Friday, February 27, 2009

Yin and Ecofeminism

As I was reading Kohak's chapter on ecofeminism, I couldn't help but reminded of the Chinese concept of yin and yang. Just as Kohak explains that we all have a more masculine and more feminine side,ancient Chinese philosophy claims that we all have a degree yin and a degree of yang within us. Yin is often described as feminine, dark, emotional, cold, soft, and tranquil, and is associated with night. Yang, on the other hand, is hard, fast, solid, dry, focused, hot, and aggressive, and is associated with the daytime. Applying these descriptions to Kohak's description of ecofeminism, one sees that yin is obviously the feminine and yang is the masculine, with reason being attributed to the masculine tendencies, as ecofeminism suggests. An imbalance in the masculine and feminine is what leads to the arbitrary destruction of the earth and suppression of nature (according to proponents of ecofeminism, that is) and it could be argued that those who believe in the powers of yin and yang would agree. Too much yang and the world gets out of whack. We cut down too many tress, build too many shopping malls, and we all suffer. Too much yin and we live in a wilderness, completely at the mercy of the whims of nature. We can't favor one side over the other, we can't do away with one side without doing away with both. Yin-yang is a dynamic equilibrium.
Perhaps we can apply this understanding of yin and yang to the imbalance of the masculine and feminine. Chinese philosophy concedes that, because they arise together, yin and yang are always equal: if one disappears, the other must disappear as well, leaving emptiness. This phenomenon is rarely immediately apparent, though, because yang elements are clear and obvious while yin elements are hidden and subtle. Maybe this is humanity's problem with our imbalance of masculine and feminine. We don't recognize that we need both because masculine things like reason are so clear, while the feminine things like emotion are more abstract and difficult to understand.
Anyway, just an observation. Maybe the world needs a good dose of feng shui, or something. :)

No comments:

Post a Comment