Towards a new environmental ethic in contemporary feminist theory

Abstract

This article explores how new materialist feminism, a recent development in feminist theory, builds on ecofeminist philosophy. It argues that, like later ecofeminist work, new materialist feminism disrupts the gendered dualities of nature/culture, animal/human and mind/body, which hinder our relationship to the natural environment and to our own corporeality. New materialist feminism does this by drawing on cutting edge scientific findings of the body and the natural world that point to a more interconnected and complex understanding of the world we co inhabit. This article suggests that by engaging with the hard sciences, new materialist feminism undertakes the crucial work of challenging an outdated and largely uncontested version of biology. Such an engagement challenges the commonly held view that the human mind has mastery over the body and the natural environment and strengthens the ecofeminist case for a renewed ethic towards the natural world.