My first attempt to write based on feminism viewpoint. This is my Critical Theories Post-test Assignment which leads me to the B score. Maybe, I was just not good enough writing from this side. I won't give up, then! I will try to explore more and maybe try another essay from feminism side.
Abstract Praising EcoFeminist Climates tells about how patriarchy dominates all and limits women’s opportunity to grow. This paper will uncover women objectification and commodification as indicated in the poem. The theory used to discuss the poem is women objectification and commodification theory by Frederickson and Roberts also from several journals, and the discussion material will be found by contextual and close-reading method and such secondary sources. It is found that men see women as one instrument that are only beneficial for their economical and sexual desire. Hence, it is harder to remove patriarchal dominance that has been rooted in all aspects. Keywords: commodification, objectification, society, patriarchal dominance, women.
1. Introduction
Patriarchy is a patrilineal or man-centered ideology that dictates all social and economical aspects and controls authority towards women that has been rooted since a long time ago. This tracks down women to become subordinate and it also causes a lot of drawbacks and obstacles to women’s existence. For example, there is an unwritten regulation that said all women should stay home and they can not perform themselves to higher education nor career.
Feminism movement emerges in the early 1900s to critique the patriarchal dominance in society. The major aim of this movement is to equalize women’s position in society. Feminism movement struggles with all women’s rights in all aspects, which leads to a safe space for women to grow and develop themselves. They are also contrary to women’s subordination, sexist culture, and domestic abuse.
Dillenbeck, the poet, tries to portray and critique patriarchal dominance which has rooted in society and he curses the unhealthy environment which restrict all women to be equal with men through his magnificent poem. The writer finds this poem has a link to feminism movement against patriarchal dominance. There is no previous study that moots about Dillenbeck’s Praising EcoFeminist Climates poem. Therefore, this paper is aiming to discuss and unveil women objectification and commodification based on Dillenbeck’s poem and criticize the cursed society as depicted by Dillenbeck.
2. Theory and Methods
2.1 Theory
2.1.1 Women Objectification
Women objectification is one of patriarchal dominant product. It is a condition where men perceive women’s body or body part as a physical instrument to fulfill men’s sexual goals (Frederickson & Roberts, 1997: 8). Women objectification is one circumstance where women are being devalued by men. It changes men’s way of thinking and it disrespects women. This unequal state are often occurs in our society because it has rooted in all sociocultural aspects. It can be said that women objectification happens because lacking of moral and mental capacity (Gray, 2009: 20).
It affects women’s mindsets to her body and it also generalizes women’s bodies that must be tall and skinny. Furthermore, this influences women to reduce their eating portion and take some plastic surgery to have a ‘perfect’ body. In some cases, women objectification could cause mental health problems to women, such as eating disorders, suicidal thoughts because they can not fulfill the standard, and even it can trigger no-consent rape (Frederickson & Roberts, 1997: 9).
2.1.2 Women Commodification
In the industrial revolution, humans are more greedy to achieve their goals and expand their property in a ruthless way. Women commodification takes advantage of women body’s visualization to earn income and revenue in the market. For example, in the advertising company, women are exploited and involved with nudity or pornography to promote one product and attract the consumers (Sawell, 2016).
As mentioned above, men are also in general love to spend money to exploit women’s bodies, for instance, they will pay out some money to some strip-club or brother. We can also see the example of women commodification in some cultural practices such as plate women, where people will eat food on top of one woman’s naked body. Beauty or woman pageant is also considered as women commodification that exploit women’s body to gain winning prize.
There is also a lop-sided phenomenon where men’s salaries are greater than women’s salary in the same position. It is also considered that women can not occupy a higher position in company. These are women commodification examples likewise.
2.2 Methods
This paper uses a descriptive qualitative study that requires constructed analysis and discussion to identify the acquired data (Creswell, 1994: 21). To get a reflective discussion result, the writer uses contextual method which as stated by Behrendt (2008), this method helps to analyze the data according to the current background.
The data will be collected using close-reading method or a comprehensive data-fetching after deeply reading the whole poem and also, the writer will find several secondary sources and supporting theories from such books, journals and articles.
3. Findings and Discussion
3.1 Portrayal of Ego-lefts and Eco-rights Society
According to this poem, the poet is trying to portray the society where he lives. The first stanza of this poem tells that the civilians are living their stabile and sustainable life safely without any propaganda or threat from any aspect, however, the actual reality contradicts to the first stanza.
Civilians are being abused by militarized doctrine, an unbalanced ideology that only prospers bourgeois. The phrase religious blame and shame intimidation shows that this society rejects religiousness and assumes religious aspect as an unimportant feature that precludes humans to achieve economic attainment. It can be implied from the second stanza that capitalist system in this society rejects individual importance and security.
The ideology applied in this society is capitalism. As indicated in the third stanza, this society is divided into two classes, which are the bourgeois and proletarian. There are two classes which are ego-lefts and eco-rights. Dillenberg is inspired to classify these classes based on the classification of the human brain. The left brain is more logical and involves linear thinking, besides, the right brain is more holistic and tends to puts their feeling of importance and existence forward. The bourgeois is considered as the ego-lefts because the poet depicts that this class contains egoistic and greedy humans. Moreover, the ego-lefts create the ideology and rule the entire society to prosper themselves. They also crave for safety and wealth though they should be vicious to achieve their goals. It can be resolved that in this poem, Dillenberg categorizes men as the ego-left. On the other hand, the eco-rights consists of proletarian and other oppressed humans in society. Dillenberg infers that women are also classified as the eco-rights.
Dillenberg notices that this system has rooted for many years. He criticizes this kind of society since his teenage years (stanza 4) and he states that the ego-lefts are dominant. He also explains that this kind of domination displays the rooted dilapidation and it only creates a dependant communication. The eco-rights are forced to subordinate and participate in this system, so this resulting in win-win communication (stanza 4) which in fact, it disserves the eco-rights.
In the seventh stanza, he lists some possibilities that will fix this men-centric society, such as compassionate communication, non-abuse society, and the absence of militarized dominance. Yet, he is unsure that this society can deprive the men-centric mindset and ideology dominant that have been rooted in this society.
3.2 Patriarchal Dominance Towards Women
This system does not only affect the ploretariat, but also women. For the system are inequal toward the eco-rights, women are also get oppressed by this rooted capitalist system.
Dillenberg highlights the allotment of the fifth stanza especially in the first until the fourth line. He pays attention to women’s suffering because of this cursed system. Women are not only being oppressed because of their gender, but also because they have no power and educational background against men. The poet says that women are “rooted in supremacist / safe and secure sense of entitlement / yet not able to articulate what s/he is for” (stanza 4) signifies that women are still subject and bend to men to get security and safety not to fight for their rights. The poet assumes that this traditional mindset is caused by a dependant system created by men. Also, men create arrangements to limit women to develop their capacity and potential. Furthermore, it is stated that women have no enculturation academic background so that they do not realize that they are being exploited all this time.
Matriarchal Earth (stanza 5) is a depiction of the importance of women in society. The poet tries to equalize both men and women importance in society. He also emphasizes that women are similar to earth; important to humans’ life. However, he deplores all feminists who ensconce under this nasty system.
3.3 Women Objectification and Commodification
Dillenbeck has observed this system since a long time ago, he finds that there are some women objectification and commodification found in this society caused by men-centric mindset.
The poet describes women as loving creatures who need to be praised and valued and he is against this system. He appraises that women are being abused and oppressed mentally and physically by men in all aspects because they think that women are unimportant. He also mentions that women body’s selling is done to prove men’s recognition toward women’s existence, which implies to women objectification and commodification. Furthermore, the seventh stanza implies that women are being exploited sexually by making robust resonance harmonies music which can be identified as sex workers or prostitutes. This can be discovered as women commodification.
Moreover, this poem accounts that healthy a relationship involves women and men’s togetherness, compactness, and equality for both (stanza 7). Also, the harmony in both the proletariat and bourgeois relationship is required to achieve conciliation and prosperity in all aspects. This can be done if the eco-rights and ego-lefts are resonance with each other, as symbolized by yin-yang (stanza 8).
The poet also entices women to achieve the win/win compassion games so that they can be free to continue and develop their passion and education, and also they have their rights to work and being loved and valued by men. The education is required to educate women about the oppression and injustice they have been suffering all this time (stanza 8). However, the poet deplores the current situation where women still could not get out of this dependent system and they are still subordinate to men and the system. Women in this society are not brave enough to get out of their comfort zone and fight for their rights and freedom as women. At last, the ecofeminist climates are still far enough from fruitfulness, as told by the poet.
4. Conclusion
This poem depicts the situation of the society where men dominate all aspects including women’s freedom and rights. This poem classifies the society into two aspects which are the ego-lefts which represents men and bourgeois, and the eco-rights which represents women and proletariat. The writer finds that women are being objectified and commodified as they have no bravery enough to get out of this dependant system. Further research based on sociological viewpoint is recommended by the writer to deeply understand this poem.
References
Behrendt, Stephen C. (2008). Using Contextual Analysis to Evaluate Texts. (http://english.unl.edu/sbehrendt/StudyQuestions/ContextualAnalysis.html Retrieved on June 10th 2020).
Creswell, John W. (1994). Research Design Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. California: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Dillenbeck, Gerald. (2019). Praising EcoFeminist Climates. Poetry Soup. (https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/praising_ecofeminist_climates_1182703 Retrieved on June 10th 2020).
Gaard, Greta. (2015). Ecofeminism and Climate Change pp.20-33. USA: Women’s Studies International Forum 49.
Gray, K., Wegner, D.M. (2009). Moral Typecasting: Divergent Perceptions of Moral Agents and Moral Patients. J Pers. Soc. Psychol Journal, March Edition.
Sawell, Samantha. (2016). Feminism 101: What is the Commodification of Feminimity?. Femmagazine. (https://femmagazine.com/feminism-101-what-is-the-commodification-of-femininity/ Retrieved on June 11th 2020).
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