Title
Fuelling Conservation EcoAnxieties: Pumping and Trumping Tensions Between Industrial/Breadwinner and Ecomodern American Masculinities, 2008–2013
Files
Preview
Inclusive Pages
207–224
Creation Date
2021
Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan
Document Type
Book Chapter
Description
Chapter Abstract:
Contemporary white American industrial/breadwinner masculinities (Hultman & Pulé, 2018), traditionally reject the feminine associations of ecoconsumerism, in favour of environmental masculinities that imagine dominating nature and reinforce (imagined) national boundaries, such as Daggett’s “petro-masculinity” (Heiliger, 2019; Hultman & Pulé, 2018; Daggett, 2018). I investigate gendered tensions between 2008 and 2013 that mocked hegemonic white masculinity’s failure to embrace ecomodern practices (Hultman, 2013). I analyse satirical 21st century American cultural artefacts such as The Colbert Report’s “Prescott Oil Loves the Earth” (2008) and Portlandia’s “Meano No Bring Bag” (2012), as well as queer of colour, ecofeminist, critical masculinity, and critical cultural studies theories, and link these to battles over petroleum and plastics to explain the current renewed recycling of heterosexist engagements with nature and “the natural” as responses to Conservation EcoAnxieties during that period. I then point towards recent (2019) satirical cultural productions mocking toxic petro-masculinities as hopeful evidence for future kinder, gentler environmental masculinities.
Book Abstract:
This book considers issues of social and ecological significance through a masculinities lens. Earth – our home for aeons – is reeling. The atmosphere is heating up, causing reefs to bleach, fisheries to collapse, regions to flood and dry, vast tracts to burn, the polar ice caps to melt, ancient glaciers to retreat, biodiversity to decline exacerbated by the sixth great extinction, and more. Meanwhile, social and economic disparities are widening. Pandemics are cauterising glocal communities and altering our social mores. Nationalism is feeding divisiveness and hate, especially through men’s violence. Politically extreme individuals and groups are exalting freedom while scapegoating the marginalised. Such are the symptoms of an emerging (m)Anthropocene. This anthology contends with these alarming trends, pointing our attention towards their gendered origins. Building on our monograph Ecological Masculinities: Theoretical Foundations and Practical Guidance (2018), this collection of essays is framed as a dinner party conversation grouped into six discursive themes. Their views reflect a growing community of practice, whose combined efforts capture the most recent perspectives on masculine ecologisation. Together, they aim to help create a more caring world for all, moving the ecological masculinities conversation forward as it becomes an established, international, and pluralised field of study. Source: Publisher