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In regards to child-rearing, the Biological Feminist who is able to stays home to raise her children. In no way should it be considered antifeminist to choose to stay home to raise oneís children. It does not at all undermine the progress made by working women. Many women who go to work still do just as much in the home as the traditional mom of the 1950s who did not work outside the home. This is clearly false liberation and does not advance the role of women in society, but exhausts, frazzles, and otherwise breaks down many women with good intentions for her family and for the advancement of women in the workplace. To stay at home to raise children is a great gift a woman in the position to do so can give to the future. Love Your Body As Is Loving our bodies is an integral step toward sustainability. This tenet of Biological Feminism can be materialized many different ways with abundant positive results. Supporting the natural and healthy posture of the body is crucial to its proper functioning. The Biological Feminist therefore rejects wearing high heels which are a facet of an exploitative and financially draining fashion industry. Wearing high heels puts unnatural and harmful strain on the knees and back. For pregnant women, carrying a child will cause enough of these particular strains without inducing more unnecessarily. Another way to love our bodies and embrace our unique selves is through our hair and appreciating its color and its natural amount of curly, wavy, or straight with which we were endowed. Perming, straightening, dyeing, and bleaching all use chemicals harmful not only to the beauticiansí and our own bodies and brains, but also to the environment. Similarly, empowerment can be found by letting oneís natural beauty shine through the face and not applying a shield of makeup to hide behind. Our faces are our identities. It is the face that people remember after meeting each other (i.e. "I can place the face, but not the name."). Makeup is marketed to our insecurities as are shaving paraphernalia, perms and dyes. The corporate interests are the ones to gain by women constantly seeking to change who they are in superficial ways. Most cosmetics are tested on animals and contain chemical ingredients we donít recognize and are probably glad not to know more about. These things are all ways in which our valuable time and finances are bled away. Each bloodletting steals our power from us with which we could be doing so much more as half the worldís population. It is time to cease consenting to this manipulation and robbery. Our menstrual blood is our vital life force and one element of our bodies that distinguishes us as women. We grow stronger in our womanhood by not rejecting our monthly bleeding. By realizing it is an essential part of who we are we can overcome the hurdle of shame that has bound us. In Biblical times it was written that our blood is sinful and dirty and that any man who comes in contact with it is the same. Some semblance of this notion continues today when we think about how hidden menstrual blood is from most men even when they share love or living space with women. A simple step to making a change in this area is to become more intimately involved with our blood ourselves first by using cloth pads or sea sponges. Except for a few natural brands, tampons and pads are bleached with dioxins known to cause cancer and pollute the Earth both in their manufacture and disposal. Tampons are also known to put their users at risk for Toxic Shock Syndrome, which can be deadly. Cloth pads and sea sponges are composed of all natural fibers, can be used many times over, and generally require touching our own blood. Their longevity makes them a better buy financially in the short term, environmentally over the long term, and health-wise all the way around. Cloth menstrual pads can be purchased at most natural food stores and so can sea sponges, although they are marketed for facial (and, ironically, cosmetic) use and have not been approved for menstrual use. (It is not surprising the corporate male-dominated US Food and Drug Administration wouldnít give their stamp of approval, when we take into account the significant profits made on the pricey single-use feminine hygiene products from which the garbage industry and the GNP also benefit.) After using them for years, I, among many other users, can attest to their safety. They need only be rinsed thoroughly and boiled for sterilization between uses. With some effort, additional sources of information can be found on this little known but wonderful resource. In summary, Biological Feminism questions ways of doing things that have been handed down to us by the establishment which happen to help them turn a profit. The current system keeps women oppressed by having us follow certain guidelines prescribed by a patriarchal society. As long as we blindly follow the script as we were socialized to do, we lend ourselves to our oppression, remaining obedient and in line. We play along with a system that does not benefit us and does not make sense when we examine it. Accepting our bodies as they are, breast-feeding, adopting, giving birth outside the hospital, being present to raise our children, and being comfortable with our blood all require thinking more, buying less, being more self-reliant, and producing less waste. Biological Feminism points the way to a more sustainable future. A follow-up article on feminism in Culture Change will be on marriage and threats to the staying together, including materialism. Please send your thoughts. Eve Danielle Gilmore brought a permaculture background as well as graphic arts to the vice presidency of Sustainable Energy Institute. She can be reached at info@culturechange.org An excellent resource for feminism's many aspects is Awakened Woman e-Magazine - The Journal of Women's Spirituality. |
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