TOTE BAGS AND TOXIC MASCULINITY
by Eleanor Antoniou
Read this in the FEMINIST ZINE
Over the past couple of years, eco-anxiety has started to affect me more and more. I have gone vegan and cut out fast fashion, I buy second-hand and use sustainable alternatives whenever I can: tote bags, my Chilly’s bottle, plastic-free beauty products and a compostable phone case. For Christmas, I’ve asked to adopt a tiger. I’ve switched my search engine to Ecosia. But all these things feel extremely small, and seeing them listed like this only makes them feel more miniscule and silly. Am I really making any difference at all?
Many of the women in my life feel the same way, and the worry of not doing enough for the planet underlies the rest of our everyday anxieties. I remember one friend’s shame at telling me that her jacket was from a fast fashion brand, another friend refusing to buy a coffee because she had forgotten her reusable cup and she would only taste guilt if she bought one anyway. During a lunch break recently, I had a long conversation with my female friends about our fears for the planet, and our shock at how little is being done. We each walked back from lunch quiet and subdued.
It seems that men do not experience this eco-guilt as often as women. One study has revealed that 71% of UK women are trying to live more ethically, compared to 59% of men, highlighting the eco gender gap which I have been contemplating for a while. It has begun to feel like the responsibility of caring for the planet has been subtly pinned onto women. Acts like recycling can be pushed into the bracket of domestic activities, historically deemed to be ‘women’s work.’ It doesn’t help that pink seems to have become the new green, as products in the sustainability market, such as eco cleaning materials or beauty items, are being advertised towards women more than men, contributing to the unspoken idea that women are responsible for the planet’s salvation.
Furthermore, saving the environment also involves typically ‘feminine’ qualities: compassion, collaboration, caring and selflessness. Even the natural world itself is usually associated with women. Nature has been feminised in literature and mythology, from the goddess Gaia in ancient Greek times, to Mother Nature today. Has this symbolism translated across to the climate crisis, to the point where protecting the planet is seen as a ‘feminine’ action?
In this way, it would seem that toxic masculinity is helping to kill the environment. Research has shown that for some straight men, notions of masculinity are so fragile that they can be shattered even by carrying a reusable bag to the supermarket. A plastic bag is apparently more ‘manly’. This is a surprisingly fitting symbol: a plastic bag is easy to crumple, but just won’t decompose, just as masculinity can be ever so fragile, yet frustratingly and incessantly toxic.
The planet belongs to everyone, and it is everyone's responsibility to save it.
The climate crisis is a feminist issue because it impacts women more: the United Nations figures suggest that 80% of the people displaced by climate change are women. After natural disasters, women are also in greater danger of gender-based harassment or violence, homelessness, poverty and disease. The current flooding in Pakistan has left a third of the country underwater, and it is women and girls who are most at risk, dangerously exposed to male violence with the safety of their homes ripped away from them. The UNFPA estimated that 650,000 pregnant women have been impacted, 73,000 of whom were expected to give birth last month and who are in desperate need of healthcare.
Yet these facts should not mean that it is for women alone to sort out the problem. In fact, it is men who are contributing more to the climate crisis: a Swedish study found that men’s carbon footprints were 16% higher than women’s, because of men’s higher consumption of meat and greater use of cars. Meanwhile, the top 1% of income earners are overwhelmingly male and are causing more carbon emissions than the poorest 50%. Despite these statistics, it is women who are blamed. Over the summer, female celebrities like Taylor Swift and Kylie Jenner became the subject of hundreds of headlines and media scrutiny for their private jet usage, and yet the men who do the same amount of damage to the planet, or more, are left untouched by such scrutiny.
It feels as if the majority of straight men have avoided the burden of eco-anxiety. From my experience, they are certainly not worrying as much as I am, as I frantically try to make any little change I can to help the planet. Greta Thunberg is fighting relentlessly, but the leaders with the power are mostly men, and they are not listening to her, hating on her for being a woman with a voice, belittling her and ignoring her warnings.
It seems that Nature must be a woman, because she is facing the same inequality that women have faced for centuries: abused, ignored, unheard and exploited by the men in charge. To save her, we need feminism. This means that we need women in power too, but also that we need men to realise that the planet is their responsibility as well. As long as toxic masculinity exists, many men will be reluctant to change their ways and will keep relying on women to do the work. Fundamentally, the planet belongs to everyone, and it is everyone's responsibility to save it, not just 49.6% of the population.