creation o f Ae cyborg down A its (second A ) last detail?
Because A e cyborg, it seems A me, has stu d ie d A it not only its stcny o f origin, but the
story, A e final one, A e last recorded phase m the evoluticmary his-story o f man/kind. Because Ae
cyborg IS the extension o f man, Aough, sadly, not o f woman, nor o f woman and man, but an
extensimr o f his p o w a o v a , his lost consdence, thus, his alienation Amn bis own conAxt, 6om Ae
very Weis o f his existence. How has Haraway managed A ccmceptualize a constructive role A r Ae
cyborg with/m A e strata o f opfnMsions around A e globe? Or has Ae? Is A e idea o f Ae cyborg m
itselfnotA e very in cam ^o n o fatriu n q rh an t system o f op;nessior^ and has it rwt been diligently
Aunded on generous presumptions oG aed (and heartily insisted upon) at various insightAl periods
Aroughout the turbulent s ta y o f creation o f Western Civilizatimi? To name A e two most thrilling
and pervasive: the driven, coerdve theory o f domination o f Judeo-Christianity m its legitimizaticm o f
man's supaiority A all, and women's A all but man, and 15* cartury inqirovements m Ae way Ae

Donna Haraway, "Situated Knowledges", in

Q/Aorgg, owf llWnen, p. 199.

gx

exploitation o f non-human life can be satisActorily jusüûed by ronoving the q*ihtnal context 6 om
organic matter, taking die soul out o f this planet, settiog the st%e for none other than - cyborg, die
ulthnate blend o f all dimt p ^ a r c h y has achieved.
Cyborgs, being the essence o f programming sophistication, will do exactly what they are
srgiposed to do: diaf s what machines have been for, ader all. And machines do break down, o f
course, but there's really no surprise to it: replacement o f parts or the nAole is all that's required, evai
die need for counselling or funeral sav ice needs to be put into its database. Yes, H araw ^ is cmrect
in saying that cyborgs do not dream o f being saved, or o f community in the tradidonal sense - but
only, I think, becamsethcy arc not siqiposed to: they are, after all, the direct, executive extensimi o f
the patriarchal signider, and good litde computer-soldiers that diey are (provided the microchips are
functioning and dusted regolarfy), they will keep operating exactly die w ^ we remember them: hightech inedictability is mucial to the interxled outcome.
What is so amusing about this idea o f the cyborg? I can laugh about it and throw a tandrum at
dm same time, since the privatisation o f dus planet is the end result o f the story o f creation as told
duough the code' o f honour o f the cyborg, the most precise gesture yet - o f men o f power. At one
point Donna Haraway rem em bas his:story, as a scene we seem to still enact globally, and die stops
hm divolous chatter and admits diat "the main trouble with cybcags, o f course, is diat thqr are the
illegitimate oSspiing o f militarism and patriarchal capitalism, not to mendon state socialism."^ But
before the reader r%ains her senses and «brides "ho, ho, try /egitôMo/e

', die tosses out her

next words, thinkmg to gloss over the damaging findings: "But illegitimate ofkpring are often
exceedingly unAithAil to th d r origins. Their 6 thers, after all, are inessentiaL"^ And here we arrive at
the crux o f her cyborg equadon. W hidi it is no equadon at all, because cyborgs, th d r Athers'
offspring, are anything but ill%idmato, they come com plde with copyright, provided one Ends
oneself in the fbrtuate ecrmomic bracket to p ty those outrageous sums. And the c y t x n g ' s ( f o r
example the CEOs o f the 500 or so TNCs that govern global restructuring') continue to let us know
diat they are not inessential, not at all.

^ Donna Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto", in

Cy&vgg; a » / IKwign, p. 151.

95

Am I a cyboig? I wear glasses, I drive a car, I rely on tedinologiGal/eloctmmc expatise in a
myriad o f ways to help me through the day, through hfè. And yet, if this is so, don't we need to
question our own complicity in a systan o f knovdedge producticm that is so cleverly rooted in the
continuity ofneocolomal hegemony and the dlusion o f dectronic
Donna Haraway, I need to ask - w h a e are the women as equd, martally, psychologically,
qmitually released, activdy participating agents in your story? You arKkogenize the cyborg's
sexuality in an e fb rt to m a k them - him- palatable, less dneatening, easier to conGde in and imitate,
or fbHow - where to? What is it that ought to make die cyborg an attractive idea? Without addressing
quesdons o f social oppressicm w ith-in the daily, lived eoqiaiencos o f women around this planet and
readjusting paradigmatic conventions o f domination to redistribute cultural wealth, how do you think
that women can possibly look darward to a level- playing field.....? So

die medianization o f diis

world has meant accderated exploitation o f all vdio do not bdong to die masculinist o rd a particularly all non-human life Amns.
The irony o f course is that die non-human environment - including air, water, sd l- as our
existential DNA - ought to be at the top o f the list if we are planning to hve a hrture at all. And who,
so far, has suf&red most Aom patiiardial invmtions, cyborgian models designed to probe, diminate,
extract and intavene in the most Ar-reaching places on this planet? That's right, women have had to
suf&r physical^, mentally, qnritually and anodmially in ways that are continuously illuminating and
continuously siqipressed. And wmnen have had to locate thcmsdves and each other in various
podkets o f this planet, and tGght dus juggernaut attempt o f dloicing those Who do not belong to the
su p aiw signider. For w om ai to take the cyborg saiously as an alternative visirm out o f presmt
politics o f oppression, its ideological make-up would need to be revolutionized, followed by the
notion o f individual accountability contextualised within an ethics o f care. The question then
becomes: who owns and programs the cyborg? By rdiat unforeseen change o f insights into the

In
or foArtcr (p. 87% Ariel Salleh tells us that "some 500 transnational cotpmadons account for
two dnrds of all trade Of die world's 24 largest conqianies 8 are in electronics, 5 are in oil, 5 are in motor
vehicles, 2 are in food, 1 is in building materials, 1 is in chemicals, 1 is in tobacco - hardly life-adirming
activities, (as quoted &om UNCTAD,
New Ymk: UN, 1995).
96

possibilities o f interrelatiaoal nnrtming wonld there be desire located W ndi wotdd th a i lead to a
permanent and «revocable invention o f a contextualized sense o f cyborgian self-with-in commnnity?
In its preparatmy and Amndaticmal hiszstoiy, the cyborgian m odd has answered to one quest
only: how to maximize power-over and ranA rce it on àü pianos o f htunan inte/rolations. The cyborg
IS the master's tool, and ^ such possesses all the characteristics to maintaim the powa^-over, and nmre
to conqireheod and execute the power-with, the deliberate sharing and commitment to a caring
reqrect for diversity o f all human and non-human life forms on this planet. I propose that the story o f
the cyborg is die Hadequin romance o f die electronic age. It uses a certain alluring vocabulary, which
hides the same ideology o f the fdiadus, reinforcing male superiority cm all levels imaginable and then
some. It serves to amuse, distract and further manipulate those who need to be distracted and/or
reassured. And dually, die story o f the cyborg may well act itself out as a charming masturbation tool
for the master: diere's nothing Eke a daily dose o f s^fgloridcatioa to boost one's ego^.
The consequmces are beyond serious, however I suggest that if cybmgs are die ccnnbined
identity o f machine and human body, then it is not mdy wmnen in malindustrialized countriM who
can boast o f cyborgian identities but most dednrtely wmnen in the socalled Third World. What about
Western politics o f birth control in Third World countries, the &rced inqdants oflU D devices in
womœ's bodies, their fWering, and the suffering attached to it?
Mira Shiva draws attention to the total lack of accountability that charactenzes the drive Ar womm to
undergo tubectomies, for which Snancial incentives are on o d * not only tor those vboaccqit sterilization
but also for the dnmily planning workers. In a social context vd*rc litde change was attenpted in aother
areas, coecion was the one stick seen as a means to beat the population growth rate. The costs borne by
women were all too apparent in a violatitm of their dignity and a denial of their r i ^ to unbiased
infmmation, to safe and efkctive contraceptive care ..Curiously, long-acting, iryectable contracqitives are
considered safe and edective h* anaemic, malnourished and underweight Third World women, while in the
North, recf^nidon of the hazards of hrnnmnal doses have led to minimizing their use in the cmitracqAive
pill"^'

Coercive depopulation policies seem to have been devised, not because o f ridiculous claims o f
overpopulation in Third World countries, but "to s a v e the commercial interests o f the

Further readiogs on critical inquiries into cyborgian identifies as the fusion of human self and technology can
be drund in Melanie Stewart Millar, CnadbrtF the Gendkr G o* (Toronto: Second Story Press, 1998), Carole A
Stabile, fgniWsM and tAe recAMo/ogrm/^, (New York: SL Madin's Press, 1994).
Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva, Ecrÿkmmtn» (1993), p. 292.
97

mnlîmaüooal pharmaceutical cmnpanies;"^ In addWon, it seems that in Bangladesh "stailizatioin
is pafbnnad without piioT examination; even pregnant women are sterilized."^.
What about the ef&els o f the cyborgian worldview, that needs Third W odd countries as a raw
energy source (again women, nature) to aisure siqqdy? What, I ask, are die ediical inqdicadons o f
needing the cbeq) labor pool and Anowing that we live ofT the increasing misery o f odier pecqile?

^Ibid.
=^Ibid.

98

owfOMffy a/if <ygM af fAe mimÿW rafe JOOO irnwgea a day
odyg/fMiMg corg/W/y moMifored maimafream
pamogMÇ)^
ia lAia )yAafjwwy&ored
M (Aia vAafyaw aaw
& ^aredybr_yowr dawgA(er-cAi/d
fAg a w -eve» {^/eaaerama/Z-M/amd fAaf awAam )Yw warfA
fAaf rece/vea a// a/"fAe afmnge/y fAri//iMg /ave^aa fAaz<gAi)'aw /aaf
wAeayaajwwrae^Taa a_yaw^ cAi/d were dbqqpeared
_/)iam_yawr mawmfaim vi//age
iArawv; awAùf fAe AecA/img a/^ma/e /waf
M iAia vAafyaa aee Maw
wAeM_yaw /aaAaf
_yawr dowgAfer'a Aadc&Mg Amaafa
AaOg?^ ai/A q^Aer ai/M
dgAf^MA arcAid q/^Aer WM/wr/iMg Aadyaey
aaaM Aa Ae a/aw^ WMdaw Ae^re evd
/iAe aa^ jaeia/a ^//img Ag/bm a Mia/g/yia/gMf gad
da yaw ^ar Agr ag//iMg Agr aA/may/«M^baakaian'ed agÿ"
aa ybr /gaa fAaa fAg way aAg may ^ g / /^rgaiawa
cacaaagd awAdg im fAg Aare ybidi a/}YW arma
Aaw da_yaw wgigA iAg cammad^kadaM q/]yaar /aAar
iAg maMafawaua agaadgaa dbi(y_/bdgwg
)wwr^M zigd Mggd fa Agap /avg aamgwAgre wAa/e
MMryAg made aacgaa/A/g
a// fAw^ r /gaa q/jyaar /i/g aad mare q^aiaa
/iAe
iAe a^rdaA/g /aAg/ an awr aAirfa
fAg /aAg/ aa fAe aAiri Ae weara regidar/y aa Aia /egiiAaafg ^igAü
fa yawr war/d iAaf Aaa Aecame Aia a/aa ybr aevera/ aigAfa
eaag/wdiag aa/bfAer aaeeea^/ ^ rg ig a (raaaagdaa

Aaw da yaw we(gA iAe r^ fid v e re jarafA/adve /aAaw ^aa are Aired
aad paidybr ia fma//er eaia,;
agaiagf iAe faaeiiaaed aammadidcaiiaa q^^yaar wbiAer (A-eam
^ymr aiAer iadiggaaaf creaiivg drdy pradwedpe aae
wAa^g gaxMiga/^pacAarged afAerae»
iAe &me// aad fwA^egagai graap a/]yawpg Aadie;
fiirf mare de/igAÿîd a^eawrigf a/^Aw pervergg ariga*a/Km
dHvga mare q/"fameaae^ iadagfriy, drive,; iAe
fmi/g aa ceriaia meak amaaiA
drive; iAe eager ;a/e q/"^rAiddea' /axwrie;
iAai Aa; Aecame
yawr dawgAier
;a/d ia iAe a«ZMwAa prwd^i/y wear; iAe /aAe/
j^aw wi// die ^ r

-yawaad/AaiA Aaaw
iAi; aiay aba Ae iAe a*aa wAa geady readad; Ai; wÿb a/"aaiAiag ia pariica/ar
99

never
gWieWanog af /wciper evemü
wAo tnowf /iM.f
wW gmfg/W/y aeet* nooe Aeffer 6 e rqie o f your dau^iter
will occur
at BO q w iG c world time
ia a precisely &igotten locatimi
where it will satisfactorily add to your country's gap
and ours
should business ^ o v c worthwhile
c W wMe f owoA hi* returm
owfyowr iirerf howb /^ y ê c i the endkf* aewing segwence
perAqp* reoch the ^woia ybr Aonw*
like dying ccaal reefs
the truth o f cataclysmic knowledge remains
in the deepening sore o f her vagina
in the indomitable grace o f her fleeting back
bent over the toilet ring
and cons previously
when
-in the Aozen shock o f her closed eyes
trying to see nothing m d seâng still and for ever a man's ûgure advancing
& upon her & in the spreading o f limbs & naked fear
& the formulaic sequence o f calculated paid-rqre
stickiog out at her & read in the microscope accuracy inherent in shock
inside the sweaty collar o f the shirt he did not bother to remove she glimpses her mother's labdi

how do we /rve hwrde the seething cermihty q/"thi* wWom thoi hind* n*
yow and f mother* hom q/^mother* horn q/"more and o/f mother*
o/f mother*
how db / he^^kom steohngyowrpreeton* hrhor over and over
how_pom crushing yonr /oveyowr ii/&
how do f hetp ny son*^ m crwhing
hecau*e they Anow they con
a* we witMe**
we ri*k becoming occonp/ice* to
whatever image may reheve it*e(ftpon W/ing mind*
unie**

with-in-through our witnessing she teii* her <*tory
and we team to /isten
into our te/iing

100

Evidence is accnmulatmg on Ae afOueace o f noith an comdiies at the strategic cost o f
soaAem, dq*aident nâghbw s' social and ecological p li^ t. I will mentian only a few examples
which rqiresm t Ae nature o f this particular phenomena while informing us once more on the
intMconoectcdness o f all people as w dl as all o f life on this planet. One such example is A e
accident' at a Umon Carbide factory m Bhopal, India, 1984, owned by a US company, whidi,
according to documentatimi cited m an essay by Indira Jaising and C. Sathyamala^, was no
accident at all but perActly preventable. Until todry, the compmy has not had to disclose the exact
nature o f Ac toxic gases (hiding behind laws governing trade secrecy arxi patm t laws) which
killed thousands and injured hundreds o f Aousands through a deteriorating disease. W am m are
most immediately afkcted by human disasters such as A is through their re:preductive system:
"A few monAs a8er the gas disaste, I had a son. He was alright. A&er that I had another child in Ae
hôpital. But it was not fully Armed. It had no l%s and no eyes and was bom dead. T k n anoAer child was
bom but it Aed soon ader. I had anoAer child just (me and a half months back. Its ddn Icmked scalded and
only half its head was formed. The other half was filled wiA water. It was bom dead and was white all over.
I had a lot of pain two monAs be&ue I ddivered. My legs hurt so much that I couldn't sit or walk around. I
got rashes all over my bcxly. The dcxAors said that I will be okay aAer Ae childbirA but I still have these
prrAlems."^

All over Ae world, evidence repeats itself m the powerAl knowledge that women are Ae
Grst to suBèr th ro n g the very biologically determined d if k w c e o f our female boAes Jom
Saeger talks o f the conAmed heahh problans o f Vi^namese wommi after the Vietnam war, who
pass A e toxins Arough A eir breast milk. Because Dioxin is a birA-deforming chemical,
Vietnamese woman today "have A e highest rate o f qxmtaneous abortion m A e wmid; birA
defectsoccur at alarming rates; 70 to 80 percent o f w o m aim Vietnam suffA ûm n vaginal
infection; cervical cancer rates are amtmg A e highest m A e world; m Vietnam, fetal deaA rates m
pregnancy were 40 times higher m the early 1980s than Aey were m A e 1950s.

It is probably

worAwhile meotirming here A at Aoxin is also Aund m A e vAole array o f pesticidal tanqwns and
sanitary n ^ k m s NorAem womm use as part o f th ^ /o u r monthly protectiorL And so Ae Irxip
closes once again and links NorA and South, women and the cnviiomnent, w om ai ArougA

^ There are several accounts available of the tragedy, but (me of the most detailed is Jaising & SaAyamala's
essay "Legal Rights and Wrorigs....Intemationalizing Bhopal", Close t o V a n d a n a Shiva, ed.,
(Philadelphia: New Sockty Publishers, 1994), pp. 88-98.
^ MariaNGes, Vandana Shiva, Eco/kmrmwrn, (Halifax: Femwo(xlPublications, 1993), p.83,

101

enviromnental poUutioa. Curiously, women's bodies everywhere on Ais planet suf&r Ae
consequences o f direct aivironmental pollution, containod as ihey/we are in A e A nte cycle o f air,
water, soil and all odwr life forms.
The debate around A e women-nature cormoction takes on now and hmriSc meanings: as
wcanen's bodies sufGa", so do Aeir children's, families, and hnaUy Aeir communities. The
mcreasing incidents o f breast cancer provide one evidence for how A e human body tm ds A store
environmental Undns m fatty tissues. Why is it that breast cancer is, essenWfy, a wmnan's
disease? Is Ae answer really A cut ofT our breasts and deny A e wholeness o f our bodies raAa:
than move Awards raAcal socio-ecrdogical change? A change that would demand the direct,
req»ectful pmticipation o f OjM^i^GSsed women m Ae Third/FourA World, and would thus mean a
Aorough re:vision o f how we must live-in-relation A ourselves, each oAer and all forms o f life. It
would also mean W e^/NmAem faninist re:visioning o f the way m whidi we cmroborate the
sufferings o f women dsewhere. And unless we learn A mcarporate our bodies fWly as diSereot,
unique oAer embodied selves o f humanity, we will - 1 think - never quiA learn the comingtogeAer o f partial perspectives the way ecological Aminist politics suggest we could.

^ Joni Seager,

(New York Roudedge, 1993), p. 18.

102

cowKif Z»e
wAo <Areo/ew fAg moowwzf/
mfo exfmcüoM
6wf (Aaf fAg :$pacg ( wag fo&f (o occupy
;» vgn&mf w»congc;oug»ggg
Aog z&g(^monkf/
gcgne o/^Ag crrme
gcwcgi^ Aove f AwMgff w/fRggg
(0 /Aw dgmoro/zzaAoM q/"a c«po6k worW
wAem fAg MgoMô^ q^ a ^w&gOoM
uq/Wdk ;Ag(rmfo me omf mme
gAfAer* pogf uMgeaww/ Aocfkwcfygg
imfo (Ae npgfiam zomeg q^ow exMfgMAa/ grqpwgg
m(o our vqgnmf AewY
wAere Ate gudWe» WM/bregeem gumrwe m mû&foy
A Awrgfg /emoM upo» comgcfommegg
MOgweefer more pwrngeMf momenf
(Aw* (o cpeM m(o (Ae
urncomroAoA/g Aum(ô*g_/br(A q/"wMoAgmaA/g (ru(A
a reve/oAoM uy*(o (Aey
Arggpgc(*ve q/"our memociMg uAenrngg
wAere go y&r we ^ZmcreA our ge/veg
gfWuApg OM(Ae (AregAoAA q/"our orcAeg(ra(eA wyg/eneg
AkmiMfMgj?AzMe(afy coMfouM og A*oAyer(eM( Amdkcqpeg
Aer cyc/fco/ AeoAngg
og more q/^Aer ufgmocAceA cAormg
fwgefy (Mgo/vemf
go OMgwer me (AA
(M(Ae occogfOMo/ Ao(^ogAeg q^/oMgwoge
oWy you omf 7-womoM cw* gomeAmeg /?rom(ge eocA o(Aer
owf M0( Ae
Aow COMwe jgg(rqy wAo( we /ove Aeg(
Aow COMwe Aleg(rqy wAo( we mug( /ove
Aow Aeg(rqy wAa( motgg ug
(Afg gmoA /ovAA rouoA q^ co/oreA eor(A
(A oegueoug 6ecom(qgg
(Ao( (UTMg ug IM(0
(M/?M((e direomg q/"a Miore /ugciom dh^Me
og ever we düre

^ As with all other arts, so does music compd sudden inspirational moments; I lament the wcbestrated absence
of female composers within mainstream rqnesentatioas ofW esten music his:story, but since music opens iq; in
all genders such a critical other' dimension of perceiving and reqwnding to v^iat we call 116, and is able to
transcend directly into emotion, I Snd some of its revelations iirestiblc. Here, Ddxissy's iKverre and my reading
of Adrienne Rich's thirteenth of her "Twenty-one Love Poems" (ZAe Dream q/^a Common Lopguqge. New
York: W.W.Nortcm & Company, 1978) mingled with urgent ecofkminist concerns and caused this poem. Like
much of Debussy's music, I found this piece meditative in its serene ambiguity, its desire to stretch languidly
beyond bars into the very air that surroimds us and only then let go.
103

As ever we dare. So. How do we get where we should be going? How do we - Northern,
vdiite, middle-class - women begin to ally with Third World and indigenous wmnmi? Maybe, just
maybe, bell hooks has a lovely idea when she calls & r the need to interrogate white privilege,
proposing that
"one (Aaqge in direction that would be real cool would be the producticNi of a discmirse on race that interrogates
whiteneas. It would just be so interesting A* all those white folks who are giving blacks their take on blackness
to let them know what's going on with whiteness.
She continues to outline A e need for a "persistent, rigorous, and informed critique on whiteness",
saying that "many scholars, critics and writers preface their wmk by stating A at Aey are ^Aite, as
Aough mere acknowledgment o f this fact were su&cient, as though it conveyed all we need to know
o f standpoint, motivation, direction."^ She desoibes how many feminist professors used to resist
suggestions A examine racism and sexism, and asks, now that so many o f Aem have shifted th â r
emphasis and produce writings on race and gender:
"What process enabled their perspectives to shift? Understanding that process is important A* the development
of solidarity; it can enhance awareness of the epistmnological shifts that enable all of us to move in new and
OMXMÎtiooal dhectioas. Yet none of Aese women write articles reflecting on their critical process, showing how
tbear attitudes have changed."'^
Already m the mterest o f my own salvation as feminist and ecological faninist, I need to
wmk towards beccaning an ally. Becoming Aminist allies and eco-alhes seems A be A e only solution
left to guide us towards a revisioning process. It m ^ be time A peel back the l^ e r s o f whiteaess m
critical reflectitm, wiA the help ofbeU books and Tiinh T. Minh-ha, and begin, predictably wiA this:
As a white, middle-class-educated woman wiA European heritage (vibrant his:sAiy o f
colonization/qppression culminating m holocaust, coiq)lcd wiA contemporary ncocolonialeuroceotric idolizadrm o f Native NorA Amoical culture) my rdatnmship wiA Nruive NorA
Americans has been problematic hom Ae start Ever since I came to Canada, I have made some
efArt to connect wiA First Nations people, other m A e wmk place (Aen silviculture) and later,
working for social justice issues m A e urban enviromnent o f Ae Vancouver Eastside. I became
acquainted wiA single Native women and Aeir extended Amilies, falling o ff Ae edge o f eccmomic

^ bell hooks, fewMfmig. jZwe, Gender
^A ld.

Cahbrof fo/frky (ToronA: Between the Lines, 1990), p. 54.

104

subsistence. Being an immigrant myself (ha!), working with (note A e condescending 'wiA') First
Nations people m Ae chy and livii% m Ae same neighboAood (iqAill) gave me - initially - Ae
Ansory fixling o f moving on A e same level, o f sharing wiA Aem this central niban dis/place,
strange and alien to A a n and myself. And so, A r Ae m om ait we were all m this togeAer —I
Aonght - ... .m this home away &om hmne thafs not naine.
But how can I talk to Natives about Ae very reason for Aeir Asi^acement? How can I sit Acre and
ask Aem about Ais A eir sourc^and Aat Aey do not recogruze arymore it has becmne so
mutilated, so dis/covered by white Aiks like myself?
I cannot
Imposing m ysd f on someone Native, I feel the fake I am - even beAre my/self My herit%e is
deeply and irrevoc^Iy Eawed by deAult, my liA consists m wbite/washing and cover-up.
I am Arever being reminded o f the impossibAty o f askrng Native women to open Aeir hearts and
minds to me. It is A e audacity o f A e neocolonizer imaginmg A e can do somethh%, like use her
colonizer's privilege' to h d p heal and charge. Who? M yself surely?! There have been times vAen
I believed that Ae tmcst help I could o9er was A be qmet and not c^»en my mouA i.e. turn on my
t ^ recorder. I cannot speakAvrite 'A r', I can only q>eak/wrilB nry/self and Arever babble on
why it is I carmot m true consequence speak A r h a /A a n .....
"With each sign that gives language its shape lies a stereotype of which i/I am boA the manipulator and the
manipulated. Transposed onto another plane, such is tl* relation, Ar example between we, the iwtives, and
they, the natives. From a voluntary to an aiArced designation, the distance is plain but the sppeaiance
remains intentiooally ambiguous. Terming us the "natives" Acuses on our innate qualities and our belonging
to a particular place by birA; terming A «n the "natives", on their being bom infieriw and "nonEuropeans."^'*'

The problem is fuiAermare compounded by A e fact that I am Grst generation immigrant
mA Canada, and came wiA my eyes at least half opm ed to A e torturous past and presait o f Ae
Native peoples m Ais country. Cowardly, I Aar exposing ray whiA, coloiuzing Ace A A on: it is
that I still act m my daily liA as an accomplice A A e presatt-day situation o f powerlessness and
oppresâon o f Native people. And I am! I am! Because I came here, into this great country as part

""Aid..
Trinh T hCnh-ha, IFiamgn; Aoirve, OAer, p. 52.

105

o f anoAer enropean colonizing sweep, not part o f A e shoebox immigrant following W W d War II,
but as A e child o f container immigrants, Aose middle class professionals 1^0 came m A e early
80's looking fm liberation 6 0 m A e Cold War politics/arsenal threatening the stability o f Western
Europe. Having chilAen o f my own now, my personal mvestment m staying has grown twofold.
"ïiistai, listen, listen, lii#a), listen, linai, listm, listei, listen, listen, listen,...Count ytxir privileges; keq; a
list. Hdp others see them Break the invisibility of privilege."''*^

Already I td l my dnldrem about A e story o f participatory colonialization, about our racial
p riv il^e, built as it is on the strategic Asspiritedness and homelessness o f Canada's indigenous
peoples. What is the point? How 6 r will I go m prudent sdf-drastizcmcot behire I turn and
Gtmtinue A claim nqr ownmship share o f Canadian racial politics? While I write Aese lines I hear
Lee M arade telling white women to move over, A make qrace, and I clearly hear Marlene
Nourbese Philip when she suggests coqAatically that
"writers coming from a culture that has a history of oppressii% Ae one they wish A write about would do
well A examine Aeir motives. Is their interest a condmiance of Ae tradition of op^uesnon, if only by seeing
these cultures as diSerent or exotic, as other? Does Aeir interest cmne out of their belief that their own
cultural raw mataial is washed up, that just about anything horn Ae Third World is bound A gamer more
attention? Is it p e A ^ the outcome of guih and a desire A make reccmipense? .. .Writers have to ask
themselves these hard questions, and have to undastand how their privil%e as white people writing ohowt
rather than (Nit of another culture virtually guarantees that their work will, m a racist s(xnety, be received
more readily than the work of writers coming hom the very culture."

I hear her, I also hear her appreciate a definite, articulated sense o f humility as a small step writers
&om Ae dominant culture can take. I have not become a (ausader but am just living my own small
life. But, I say wiA rebounding enAusiasm, I can bridge Ae distance A Native wommi dsewhere
on our planet. The g ^ does not seem as abysmal: I have not (xxnqiied Aeir qiace, nor taken a w ^
Aeir power. Ah, and already I am busy denying my conq)licity m this racist merry-go-round,
because o f course I am dis-enqiowaing Aem, being bom whiA, middleclass. However, A e qiatial
distance eases my guilt-ridden cons(âmice which preArs A e thought o f indigmAus peoples far
away, m situations whi(A are not befcue rry eyes: A e abstract Native then becomes Ae

^"^Anne Bishop,
(HaliAx: FemwoodPubliAing, 1994), pp. 97/98.
Marlene Nourbese Philip, "The Disappearir% Debate Racism and CensonAip", &om Zamgnqge A
Ifntrmig and Gendgr. LAby Sdreier, SanA Sheard, and Eleanor Wachtd, eds. (TonmA: Coach House Press,
1990), p. 218.

106

comSortable Native... and to read and contenq>late, the far-away Native then blends ccmfbrtably
into the doqaent, the heroic Native, turns into the intellectual jw rm tt white pet^le are so 6md of.
But Trinh T. Minh-ha, bell hodrs are not 6 r away. Nor are they comfbrtaWe. When I read
them I become the white Ae, as the whiteness o f my skin seems to override my sex. I can no longer
hide bdiind Aer curves, the curves o f womanhood, and while I ddiberately, thoughtfully and with
great sadness wade th ro n g their outpourii% ofreBectimis, rage and grief I cannot proclaim
allegiance to (Aen%eô^ sisterhood.

has hrmly established me in the discourse o f dominance

where I sit as backdrc^r-otAer and listen to her, Trinh, tell me widi a cynical bend in her voice, o f
what it is like - alw ays-to be insmibed as A/bAve: JVoAve-she. I want to cry T do, I do understand
some o f what you say, I empathize, I boar witness', but then my prison does not suQbcate, does
not colhgrse me in its manyfold combinatitms o f sex-race-class—. I read Trinh's accusatians o f Aim
as a reflection o f m y/self the traitor, the conveniait by-]podact o f Air indulgence.
WhM must I do? Is it then, Janice Williamson adcs Lee Maracle, "up to me and odier wmnen like
me to try to work out in ourselves a space vdnch is self-critically enabling and doesn't
aMnopfiate."^''^ To dus Lee Maracle reqxmds:

can't answer that question for you, you see,

because I'm not undoing the dilemma you've been caught in, and being (kprivod o f me is a soious
thing far you to pursue and undo."'°'
While bell hooks says, in "Choosing the Margin as a Space o f Radical Openness"^^: "I am
waiting for them to stop talkiig about the "Other, " Lee Maracle's reqxmse suggests something
else: to her the colonizms" intentional deprivation o f the N ^ v e otAer is extremely saious, not
merely because o f the elemental mjustice but because the entire idea o f the co//ecAve, the potential
o f eventually reaching the affirmation o f co//gcAve stays hnever unattainable

as Irmg as we

deprive ourselves o f the enabling diversity o f what we term otAcr. It is an urgent appeal to begin to
conmdK past and present colonizatiom o f Native p o tties h o m a (w)hoIistic paqiective, nurturing

104

Janice Williamson,
(Tonmto: University of Toronto Press, 1993),
p. 168.
™ Ibid., p.168.
bell hooks, "Choosing the Margin as a Space of Radical Openness", (New Yodc Routledge, 1997), jqi. 145153.
107

in ourselves a deep desire for inclosiveness and Ae correqxmding ccldxation o f diversity.
Dqmving ourselves in this way is saio u s indeed.
I contend Aat we - A e descendants and still active agerds m direct and indirect colonizationwe are not trained A become allies. Public institutions - through a complex web o f politic dynamicsmay have bear forced into presenting, "re-presenting', A e written testimony o f the colonized, but we
who are being trained within these institutions cannot lay claim A being trained as allies. RaAcr, A e
purpose o f these educational "boot camps' still seems A lie m Ae ahdity A % gresâvely critique: A
presume each text some Atmg which we must eAAer take apart wiAout putting it back tx%ether, or
re^nesent it m sudi manner that it now hts m wiA and proves the theorizing notion o f the day,
edioing however liA e o f the original voice. As a consequence, we End A at we lack Ae skill and
oftentimes even the interest A pause and think what this text means, whal/who it appeals A,
what/how its voice speaks. And what about its tone, its complicated gestures and mimicry, its
ideological "urr^peakability? They are more than text A be dissected, reformulated, saatched A see
^ h a t hrqqrcns A those words, so o ifT and 'OAer' Asrppear and we can go on A Ae next (me. What
are we A do about this business o f oA er? How are we A read sudr a text and not perpetuaA its sad
truths o f colcmizing oppressimi?
How can we read and work through text as less o f a (xdoniza: and more o f a Aoughtfiil ally?
Or does bell hcx&s already preclude such possibilities m simply saying that "I am waiting for Aem A
stop talking about A e O A e "? How can I meaninghdly understand Ais text and not immediatdy All
inA A e seaningly bottmnless hole of'oAering'? I am not a black woman having had A Gght
oppression m Aose all-consuming ways: thus I lack A e expcximce as well as the foundational
understanding o f what it could possibly mean A grow up wiA-m-tbrough (xmtinuous struggle A be
seen and heard. A multitude o f dimensions is missing which would facilitaA a meaningAl (this word
is A e only one I hnd I can use A (xmvey something like req)ectful attitude Awards the
speaker/wriAr) reqmnse. And y ^ I would like A! I think I would truly like to eng%e wiA Aese
writers and learn reflective courtesies and a desire for critical self-redecficm that would be wehxaned
by writa^, reatkr and auAence, berause it transcards deconstruction beyond m e e play o f
ideologically sensitive, sdf-contained semiotics and seeks A promoA s(xnal change.

108

What has social change to do wiA anything? Everything. Why did b d l books feel compelled to write
this text? Even I readily admit that A e cntertamment value o f a writing like this has yet to be found. It
seems analytical, descriptive and reflective wiAont being qreculative as to hitnre place(s) o f chosen
marginality.
By being vAo I think I am, I have aheraly engaged m oAering' this text. Without meaning to,
I am rein&adng A e hegemonic patterns o f domioation since I am only slowly gropmg my way
towards becoming an ally. What can I do as potential ally to Acilitate b d l hodrs' desire, unless it be
ceasing A talk 'oAer', ceasing to talk - at all?
And yes, reading bell hooks' text I am sufRaing for her, her people, for, once again, the
colonizers' calculated dqmvation o f divane difference, and recalling Lee M arade's words, I suffer
A r my own mcomprehermve loss, and A d A at one signihcaA step towards damotKtrating my
qqneciation and limited understanding must be the voicing o f humility'°^. As the articulated gesture
o f my desire A becmne her ally. While I q^reciaA that A e is waiting for them-me to stop talking
about Ae oA a-her, I want her to know that I cannot just mot talk, since not talking will guarantee Ae
status quo. I need h a A suggeA alternative ways o f talking, but that wish, once again, stamps me Ae
colonizer. A her essay "Age, Race, Class and Sex: Wmnen Redehning Difkrence", Andre Lorde
summarizes this op^nessive strategy:
"Whenever the need for some pretense of communication arises, those who proGt Gom mir oppressirm call iqxm
us A share our knowledge with them. A other words, it is the responsibAty of the oppressed A teach the
oppressas their mistakes. I am reqxmslble fix educating teachers vAo dismiss my children's culture in school
Black and Third World petqrle are expected A educate whrA people as A our humanity. Women are expected A
educate men Lesbians and gay men are expected A educate Ae heterosexual world. The oppressors maintain
their position and evade reqxmslbility Ar Aeir own actions."^'**

While the notion of humility to bridge chasms of otherness is as old as humanity, we End not a trace of it
throughout the entire range of postmodern discourse analysis. Each analysis of power, reason, authority and
difference undertaken by dominant Ascourse is obsessed wiA claiming space, asserting itself even A the tune
of endless defbrral. Even dominant, i.e. Western, feminist Ascomses threatens A get lost m the rules of the
deconstructive game, their valid points disappearing m Ae shufBe of Gagmentation and strategically
mconclusive interrogation of potential subjectivity. Any posonally emotional and seemingly submissive notion
like humility has been regarded wiA the keoiest Aarust by those whose theorizing eSbrts are unwilling to link
theory A the working process of social change. Whoever sets out A become an ally m any area of (qrpression, is
deeply aware that it requires all those emotkmA mvestmeAs and unwavering commitments much of
postmodon Ascourse sets out A avoid. A this instance I was thinking of my own surprised and gratiGed
response A Marlene Nourbese Philip's mentiaiing of Immility as the ingreAent m Margaret Laurence's short
story collection The Tbmomw Thmer "That sense of humility is wAat has been aordy lacking m the deluge of
justiGcations that have poured fbrA m suppôt of the riÿrt of the whiA writer A use any voice." ("The
Disappearing Ddrate", Language m Lfler
ToronA: Coach House Press, 1990), p. 219.
109

I agree that it is significant and vital that the "marginality o f p riv il^e' bell hooks Snds herself
situated in, be 6miliarized and thoroughly econoinized, but only, I would suggest, as a transitional
zone, on Ae hopeful journey towards A e sh^gnng o f a language which situates itself as a place not so
much o f struggle but o f taidges, o f pleasures, and o f comparative peace. Challenging by all means but
m a rewarding sense o f restoring s d t o f cultural and cross-cultural hmne-coming.
Looking at b d l hooks' posAoming in ha^ chosen margins, 1 - qieaking as granddaughter
colonizer and want-to-be ally- question what Ae long ta m eSects may be 1^ choosing' to stay
with/in Aose margins permanently. How does this Aen aGect Aose whose margins are imposed
laAa^ Aan chosen, vAose struggle for articulation precedes hers - nxneover, whose struggle A r
articuWion may have priority because o f debilitating economic poverty, which annihilates choice? By
settling mto this validated (by A e colonizer) "margin o f privil^e", by electing h e rsd f and b an g
elected as a spokeq)erson A r those o f the imposed margins, by growing into Ae role o f mediator who
(un)Artrmately becomes accustomed to satis^ her bodily and many o f I w mortal needs within the
liA arm a o f Ae cblonizer, will she not forget? Who is Acre A remind her m this chosen qiace r ^ c re
Ae daily grind has shiAed into Ae world o f comArt and (complacent) language o f the colonizer? Can
her identity span such diverging sense-of-self polarity wiAout internal Augmentation and/or external
distortion o f the whole notion o f struggle against oppression as it plays mit among those less
fortunate", who inhabit A e "oAer", imposed margins? Those she is, m reality, qieaking for?
Hooks also writes o f sufRaing wiAin Ae chosen margin, o f never truly arriving. Ans never
staying. She writes o f dying Acre, too, due A new forms o f isolation and Ae sevaing o f links A A e
"dowrAome" liA. Throughout all, she emphasizes the notion o f "language as also a place o f struggle".
A a circular reading o f her text I return A this {Arase as a potential catalyst ft* a reconceptualization
o f language as not only a place o f struggle for the dis/possessed aad colonized A articulsA Aeir
sdlves, but also as a place o f continuons struggle and welcomed chWlenge where langu%e is being
s tra t^ c a lly designed by colonizers and colonized m a collaborative eGwt to allow

a coming-

togeAe^. Foundational agreements must be reached A the eGect that A e colonized must be Ae ones
to decide on process and contait o f this collaboration. A transformation o f the colornzers Aror%h

^"^Audre Lorde,

Oatndez, (Freedom: The Crossing Press, 2000), pp. 114 - 115.

,

guiding parametcfs set out by (he colonized seems a basic requirement if language is not forever
stigmatized as eternal re/enactment o f stalemate. M ^ te we need to recall Lee Marade's encouraging
words to remind ourselves of the hope that lies in becoming allies.
"I think it's a devotion to be cntical of White &minism. I think it's a kind love and devotion we have inside
us, and it's not seen as that. It's seen as pain and rage. And it's not! Otherwise I wouldn't botha talking to you
if I didn't
you were prepared to listen."'®

To becmne an ally requires passionate desire to du8 paradigm and keen listening skills. To
train someone to become an ally requires passionate desire to shiA paradigm and teaching skills.
Maybe what we need to do is reflect on whether we have what it takes, then heme the necessary skills
and in the meantime always, always keqi our ears and hearts open An (he voices which talk about
Aow the shiA can be acconqdidmd. Could be we are not Aero yet Could be we are at Ae beginning of
(he process, where wiitors like bell hooks and Trinh T. MiiA-ha need to establish Aeir Arst
stronghold, Ac chosen margins', to erqrlore mrd envision, and where we-Ae-colonizers need to do
more niticd Ainking and listening in/to wiA respect to our desire An change, and begin the ritual of
practicing allying, maybe similar to the deeply attentive wiys m which Aihnacan women m ncnAem
Colombia mxAet Aouldo^ b%s, that ancient custom of "crocheting hA."
"Based on my own m^erience, one always has a thought, a dream when cnxheting a shoulder bag At Ast, one
thinks of how to make the Ast knm to start connectiig and then the stitdies and then where to go m order to
make the should* bag the right size One is always occiqried wiA Aese thoughts. When we make a shoulder
bag we think about who it is for. It is a very qiecial event when you make a shoulder bag...Ar someone to
whom you w/ant to show a lot of love and hap;miess. You think about the pattern acconhrg to the person. You
think about someAing that fits mwiA Aepmson, wdnchhas the appropriate texture, colours and pattern Ar the
person. One thinks of all this and continues crocheting and crocheting until the combinations of colours Ar the
particular person is achieved. Each should* bag is essential and marked by anxiety, aqnrations and dreams."""

Lee Marade^ m interview wiA Janice Williamson,
p. 169.
Leonor Zalabata, in "Keq)iiig Traditions Alive", Aom JiwAgBnoiw IPbmgn. The TÜgA to o Tote, p. 32.

Ill

om

mm

wornem; fef

w (rwfA
fAo// f ever A»ow}«u
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/Ae Gamgea
o r a p u re mzoum/o/m a/ream;
grrmdeorm
p A y wz/A our cAz/drem
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your /(/& /Aa/ a 6 o Aecozmea zm/me
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azuf
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azuf Amow /Aa/ a / /eaa/ /Aa/ Aaa cAazzged
/Aa/ fzz/o zzy waAzmg Aoura

z azz; a/ao /earzzzzzg ZOawea/
uzu&r /Ae rzamg zzuzom q/"comaezouazzeaa

w ord/

zzzua/^Z
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Aave we ezz/ered a zzzozzKzz/

112

io wA/cA yow cw! evem f faW fo Aew me
/Aof ; woMf A)
am /gomA%^ fo ref^gn
My ro/e Of accoMÿV/cg m (Aw co/owizing evf/
(Aaf : woMf fo
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m y g A) Aomor
vAaf)wa Aww
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a%(y&e/
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Amp
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jp/ewAcf eogg
wode /ArowgA riveM foggfAer
fArowgA rfver; foggfA er

113

T h a t are many o&er Arms in which women ccane togedia^ in ihe mnWally validating experience
o f allying. The area o f genital mutilation is one example, where women widiin (me speciGc
(nihural (xmtext can Bnd sinpiising ways A ally with each other in quietly subversive ways.
According A a documented rqport hm n the US Centa^ A r Rqncxhctive Law and Policy and
(piotcd m Eve E nsla's Phgtnn AAno/ognes, A e chief 'cattef m the Capital o f Guinea, Aja
Tounkara Diallo Fatimata, conAssed that A e had never actually cut anybody. "Td just cinch Aeir
cliAiises A make Aem scremn," she said, 'and tightly bandage them rqi A Aat Aey wralked as
Aough Aey w o e m pain.'"

AUying straAgies are - A m y understanding - Ae most hopeAl and

detemiinedly traisArmative ways m which women - cultural misisters - siqipcrrt each oAer and
b ^ A i the journey away Aom patriarchal mutilaticms o f fonale sexual and spiritual bcxlyconscioumess.
There is also Ae ally who —in ste p o f explicitly fcnming networks and alliances - wcnks
under cover, cpiietly and deveily, who uses her talents and energies A subvat, midehne meaning and
reattach what was denied m Ac A st placA. These are A e herstorical reisistas, who left Aeir signature
as p ro o f- as if Aey had known A at hiszstory would pass them over. By un/covaing A e lives o f
womm, learning Aeir names - all necessarily attached to bcxhes- throughout hiszstory we gradually
bring mA mlief her-sAry, not A give superior meaning to but A ground our selves, A highlight, to
emphasize, A celebrate, A egqnmd paradigmatic horizcms and consciously cross Ares/holds o f new
and w is a beginnings. Digging iq) my own hastcnical, cmltural gardm, I A id Ae w oA o f Gisele von
Kerssenbroek (around 1250 -1 3 0 0 ) who lived m WestAha as a nun, auAcn^ and scholar. She also
taught calligraphy and wioA A e Codex Cwe/e, a ridily decxnated m d painted bcmk containing m
chronological cnder the music and lyiic% o f Ae church year. Inside Ae initial P - starting A e text
"Puer natus est nobis"- A e painted a delicate miniature picAre o f the virgin Mary reclining m Ae
Areground, reaching out to claim her newborn son Aom Joseph. The gesture expresses mutuality, the
inAnt is drawn m the exact center o f Ae oval, and Mary is most aiqhatically Slling oA a solid Aont
third o f the pichne, drawn larger, m AcX, Aan her parAer. Bw what is most ranaikable m this pichue
is Gisele's signature, small but deAiite, painted as i f sown into Ae Aids o f Maria's bedding. While
111 Eve Easier, PbgniaMiWoigwa; p. 92.

i

Gisde still re/presents Ae earthly image of Ae Madanna-Viigin, albeit m a selfeonhdent style, she
has managed to insert ha^-soK her physical insignia, into Ae images she m turn creates to reinforce
Ae status quo, though wiA an ever so slight Aminist rearrangemait. Here we are looking at
testimony of a woman's body and intellect In our quest to unearA w om b's stories, we are raninded
again and again that without Ae body. Acre would be nothing to un-cover, we would be left wiA
only Ae phaUogocentric recipe for what woman ought (not) to be. That dimension alone propels us
toward an ^xprecietion of vAat women's bodies are capable o f O f Ae bo(^ w% cannot do with/out.
And what aboA the mother-daughter reconûguration? Particularly m today's m creasing divisive
social envinmment, m oAas and daughters hold togeAo: much of Ae wmn Abric of family and
community. As ever, women - young and old - are the caretakers of men's, Amilies' and
communities' {Aysical and anotional, psychological and qnritual inûastructures, and - on top of Aeir
many oA e tasks - must woA hard to r%ain and/or mnmtmn any sense of counection and mtimacy
wiA each oAer. The following examples taken Aom interviews wiA women around Ae world conv^
the serious issue of moAer-daughter allying m patriarchal conditions, alwtys precarious, ready to
disintegrate into distrust and isolation.
"I was abandoned by my mother, I would not do this - if I had to hve under a bridge, my children would go
wiA me. I am not only a mother to them, I am a &iend and a clown I worry a lot about about their futures. I do
not want them to marry at an early age. I want then to take advantage of life. I want [my daughters] A study
more than I did and not be dqiendent on a man I want Aem A becmne people able to stq>port themsdves and
the Amilies that they will eventually have; A have their own proper houses; and A provi^ a better life Ar their
children than I am doing Ar them."
"The Chinese character fin peace is a woman und«^ a roof;
My mother's life was harder. The Amily lands were too small A provide much comfort. We had enough food,
but not rrmch clothing. And my nAtfmr had bound feet. Because her Aet were so short - abord three mches long
- she Aund it hard A work m the fields. She was always m pain Aom the wnqrpings that bent her toes under her
foot, and could not do what she wanted A do This traAtkm was not good, very cruel. When I was a young girl,
I did rmAing A he^ her. I didn't help her clean her Aet. I just wanted A do fmm wmk."
"The children work very hard, especially Like (the 10-yr. old daughter). I never saw her play. She will never get
A go A school, alA ou^ I think she wants A. [Zenebu Aids her daughter mAspensible at home, where she
helps A watch the younger children, grind grain, collect Aewood, patiA the house, and fetch water.) It's hard
lAt A wonder what will happen A her m ten years - will her HA be exactly like that of her mother."'"

Conversation with Maria dos Anjos Ferreira/Brazil, m lyAluisA, Faith, and Peter Menzel IFbmen nr the
AAderW IFbrkf. (SanFranmsco: Sierra Club Books, 1996), p.48
Aid., coiwersatiom with Guo Yuxian/China, p. 50
Aid., authors' refection on ZeneW and her daughter
erLike/Kenia,
Like/Kenia, p.81.

115

^ fAir apeckfcwZor momgMf q/^Aü d e ^ f wAem Ae Aegow A) reo/ize
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percefv(»gAer
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Aer wAa aAe A eoey Ae^mea
(ma cazAAmazw
AeAc/aiw
wmrave/mg q^(»«Awaiw (M(e»(

116

CONCLUSION
Mwfng* on n more hopcfül future, curvmg the m enm i^ of Inmgunge to nfRnn embodied
difference, comtimuiag Aeir-our tdhnga
"We ag Indiana have given a lot. The whitea have been here ovm^ two hundred yeara, and when they came we
treated tlwnwdl. They would never have survived if it hadnt been for the Indians nursing them along. We
have adapted a lot - mastered the white language, educatkm, technrdogy, but
what price? We live in push­
button houses but have polluted rivers; fly in airplanes but have polluted air. We have mills that make paper and
kill the Gsh, then the white people turn around and td l us Indians not to Gsh! There is no end to it. People call it
all 'progress'but to the Indian it is a set-back. ..Youcan't be traditional and live in the white man's system at the
same time because you are helping to destroy the earth. Evmi me, sewing with my sewing machine, Tm
partaMng o f that dam! When I cook supper on the electric stove, there's a hidden cost. Eventually we have to get
away horn that dependmcy - 1 do for my sake, anyway, th o u ^ I dorft know about the younger gmeration.
They might 6nd it too ÆfRcuk. I was raised in very poor conditions so it doesn't bother me if I dont have fhncy
eating." ( Juanita Perley, talking to Janet Silman, in
is fw ugh: 1997, p 225).
"It's twice as hard for us young ones to hold our ground, and maintain our opinions, in a time when all idwls are
being shattered and destroyed, when people are showing their wwst side, and do not know wheAer to believe in
truth and right and God... Thafs the difHcuky in these times, ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us,
only to meet the horrible truth and be shattered. It's really a worxW that I havmi't dropped all my ideals, because
they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I kem than, because in qrite of everything I still believe
that pecqrle are really good at heart. " (Anne Frank: 1989)"

Today, Sa&way has cautiously ex;%ressed its waxing interest and potential commitmerd to a more
humane treatment of Canahan livestock which its chain purchases in the quest to futSU every
crmsumer's dream. It would mean slightly larger pens for animals to facilitate a useful degree of
socializing.
Today, 15,000 people in Australia to<& to the streets protesting their nation's participatirm in a
potential war % ain^ Iraq.
Today, the Canadian government announced its new budget aimed at erq)I(ning the eSects of a
potaitial 611 out over Canadian territory 6om dremical and biological war6re in the Middle East m anywhere.
Today, a mother and her four daughters aged seven to sevaneen are rqwrted h) have taken refuge in
Calgary's St. Cecilia church aAer a stay of four years in Canada, hoping to avoid deportation to dieir
homeland. West Nigeria and its active tradition o f female circumcision"^. Threatening to kill herself

"^Bamouw, David and Garold van der Strom (ed.% transi. A J. Pomaanz and B. M. Mooyaart-Doubleday.
The Drory qf Arme Frank The C r r f r c o / ( N e w York: Doubleday, 1989). This quote was taken from the
1989 edition of Anne Frank's diary cited above and requoted in Arme JraMt.- Beywaf tbe Diary. (Van
Red,
Ruud and Rian Veihoeven, New York: PufBn Books, 1995), p 84.
"Genital mutilation has been inflicted on 80 [million] to 100 million girls and young women. In cmmtries
where it is practiced, mostly AGican, about 2 million youngstas a year can expect the knife -or the razor or a
117

if 6xced to letom, Ae oldest daughter apparemdy has not m a n a ^ d to overcome her g r ie f s the death
o f her best hiend following A e pocedure"^.
Todsy, I mentioned to m y mo Aer how I h ( ^ my sons wiU open themselves to A e necessary serenity
and wisdom o f self as hanhnst allies to realize alternatives to patrimxAal mtrigues. After a moment o f
silmce she said: "But you know, after all, eventually Aey will need to prove Aey are man enough."
Into her s i ^ 1 cried bewilderment
Today, I am again glad my womb has retired.

"A Ae recognition o f loving lies an answer to despair""*
A Ae Ace o f man-made, man-directed atrocities, wAch scar this planet and devour all that is
Anocent and OAer, the desire for a hveabk Ature sourced by love seems boA hysterical and
inBSCfgnAle. Simply to hold on A composure and daily routine becomes no small Aat m A e
accelerated unfolding o f patriarchal politics. And y e t And y e t even Ais state o f personal paralysis,
this lack o f initiative is A itself an abomination, it A a aient agreanent w iA A e way IhAgs are, and
thus A itself a qrectacularly horrihc answ * to patriarchal power politics. Why A d I not joA Ae local
protest against Canadian participation A anoAer midAe east war, a few days ago? Did I really think
that it may have posed a safe^ risk for my d u lA m ? Or could I not be boAered, because m ^ b e I
have surrendered already to my own fedings o f powerlessness as a sAgle moAer wiA two small
children well withA A c CanaAan poverty IAe, A A e daily struggle for even a shred oflived
integrity? Have I Aus already actively bought Am the myA that Ais crisis does not afk ct me, never
has, that I am not conqrlicit A any o f this, that western pAallogocentric logic wiA its Aevitable
conclusirm o f modem warAie A virtual, sterile, focussed and Aevitable, AereAre perchance
reqrectable? Or maybe, just maybe I beheve A at I belong A Ae globally few who - because A ^r live

glass shard- to cut their clitoris or remove it altogether, [and] to have part of the laWa.. sewn tc%cAer wiA
ca%ut or thorns. OAen the opertAon is prettihed as 'circumcision'. The African q)ecialist Nahid Toubia puts it
plam: A a man it would range horn amputadon of most ofthepems, A 'removal of all the penis, its roots of soft
tissue and part of the scrotal skm.' Short-term results include tetanus, sqAcemia, hemorrb^es, cuts A Ae
urethra, bladda-, vaginal walls, and anal sphmcter. Long-tam: chronic uterine infection, massive scars that can
hmder walking Ar life, f stula Armation, hugely Acreased agony and danger during childbirth, and early
deaths." EveEnsler, The
(ToronA: Random House Ac., 2001), p. 68.
CBC Radio 2, 10:00 AM News, Saturday, November 30,2002.

118

ofT all odiers"^- waste A am elves in decadent overabundance, and A at the capitalist (cbrisdan)
palriardial paradigm entitlos ns to hold on to it, at the cost o f the earth?
It all comes down to accountability and ultimately a question o f desire. But who would raise
this question, vdiere 6om would a longing for this desire present itself? Why would we won/ to care?
What original forces encourage our individual sense o f respon%bility toward a larger collective well­
being, a weU-being-in-Tdatioa-to? If my existence has indeed been reduced to an emotionally
distanced ratKmalization o f have and have-nots, what is the conqrelling motivatioo to care beyond
single-mindedly paqring what can be made mine? What ^rark ignites relational insight?
Is there one? And, qreaking out o f die proudly insisting partiali^ o f hamnist truth-seeking, do I
abandon this same trudi-seeking if 1, heterosexual woman and mother, insist on the human qiecies'
rightful obligation to live in a Inosphaically sustainable manner, in interrdmioaal grace?
Even though the term 'grace' may have been shamelessly exploited and worn out by Christian
worship, it seems - widiin the symptomatic limitations o f the cnglish language- one o f the few terms
able to convey the almost physical sense o f spiritual uphAing we sometimes experience when we let
our selves immerse into the larger awareness o f planetary interdependence. Spretnak qieaks o f grace
as awareness o f cosmological interrelatedness w hidi in turn p n ^ids Airth throigb its recognition o f
responsibility. So Aat we may experience the transformative powers o f g^ace like John Seed, a
decoder o f die rain forests in Australia, who entered his conscious self into die planetary unfolding,
and thus changed Aom saying: 1 am protecting the ramfmest" to 'I am pmt o f the rainAnest protecting
m yself' As a former dnisdan emerged into a nonchristian, I And the use o f grwe' in this context

Lorde, Audre. Zami X iVinv
Mane. (Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1982.); part of the
introductory dedic^on.
A perdnent summary of this type of patnarchally embedded, oppositional, themedcal Wrspmeat I am
re&mngto canhedxmdinCharlmie Spetnak'sAüfes o f Grace (1992) pp. 157, 158.: 'The philosophical notion
of the Odier as meaning any and every individual odierdian T ', came into popular parlance throng the
existentialist woiks of Sartre. He built on H%eT: peculiar perception that one grows into selfhood only in
(gpomnoM m, in antithesis o f anotkr selfconsciousiK8s." She Âea contextualizes this notion of otherness:
"Existential otherness, or unique subjectivity, is not an absolute dimension of our being, but a singular aspect of
our hngo^ reality. Each of us exists in a matrix of being that is the universe. We are constitutionally connected
with the manifestations of being that surround us. None of us exists in isolation 6om the vast wd) of
relationships that are gravitational, genetic, vibratory, and much more. Everything that ^ipears in die cosmos
emerges into this web. A manifestation of being is a crmcentradon of enogy, allurement, demental
communion. The subjectivity of each being, its depth and interiority, is a face of the ultimate mystery of the
universe. Each of us is unique but not ^lart Our diSererdiation yields otheness, while our unidve ground of
being is dynamic oneness,"
119

onpowenng as weÜ as painful in its efforts to stAvort kaditional meaning. At the same time, I rem ain
hopeful that we may Sod othK terms that are less contaminated in their patriarchal appropriatitm,
more activism oriented and yet tmdeniably hopeful in the naming of a qriritual coming together of
planetary consciousness and &minist identity.
In the recognition of loving lies an answer to de^rair.
To this my 6iend (who cares) answers: "why would we want to care? Because nothing else
s^sfies. Because it is the only way I can go to bed in die evening and await the coming morning."
Furthermore she suggests that humility needs to play a formidable and, she insists, rewarding role in
the process of planetary caring.
Why?

"Again, my dicndrqieats, "becausenothing dse sadsdes."
How then do we-'women move &om the interlocking chains of deqiair, &ar and hopelessness at the
n%ation of embodied life experiœce, the result of sevrai millennia of masculinist paradigm, to a
fearless, bold re:visi(ming of women's embodied consciousness? One that names womai's biological
dif^ence, and in respectful natning, cdebrates the nKaning o f womai's diverse identities, in all
theii/our sexualities? And, in so doing, oGers a radical recontextualization dor the entire human
qiecies in bur planetary joum ^? We start, I believe, with/in our very own body consciousness.
In Bodkff

Wiimie Tomm muses at length about the signidcaice of language to empowa

ourselves and eadi other. "It is a truism to say that we attanpt to eaqness ourselves through language.
What are we expressing when we express ourselves?" She raninds us Aat language can never he the
total meaning of reality. That it can only, "in a flat way" attanpt to convey a reality drat is "round and
qnralling"^^. And that it is
"always the product of embodied coosciousness ..If we agree that no person's consciousness can be said to be
emtireiy disembodied, then it Adlows Aat every person's consciousness includes body consciousness. It is
reasonable to conclude that language includes the expression of body consciousness . If the logic of our
language is to be reconstructed more Avourably for women (and 6)r menX it is important to take bodies
seriously as agents in consciousness. Just as it is impmtant to reclaim women's bodies in positive images and
concqrts, it is also consequential to make explicit the ways in which men's bodies have actually influenced
men's ideas. Language as we have it today is not healthy for women. It is mandatory Air women's health to
develop linguistic expressions which facilitate women's health. Self-determination requires a healthy mind and
a healthy b o ^ , both of which are largely «mstructed through language.. To emphasize women's bodies in
language is not to fall back into a depressing biological determinism. Rather, it is to celebrate the reality of
Winnie Tomm, Bodkef

723.

120

women as embodied knowem ..Acknowledging sex-speciGcity is to accept &male and male bodies as sources of
knowing., .it is to open up the interactive process of (Walogue by introducing strong subjectivity."^^^

This passage is vital in illustrating the causal relations betweai b o ^ , consciousness,
language as expressing this ccmsciousness (howeva tailored through cultural paradigms), and the
eSbcts this experienced articulation has on embodied health. Women's health, on aU levels of being.
Susan GrifGn relates language to body in a direct, concrete, physiological way, %dien she says that
"arsemce...precedes existence. But this is also true of language. The sounds of words have been
determined thus by the shtpe of the human mouth, the capacities of die human tongue, and the range
of the human ear."^^ Through language we name. In naming, we - die human qiecies - give meaning
to our selves and the world around us. When I carefully consider dmt "the Maori term

land and

aAerbirth are the same word, wAeuwa" and "used to be buried in the land"^^, when I read that "the
Okanagan language has no pronouns for "he' and 'die',"^^thailbegin to open myself to die
existential signiGcance of naming. Let me quote Susan GrifGn again - the loving attention she gives
to each word, each [Arase, feds like poetry deep into my Ixx^ consciousness, & ds true: "The
question of meaning is vital. One of the bleakest consequences of the social system we share is that
we cease to be able to expwiaice the meaning of existence. Of ^hat if.

Throu^ language and the

radicality of naming, we move towards articulating a Game of reference in which our words form
images Gum ideas form bastorical connections and - amidst laughter, pain and more laughter,
reicreate women's body consciousness.
In our quest for naming sex-speciGc, empowaing symbolism we are oAentimes attracted to
indigenous people's cultural.qiiritual imagery. However, I am reminded of Lee Maracle's powerfW
advise on white people's appofniation of indigenous myths to give liG-afBrming meaning to their
selfalienation: "The Act is that a white pascm Qpropriating our stories because they lack
imagination or knowledge of their own is sdU telling a European story. Use whatever you like to

Ibid., pp. 124-125.
Susan GrifGn, "Ecofeminism and Meaning". Karen Warren, ed., Æco/êawMwm. tFaaen. Cw/Aye, Aofwe.
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997), p. 217.
Linda Tuhiwai Smith,
p. 101.
Jeannette Armstrong, in interview with Janice WUiamson, &wK#gD0krencej,p. 13.
Susan GrifGn, "Ecofeminism and Meaning", p. 91.

121

ground you stcay, intellectual Canada, but be honesL It is your gtxny- it is not about m e."'^ And go,
loving First Nations meanings of celebrating womm's energies, and IWening in/to their stories and
songs, Ifbrcerrryselfto dig into my own Eurocentric roots and see if I can find evidence which
un/covers wmnen-ccntered meanings. And I arrive back in neolithic times when pre-IndoEuropean
cultures seemed to express life-meaning that celekated womcm and mm in mutually complmimtary
ways within a concr^ely expressed qrmtuality that saw meaning in liA, not d e a t h . I t is a long way
back, but at the same time, mydis and symbolic imagoy have a way of merging cross-cultural
dif&ronces the further bade we travd in the human story-telling. And I read Amhnst te^imony drat
revises ardiedogical findings, I read Marÿta Gimbutas interpretation of evidence.
"The main theme of Goddess symbolism is the mystey of birth and death and the renewal of life, not only
human but all li& on earth and indeed in the wWle cosmos. Symbols and images cluster around the
partbenogmetic (self-generating) Goddess and her basic hmctions as Giva^ of Li&, Wielder of Death, and, not
less importantly, as Regeneratrix, and armmd the Earth Mother, the Fertility Goddess young ami old, rising and
dying with plant life. She was the single source of all liGe who took her energy 6om the qnings and wells, &om
the sun, moon, and moist earth. This symbolic system represents cyclical, not linear, mythical time. In art this is
manifested by the signs of dynamic motion: whirling and twisting qrirals, winding and coiling snakes, circles,
crescents, boms, grouting seeds and shoots. The snake was a symbol of life energy and regeneration, a most
benevolent, not an evil, creature. Even colors had diSerent meaning than in the Indo-European symbolic
system. Black did not mean death or the umlerworld; it was the color of &rtility, the coW of damp caves and
rich soil, of the womb ofthe Goddess where life b%ins White, on the otha^ hand, was the color of death, of
bones...""*

And I consider Gloria Steinem's reflections on the ccmnectioos between ancient neolithic and
conten^poraiy Christian worship symbolism:
"In the 1970s, vddle researching in the Lilnary of Congress, I found an obscure history of religious
architecture that assumed a Act as if it w«e common knowledge: the traditional design of most patriarchal
buildings of wmship imitates the female body: Thus, there is an outer and inner entrance, labia mqora and
labia minora; a central vaginal aisle toward Âe altar; the wro curved ovarian structures on either side; and
thmi in the sar%ed centa^, die altar or womb, whwe the miracle takes place - %here males give birth. Of
course, I thought The cadrai ceremony of patriarchal religions is one in which men take over the yonipower of creation by giving birth symbolically. No worrder male religious leaders so often say that humans
were bom in sin - because we were bom to Amale meatures. Only by obeying the rules of the patriardiy can
we be reborn throuÿi men. No wcmder priests and ministers in skirts sprinkle imitation birth duid over our
heads, give us new names, and (xomise rebirth into evoiasting hfe. No wonder the male {«isthood tries to
keep women away hum the altar, just as wmnen are kept away 6om control of our own powers of
rqnoduction. Symbolic or real, ifs all devoted to controQiog the power that reades in the female body."

Lee Maracle, "Native Myths", h"om ZaKguage m
(Toronto: Coach House Press, 1990), p. 186.
In A// oNwrZowe, bell hooks writes on the worship of death, pp, 191 - 205.
Marÿa Ghnbutas, The Zmtgiwge qf the GWdeas, ^iew York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1989% p. xx.
Gloria Steinem in her foreword to
ZAnokgwes, Eve Ensler: 1994, pp. xvii - xviii

122

And I b%in to re:create meaning/^ Emergiag Arong^ Ac millennia, 6om Ae «pectacnlar
lananbedng of historical earA/goddess spiiituality Aiongh Ae waning of Minoaa cnhuie, which
hmiored cukwral imagay, Aroi^h Ae hcarors o f Ae witdi-bnmmg, into today's longing A
re:coonect oarA/body-cmisiousness and responsible knowing.

^ Gloria Steinem gives other examples of the recurring cultural symbols still Aund in patriarchal religions:
"Gnostic Christians worshiped Sophia as the female Holy Spirit and considered Mary Magdalene the wisest
of Christ's disciplw; Tantric Buddhism still teaches that Buddahood resides in t k vulva; the SuS mystics of
Tslam believe that yhmo, w rapture, can be reached only through Fravashi, the Amale spirit; the Sheldna of
Jewish mystician is a verâon of Shakti, the Amale soul of God; and even Ae Catholic Church included
forms of Mary worship that focused nune on Ae M oAa than on the Son A many countries of Asia, AAica,
and other parts of the world where gods are still depicted m female as well as m male Arms, altars Aature
the Jewel m the Lotus and otha^ represmitations of Ae lingam-in-tlm-yoni. A India, the Hndu goddesses
Durga and Kali are embodiments of Ae yoni powers of birA and deaA, creatimi and destructimi. "
(Gloria Steinem A her Arewmd to
Eve Ensler 1994, pp. xii - xiii)
123

dWmg
grfevow ^ ffgyved gmoüow
ÂgfÿvcA^ we%
ak(/W W ow W emtg^ fyedk&z6 /A^
Arwaf wpwonf & owf eocA Arne
/ (kc(pAer fAe codaf (ArecAow
w a wm'a jpeWoAve gaze
eacA A/me <A«ypa/Z me
fWcAme AacA mfo a cave
am y reAorm oMce more
Arne fWAe^ mferAdü/
AreafA grow ga/acAc
f p/? fep/7oor mogg apreadk mfo
my gfow/ag amgpfü
/amgworoAî Ae(p f etrp; Ae/wee»
j!oA<fpa/eoAfAie /eg;
rowea (Ae go/(/em goaWleag AfoMg/e
/awMcAe; Aer oogm/e womA
foarce p^agwamar/Me wafer; p/"/^
efema/ g/vmg p/"A/rfA
am /
jO.OOOyear; ago
A/rfA/ag AotAea
* fo wAe« yowr facAca/ ego
appmoacAef m/we m fOdkry^ mar&efp/aee
im/efj Ae eoger^ /eanw fo we/come Aer greaf de&fgA
Aeware p^ verm/Aoa /«;/
ow e wM/eaaAeaT
Aer A/oo*^ paaMow may ^ o o d
Ai; deiaoAed coo/ meaamg;
«Ma// .gxzeea
you f A// Aad r^ervedy&r %;
Aeware mow
wy «(pemaA/ra/ vu/va wi// /MieTpref you
fwa/ZowyofO" aim
wAo/e

124

(Ae worW
<aW
«mo// creofwiM q/^(Ae «(nmge
- doMVAMow wAa(/wowWdb
wf/AoW (Aey /?rom«cwom AwgA(er
(K (Aey cAme a// wy precowcepAow
ag (Aey AeeAoM me (m(o (Ae(r vo/wp(Wom jpoee wAofe (Am6 A(Mgfome(zmef eve» 7 c a n ^ e /
TwAfe (Ae(r noncAa&mce 7 w(/7 move (o Ae
/ongago
wAere
/(ve<f w((A a wwe woman wAo$e7@io(%/ Aa(nfo
even/Ar (Aofe (fmey w
aAa// we aay - a A(( on (Ae no(ow»
aw f Aer percqp((ve «nw/e we Anow jo macA aAow(
^Ae gm*/e Ae^ a n ^ fO wAa(
Aer pe($naAef,
/ove^ AwncA a/f g/iy(emng orange an</ /emon pee/,
wAo fecre(e ovanef am /
cqpaAae AaAAaa//y,
AaAA/e fo// fecreb (n(o (Ae /aminowa/Wdk q/^Aer /arge
mo(Aer-q/(pear/ earn
secret; (Aa( (am Aer on
yôr (en (Aoagam/_yeam
gA// (am me on
wAenever 7 /Wen
(n(o my own
AcK^fong
wAen ever 7 A o(^m g

125

fMfO
(W gneaf-gmmAMoAg» ' aacne^ moomAow/ v e MigAfdlream
fw fr/

/XZM rowmf
fVMrf
dSgprng^Mgem Mfo reef
wg /w // (Wf
Aoffy ffo n g f
jyZow W ea q/^ wA;(%)cA Aw^
aq/? Mo&g(f kxAea aïWMgfaf

maf/gj fo (Ag Aia;(f;om /owgAfgrq/^EwrqpgOM cAwrgA Ag/ü
A«mg(f of (Ag afo&g q/^wiaogyyy
womgm a ap/n ü foaagef 6y^of fmiwok
mo/g g/gg
foaagff ocroaa ggmfonga fAof wgre WMremortaA/g
aof !M fofo/ AAfcA g%ggpfy b r fAg grocAa
of&f fA g ^ g rg g ^ g fAof
o W fAgfr oaAga aAwmngff

AwTMfMig; AumfMg

fAg AoroaaAig ico/g q/"frompgfa AgroAAng
aixAwM(Aie(fygora qÿ'Agy
p«aA mfo owr^m ger Apa
WMff/ apiota q/"o»6nMgJ A/ootf
Amowmg apAvA q ^ o w r ; o W Mfng

WW grgof grgof.gmWmofAgra
wg
coMfAwg fo AfAoAA
fA m w o rw ^ k q^dkpg
o k o /owgfMg

fowon6 ^g//ow-nipg /MocMa
fAgy Aot/m or& AfgaoW ao
Aovg wg wAgfAgr wg cow Ago/ fAgre o re afonga fo fg//
oAygoA

126

Aerg Aawe Aeem a «««fAar

mMwa*

a
vg gofAer ùW
Mfo a orc/g
Tfg ^ / / /
/owgAfgr a W MO«y/zrom«gf

may mgam «ofAwg fAey may mgan morg (Aam gygr.
go.
amowW
wg gaüAgr aW
m/o a g/rc/g
wg gpi//.
gf/g»f mawMfa/w w e WffAm m.
free woA grow gme<(y (AroagA
«ame/ggg
aW gm a//
aW
m/o earfA wamA.
diart a/iwg.

a/magf af fAe g»d a w gfa/y wg Aeg/n.
ngAf maw <A« w a// we meed
WgAf maw a d we meed
Ü fa ^ g /
moamWrng w e
wdAm amd
Onegg gAare fAem roaB
wAA a w ramdam y&ef
MgAf maw a d we cam agA ^r
Ü
dgfem
dg^gm (a earfA
gAare
eaMA gfayy
Owgfofy
(Aü mieamg eveTy/Aimg.

127

Why is it so unfashionable to read - and senoosly consider - Gimbutas' explanation of what
die fbund? Are we still so far removed &om imagery that honors rather than negates women's
othaing dif&rence, rooted as it will always be in the biological determinism of their-our bodies. Why
is it that Western capitalist patriarchal culture seeks to objectify the female body into "manageable",
eoqilmtdile body parts which can then be resourced widiin the context of global restructuring, all die
while re:creadng the illusion that masculinist dis/embodied consicousness is the dcjtrecf name of ow
gan%? Well, is it? So what does it mean to us - privileged, middle-class, ecological faninists - when
we Anow that the the combined aggression of reiproductive technologies and biotechnologies moan
suf&ring dir women on all levels of existence —and with K sufGxing feu their families and their
cmnmnnitios? The answer surely lies in our body-political reideGnition of commitment, committed
love, ccanmitmmt to becoming an ally, to our own selves, to each other, and to all planetary life.
Susan GrifBn's words ring %ain: "The question of meaning is vital. One of the bleakest consequences
of the social system we share is that we cease to be able to eaqicrience the meaning of existence. Of
what is. "
Joy Kogawa's articulation of particular spiritual moments opass us to her own particular,
(uoss-cuhurally grounded understanding of the intoconnectedness of all relations:
"Thee is an ideotidcation as woman, as a Japanese Canadian, the identidcation with trees, with crerUurdiness,
The search, if there is one, is from moment to nxxnent throu^ all those difkrent identidcations for something
that is ather at the base or that is a single dacal point. For some reason human beings seem to be irUent to
finding single points, like searching dx but never dnding the ultimate building block of matter. In my search dir
a primary idenddcatimi, I come to what I would call a ^iritual point, a sense of unity like a spiritual explosion
of joy, which I don't experience oAm. I experience deqwur as much as other people but inasmuch as I lose s i ^
of those moments of joy which are very powerdil antidotes to despair, the discipline that I would most seek dir
myself is a more accessible awareness of that spiritual resource below the surface of consmousness. It's like a
stream that goes by as you sit on the bank. Fish come down that stream and one is nourished. One can be
crmstantly nourished by whatever goes through this life. From time to dme, there is an amazing experience of
allness, of complete belongingness. What makes it rccognizaWe to me is the emotion of voy great joy that
attends it. The only feeble things that seans apixopriate to say at such moments is 'thank you'. That moment's
identidcation is the one I wish would inform all my other identities, especially when the others become as
heavy and painful as hair shirts you want to get rid of If you have to put the shirt back on again, you can
struggle and swvhv because of this otiw, for want of a better wwd, 'spiritual' idemidcation.

It is out o f those mtxnenfs that we may feel a loving commitment to work towards socio-ecologicai
change along the guidelines Anne Bishop provides, as she encourages us to listen, listen, listen, and

Joy Kogawa in interview with Janice Williamson,

pp. 153 -154.

128

know diat "when Aey trust you and know you well moi%h, they will ask you to do someAing
q»eciEc to suMXut Aeir efkuts."
"Our bodies are a source of power They carry us through our tadrs and actkxis, give us pleasure and
warnings, tdl us directly tl* state of the earth we live on, and inovide us wiA a wonderful thinWng, AeHng,
moving, sensing instrument
carrying out our will in the world Our eqreriences of oppression teadi us to
hate our bodies fw their gender, their colour, their coonectirm to nature. If we can love and rqq*eciate our
bodies, we can r%ain a source of power."

It is bow we use Ais powa^. We can reject and negate womem's biological determinism as
something wAidi will bind women Arever to Ae politics of W estan c^italist patnarchal
hetaosexism. Deq)ite the innovative and very many ways attractive description of an amazon
utopia/Monique WiAg, the belief m a forward-looking ecological feminist rezvisitming of women
craning mA earth/bpdy ctaiscionsness means Aat we must Gnd ways A bectane allies, A ourselves
and each oAer, across cultural Avides. Our body experiences must become Ae most visible and
sacred tool m our lives wiA wAich we achieve new meanii^ and work Awards Ae celebration of
all hfe. It is m this undestanding that Ae textual collage I have presented hoe has not been about
cmnparing, juxtaposing and oitiquing theories, neiAer about coveting one particular Aeoiy, but
Ëxnit building, siqiporting, shaping m women's-our cAlcctive efArts to honor emboAed
ccmsciousness as an mAvidual and gAbal ethics of care Aiougb Ae hving and herstorical Ailing
of wqmen-Aody-oqpeneoce. We need A get on wiA it. A Ae spirit of Joy Kogawa I wish A toss
my self out inA this becoming, wiA q)ecial hope A r all childrMt as they come into Aeir own
intimaA body-consciousness while continuing Aeir/our journey on this planet, and a parting
prayer of hopeful anticipation: that we may Snd a way A celcbraA sustainable meanings of life.

129

wAe»
7g(Zve$d!nop
*Rfo f?y AoMeg

<Ae^ « 6 /e AreofA q / ^ Awmom g n w f
rw7M6 /&$
Ate fAmyg^fpgnw q^w f cowcioiwrneM
roar dow» jAe/gfa/ coverw
ecAo/e
g/*de tp w a rd
o/omg

gwM-con'eff OMcgffra/ Aomgf porcAe^f^ücay
wp up wnd/ «Ae
AigA oAove (Ae Au^gzmg (ruMt q/^o
coAwW Aem/ocA A u^ (eanmg c /i^ oW
fwqydmg im(o Adiej
«AoAfMg w((A (Ae uproorfou^ fougA(er q/^
%od geo Aow
wAen 7 eavewApp ôKo

mygreeM Aomea
Ae/oMg.

130

cA&kam go dkg W ere A e aw

are f d// Aere
/ef Me Aear fAe aq/? Aearf 6eaf q/"
yew vo/ces we 7<wf owe
a/reoK^ A Ae (rowMoAc arew q/"6;r/A
yôr^YWaee
recewAfy
/
o/(f Of apmA wAo AW
AomÀ/eùf AnwgA Ae o w e fwBgewwy memofy-^eMt*
/M cref/y
A my AriAe Aonea
dlecAW fo ewwgnke & f «r/üce
Wo dkAW re/ZecAofw Wewanw fo (owoA

/ »o /omger Wre reacA
yôr Aeir approacAimg aA^ewe
_/&ar
Aey may /eave me a/iogeAer
a /re a ^ my AearAg firaim io Aae owi
q^iAe c/aiie/y moüe we ierm Aviag
cAiiWreM my Aearü
Awi
Aerei&yei aomeiAAg
mayAe _yoa wi// Aear
mayAeyow are pregemi
mayAe iAe/weaewe Aaf ooi /^yow
ag ii Aa$ me aW a// oAer;
efcapef/ Ae mervowy/aiier
Ae jw;p/e%Ag ammgemeW
q/"oar /aMoAe AoagA&
Aai A yoar ArigAi momewif
cAi/Aea
jg?/oaA AroagA maf//mW/ef <6 ercwg oeeow
or WwM Ay Ae creeA
/earn Aio Ae grooves q/"iAe 06/ eoiioawooe/ wiA yoar eye; e/o;e«/ aW
yoar ;mooA ^reAeadk car/e(/ AoagA(/a//y
yoar earioiw ^mgerig?;
irave/ AarA
yoar emi/ee emier Aio Aer ie//Ag$
emieryoar meanAg
y&e/ Aer ;iorie;
a ;omg cAiAAew Aeeame wAaiyoa may Aear
K Aio a ;Ag/e carve
more iAaa a/iogeiAer co/?y?/eie
a eAeer a/moïi-Mever-prefewe wAoae viAraAow
;A// re/o%
aAawpAere
;ieaA/y AeW Ae /aiare; q/^
AeAg
131

wAwe /wW/iom owa
AgAf
a femdier/y
jw6afzmg free/)vg memAmne
AWlea ôMfdîe
MMpX f imgyoMg; a c n c W e/6(w
goaf(pmg a awmwMer a evewMg
ff cawAowffy aMyazü
Aefweem (Ae A(Ae careaaea q/^
amaAe aca/ea
come^gwA^g/y
qiacA /(me
awm
ray gome
gmaaaA{^
Aare/y mo w A i^ r q^
or(g(m
cAf/jrem my Aeana
go
em^r (A(a (rw(A (m(o you a/ao
cA/AAem my Aea?ia go a(mg wAere (Ae aam
wAem
y o aare (Aere
/Acpe.

132

zoKf

pouf wwf MA)

a woman'&Aopes
ore many a?%f /ong f/veJ
(Aof
Aoefy no^ <A;(g:gwa/'
fAaf Agf pmingr cow/(? *g Aer /over
fAaf fomeome 6e Aer /over
a /ove Ae we/oome(/
/Aa/ Ae/ween Aer feorî am/ Aer /owgAfer fAere Ae no Aa/e
fAaf *Aü Aer /ove
a// ///& no/ Ae modAew
am/ ÿ'f Ae «
/Aa/ /A«y won'/ /?/eree Aer Ao%^ /n a g u ea/^ r no A/ooe/

/Aa/oned&y
on /mmor/a/ w/// f / ^ ow/ am/ jec/are Aerïe(/^
orfA«/wg wp
/Aa//we/?y a/woy; Ae //Ae f/reom'f fo^ a/gA car«f/ng owr fo//er Aon/er;
/Aa/ /omorrow w/// grow o/gon/c
am/ /Ae a/r /wm A/ue ago/n w//A cor/oy/^ am//brg/veneag
/Ao/ /Aw n/gA/ Ae düneeg/ /n am/ modie AearaA/e
am/ AeryAm//y ^/efg? weA /n/o a connec/aA/e/k/wre
a w o m a n s^ r$ ore mo/y am/ ooZ/Zvec/ on/y Ay Aer <//ngVei/ Aqpe

133

GlOÊWry
The brief glowary serves to mAmn (m some of the mnbreHar-terms used in the thesis. Most of the vocabulary is
part of the larger contextual arena of Contenqwraiy Litoary Theory/Cultural Studies, and as such links the
various Eelds of linguistics, philoso;Ay, ethics, environmental stuÆes, women's studies, religious studies,
sociology, social geography etc. Within each discipline, terns have a tendency to reappear within slightly
altered fields of meaning. The deGnitions I chose are Wren &om various texts and encyclopediae wbidh more
closely reflect the gœeral context of my own writing, anchored as it is in the partiality of subjective e3q)«rience.
They are inconq)!^ in so far as they do ncA pretend to represent the entife deGnitions given in the texts cited.
Yet I have tried to catch some of the persistent undafying 'essences of meaning' which seem to overlap
particular discipline boundaries and thus move texts fhrther into intadisciplinary, intersuiyective areas of
ddrate. As such, diis glossary has become another strat%ic tool to position my own text as one 'other" source of
meaning.

Cyborg: "A term 6om science Gctton used by Donna H araw ^ (1985) in her 6mous
"Manifesto for cyborgs: science, technology and socialist-flaninism in the 1980s'. Haraway was
looking 6*r a metaphm that could redeGne the potentialities of both embodhnent and technology by
rdating each to the other in a more positive wfy and, for her, 'cyborg' signalled some of the 'ways that
the things many feminists have feared most can and must be reGgured and put bade to work for life
not death.'" (Haraway, 1991, p. 4). [Johnston, R.J. et al.
Dtcdonmy
Geqgnqp/y.
OxG)rd: BlackweG Publishers Inc., 2001, p.l47]
"A cyborg isacybonetic organism, a lybrid of machine and organism, a creature o f social reality as
well as a creature of Gction..." (Donna Haraw^, "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and
Somahst-Femmism in the Late Twendedi Centmy", Amdm», Cyfwrgs, maf IFomen. New Ymk:
Rondedge, Ch^mand and Hall Inc., 1991, p. 149)
Ecofeminhm: "Ecofeminism is more than an idmtity politics, it reaches for an earth democracy,
aaoss cultures and qtecies. It reGames environmeat and peace, gender, socialist, and postcolonial
conclus beyond the single-issue qtproach fostered by bourgeois right and its institutions." (Ariel
Salldi,
or fo/fhcs. London: Zed Books Ltd., 1997, p.x)
Ecology: "Ecology brings togedier issues relatiog to ontology (being), epstemology (knowing), and
ethics (living humanely). A person's ontological reality is die central point of their identity, which is
conshucted within the process of ontological interrelatedness. From a holistic perqiecdve of being,
each person's identity is inseparable from their wsy o f participating in the changing world." (Winnie
Tomm, AxfWMùaÿhhrgM. Waterloo: WilGid Laurier University Press, 1995, p. 280)
EssentWrsm: "Essentialism is most commonly understood as a belief in the real, tme essence of
things, the invariable and Gxed properdes which deGne the 'whatness' of a given entity." (Diana Fuss,
jgpeaAmg. London: Roudedge, 1990, p.xi)
Feminist splrhnmlfty: "feminist spirituality is not about god language. It is not about a angle god as
the spitirual creator, usually symbolized by images associated with male power. Nm is it about
including fanale symbols in tradidanal dieologios. Including so-called feminine imagery in god
langurge is, in my view, an acdvity that trivializes fanale power. Feminist spirituality is most
iirgrortandy about women living as selfdetermining persons with spiritual creadvrty that is imaged
predmninandy in fanale symbols. Women's spiritual power, in this view, is integral to their existence
as human beings...Spiritufi feminists are motivated by both an atdtude of love and one of ethical
outrage." (Wirmie Tomm,
AAwÿh/Marf. pp. 3 - 4)
Third World, Fourth World: Socalled Third World, Fourth World, North and South, colonized.
Western, Westernized, non-Westem, malindustrialized, over-industrialized countries - dxrse are some
of the prevalent terms used by various feminist and ecological ^n io ist writers to differentiate
between the countries which exert, mahUain and increase global control —through l^alized measures
in the arenas of ecmrcmry, military and/or "Third World' aid packages, and those countries which Gnd
134

themsetvBS ât 6 e reoeiviag end of neocolonial, dominating politics. All of the terms are questionable,
and alw ^s open to critique, particalarly by those vho are being analyzed and othaized in the
process. While most often the terms preswne a gec^rqAical location, anyone using the tarns must
also remember that W%tem, Nmlhem, ova-industiialized nations perpetuate within their own
nations more or less visible strategies of dominatian and invest in Ae ongoing cultivation of
marginalization o f indigenous peoples. One pertinent example in Canada is Ae Act Aat many of
Canada's aboriginal perdes - particularly Aose seeking selF-^vemment - reAse to see Aemselves
as Canadians. The social, geogra^Aical, spiritual irqrlications of acknowledging this diqwsition'm
the country's constituticm are, as yet, WthinkAle'. As well, A ae is a NmA wiAin Ae NorA since
rmrAem rural communities are usually less aShrent, less ccmnected wiA oAw communities (Aose m
the more souttmm r%ions) and usually less srqrpcated by provincial hoalA and welfare politics.
T^ically, in the (global) Ncmh, Ae most norAem communities are also the ones made up of
colonized, racialized and marginalized aboriginal peoples.

135

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