Feargal George Agard Student number - 11130253 [email protected] Claus van Amsbergstraat 77 1102 AZ Amsterdam NL (+31) 0612888573 Women and the Road Movie genre. An MA-Thesis in Film studies by FeargalAgard

University of Amsterdam Date: 27th of January 2017 Supervisor: mw. dr. C.M. (Catherine) Lord Office Adress: Turfdraagsterpad 9, (BG1, Room?) 1012 XT Amsterdam, NL Second Reader: dhr. dr. E. (Eric) Laeven Office Adress: Turfdraagsterpad 9, (BG1, Room?) 1012 XT Amsterdam, NL Assignment: MA-Thesis Film Studies (I’ve got exactly 21.805 words) Agard 1

Foreword

Women and the Road Movie genre is a thesis dissertation which seeks to investigate the Road Movie genre through ecological concepts in relation to women to an extend that goes even further than it has ever been done before. The Road Movie genre was from the dawn of its age a man’s genre. Lonesome men or buddies on the road, enjoying total freedom. Back in the 50’s and before, women were just background characters who only provided support, companionship and sex. Although later movies such as Russ Meyer’s exploitation classic Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) and Steven Spielbergs The Sugarland Express (1974), slowly move women to the foreground, allowing them to sit in the driver’s seat and taking more control. And even though Ridley Scott’s Thelma & Louise (1991) moves women even further to the foreground, which could be seen as significant emancipation, it is still not enough. Considering the frequency that these particular emancipating films are produced, it becomes clear that these productions are not in the same abundance as road films with men in the lead roles (not even in percentages). Next to that the narratives in road films with women in a lead role tend to often be about escaping oppression that is implemented by men. This issue makes it paramount to address the need for radical changes which have to take place in the fields of scholarly and academic discussion. The aim in this discussion is to provide clear, well-illustrated analyses of a variety of contemporary film case studies and to research how women (with their companions or buddies, whether straight or LGBTQI) in these Road Movies make use of ecological notions to advance themselves during their trip and master insight of their own full potential. The Road Movie genre is about escaping the urban landscape to travel through nature and its wilderness. The time spend in nature possibly frees a person, maybe even to the extent that they will encounter a solution to the burdens of their urban life. This thesis volume will thoroughly discuss the experiences of women and the effects of their experiences, combining literature about ecological scholarly fields and their concepts and notions with textual film analyses. Each chapter will contain as part of its apparatus some indication of the direction in which the definition of particular notions is likely to move, as well as expanding the disciplinary boundaries within this discourse. This will involve the investigation of these notions within the larger field of ecological representation, and will introduce examples from the area of film in addition to examples from a variety of literary texts.

Notes! - This paper is written according to MLA academic writing style. - The word count (21.805) shown on the front page only counts the words of the paragraphs, it does not include the table of contents, the chapter and paragraph titles, works cited, etc. - There are endnotes and no footnotes. - Chapter titles partially appear in italics.

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Abstract

This thesis is interested in the potential of ‘Road Movies’, in regard of women. It is the mission to describe the thematical dimensions of a relationship between the politics of gender, nature and sexuality, and to articulate the complicated display of ideas that come from these relationships. In this thesis, a selection of films are investigated that actively deconstruct specific constructions of nature, oppression, gender and sexuality (whether straight or lgbtqi). These deconstructions can show expressive modes, such as distrust, rebellion, escape, retaliation, solace, and by referencing certain literary forms, such as patriarchal self/other dualism (men oppressing women), self- discovery in the wilderness and feminist and queer theory concepts of inclusion and naturalizing as a solution. To assist this thesis’s research, I have chosen to investigate three films which enable the possibility to move contextually from an emblematic film from the nineties to contemporary films in the 2000’s. I read these films alongside of a selection of academic literary texts that inform each filmic text and analysis. The first film is Ridley Scott’s Thelma & Louise (1991). This is where Greg Garrard’s, Steve Cohan’s and Patrick Brereton’s Ecocriticism theories come in. The second is George Miller’s post-apocalyptic film, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), which I analyze alongside of Greta Gaard’s and Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands Ecofeminist theories. And finally for my third chapter I turn to Abe Sylvia’s work Dirty Girl (2010). This final filmic text prompts questions of both gender (men and women) and sexuality (straight and lgbtqi). This is where Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands and Greta Gaard’s Queer ecology and Ecofeminism can shed light on the subject. The following specific notions from the academic areas mentioned above will be discussed; ‘self/other dualism’, ‘first and second spaces’, ‘third space’, ‘otherness’, so-called ‘unnatural’ or ‘degenerate’ sexuality, ecoqueer sensibility, global democratic community, biotic community, a sense of place/planet and of course ‘Road Movie’ genre theory.

Key terms: Nature, Wilderness, Feminism, Gender, Sexuality, Ecology, Ecocriticism, Ecofeminism, Masculinity, Femininity, Queer, Cinema, Queer ecology, Patriarchy, dualism, self/other, first space, second space, third space, Matriarchy, ecoqueer sensibility, global democratic community, biotic community, inclusion, Male, Female, heteronormativity, Homosexuality, Miller, Scott, Sylvia.

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Table of contents

Front (Title) Page 0

Foreword/notes 1

Summary/abstract 2

Keywords (research areas) 2

Table of Contents 3

Introduction 4

Theoretical framework: Fields of study 5

Methodology: Case studies and chapters and utilizations of notions 12

Chapter 1: The ‘Road Movie’ genre 18

Space: The Female gender oppressed 20

Third Space: Wilderness and self-discovery in the ‘Road Movie’ 24

Sense of place/planet interrogates male myths about women 27

Chapter 2: Ecofeminism 32

Ecofeminism’s undesired vision 34

A matriarchic self-discovery 36

Ecofeminism’s ultimate vision 41

Chapter 3: Queer Ecology 47

Both oppressed: ‘Unnatural’ and ‘other’ 50

A queer ecological self-discovery in the form of sensibility 54

Biotic community as solution: Allies, wholeness, and inclusion 56

Conclusion 62

End notes 65

Works cited/Bibliography 68

Filmography 71

Electronic references 71

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Introduction I. The concept of Wilderness in female regard: the ‘Road Movie’ genre, Ecocriticism, Ecofeminism, Queer Ecology.

There is an ecological association between masculinity,i the road trip with a mythological odyssey, self-discoveryii and escapism. The ‘Road Movie’ genre portrays a vast amount of landscape, nature and wilderness. Nature’siii omnipresence in ‘Road Movies’ cannot be denied, it has the affect to romanticize the environment in which a character’s journey eventuates. This ‘journey’ - traditionally made by men- romanticizes them as challengers of nature and its wilderness. As from the 90’s –for example Ridley Scott’s Thelma & Louise (1991)-, with a few exceptions,iv have women acquired their own ‘Road Movies’ that concerned their experiences in the ‘wilderness’, their gender, sexualities and ‘womanhood’.v

A profuse amount of motivations compelled the decision to write this thesis that regards ecologyvi and the ‘Road Movie’ genre. The incentive originates from a statement posited by Katie

Mills, a professor of English “that the road genre features men and marginalizes women” (Mills

2006, 10). Her observation confirms this marginalization, because men are overtly featured in these films and women not. The fields of Ecocriticism, Ecofeminism and Queer ecology convey a vision in which naturevii functions as a mechanism that advocates a space of equality for both men and women and their (Queer) sexualities, free from dominant oppressive constructs.

However dominant groups often rhetorize on a ‘nature-based’ opposition that justifies their dominance over others. Next to that there are scholars who believe that Ecofeminists and Queer ecologists maintain essentialistviii erroneous theoretical findings. This leaves Ecofeminism and

Queer ecology vulnerable to invalidation or a facetious treatment. They problematize these academic fields that could have a remedial effect in equalizing all normativities (man, women, straight and lgbtqi).ix These Scholarly fields together with Ecocriticism and ‘Road Movie’ genre theory hold the key to researching how the ‘wilderness’ benefits women. ‘Wilderness’ provided men with adventure, discovery and ‘masculine’ challenges. This is equally possible for women.

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To substantiate the issues that this thesis addresses, it is paramount to explore women’s experiences through gender and sexuality perspectives in the ‘Road Movie’ genre.x Do they manifest femininity, masculinity or a mix of both? Do their sexual desires, comfortability, orientation, sensuality and forms of powers benefit or impact them? Which specific patriarchal notions cause these women to escape? What do their ‘Road Movie’ experiences in the ‘wilderness’ mean and gain them and how do they utilize notional solutions to confront and solve their problems? In short, this thesis argues that ‘Road Movie’ women (and lgbtqi persons), who attempt to escape oppression based on notions such as ‘first and second space’, ‘self/other dualism’ and so-called ‘sexual unnaturalness’, but are able to gain ecological insight through the notions of a ‘third space’, ‘earth others’ and an ‘ecoqueer sensibility’ that eventually leads them to face their oppressive obstacles thanks to solutionary notions such as a ‘sense of place/planet’, a

‘global democratic community’ and a ‘biotic community’.

Theoretical framework: Fields of study.

The theoretical framework of this thesis brings four scholarly fields of study to the fore;

Ecocriticism, Queer ecology, Ecofeminism and ‘Road Movie’ genre theory. They each have their own relevance and coherency for particular reasons as these fields posit the notions that will be examined in this thesis. The pertinence of these fields, its scholars and notions will be established in the following paragraphs.

Ecocriticism is specifically useful to elucidate the role of the wilderness and its notion of self-discovery. With that it helps investigating how three different notions of space can host oppressive situations, but also places that progress people to a higher insight. For that it is important to know what ecocriticism is. Ecocritical scholar Greg Garrard defines ecocriticism in his book Ecocriticism: The New Critical Idiom (2004) as a literary or cultural analysis based on the pastoral and apocalyptic. As he defines ecocriticism he refers to Cheryll Glotfelty an environmental theorist, who co-edited The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology (1996)

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Agard 6 in which she states: “What then is ecocriticism? Simply put, ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment…ecocriticism takes an earth-centred approach to literary studies” (Glotfelty 1996, xix). Thus, ecocriticism as a scholarly field is based on the analysis of all sorts of texts (literature, films, media) in regard of an ecological and critique- based approach.

Garrard defines a multitude of conceptual terms, but most relevant to this thesis is the concept of wilderness, which signifies “nature in a state uncontaminated by civilization…it is a construction mobilized to protect particular habitats and species, and is seen as a place for the reinvigoration of those tired of the moral and material pollution of the city” (Garrard 2004, 59).

Clearly Garrard sees ‘wilderness’ as the primal catalyst that men and women are able to use as a space for escape. Besides that, ‘wilderness’ is basically the antithesis of human society.

Environmental theorist Patrick Brereton describes the notion of self-discovery as a fructiferous experience on the wilderness road. In Hollywood Utopia: Ecology in Contemporary American Cinema

(2004),xi Brereton refers to film theorist Michael Ryan, who states that “this ‘ride into nature’ as a metaphor for the escape from urban oppression into the ‘freedom’ of self-discovery” (1988).

Brereton sees this as a narrative notion that is common in the ‘Road Movie’ genre that regards the desire to run away from society’s burdens in hopes of being free and gain more insight about one’s character.

Ecofeminism is an advantageous field for the exploration of oppressions against women, nature and the ‘others’. It assists in scrutinizing the justifications of patriarchal and dualistic notions that oppress, but to also in comprehending the solutions that ecofeminists envision.

Ecofeminism is a scholarly field that focuses on a philosophical and political consolidation of feminism and ecology. Ecofeminist scholar, Greta Gaard, explicates in her publication

Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature (1993) what ecofeminism signifies to her.

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Ecofeminism is a theory that has evolved from various fields of feminist inquiry and

activism: peace movements, labor movements, women’s healthcare, and the anti-nuclear,

environmental, and animal liberation movements. Drawing on the insights of ecology,

feminism, and socialism, ecofeminism’s basic premise is that the ideology which

authorizes oppressions such as those based on race, class, gender, sexuality, physical

abilities, and species is the same ideology which sanctions the oppression of nature.

Ecofeminism calls for an end to all oppressions, arguing that no attempt to liberate

women (or any other oppressed group) will be successful without an equal attempt to

liberate nature. Its theoretical base is a sense of self most commonly expressed by women

and various other nondominant groups, a self that is interconnected with all life (Gaard

1993, 1).

As a combination of ecology and various fields of feminism, ecofeminism is argued to focus on liberating women through nature, the root where the oppression of all nondominant oppressed groups (based on gender, class, species, sexual orientation, etc) started. As nature began to be oppressed so did these groups fall under the oppression of dominant groups who began to view everything from a hierarchical perspective. Val Plumwood, an ecofeminist philosopher who authored Feminism and the Mastery of Nature (1993) addresses ecological feminism as being a response to the earlier indicated complications. In her introduction she says “forms of oppression from both the present and the past have left their traces in western culture as a network of dualisms, and the logical structure of dualism forms a major basis for the connection between forms of oppression” (Plumwood 1993, 2). Her explication signifies that oppression is a deep-rooted feature that is bound to culture. Oppression takes form in dualism.xii Plumwood conveys that this has existed so long and continues to exist even today. What is very interesting to understand is that she calls it a logical structure because it seems logical to us to have these dualisms in life; for example, man and woman, gay and straight, rich and poor, old and young,

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Agard 8 etc. Another statement of Plumwood elucidates that the effect of, “Dualism is the process by which contrasting concepts (for example, masculine and feminine gender identities) are formed by domination and subordination and constructed as oppositional and exclusive” (Plumwood

1993, 32). Although it seems logical to have these opposites it does not mean that the two should duel each other in a struggle for power. It also does not justify that one may dominate ‘others’, simply because everyone is equal to one another and if ‘nature’ designated specific ‘others’ as naturally subordinate to another. These ‘others’ would not feel suppressed and dissatisfied. On the contrary, the unhappiness of the oppressed proves the point that they are not subordinates but rather equals.

Next to Gaard and Plumwood, there is also Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands an ecofeminist who authored The Good-Natured feminist: Ecofeminism and the Quest for Democracy (1999). In this publication she construes Plumwood’s notion of ‘otherness’, which is born from self/other dualism.xiii Another notion that Plumwood posited should be understood as an ‘otherness’ that pertains non-humans such as nature and animals. She mentions, “we can instead recognize in the myriad forms of nature other beings—earth others— whose needs, goals and purposes must, like our own, be acknowledged and respected (Plumwood 1993, 137). It is hinted here that we need to treat ‘earth others’as we like to be treated. Respecting and harmonizing with nature will gain us the respect and insight that we deserve so that we do something about patriarchal judgment, and basically fight back. Plumwood discusses that the doors will open when we as ‘others’ recognize

‘earth others’ and rediscover our ecological self in nature. The last notion to be summarized is the notion of a ‘global democratic community’. “It is in the notion of a global democratic

Community...[that one] is to foster the sentiment or practice that one is both a member of specific groups (bioregions, sexes, classes) and a member of…a “One-World Community”

(Sandilands1999, 131). In short, oppressive systems that focus on differences and the lack of valued characteristics need to be reduced and vanquished. Instead, a new sense needs to develop

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Agard 9 amongst all groups who were formerly divided; I am part of one group and at the same time part of all groups throughout the world.

Queer ecology deals with the politics of nature and sexuality, in particular ‘Queerness’ and it identifies injustice and the communal forms that naturalize both sexuality and gender differences in a world with men who fear what they call unnatural. Together with Bruce Erickson, an environmental theorist, Mortimer-Sandilands examined nature and sexuality in their edited book Queer Ecologies: Sex Nature, Politics, Desire (2010). This book discusses in detail what

‘wilderness’ represents in correlation with sexualities, through nature assumed constructs and comparisons between urban and wilderness landscapes. It focuses on both men and women who are identified as ‘queer’. To explicate what the essential aim of this field is, I quote Mortimer-

Sandilands:

“queer ecology”: there is an ongoing relationship between sex and nature that exists

institutionally, discursively, scientifically, spatially, politically, poetically, and ethically, and

it is our task to interrogate that relationship in order to arrive at a more nuanced and

effective sexual and environmental understanding (Mortimer-Sandilands 2010, 5).

She clearly signifies that it is the aim to investigate the relationship between nature and sex. What does sexuality mean in respect of the urban landscape and the environmental landscape. How is the environment around it constructed? Then again the fact that she states that it is also the aim to arrive at a more nuanced understanding, indicates that she also discusses current understandings of sexuality and the environment, but also dominant understandings, mainly that of people who cling to an heteronormative world-view, which means that they see heterosexuality as the standard and all other sexualities are unnatural, which is not true. The mere fact that homosexuality occurs amongst animals in nature, cogently confirms that sexualities other than

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Agard 10 hetero are common in nature. The case of ‘unnatural’ sexualities actually guides this deliberation to the first specific queer ecological notion that will be employed in this thesis.

The notion of ‘unnaturalness’ is largely discussed by Mortimer-Sandilands. Interestingly it is also a form of dualism, meaning that it comes from the concept of natural versus unnatural,

“specifically, as heterosexuality came to be understood as a natural state of being (with nature understood, here, as a biological imperative against which deviant sexualities could be condemned as unnatural),” (Mortimer-Sandilands 2010, 10). Thus a notion of ‘unnaturalness’ refers to being another term used by the ones that dominate and force so-called ‘unnaturals’ into subordination.

Again it is all based on difference (being weaker, abnormal or ‘other’) or lacking a valued feature.

So this is a reoccurring theme. Another queer ecological notion is that of an ‘ecoqueer sensibility’, which is first introduced by Mortimer-Sandilands in her publication Unnatural Passions?: Notes

Toward a Queer Ecology (2005), but other than Mortimer-Sandilands, Katie Hogan, a gender, queer and environmental theorist, writes in her queer ecological essay Undoing Nature: Coalition Building as

Queer Environmentalism (2010) similarly about an ‘ecoqueer sensibility’, she says “uncovering the ecoqueer sensibility…offers…alternative perspectives…an ecoqueer perspective brings into bold relief how resistance to “against nature” can take many forms” (Hogan 2010, 237). This indicates that this ‘ecoqueer sensibility’ is about not resisting nature, but also that one can learn from this resistance. In brief, it is about experiencing the struggles, and allowing yourself to connect with the natural part of oneself (essentially discovering that everyone is natural, no matter straight or lgbtqi) so that you attain this sensibility which leads a person to gain the necessary insight to continue to develop to the next stage. This next stage is posited by Timothy Morton, an English literature scholar, who wrote a column essay named Queer Ecology (2010). In this column essay he postulates ecologist Aldo Leopold’s notion of a ‘biotic community’ (symbiosis and ecological coexistence). “Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and esthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient. A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise” (Leopold 1949, 262).

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Although it comes from an old source it is still discussed today in Morton’s essay but also in Queer

Ecologies: Sex Nature, Politics, Desire. The main point here is that a ‘biotic community’ is in touch with its surroundings, all threats in nature are threats to our culture and social community as well.

‘Road Movie’ genre theory needs to be considered as it is the film in which these ecological notions are examined. It throws light on the road experiences, such as how one gains insight, sensibility, ecological selfhood and development through its liminal (third) space. Film theorists Steve Cohan and Ina Rae Hark who both authored The Road Movie Book (1997) will play a primary role in this thesis’s discussion. “The ongoing popularity of the road for motion picture audiences in the United States owes much to its obvious potential for romanticizing alienation as well as for problematizing the uniform identity of the nation’s culture” (Cohan & Hark 1997, 1).

To them, the ‘Road Movie’ genre especially, in regard of the United States has a deep historical foundation, which goes back to the days when the first Europeans set out to discover the lands of the ‘New World’. The genre is immensely romanticized. According to them in connection with notions of alienation, but there is much more romanticization going on in this genre. Esthetically one could notice how the landscapes are often depicted in very captivating ways. Imagine beautiful master or long shots that show a tiny car on an endless asphalt road surrounded by green hills or a beautiful mountainous landscape, which conveys a feeling of wilderness grandeur, but also an infinitesimal sense that regards our human existence. Cohan and Hark also accurately address cultural problematizations. As it has been posited in the scholarly fields indicated before, there are many cultural and identity problematizations to be discussed in regard of women in this genre.

The theorizations of the theorists mentioned above will function as a backdrop in support of the ecological notions and conceptions observed earlier in this paragraph. Because notions such as notions first, second and third space are also discussed in these ‘Road Movie’ genre books, but it is more important to argue these notions from an ecological perspective with genre theory to back up the arguments discussed. It is of importance that the necessary genre

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Agard 12 theory should be referred to as ‘Ecocritical Road Movie genre theory’ (a term never coined by its conceiver, Patrick Brereton), because solely standard ‘Road Movie’ genre theory would not be sufficient. Most likely every ‘Road Movie’ genre notion, aspect and concept need to be approached from an ecological perspective.

Methodology: Case studies, chapters and utilizations of notions.

Methodologically this thesis examines a tripartite of filmic case studies parallel to the theoretic literature mentioned earlier. The following criteria were applied to the selection process: The case studies have to be films that display women (but also lgbtqi persons in regard of queer ecology) as main characters and protagonists. The films should regard the ‘Road Movie’ genre and must display characters who leave the city or an urban area and go onto the road into the wilderness.

Preferably road trip films, where they utilize motorized vehicles, such as cars, trucks or motorcycles. The films should convey themes and notions of oppression, mainly coming from men. Thematically, the films should discuss notional themes such as escape, self-discovery, wilderness, nature and ecology (either visually or through its narrative). Another feature of the criteria became the preference to select American films, whether Hollywood or independent, choosing between American films causes the context of their to be quite near each other, which might result in similarities.

Since this thesis’s outset is to research a triad of films, it became principal to select case studies that apply best, which are the following: In light of a so-called ‘dawn’ of women’s road films, Ridley Scott’s Thelma & Louise (1990) was selected, even though it is an uncontemporary case study. Chiefly, because it is an emblematic film in the sense that this film is considered to be the first ‘Road Movie’ that displays two women as protagonists and as buddiesxiv in nature. The ecological presence could sometimes be seen as oblique, though it is more apparent towards the end, but it inexoribly will inspire a substantial discussion on the presence of feminist arguments and discussion. This film will shape an ecocritical and feminist foundation for the thesis’s

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Agard 13 discussion as it is an homage to women in the ‘Road Movie’ genre. It also plays a comparative and influential role towards other more contemporary films.

The next film in this selection is George Miller’s film Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). This film overtly exemplifies both an ecological and feminist discussion. Next to the fact that all the aforementioned criteria apply to this film it goes even further into a world of extremes. In this film, men rule the world and women are displayed as subjects (tools) to men, but the women fight back and some alliances with men are formed. The discussion of this film will make it clear that it evokes an array of responses, both emotional and theoretically.

The last film that will be subjected to rigorous ecocritical analysis will be Abe Sylvia’s

Dirty Girl (2010). This film will be regarded as a special case, because in this film there are two buddies who do not share the same gender, nor do they share the same sexuality. Therefore it becomes an interesting discourse that can be discussed side-by-side, through both perspectives, one Queer ecologist and the other ecofeminist. The film expresses an obvious presence of male dominancy. In both cases, fathers who oppress their families and especially their teenage kids who understandably feel the need to escape their environment.

These three case studies combined form the corpus of this thesis research. In all three films we notice forms of oppression that forces the characters to escape into the wilderness.

There, they encounter a sense of self-discovery, meaning that they gain insight and discover capabilities that will only make them stronger. In the end, as in most films the characters have to confront their main issue and to surmount that they will first uncover the key to their solution. A solution that allows them to gain the societal status that they deserve. This will ultimately remedy the present concepts of oppression, inequality and complications away.

The first chapter will focus on building a foundation. The scholarly fields of ecocriticism and the ‘Road Movie’ genre and at times ecofeminism will intertwine. The introductory paragraph will inform about the case study which is Thelma & Louise and it will explicate the notions that

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Agard 14 will be used for analysis in this chapter. The introduction will also make it clear that the principal research question will be, how do ‘first’, ‘second’ and ‘third space’, ‘sense of place’ and ‘planet’ aid as factors in defining the oppression that they leave behind, the development (changes) that they go through to the liberating insight that they gain, that allows them to shape their response as a sort of solution to oppression. What follows is a discussion in the form of three paragraphs that each investigates one or more scenes parallel to theoretical notions and their own subquestions.

The first paragraph will discuss the problem that the protagonists are escaping from. By asking how ‘first’ and ‘second’ place are identifiable as oppressive places in the case of road movie women and in particular in the film Thelma and Louise. In the first case study it is about the oppressions caused by Thelma’s husband, Louise’s ex-boyfriend and an all man’s group of police authorities. Through the notion of space, specifically ‘first’ and ‘second space’ (using terms such as place, global, time and space), this paragraph will research where this oppression comes from, how it is distinguished, recognized and came to shape, and why the protagonist would want to escape it. This notion addresses that one’s home (first space) and one’s job (second space) are places where oppression can occur. The following paragraph asks how a third place propounds a sense of self-discovery to road movie women with an insight about oneself as result. The paragraph discusses a form of self-discovery in the wilderness, specifically through the notion of a ‘third space’. Meaning a space where one can develop, by gaining insight, skills and realizing their full potential. The last paragraph investigates how a sense of place/planet can employ itself as a solutionary mechanism that helps these women face challenging and oppressive obstacles and problems. This paragraph discusses a form of solution –although it doesn’t have to be considered a legit solution as long as it helps the characters to confront their problem- through the notions of a ‘sense of place’, but also a ‘sense of planet’, as these notions are inextricably connected. They allude to a sense of change, that starts local and because of that allows you to connect with nature and because of that you gain a sense that pertains to globalization. As you can see this chapter has a clear outline similar to that of a film. There is a problem, the characters

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Agard 15 go on an adventure in which they learn and grow, and finally they confront their problem with any form of solution.

Chapter two builds on chapter one implementing ecofeminism as predominant scholarly field and sometimes intertwining with the scholarly fields of ecocriticism and ‘Road Movie’ genre theory. This chapter will investigate this thesis’s second case study, George Miller’s Mad Max:

Fury Road (2015). Which displays an overt display of extreme oppression upon women as this post-apocalyptic world portrays women as literal objects to men. The introduction of this chapter elucidates that the particular research question will be, how do notions of self/other dualism, specifically ‘otherness’, act as an inspiration for a destructive regime that needs to be brought down through a self-realization within the notions of becoming an ‘earth other’ (a concept of ecological selfhood) to liberate ‘others’ through an establishing notion of a ‘global democratic community’. To research this question the first paragraph will examine how self/other dualism

(otherness) reasons its justifiability to oppress ‘others’ in the case of road movie women and in particular in the film Mad Max Fury road. This chapter will deconstruct the problem analyzing the main antagonists, men, through the concept of self/other dualism, primarily on the notion of

‘otherness’. In this film women are seen as weak, not fit to fight or rule, and are designated for procreation and sexual pleasures. In the second paragraph the protagonists and her allies go into the wilderness on a journey of their own self-discovery. The research will focus to find out how the protagonistic women went from being an ‘other’ to achieving the status of being an ‘earth other’ through their journey of self-discovery in Mad Max: Fury Road. The investigation, here, will mainly focus on ‘ecological selfhood’, specifically the notion of ‘earth others’. One could say that this is linked to a form of a self-realization. This signifies that ‘others’ need to recognize

‘earth others’ -in particular nature- through respect and harmonization before they can continue to a higher extricating stage. ‘Earth others’ deserve dignity and equality and ‘others’ can forge allies with the ‘earth others’, but also with the one’s that previously saw them as ‘other’ or they can also fight back and fight for their rights. The last paragraph observes how the notion of a

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‘global democratic community’ can be the panacea that is used to tear down inequality (in the form of self/other dualism) not only for these ‘Road Movie’ women, but to anyone. This will be done through an analysis of the characters actions towards the male dominated regime that they attempt to bring down, through the notion of a ‘global democratic community’. Meaning that liberation falls upon all subjects from an oppressive regime, which is exactly what the protagonist achieves in this film. This film brings the ongoing discussion in this thesis to its highest level because it is a discussion based on an extreme example of oppression.

In Chapter three all scholarly fields intertwine, Ecofeminism, Ecocriticism and ‘Road

Movie’ genre theory with Queer ecology. Queer ecology, will receive a primary status since it regards a special discussion. That of women and persons who are attracted to the same sex, as the main protagonists in Abe Sylvia’s Dirty Girl consist out of one young girl and a young gay man.

The investigation here will be done side by side as it will compare, but also relate the two to each other. As they have to overcome similar complications and they both go through a similar self- realization towards their own specific insight. At first, the research question of this chapter will be expounded, which regards to how the notions of self/other dualism, specifically ‘otherness’ and the notion of ‘(un)naturalness’ (based on the polarization of natural versus ‘unnatural’ sexualities), comparatively are similar to each other. And how do the notions of an ‘ecoqueer sensibility’ and

‘biotic community’ serve as a catalyst that precipitates a naturalizing effect to the complication at hand. The first paragraph asks how self/other dualism (otherness and unnaturalness) unjustly causes oppression in the case of road movie women (queers) and in particular in the film Dirty

Girl. The situation of the protagonist regards two fathers that do not accept their kids for who they are, but instead demand obedience to their patriarchal views. Next to that, a comparative examination of the young characters will explicate what causes the possibility for them to relate during their self-discovery. Though the young woman, Danielle is considered or treated as an

‘other’, the young gay man, Clarke poses as different to her as well. Thus, Danielle, is positioned as both ‘self’ (the one) and ‘other’, as Clarke is completely an ‘other’ considered to own

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Agard 17 characteristics that are rendered as ‘unnaturalness’ to most men in their world. In the second paragraph the focus will turn to how is an ecoqueer sensibility gained through the self-discovery of road women (queers) in Dirty girl. The trip that they make through the wilderness allows the characters to bound very well, which is where the notion of an ‘ecoqueer sensibility’ comes in.

This means that Danielle gains an insight of both herself and her new best friend. At the same time Clarke gains insight of himself, in regard of his sexuality. The third paragraph will investigate how the notion of a ‘biotic community’ naturalizes the environment that road women (queers) share with their oppressors and their allies. This pertains to a sense of community with all sorts of people. Interconnected with allies, friends, family and the rest of the world, what happens to others affects another. Although we will not discuss it in full, there is a sense of ‘holism’ present in this notion. This chapter will conclude the research that regarded women (lgbtqi persons) and their buddies who all escape from oppression, but seemingly already had the tools in themselves to face their problems and solve them. In the end, it is the aim to inspire an inclination amongst readers to act or further develop academic thought based on the discourse present in this thesis and in the scholarly world.

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Chapter 1: The Ecocritical Film Genre theory of the ‘Road movie’ Case study: 1, Thelma & Louise (1991), theoretically an Ecocritical Film Genre?

Road genre theorists Ina Rae Hark and Steven Cohan mention in their publication The Road Movie

Book (1997) that Ridley Scott’s film Thelma & Louise (1991),”marked an important turning point in the popular and academic reception of the road film” (Cohan & Hark 1997, 10). They state this, not only because the story regards a buddy film about two women from Arkansas who shoot a rapist and cause disastrous violence on their road trip while attempting to flee the country. In which they realize a temporary liberation from their oppressive, dissatisfying normalities at home, but also because it overturned the masculine bias that the road film enjoys. The critical controversy that surrounds the film testifies to the film’s “impact in recodifying the genre…in identifying the genre’s complex history…and in generating a backlash to its feminist appropriation of the masculinist road fantasy” (Cohan & Hark 1997, 11). Meaning that, the fact that it caused much discussion is a consequence of this entirely new and original approach of a genre that generally has not been about women. It also testifies to the fact that this change has been sought by many people for a long time throughout this genre’s history. Patrick Brereton, similarly expresses that the film is “a feminist reworking of a male genre” (Brereton 2005, 110).

This confirms an same-minded alignment about the fact that this genre has been criticized for its biasxv and it has finally gone head over heels.

Brereton has posited many notions in his ecocritical analysis of the ‘Road Movie’ genre in the third chapter of Hollywood Utopia: Ecology in Contemporary American Cinema, such as notions of space, wilderness and self-discovery. These lead to the following earlier indicated specific notions.

Thus pure representation of idyllic nature and the creation of a ‘Third space’ also

provides a powerful link which feeds off the roots of American transcendentalism, using

the metaphoric potency of the sublime as a motor for the primary utopian impulse which

needs an awesome natural eco-space for its fulfillment (Brereton 2005, 115).

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Brereton explicates that ‘third space’ is set in nature in its wilderness as an area for development or change with utopic creation as result. This brings up the question to what the first and second spaces would be. In regard of the characters in the ensuing filmic texts, if the ‘third space’ is outside of civilization -this must sound dualistic, but not intended to be, it is only in regard of already established notions in this film- the first and the second would most likely be inside of civilization. The characters mostly reside at home or at work. ‘Home’ would be their ‘first’ and

‘work’ (Louise works) would be their ‘second space’ (Thelma is a housewive so her second space is also at home).

Brereton also talks about notions of space in his publication, which is presented as a broad field that involves words and terms such, time, space, place, local and global. These notional words are brought up, because in his discussion he explicates that a place, space or an area shares a different definition or situation in every age and part of the world. For example life for women was much more limited in the 50’s versus the 90’s and life for women who live in Iraq or India can still be different than life in Los Angeles, California. And at the same time life for women on the American country side –in the south or Mid-West- can be different compared to life in New York.

Cultural theorist Ursula Heise introduces us to the notion of ‘sense of place’, but also with

‘sense of planet’. In her publication Sense of Place and Sense of Planet (2008) she explains that the

United States finally “invested much of its utopian capital into a return to the local and a celebration of a ‘sense of place” (2008), which leads to belief that a ‘sense of place’ celebrates a starting point, which is local. With as outset to create a ‘utopic’ place that is improved in many worldly aspects. Heise also posits a ‘sense of planet’ which grows forth from a ‘sense of place’, with that she means that “environmentalism needs to foster an understanding of how a wide variety of both natural and cultural places and processes are connected and shape each other around the world, and how human impact affects and changes this connectedness… [in] such a

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‘sense of planet” (Heise 2008, 21). Thus, we are to understand that a ‘sense of place’ is a starting point from which a change begins that can have a global effect that brings us to a ‘sense of planet’. This reminds of a phrase that has been attributed to social activist Patrick Geddes, “think globally, act locally”, which translates to changing the world starts when you begin with yourself in your own local (place). Interestingly so, she mentions that a ‘sense of planet’ analyses the notion of “deterritorialization”,xvi which will not be a focused part of this thesis, but it is important to understand in this discussion that a ‘sense of planet’ should lead to a deterritorialization of the planet, because borders and territories obstruct this ‘sense of planet’, because the actions that develop a better world cannot be done when you’re limited in world cooperation.

This chapter argues that ‘first’ and ‘second space’ are the notions for spaces that advocate oppression and that ‘third space’, is situated in the wilderness as space for self-development that gains them a liberating insight which overturns into an notional ‘sense of place/planet’ that shapes their response as a sort of solution against oppression. ‘First’ and ‘second space’ need to be indentified through the investigation of the kinds of oppressions that fit the description of these notions. After that it becomes of importance to discover how a ‘third space’ propounds a sense of self-discovery and how any insight is gained and what it is. Lastly, it is necessary to find out how the characters get to a sense of place/planet and how it can employ itself as a solutionary mechanism that helps Thelma and Louise face their oppressive obstacles

Space: The Female gender oppressed.

Thelma & Louise displays how locations (spaces) play a role in gender oppression. Brereton addresses the ‘notions of space’ and refers to Grossberg who states, “Space has become the new metaphor for the same old historical processes and ideological struggles, with the local apparently equated with place and the global with space” (Grossberg in Chambers et al. 1996: 174). The

‘notion of space’ can be understood as historical processes –so this also includes ‘time’– and

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Agard 21 ideological struggles experienced either in a ‘space’ or ‘place’, depending on when and where you are, in what setting and in regard of wealth, race, class, sexuality and gender.

Three keywords are interconnected with the ‘notion of space’, these are ‘space’, ‘place’ and ‘time’. These keywords are significant, because that is what will define the sorts and forms of abuse against women and where it comes from. The ‘ghetto’ space, the city space (downtown and uptown) and suburban space are places and spaces that at a certain time in history are associated with manifestations of inequality, acceptance, abuse, civil rights movements and discrimination.

Just as whites and non-whites, higher class and lower class, hetero and non-hetero people have their own spaces. Men and women also have their own spaces where they are safe or threatened.

Think of places such as bars, clubs, societies, a particular street or a neighborhood. It is therefore the aim to identify these safe and threatening spaces, as our focal point will be on women in spaces dominated by men.

In the following scenes it is important to examine how they thoroughly convey this

‘notion of space’ in regard of women. The first exemplary scene takes place in the beginning of the film. It is morning and while Louise is working as a waitress at a diner, Thelma is cleaning the table after she and her husband apparently had breakfast. Louise calls Thelma attempting to discuss their trip, but Thelma hasn’t had the guts to tell her husband about the trip. “Is he your husband or your father?,” posits Louise, indicating that Thelma as a totally sedate and domesticated housewive has a dilemma going on in her relationship. Thelma hangs up and

‘hollers’ at her husband Darryl. When Darryl, noticeably irritated, walks into the kitchen, he authoritatively expresses, accompanied with a cursing word, that she should not ‘holler’ at him.

Thelma apologetically tones down and assists him by putting his watch around his wrist. She then apologizes. At Thelma’s ‘place’ her husband has a reign of control over her. This is a well-known form of oppression against women. This film is displaying reality, as it was in the 90’s (and sometimes still is today). Women have been delegated by men to take on the task of housewive through most of human history. So much to the point that the term ‘housewive’ is a natural given

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Agard 22 in our language, and the term ‘househusband’ or ‘houseman’ does not really exist. Eventhough it has been changing in the past decades. This is when ‘place’, ‘space’ and ‘time’ come in. The ‘place’ is Thelma’s household, in a suburb in Arkansas, the ‘time’ is the early 90’s when housewives were still very common and ‘space’ would be on a global level, that things do not traditionally change that fast in rural, suburban, conservative and in not so densely populated areas. This happens to be the fact in most parts of the world. Then again, the situation conveyed here is very American

Mid-West and particular to the the 90’s. J. Nicholas Entrikin, a theorist and scholar states the following in his book The Betweenness of Place: Towards a Geography of Modernity (1991):

Place presents itself to us as a condition of human experience. As agents in the world

we are always ‘in place’, much as we are always ‘in culture’. For this reason our relation

to place and culture become elements in the construction of our individual and

collective identities (Entrikin 1991: 1).

With this he means to say that ‘place’ and ‘culture’ are connected and influence each other. Which is why in certain cultures it is accepted to treat a woman as a housewive and the housewive accepts it as well. As does Thelma, she accepts it, but luckily in this film she will dismiss this cultural construction that derived from her ‘place’, ‘space’ and ‘time’.

Another theme in the film is sexual abuse. Not only is there a scene where Harlan rapes

Thelma. There are also indications that Louise has experienced rape before. The film is very subtle about it through Louise’s dialogue, but it is easy to fill in the blanks. Louise has been raped in the state of Texas. That is why she refuses to drive through that state and now they have to go all around the state of Texas to get to the Mexican border. This clarifies why she does not trust men and she does her best to avoid them. This could also explain why Louise shot Harlan after she had already saved Thelma and after having enough of his insults. This distrust comes from an even deeper space. The fact that she was raped probably was not taken serious by the authorities

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Agard 23 or any man for that matter. A common thought amongst conservatives in the USA is that women probably provoked being raped or that there was consent and they often do not take rape cases serious. What they do is wrong and situations like these need to be taken serious. These facts exemplify that this could happen to women at any deserted place at night out in a deserted area urban or along side of the road.

Interestingly, Delia Falconer writes how “this new sense of space, represented by the road, represents a threat to the settlement values of a dominant white car-centered ‘lifestyle”

(Falconer in Cohan, Hark et al. 1997, 257). Falconer refers to the road film containing a spatial organization that accomodates characterizations that realistically address undesirable circumstances such as men raping women. In essence this is the kind of space where a protagonist is to “experience the vulnerability of bodies and cars to outside . . . forces” (Falconer in Cohan, Hark et al. 1997, 257). Theorist Gillian Rose on her turn in Feminism and Geography

(1993) asserts that she wants: “to explore the possibility of a space which does not replicate the exclusions of the same and the other . . . feminism through its awareness of the politics of the everyday, has always had a very keen awareness of the intersection of Space and Power” (Rose

1993, 137). In the respect of women she declares that ‘space’ and ‘power’ intersect each other in that they exclude and divide gender, race and class. Thus, space is used as an environmental system that oppresses.

These scenes epitomize that ‘first’ and ‘second’ places are environments that cogently represent oppression to women such as Thelma and Louise. A controlling husband, an unpleasant marriage, rape and a distrust in men moved this women to leave these repugnant situations. They embark on their road trip that will lead them to nature where they do not know what they will encounter. At least they can be assured that they will not run into the same oppressive problems that they have at home and at work, their first and second places.

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The Ecocritical construction: self-discovery in the ‘Third Place.

It is commonly known that a ‘Road Movie’ involves a form of self-discovery, but in regard of the

‘first’ and ‘second’ places that were posited in the previous paragraph, the wilderness that the characters travel through in Thelma & Louise would be considered as a ‘third place’. Brereton defines the ‘Road Movie’ genre as a foregrounded travel adventure “across the continent involving a journey of self-discovery” (Brereton 2005, 101). This means that the protagonists travel outside of the urban landscape, discovering a new insight that provides them with self- fullfillment. Insight which they could not get in their ‘first’ place (home) and their ‘second’ place

(work), but which they can gain in Brereton’s ‘third space’. The places in their hometown provided them with oppression, stagnation and no new form of self-development.

The self-discovery in Thelma & Louise’s ‘third space’ comes early on to the fore when the protagonists decided to go away for a weekend without informing Thelma’s husband Darryl of it.

This could be considered as part of their rebellion against male domination, which is a paramount aspect that they explore throughout the film. As the film progresses, we slowly but surely see less of urban space within the film shots and more wilderness. This change of scenery – from urban to nature- could be seen as some kind of barometer. It is a cinematic language told through the shots. It tells us how far they have immersed into nature and how far their change has gone.

Throughout the film Thelma seems to be the one who grows the most, because Louise seems to be at a point where she already discovered that she needs to be freed from the domination by men. “The protagonists move from the supposedly female space of domesticity and home to the freedom of ‘male’ space that is the great outdoors” (Brereton 2005, 111). What does happen is that Louise leads their adventure. She decides not to trust in the system and attempts to leave the country after she shot Harlan (Timothy Carhart) who raped Thelma at a Country music bar parking lot. Louise’s actions confirm that “the road is about escape and freedom and a questioning attitude to such dominant social values” (Brereton 2005, 112).

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Later on in the film, Louise assesses her relationship with Jimmy Lennox (Michael

Madsen) and takes a stand, because she does not want to marry him and she feels that they should not be together. Something she had avoided before. She also realizes that she has weaknesses, like she cannot always control the situations. Interestingly Thelma goes from obedient housewife to husband despising outlaw, “Thelma discovers that she is more adept at being an outlaw than a housewife” (Cohan, Hark et al. 1997, 10). She becomes sexually liberated as she has intercourse with a young guy, J.D. (Brad Pitt), who is not her husband and whom she hardly knows. She robs a convenient store, holds up a gun against an officer and locks him up in his police car’s backtrunk. She toughned up, started to express authority in comparison to the beginning of the film where she was portrayed as flirty, not that smart and easy to manipulate.

This form of ‘third place’ self-discovery occurs, because, that is what happens when you are on your own travelling with just one other person in confined solitude, in the middle of their ‘third space’. Far away from the urban landscapes, free from housewifery and her controlling husband.

They got endless seas of time to think, to get to know their limits (in extreme situations), which makes the possibility of self-discovery self-evident. Road movie theorist Julian Stringer states that

“the myths of escape and self-discovery are chimerical” (Stringer in Cohan et al.1997, 165).

Which exemplifies of the relevance of these notions and the concern of the need of something like a ‘mythical creature’, as a chimera demonstrates to be, but in this case a need of something untouchable such as new and higher insight of one’s own character.

Next to that the genre suggests a “favor for outlaws over lawmen” (Brereton 2005, 101).

Thelma and Louise are these romanticised outlawed women with a defiance against societal restrictions and oppressions, in particular men. Even though the law is also in effect on the road and in non-urban places like the ‘wilderness’. It all does not matter in nature and in the

‘wilderness’ everything is possible. As it appears to be a spacious expanse where nobody will see and judge you. It does not mean that everything that could happen there is ethical, but that has to do with the urges that people get in nature. Brereton mentions nature to be a place for

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“narcissistic self-fulfilment or, . . . , a site of paranoia or even destruction with regard to everything that curtails male desire” (Brereton 2005, 105). Remarkably, Brereton seems to equate these nagtive possibilities with masculinity. Then again, you could say that nature reveals a person’s true colors, not because of nature, but because of a person’s individual being. Thelma and Louise essentially abused nature like men have done before, because the experience only helped them to escape their oppression and they did not do anything for nature’s well-being.

Their utilization of gasoline, their car’s exhaustion and a gasoline truck that they made explodes emmiting gases and smoke. This cannot be considered beneficial for the environment. People, on the road, are not confined by the roles that they had or have at home. Eventually “the road defines the space” (Cohan 1997, 1). Thus, a housewive can finally take matters in her own hands, free herself and rebel and escape a patriarchal life, but it does not mean that they are perfect.

All and all, Thelma & Louise puts forward that nature’s wilderness as a ‘third place’ provides growth. Because the second act of this film -where most of their self-discovery takes place- verifies that the ‘third place’ allowed them to escape the skewed view forced upon them by society and change their attitudes and thoughts towards the oppression that made them unhappy.

More importantly ‘third place’ made them contemplate their lives and develop new skills, but it also allowed them to grow their own individuality and it taught them what total freedom is.

The car played a major role in that, as it is a “conventional symbol of pleasure and escape”

(Brereton 2005, 115). It gave them the opportunity to enjoy a freedom that they have not known before. Freedom is an agent that stimulates individuality, but also self-confidence. Within a well- focused close-up shot you can feel the ‘air’ of self-confidence when Thelma and Louise drive off, comfortable, self-assured holding their chins up with often a beautifully blurred green landscape scenery as background. A car creates immense power and it showed as the film progresses. All these changes were inspired by the ‘third space’, and happened as well as for the better as for the worse.

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Sense of place/planet interrogates male myths about women.

Towards the end of Thelma & Louise a ‘new myth’ about women has been created. Both women developed new skills out in the wilderness, their ‘third space’. The fact that two women have taken the place of male buddies in a genre that is ussually dominated by men, causes the occurrence of “an interrogation of male myths about female[s]”, about their gender in general

(Brereton 2005, 110). ‘Male myths’ regard that women, in particular in film, are submissive, gentle, and not on the foreground, while men are foregrounded, exploring and challenging nature using their ‘masculinity powers’. In the ‘Road Movie’ genre “cars (or bikes) and guns are traditional symbols of power and bound up with images of the masculine” (Brereton2004, 110).

Thelma and Louise discredited all these so-called ‘male myths’ without necessarily conveying masculinity. Thelma and Louise have become “frontiersman [better said ‘frontierswomen’], wanting to go where no other man has gone before” (Brereton 2005, 102) as they attempt to escape the authorities. The skills and the insight, which are results form their self-development, advance them to a new stage, Heise’s ‘sense of place/planet’. Heise elucidates in her publication that a ‘sense of place’ estimates a starting point within humanity or a person that is local.

Principly an operation to make things better or utopic as stated in the introduction of this chapter. To elucidate on the local she states “[L]ocalization can strengthen that sense of place…An understanding of local surroundings permits many people to gain awareness of the ecosystem services upon which their lives depend” (Ehrlich 2004, 324–25). This leads to belief that to be able to better things one must have gained an awereness of one’s surroundings. So you could say that such a person needs to observe his/her surroundings from a distance, gain a particular insight about the systems in these surroundings. This is in order to survive and to fight back, which could solve these issues.

In the second part of act two about ten minutes from the midpoint, Thelma and Louise encounter a guy who drives a truck. The guy urges with the use of hand gestures that they may pass him since his truck with its slower pace is in their way. Very gallant, one would think. As

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Agard 28 they pass him, they first notice a sign that is shown close-up within the film frame, of a chrome image of a bigbrested lady next to his license plate. When they drive next to his window, trying to thank him, he waves and then begins to stick out his tongue and moves it around in a very sexual manner. It is a disrespectful gesture that displays how he thinks of women, as sexual objects that you can only communicate with in a sexual way. The second time when they meet, it is night. In a series of confronting close-up shots we see the same guy who honks his horn at Thelma and

Louise, he loudly utters vulgar words and obscene jokes, rubs his crotch area as he displays wild sexual movements. The third time they all meet up at a field, ask him to apologize, but he keeps demanding sex. This is where Their ‘sense of place’ comes in. At the film’s beginning they would have tolerated this and most likely have thought “oh they’re just men”, as if it is normal, but know they face their issues. As punishment they shoot at the gasoline container on the truck. The truck explodes and he lost his ride. Living on the road as a truck driver, all alone, from time to time hanging with the wrong people, copying their behavior, caused this man to belief that his behavior is either normal or acceptable. It is these circumstances that have created a culture of demeaning attitudes against women, which started a long time ago. Again ‘place’, ‘space’ and

‘time’ play a major role here, but luckily these characters learned that they do not have to accept this any longer.

Once you’ve reached that ‘sense of place’ we need to move forward to a ‘sense of planet’.

Heise says that, “the challenge for environmentalist thinking, then, is to shift the core of its cultural imagination from a sense of place to a less territorial and more systemic sense of planet

(Heise 2008, 56). Meaning something special that surpasses our local improvements and that constitutes of a change that is worldwide. In the last scene of the film, where Thelma and Louise are closed in by a dozen police cars and their only escape route appears to be driving of the edge of the Grand Canyon into oblivion. As friends they have always been ‘touchy’, but at the end of the film they intimately kiss each other on the lips and as they drive off the cliff they tightly hold their hands together. It is a well-known fact that they are heterosexual, but this just means that

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Agard 29 they are just two affectionate buddies who are totally comfortable with their own sexuality. What is important to notice is that they are fine with death and they belief that this decision is the ultimate, maybe otherworldly way to face and confront their major issue, men. The statement that can be acquired from this is that men cannot win by getting them behind bars, which could determine to men that they are righteous within their acts against these so-called rebellious women. In The Road Movie Book, Ian Leong, Mike Sell, and Kelly Thomas discuss Joseph H.

Lewis’s film Gun Crazy (1950) which is about two honeymooners who end up short of cash after their honeymoon trip and decide to embark unto a career of crime. As they describe Laurie’s

(Peggy Cummins) and Bart’s (John Dall) ‘guntoting’ sexuality it is revealed that “they’re honeymooners who don’t want the honeymoon to end” (Leong, Sell and Thomas in Cohan et al.

1997, 74). The same is evoked in Thelma & Louise. They do not want their adventure to end and they certainly won’t surrender. The only way to continue is in death, like marters.

Thelma and Louise’s may not have achieved the kind of ‘sense of place’ or ‘planet’ ecologically. Since their relationship with the surrounding wilderness was not personal. Only in the end of the film they ever mention how beautiful the Grand Canyon is. They did succeed at proving men that they can achieve the same and still teach men a lesson. Next to that they surpassed men, as they proved to be ungraspable to the authorities. They ultimately achieved a

‘sense of planet’ through suicide. Suicide is not a good thing, but cinematically it was presented as a beautiful and powerful option. As a wide shot that captures on the background a prepossessing sight of the Grand Canyon, we see Thelma and Louise driving off a cliff, slowly flying through the air, eternalized as the screen fades to white. Thelma and Louise came to a point where they would rather die and be free, then captured and locked up. Although, it might seem like death is their punishment for their rebellious femininity, from their viewpoint it could be that they considered this as dying for a good preternatural cause that exemplifies of their ‘sense of planet’.

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Thelma’s and Louise’s conclusion.

This meticulous investigation provided a closer look at the environment and processes that the main characters traversed through. Analyzing the first act of Thelma & Louise brought their main oppression to the fore. Their particular ‘first’ and ‘second’ spaces cogently appeared to be problematic areas, because the environment that they live in is one where men are in control in combination with abuse and maltreatments. As spaces seem to define the configurations of law, societal standards, rules, regulation and in particular forms of abuse, disrespect and oppression.

This opens the probabilities of public discourse, discussing subjects such as, wife abuse, rape and self-defense by women. It is understandable that they initially wanted to take a break from their daily life and have some girl-time, but after they shot Harlan they knew that the only way to escape was leaving the two familiar spaces that they live in behind to an unknown environment –

Wilderness- which functions as their ‘third space’. Brereton states, “The seeds of ecological growth and awareness . . . have been most clearly articulated within the conventional constraints of this ‘philosophical’ genre” (Brereton 2005, 102). Meaning that the immense probability that the ‘wilderness’ in the ‘Road Movie’ genre offers, nourishes ecocritical thought and notions to the extent that it has become a territorial environment for philosophical, theoretical debate and exploration.

In the second act “[t]he protagonists move from the supposedly female space of domesticity and home to the freedom of ‘male’ space that is the great outdoors” (Brereton 2005,

111). Spaces that generally are not considered to be a female space can serve the same function as it does for men, but now also for women. Then again, it can be ascertained that all spaces can have a form of oppression. Subjection, abuse and disrespect can still occur in such liberating

‘third’ spaces, because there is nobody who can stop them. It is everyone for themselves. The self-discovery that the ‘third space’ propounds became noticeable throughout the second act of the film. Thelma and Louise became two totally different, but stronger women, especially in comparison with their character in the beginning. “The movement of the car itself became a

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Agard 31 symbol of hope” (Brereton 2005, 104) for them as it helped them to escape quickly and stay ahead. The car totally embodies escapism, it serves as “this ‘ride into nature’ as a metaphor for the escape from urban oppression into the ‘freedom’ of self-discovery” (Ryan et al. 1988: 23). In their self-discovey they gained a new insight about themselves. That they are equal to men and that they do not have to put up with oppression and that they can fight back.

Their new insight takes form in a ‘sense of place’ and ‘planet’, which refers to the fact that they start to take action in the third act and fight back, locally (sense of place) on the road against men that do not respect them. They eventually give their lives not because they do not want to live anymore, but they just do not want to surrender and let men win. It is essentially a statement, which moves their formidable cause to a higher sphere that is worth to die for. This film’s mission seems to regard the desire to display real women from normal daily life who can escape society, challenge the male exertion of authority by liberating themselves from patriarchal constraints that human societies have created.

In essence, it is has been veritably established that ‘first’, ‘second’places are indeed oppressive territories for women and that a ‘third space’, gives them the same -just like men- opportunity for self-development to rethink life and look at their problems from an outside perspective which helps them to get to a ‘sense of place’ and ‘planet’, which presents the chance to fight back and solve their problems, not just for themselves, but for the sake of all women as they do not surrender to men even if it costs them their lives. Why? Because they are fighting for a cause greater than themselves, this might shock a man’s world and evoke change.

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Chapter 2: Eco-feminism: A Contradictory Discourse Case study: 2, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) an Ecofeminist film

Looking at the first three Mad Max films in which Mel Gibson starred as a macho character who rescues women from rape and other atrocities, which is quite patronizing towards women. This makes it seem that only men can rescue women and not women themselves, but that shifted with the fourth and newest film Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), a post-apocalyptic action film by George

Miller. The main protagonists are survivalist Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy), and sole female lieutenant, Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron). Mad Max: Fury Road could also be regarded as “a feminist reworking of a male genre” (Brereton 2005, 110), because here too, women have had enough of patriarchal rule. Mad Max: Fury Road is a follow up of an already established road film trilogy (the Mad Max movies) that shows men ruling the world and with a man as protagonist.

Although Mad Max: Fury Road takes place in that same wiorld, it marks a change since it presents a woman in the lead now. Within George Miller’s oeuvre, the Mad Max films, visibly demonstrate an environmentally unstable world.xvii A world struck by nuclear fall out. Mad Max: Fury Road addresses this environmentally unstable situation and gender inequality that takes form in patriarchal oppression, which presents a ‘fertile’ field for feminist and ecological discussion. With all the ideas and arguments presented, here above, I find it reason enough to propose Mad Max:

Fury Road as a case study for ecocritical analysis.

Theoretically, Ecofeminism is the most appropriate way to approach this film, because the world in it displays a post-apocalyptic and ecologically destroyed world where women are suppressed, but also because the main protagonist Imperator Furiosa seems to be an unconscious ecofeminist herself. Ecofeminism has its origins in radical feminism. As feminist theorist Robin

Morgan mentions in her essay Light Bulbs, Radishes, and the Politics of the 21st Century we should understand the word “radical” as “going to the root” (Morgan 1996, 5), because ecofeminists are looking for the fundamental causes of humanity’s present direction towards a relentless ecological downfall. Although ecofeminists may disagree on their approaches and focuses, most

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Agard 33 ecofeminists agree that a reformist strategyxviii cannot work. Not because reforming attempts are not helpful steps on the road to recovery, but they could only adjourn a full-blown catastrophe.

Ecofeminists affirm that mishmash reforms of preferable policy and desirable technology cannot restore the vastness of destitution, gross inequities and instantaneous planetary environmental disasters currently faced. Ecofeminist Françoise D’Eaubonne who coined the term

“Ecofeminism”, emphasizes that temporary solution strategies such as contamination and pollution control are futile as everlasting solutions and are a “derisory effort given the catastrophic dimensions of the damage” (D’Eaubonne 1974, 179). The effects of such small measures that humanity has achieved could be the ones display in Mad Max: Fury Road. The insufficiencies of strategic approaches of reform to resolve current environmental and social complications can be explicated by investigating the sources and intersections of environmental and social issues. Ecofeminists argue that all issues are connected, emanating from a basis of incorrect presumptions in the groundwork of dominant western paradigms. According to Gaard the ecofeminist problem definition takes form in a power paradigm described as hierarchal dualism and its dimension of major concern pertains “Patriarchy: psychosexual motivation and systematic forces” (Gaard et al. 1993, 31). Patriarchal society is built on four intertwining pillars; class exploitation, sexism, racism and environmental destruction. Dualism, could be understood as “one of the roots of the link between the exploitation of nature and women” (Ferry, 118).

Meaning that dualism imposes the belief that there are opposites in all that exists, such as culture and nature, man and woman, civilization and wilderness and so forth. Ecofeminist Val

Plumwood proposes in her essay The Ecological Crisis of Reason (2002, 43) that it is mechanistic science that maintains human centered world perspectives through the nature/culture dualism, which causes human reliance on the environment to be denied. Ecofeminist Ronnie Zoe

Hawkins defines in his essay Ecofeminism and Non-humans: Continuity, Difference, Dualism and

Domination (Hawkins 1998, 158-97) the distinction between ‘self’ (male point of view) and ‘other’

(females, nature, wilderness). Next to that he describes five dualist characteristics, but there is one

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Agard 34 characteristic that stands out the most: 4. The ‘Other’ is defined by how it is advantageous to the

‘One’ (161). This film broadly addresses women as property to men. So in essence the fourth characteristic applies in this film’s case. As the women attempt to liberate themselves, one woman shouts, “we are not tools”.

The justifiability to oppress ‘others’ that comes from ‘self/other dualism’ needs to be investigated, which will be understood once the reasoning behind this notion is revealed.

Hereafter it is necessary to uncover how the women in Mad Max: Fury Road go from being an

‘other’ to the notion of recognizing and harmonizing with ‘earth others’ during their road trip, but also to which insight they have gained o that they can extricate themselves. Finally, it is imperative to unearth how a ‘global democratic community’ can be the panacea that is used to destroy inequality for themselves, but also for other women in worldwide.

Ecofeminism’s inconvenient vision.

Mad Max: Fury Road is established with cinematic long shots (master shots) of a mountainous arid red-brownish sandy and barren desert landscape that coincides with a clear blue sky. This instantaneously conveys to us that there are hardly any green fertile lands. This is followed by a long shot of a mountain fortress (the citadel) with on its top several green fertile gardens. At the foot of the mountain fortress we see a large crowd of people. Next we are introduced to a male leader, Immortan Joe, with an army called ‘The War Boys’ existing of only recruited men who have it all and a degraded crowd of people (at the foot of the mountain) covered in dirt and desperate to get water from their overlord. The most appaling situation is the clear oppression that women have to suffer in this world of desolation. “The role of women and animals in postindustrial [post-apocalyptic] society is to serve/be served up; women and the animals are the used” (Gaard et al. 1993, 61). Gaard means to say with this that in a patriarchal society men often assign women to fulfill services in their favor. This is a grave issue, because we are all supposed to be equals. Therefore it is important to firstly glance at the self/other dualistic issues that

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Ecofeminism faces. Ecofeminism’s altercation is with the long established western concept of patriarchy and in this film it encounters the ultimate patriarchal rule, because it is at its most oppressive. It is the objective to find out what Ecofeminism’s undesired vision would entail through their critizations on a dualistic self/other opposition.

Throughout the beginning of the film’s first act we have seen Imperator Furiosa stepping into a long big truck with two water tank trailers, she drives off on to the road in the desert on her way to Gastown, but she suddenly goes off road into a different direction. She clearly has a different agenda. Immortan Joe is quickly notified during his daily mothermilk tasting session.

The following establishes how women in Mad Max’s world are basically tools for men, for sexual pleasures, procreation (with a preference for baby boys, future warlords), service and most horribly, breastmilk production.This display of oppression reveals the vast patriarchal hierarchal construction in this society. Everybody is delegated to a certain task through class and capabilities of participation. According to ecofeminist Lori Gruen the “woman’s body [by men considered as]

(being smaller, weaker and reproductive) prevents her from participating in the hunt, and thus relegates her to the arena of non-culture” (Gruen in Gaard et al. 1993, 62). This stems from origin stories based on the hominids. This shows how men through a patriarchal perspective judge women, pointing out the characteristics that women seemingly (according to men)xix lack.

Based on the missing characteristics, these men determine that women should be considered to be of a lower class and to eventually designate them to a role of servicing men. In this case reproduction as they are referred to as ‘breeders’ and milk production since there really are no animals such as cows to get milk from. Right after being notified, Immortan Joe rushes to the nursery quarters to find out that all the women -referred to as ‘breeders’- who live there are missing, except for the eldest who yells that they are not tools to serve him. Furiosa has taken the women to free them from (sex) slavery and oppression. After this discovery Joe orders his army to assemble and requests the aid of reinforcements to hunt Furiosa down and retrieve his so-

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Agard 36 called ‘breeders’. A carchase ensues of a grand magnitude as all of Joe’s battle adapted cars and reinforcements attempt to catch up with Furiosa’s envoy.

These scenes from the first act exemplify of a self/other dualism since the characters oppress ‘others’ and implement a hierarchical reign based on power and differences (such as gender, weakness and strength). The film clearly shows an exegerated image of the world, but it is plausible to imagine that if the world would go down like this, a decline of human rights would occur and humanity would be living in a state of anarchy and despotism. The world would become even more of a man’s world, with male “destructive, competitive, and violent activity directed toward his prey [which] is what originally distinguished man from animal and thus culture from nature” (Gruen in Gaard et al. 1993, 62). The point here is that men in the ‘Road

Movie’ genre tend to not allow themselves to be nurtured by nature and instead they go on the path of destruction towards nature. This is a form of disconnect that renders this notion of self/other as an enemy of nature, because men consider the wilderness an uncultured space that men like to detrimentally challenge. ‘Others’ such as women and animals, etc, can use this space to escape to so that they can be nurtured, discover hidden capabilities or gain lost knowledge.

The final goal is to either escape, but ecofeminists regard that as a non-durable option. It is better to find the key solution to liberate women from a system that oppresses them.

A matriarchic’s self-discovery.

Hope is the very reason why Furiosa attempts to escape with the women from Immortan Joe’s nursery, because she apparently came from a ‘Green’xx place with plants, nature and many mothers, a safe haven for women liberated from the reigning patriarchal systems in the world.

Her mother died when she was young and she was captured by Immortan Joe’s forces, assumingly enslaved and grew to her position as lieutenant. At a certain point, she must have had a moment of self-discovery realizing that she has the power to liberate the people with whom she has her gender in common. This means that Furiosa, according to ecofeminist Janis Birkeland,

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Agard 37 was able to recognize “the egoistic conception of human nature -the image of Man striving for self-realization through independence from necessity (nature)” (Birkeland in Gaard et al. 1993,

26). This signifies that she identified the patriarchal system as flawed and unjust because she had experienced a fairer society when she was younger. Whereas others who grew up in a self/other dualistic patriarchal system most likely took it for what it is, assuming that this system of hierarchy is normal. This is why according to ecofeminists there must be a process of identification or self-realization towards what ‘Green’ is. For example, as a possibility ecofeminists exemplify a liberalist approach that challenges “the [patriarchal] system directly deep ecologists, for example, advocate developing the capacity to identify and integrate with non- human nature, or “Self-realization” (Birkeland in Gaard et al. 1993, 26). They define self- discovery here as a “self-realization” that encourages to identify with non-human nature. “Earth others can be seen ... as ‘other nations’ of roots or wings or legs, nations we must meet on their own terms as well as ours” (Plumwood 1993, 137). Thus, instead of considering wilderness and everything else that is non-human and not your own ‘self’ as ‘Other’, humans and particularly patriarchic men should realize that they should connect to nature and its wilderness and grow towards recognizing and harmonizing with an ‘earth other’, which in turn will give all ‘ others the respect that they deserve.

As from the second act, Furiosa is chased by many war cars. She gets through a humongous dusty and static electrified sandstorm caused by a group of huge tornados and she fights against Max (who was dubbed as Nux’s blood donor after he was captured) and Nux

(Nicholas Hoult), a war boy. There are several moments during Max’s and Furiosa’s fight where he threatens Furiosa and the women, holds a gun against their heads and hurts them badly. These scenes are often with a form of heightened, theatrical intensity in their dialogue, but also in the music that stresses intensity through the high and fast-paced notes of drums, trumpets and other instruments. At the same time the camera also aids in the building of this interesting form of dialogue emphasis, mostly through the fast alternation of close-up (and at times medium and

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Agard 38 wide shots) shot reversals. With all of this I mean to say that the dialogue is not posed as just expositional storytelling dialogue, but as dialogue that attracts much attention because it is filled with certain messages that regard the power struggle issues between men and women and it reveals who women think caused the destruction of their planet.xxi Men, because they “show that

‘earth others’ [and others] can have value only instrumentally, as a means to human ends”

(Plumwood 1993, 148). One could align Max with all the other patriarchic oppressive men, but to justify his moves he feels threatened as he should be. Furiosa would not have spared him, she appears to be an equal combatant and through his flashbacks we know that he has a past where he tried to protect good men, women and children. Because of mutual benefit, Max and Furiosa have to work together. During their team-up, they discover that they are on the same side. They can trust and rely on each other, not all men are evil and men can change, such as Nux did when he discovered that Immortan Joe cares more about his property and that the warboys are expandable to him.xxii Ultimately Furiosa and all her allies go through a process of self-discovery.

The wilderness played a great role in it, because now that they are all outside of the patriarchal society they are able to take a look at it from a distance and see all its flaws. Their skewed views that they had developed through the culture that they grew up in, is questioned. And now that they realize that they should maybe turn to a different more ‘greener’ alternative. They all want to give the so-called ‘green place’ a chance as it could be their last hope.

The scene that shows the peak of all of their self-discovery occurs right around the beginning of the third act. Right after Max and Furiosa’s newly formed band of women, mothers and one warboy separated their ways. Max was going his own way, Furiosa’s band was crossing the salt plains in hopes to find a new ‘green place’, but Max catches up with them and convinces them that it is better to fix the broken patriarchal society at the citadel than to start anew somewhere that is totally uncertain. This is an interesting shift. Although it was the older mothers from the lost ‘green place’ who promised to find or start a new place, exactly in the fashion that

Mortimer-Sandilands exemplifies in the publication The Good Natured Feminist. She states, “there is

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Agard 39 a spirit of woman and it is nature; where ... women listen to other (Amazon) women to hear the truth of their identity ... to “the light in us,” to a nature that has always been more ready to speak to and as women” (Sandilands et al. 1999, 13). The situation where fierce combatant older and wiser women inform and include other unknown women into their clan passing their knowledge on, transpired right before they went their separate ways. Interestingly, now it is Max, a man in need of redemption who submits a different plan that might be better or definite than that of the wise women. This could be seen as a notion that men can also be a part of aiding women in their liberation, but also in the establishing of a world that is more equal.

This film makes it clear that Furiosa as a woman makes better use of nature and its wilderness as part of her self-discovery. Remember she has never done this before, she used to follow orders. Brereton states, comparing women to men, that “male filmic protagonists often find it almost impossible to achieve nurturing and (holistic) solace in nature. Continuously driven by the urge to move on, they often miss the signs of their coexistence with and in nature”

(Brereton 2004, 110). This is very much true in this case, because the men wildly without thinking to protect themselves or changing their attitudes drive into the sandstorm that kills them almost instantly. While Furiosa, becomes one with the storm, avoids the harsh cores, protects her eyes and lungs by putting a scarf around her mouth and nose, whilst being fully focused to get them through this storm. It is interesting to see that the wilderness also takes part in this race as a sort of tribulational obstacle which they need to overcome. Then again, Furiosa’s victories prove of her women’s utilization of the wilderness. She discovers the many talents and capabilities that she possesses, which will ultimately lead to her self-discovery of an “ecological self ... which includes the goal of the flourishing of ‘earth others’ and the earth community among its own primary ends, and hence respects or cares for these ‘others’ for their own sake” (Plumwood 1993, 155).

This means that self-discovery made her capable to immerse in nature and gain the insight that she can implement on not just her group but to ‘others’ and ‘earth others’, which proves that all the characteristics that she according to dualism would be lacking are actually present in her. To

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Agard 40 confirm this, Brereton states, “whereas the native outsider (or nurturing female), appears less constrained and more in tune with the ecological forces of nature” (Brereton 2005, 110).

In the end, Furiosa appears to be a true ecofeminist, because she fights for women’s rights and she wants to bring women to a safe haven called the ‘green place’ and start anew. Self- discovery in the ecofeminist wilderness, would be referred to as a place of ‘self-realization’ and a place where a woman will encounter an area where “human beings lived in easy cooperation with each other and the non-human environment, without the sexist, oppressive, and exploitative complex of power relations we call patriarchy” (Lahar in Gaard et al. 1993, 92). This is exactly what Furiosa encountered, a group of wise older women in connection with their environment, no hierarchy, because they had no significant leader and they possess the capacity to include others. Although some theorists mention that this notion of Ecofeminism could be seen as essentialist, because one could see that the notions are based on characteristics bound to gender.

Still, I want to state that Furiosa had to fight men as equals. She is not a soft woman who fights evil with kisses and sweet stereotyped female charms.xxiii For example, according to gender notions men are fierce and defy nature, wilderness and death, but in Mad Max: Fury Road’s case,

Furiosa proves that women are capable of doing the same. She defies the sandstorm by choosing to drive right through it and using it as a sort of ally to vanquish Immortan Joe’s warriors who are chasing her down. She is a real woman who understands what she needs to do to be a match against men. The only difference is that she embraces an approach that is closer to nature. All that she does is “look to their [women’s] nature, which is part of (and therefore equivalent to) nature in general, in order to achieve women’s and the planet’s liberation” (Sandilands 1999, 14).

Whether you want to refer to her motives as matriarchal or plain justice should not be the main issue here, especially since her quest is not about establishing a reign of women over men, but she is rather about inclusion and equality. What is established here is that Furiosa, considered to be an

‘other’, recognizes and acknowledges nature and she has harmonized with ‘earth others’ during

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Agard 41 their road trip. It helped her to rediscover new insights inspired by nature in hopes of liberating themselves

Ecofeminism’s ultimate vision.

Ecofeminists imperatively theorize what the path to a solution would look like. It is certain that their aim is to gain “independence from patriarchal dominance” (Brereton 2005, 111). Mortimer-

Sandilands does that through “the notion of a global democratic community” (Sandilands et al.

1999, 131), which involves inclusion, universalism, human and non-human self-identification.

Sandilands states that it is of significance “to foster the sentiment or practice that one is both a member of specific groups (bioregions, sexes, classes) and a member of ... a “One-World

Community” (Sandilands et al. 1999, 131). She indicates that humans should look beyond themselves and still care for oneself. In this patriarchal world it is fostered to focus on the ‘self’ and not on the so-called ‘other’. Instead we should consider ourselves part of the ‘other’ and of our ‘self’. We do not exist to defeat, subjugate and exploit ‘others’, but to achieve a One-World

Community we need “the intervention of a term to transform the isolated local interest into the systematically contextualized local interest” (Sandilands et al. 1999, 131-2). Although our focus should be local it needs to be contextualized in the sense that it needs a purpose or connection with the global. If we administer a form of local that is detrimental to the rest of the world, such as coal mining and coal energy generation to supply locals of electricity. This effects world wide climate change, which also affects our neighbours. Sandilands grounds this on Richard Falk’s argument, a globalization theorist, who quotes:

The gropings of global civil society encourage a human rights and democracy orientation

toward global citizenship—the world as delightfully heterogeneous, yet inclusive of all

creation in an overarching frame of community sentiment, premised on the biological and

normative capacity of the human species to organize its collective life on the foundations

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of nonviolence, equity, and sustainability (Falk in Brecher, Brown Childs, Cutler et al.

1993, 50).

Unity, a heterogenous and inclusive way of thinking, living and co-existing would be the only way to move forward and break the boundaries set by the dominant hegemony of patriarchy. All these variations that form the notion of a global democratic community, aid to the creation of a goal and an ultimate ecofeminist vision. Whether it is matriarchicxxiv or just generally equal towards the same goal, men and women side by side. This woud be a reign that makes every citizen equally happy and not just one single identified group who solely think of their own self-interest, but how we get there is an intriguing investigation that Mad Max: Fury Road as a film elucidates.

In the third act of Mad Max: Fury Road we see that the main characters and all of their allies, after many struggles and after convincing each other of their reliability and alliance, gained each others trust. They display a clear notion of universalism, as it does not matter that they are of different backgrounds, gender and class. They can feel part of the greater good and still be part of themselves. Thus they have gained a ‘sense of community’. This would not have been possible if Furiosa did not search for the ‘green place’. Instead she found an answer. Sandilands examined ecofeminist Kathleen Barry’s following statement:

We must look to our matriarchal past for guidance in defining a culture that is a logical

extension of nature. With the essence of motherhood and a sense of the preservation of

life imprinted in our genes, matrilineal descent will naturally become the organization of

the society we envision (Barry 1989, 255).

Sandilands finds it of essence that we go back and study times when patriarchy either did not exist,xxv because before the great human civilizations came to existence there were many matriarchic tribes and societies. All the wisdom that kept humanity close to nature, the wilderness

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Agard 43 and in relation to themselves and a ‘global citizenship’. That wisdom was lost by men and Furiosa had to go through many difficulties to encounter the origins of her matrilineal descent where all their knowledge originates from.

Furiosa and Max achieve the ecofeminist objective towards the climax of the film. After they defeated Immortan Joe’s army and killed Immortan Joe himself, they finally arrive as victors at the Citadel. They reveal Immortan Joe’s dead body to the warboys and the crowd of degraded people. The crowd shouts out Furiosa’s name and that the warboys need to let her and her allies up. Upon this the warboys lower the rig so that Furiosa, her allies, and the degraded crowd of people can enter the citadel. Furiosa’s victory stupified the citadel. They probably considered it impossible that this form of reign (patriarchy) could be lifted and that their leader, Immortan Joe, could be killed. Her take over demonstrates of a self-realization amongst the crowd and the people of the citadel. As they are the ones who follow and are suppressed in the class system that patriarchy imposed on them, they do not hesitate to embrace their new leader, because they know what she represents. A fairer and more just system, because she challenged the old regime and did her best to escape from it. Could she be a matriarch? As she is a woman, who used to be a part of an oppressed group, but she rose to power as a lieutenant and became the leader of a tribe. She might even represent motherhood in way, because she felt responsible for taking good care of other women and especially the younger ones. Next to that the warboys are the first inside the citadel to let her in. She is the only woman with authority over the warboys, they followed her and listened to her in every way, like she was the closest possible mother figure to them. Film theorist Brian Henderson states that, “Eco-feminism ... values motherhood and the raising and parenting of children and the maintaining of comfortable habitats and cohesive communities as the most highly productive work of society” (Henderson cited in Dobson 1995, 188). What is striking is the security that is raised in his statement. Words such as, maintaining, comfortable and communities indicate how certain everyone could be of a secure future during such a reign. Even more interesting, the film ends with the mothermilk producing women pushing the lever so that

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Agard 44 water rains upon the degraded crowds of people. Not the little bit that Imortan Joe used to rain on them, but a lot. As if it symbolizes the signature of a matriarchic motherly reign.

Conclusively there are several feminist factions, Marxist, liberalist and more. Each one of them has their own vision. For some “the path to liberation must be cleared of economic inequalities” (Gruen in Gaard et al. 1993, 76). For others, like feminist Iris Marion Young, “the ideal of community ... privileges unity over difference, immediacy over mediation, sympathy over recognition of the limits of one’s understanding of others from their point of view” (Young in

Nicholson et al. 1990, 300). Eventually it is the goal for all of them to free women from patriarchic oppression. Aspects such as inclusion, diversity, globalization, universality and particularity will bring them to their panacea, the notion of a ‘global democratic community’.

Whereas patriarchy leads to a system where the fittest survive and the ‘others’ are deprived, but ironically even the fittest will destroy themselves, because if you do not take care of the planet, the planet will get rid of even the fittest.

Conclusion: Matriarchal prevalence.

This chapter concludes that in the first act of the film women were disadvantaged under regimes based on self/other dualism. Through the dualist notion of ‘self’ and ‘other’ they essentially prescribe ‘others’ as lacking particular masculine and or superior characteristics that, according to them, men do possess and women not in this case. Therefore making the assumption that men and women are not equal as they (patriarchal men) constructed all opposites into ‘Other’, “as the negative reflection of true, transcendent humans” (Sandilands 1999, 16). In essence they believe in a pyramidical hierarchy in this following order; God, males (men), females (women), children, animals and nature (wilderness). This film clearly established the antagonists, Immortan Joe and his clan, and the antagonistic notion of self/other dualism that is overtly present in their society.

They proved themselves as a clear enemy of nature, because of their destructive treatment against nature’s wilderness and their devaluation of it. The antagonists clearly refrain themselves from the

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Agard 45 wilderness. They confine themselves to their culturally established oases civilizations and the roads that connect them through the desert wilderness to other cities and places of culture. The minute that they do spend time in nature they do not show respect for it. Their absolute presence in the wilderness equals devastation. Luckily nature is stronger and easily vanquishes them.

The most important process was that of the lead character Furiosa who uses her voyage through the wilderness in her advantage, in a way she is one with the ‘earth others’ (nature), and surmounts many obstacles that many of Immortan Joe’s warboys as men weren’t able to overcome. Furiosa’s self-discovery takes form in that this voyage helps her to ascertain the extent of her true potential, which is that she is able to escape from such a grand army of warboys, able to overcome nature’s humongous obstacles and becoming one with ‘earth others, utilizing her wit, technology and innovation. Had her escape and voyage been so detrimental to her and her friends well-being she would not have optioned to go back to the citadel. Though it is Max who convinces her with his plan, it is the fact that they have achieved the impossible during her self- discovery trial, which gives her the confidence to go with the plan.

In the third act of the film she learned secrets that could be characterized as ‘matriarchal’ and it allows them to achieve a certain form of equality. Now that she embraces the idea of ‘earth others’, which is recognized through her treatments of nature, she sets out to challenge Immortan

Joe by utilizing the notion of a ‘global democratic society’ to truly liberate the oppressed. And after killing immortan Joe the ‘others’ convince the stupefied warboys to let Furiosa enter the citadel to claim her new title. Whether she turns it into a women’s ‘Amazon’ warriors’ clan or a true normative, non-oppressive and equal global democratic society that is one with nature and the rest of the world. Furiosa has proven that women can disprove presumed dualistic notions that consider men to be the ones able to attain the true potential of the ‘Road Movie’. She demonstrates that they are equal to men and can do things just like men can do. She also confirms that she can be one with nature and survive in it and that her relationship with nature accommodates notions of self-discovery, which results in self-confidence.

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Ultimately, it is has been proven that ‘self/other dualism’ has acted as a source of inspiration for destructive and oppressive regimes ruled by men. The wilderness provided the self-discovery to become one with the idea of ‘earth others’ which propounds equality for all humans and non-humans. Which on its own turn helped them discover that they can use the key idea of a ‘global democratic community’ to their advantage to liberate themselves of self/other dualistic inspired regimes and start a new one.

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Chapter 3: Queer Ecology Case study: 2, Dirty Girl (2010) a Queer ecological and Ecofeminist film.

Abe Sylvia’s film Dirty Girl (2010) is about, Danielle Edmundston (Juno Temple) and, Clarke

Walters (Jeremy Dozier). They both escape their undesirable circumstances and oppressed homes, hoping to encounter a better life in Los Angeles, where Danielle’s biological father – whom she never met- lives. Dirty Girl is a film that clearly conveys ecofeminist and a queer ecological presence, because a young woman and a young gay man fight against heteronormative patriarchal oppression and seek for an ecological safe haven. In both Danielle’s and Clarke’s households, there is a father figure who dominates their family, even the mothers are subjugated to their husband’s reign. Danielle has to deal with her recently moved in Mormon stepfather who demands obedience from his wife and their children and especially from Danielle as she is a young opinionated and self-willed girl. Clarke deals with a father whose biggest fear is that his only son would be gay. A fear that according to Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands caused queer sexualities, “throughout much of the twentieth century, [to be] presented as ‘unnatural’ or

‘degenerate’ sexualities” (Mortimer-Sandilands 2010, 2). During their attempt to escape their undesirable circumstances, they travel through the wilderness, which ends up in an adventure of self-exploration. Meanwhile, their angered fathers cause so much disgust in their mothers that they decide to stand up for themselves. Their love for their children makes them conquer their fears, put aside of their children’s mischief and adjust their mindset. It has become more important to get their children safely back and reconcile with them.

Dirty Girl comprises of notional forms of ‘otherness’, just as the previous chapter discussed the ‘self’ and the ‘other’. Along with a more queer ecological notion such as

‘(un)natural’ or ‘degenerate’, because when it comes to non-heterosexuality the discussion turns to what is natural and what is not, and does nature reflect that back. What will be argued is how nature harbours all sexualities, which in essence means that all sexualities belong in this world.

Self-discovery will specifically be discussed through the notion of an ‘ecoqueer sensibility’.

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Interestingly, the insight gained in this film is shared between the main characters through the

‘symbiosos’xxvi that their friendship and similar situations generated.

Eventhough, Queer ecologyxxvii is quite new and not very established and widespread. It is a scholarly field that suits the discourse that this chapter entails. Just as nature, ecology and the wilderness are able to be associated with masculinity, femininity, culture or an absence of civilization, nature could be associated with ‘Queerness’. The studies conducted here do not set out to categorize lgbtqi persons and species, but it regards the understanding and the relation and the position that ‘Queerness’ has in nature’s wilderness. Although Mortimer-Sandilands is not the only theorist who discussed lgbtqi persons living and working in nature, she appears to be the theorist who coined the term Queer Ecology through the title of her article Unnatural Passions:

Notes Toward a Queer Ecology (2005). Mortimer-Sandilands and Bruce Erickson did invest a lot of theorizing into the book Queer ecologies: Sex, Nature, Politics, Desire (2010). This book examines through its concepts the place of ‘queers’ in nature, the marginalization against them and the methodology to getting lgbtqi persons to an improved stage. In their introductory chapter of their publication on Queer ecologies, they exemplify scenes and parts of the film’s narrative of Ang lee’s

Brokeback Mountain (2005) that demonstrates the possibilities of Queer Ecology as a methodological approach.

Their methodological approach is an investigation of how “ideas and practices of nature, including bodies and landscapes, are located in particular productions of sexuality” and how “sex is, both historically and in the present, located in particular formulations of nature” (Mortimer-

Sandilands & Erickson 2010, 5). They argue that the film conveys quite dramatically three important junctures. Pastoral eroticism as a naturalizing force, nature spaces according to heteronormative politics and reproductive and nonreproductive sexualities composed as ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’, with which “lgbtq and environmental politics intersect” (Mortimer-Sandilands &

Erickson 2010, 2). Mortimer and Erickson’s examples of Brokeback Mountain inform the selected approach to the film Dirty Girl. Their discussion demonstrates not only a theoretical approach

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Agard 49 concerned with how ongoing cultural-sociological constructions of nature and sexuality are evidently present in film and in society, but it is also concerned with how certain literary forms inform and form these constructions.

The notion where this chapter’s focus will be directed to is that of ‘natural’ sexuality,

“from which nonreproductive sexualities are understood as deviant” (Mortimer- Sandilands &

Erickson 2010, 7). This is discussed in the terms of the notions ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’, which should be understood as terms posited by the current widespread heteronormative and patriarchal viewpoint on which these claims are based on. The ecofeminist notion of ‘self’ and

‘other’ will also be discussed, because these two notions show similarities. I will use these notions to compare their oppressions as they go through remarkably similar situations. After that their path of self-discovery will be explored in this film, which encompsses the gaining of a certain cognizance that will aid them later on.

Mortimer-Sandilands posits a notion of “queer ecological sensibility” (Mortimer-

Sandilands 2005, 3) as an almost ethereal stage of consciousness that lgbtqi persons and allies can achieve in a quest towards either solution or basically “the idea that one might find natural wholeness” (Mortimer-Sandilands 2005, 1-2). With this I will discuss how the connection between two buddies, Danielle and Clarke, through their newly developed friendship motivates change in the form of understanding. In the end Queer ecology has a goal towards equality just as

Ecofeminism does.

This chapter argues that self/other dualism, precisely ‘otherness’, but also

‘(un)naturalness’ in regard of sexual orientation-, are comparatively similar to each other in both experience and in their exertions. And that through self-discovery one gains an ‘ecoqueer sensibility’ as an insight needed to pave the way to a ‘biotic community’, which is a catalyst in the precipitation of a naturalizing remedial effect to rid the aforementioned self/other dualisms away.

It is therefore required to unveil if ‘otherness’ and ‘(un)naturalness’ (self/other dualisms) unjustly give rise to oppression to both women and lgbtqi persons. Following this, it is essential to lay

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Agard 50 bare how an ‘ecoqueer sensibility’ is gained throughout the course of the self-discovery in Dirty

Girl. Ultimately, it is crucial to find out how a ‘biotic community’ naturalizes the environment of the main characters in a world shared with their oppressors and allies.

Both oppressed: ‘Unnatural’ and ‘other’.

Mortimer-Sandilands states that “we can see that modern understandings of sexuality are deeply influenced by historically specific ideas of nature, perhaps most obviously in the classification of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer bodies as, somehow, unnatural” (Mortimer-

Sandilands 2005, 7). Classifying a person as ‘natural’ and the other as ‘unnatural’ illustrates again of dualism. As in the two previous films this film proves of marginalization against women, but also to lgbtqi persons. Mortimer-Sandilands posits a connection between Ecofeminism and Queer ecology. She says, “ecofeminism and environmental justice open our eyes to the fact that nature organizes and is organized by complex power relations” (Mortimer-Sandilands 2005, 6).

Mortimer-Sandilands says that nature, because of the clear visible characteristics seen in most of the earth’s species, such as male and female animals. Male animals seem to be displaying masculine competitive traits and female animals in general, not. But on the contrary there are exceptions, like animals can be attracted to the same-sex and there are animal groups where women are stronger or display competitiveness. Nature perceived from a patriarchal perspective organizes groups through complex power relations. Which refers to patriarchal men perceiving that a stronger, smarter and inventive person would be on top in a hierarchical setting, and others not, because they believe these ‘powers’ are strictly connected to the kind of being that you are.

Mortimer-Sandilands continues to say that, “what queer ecology adds is the fact that these power relations include sexuality” (Mortimer-Sandilands 2005, 6). Next to gender, sexuality or sexual orientation is in that same associative manner a subject of discussion when it comes to power relations. Thus, according to a person’s sexual orientation in a patriarchal society there is an hierarchical difference that could be seen as ‘unnatural’ but also as ‘other’. Meaning that the

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Agard 51 dominant oppressors base on the differences between heterosexual men and women and lgbtqi persons, that there is a hierarchical following order present. For example; A woman is seen as weaker than a man (and thus considered lower in rank), but she can serve the purpose of being a companion whom a man can procreate with, but a homosexual man, cannot be a companion and he is a nonreproductive individual. This is how certain individuals reason this arrangement of hierarchy, which is based on how important and useful is an ‘other’ or ‘unnatural’ in this struggle for power when it comes to the benefits of the individuals who are regarded as the ‘self’.

Dirty Girl takes place in 1987 in a small town called Norman, Oklahoma. Through the narration of Danielle it is established that it is her mission to disprove the concept of a man’s world. She says “that god would not have created her”, because she is a woman on top, especially during sex. The film begins with her having sex in a red car parked in front of her school, a series of panning shots and close-ups give focus on her sensual looks, her domineering character and her tight clothing as she steps out of the vehicle ready to go do what ever she pleases. At the beginning of the first act she is summoned to the principal’s office who calls her a ‘dirty’ girl, meaning that he considers her to be quilty of debauchery. Next to that he posits that she should have a positive male influencer in her life. This sets the tone that in those times, men were seen as the ones who can straighten up a young woman, which is a clear display of a dualist hierarchical patriarchal notion. Danielle is sent to the ‘challengers’ a group of kids who are troublemakers or failed in class. Clarke is in that same class. The group has to learn how to become responsible by taking care of a sack of flour as if it is their own kid. Danielle is teamed up with Clarke and she opens up with homophobic slur as she says, “you’re that fag right?”. As a young woman who grew up in Norman, she cannot help it that she has adopted certain societal homophobic notions.

In this film it is noticeable that the main character Danielle takes part in discriminating homosexuals, using homophobic slur, such as ‘fag’ and saying that Clarke is not of any use, because of his sexuality and the fact that he cannot benefit Danielle in anyway. Exemplifying that

“notions of natural sexuality from which nonreproductive sexualities are understood as deviant”

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(Mortimer-Sandilands 2010, 7). Deviant indicates that Clarke’s sexuality is unqualifying for

Danielle’s standards, because she is looking for a man that she can conquer and Clarke is not able to become a victim of her three D’s of dating (Discriminate, Designate and Dump). This indifference will change, because they are both oppressed individuals who are stuck together, because of their class assignment. They will recognise the situational similarities that they share.

As an oppressed person you know how unfair it feels to be in that situation, which is why it is easier for an oppressed person to understand another oppressed person even though their oppressed for different reasons.

Both characters have their own particular scene where their undesirable circumstances come to the fore. For Clarke it happens early on as he is seen at a chiropractorxxviii who makes him watch slides of naked men and women, as he is asked to describe what ever comes to his mind. The feeling of uncomfortableness is recognizable within the tight close-ups on Clarke’s face. The chiropractor sits in the background as if he is holding Clarke under some kind of

‘magnification glass’, studying him as if he is a strange new species. Later when his parents are driving him home he is told that the chiropractor confirms him to be gay, which disappoints his father to the extent that he almost hits Clarke while driving. After that his father threatens to send him to military school. Sending his son to military school is an interesting feature that reminds of what Mortimer-Sandilands indicates, that heteronormative society believes that urban life is degenerate or effeminate and they “tied homosexuality to the urban”, and felt that

“developing cities shaped the emergence of homosexuality” (Sandilands & Erickson 2010, 10).

While homosexuality just became more visible in the big cities as gay communities were able to flourish. Heteronormative society saw the “destructive artificiality of cities” (Sandilands &

Erickson 2010, 16) as the cause of it and the cure would be to send men into nature to discover their masculinity. Clarke’s mother seems scared and does not fully agree with her husband’s homophobia, she tries to subtly defend her son and comforts him with some sweets, but she does not dare to raise her voice against her husband. For Danielle it happens when she brought

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Clarke home after studying and when she returns she finds out that her mother’s Mormon boyfriend soon to be husband has come over with his kids. They tell Danielle about their marriage plans, about adopting her (because of religious reasons) and that their going to live together as one family. To strengthen the family bound he wants them all to go on a weekend retreat together. He immediately and literally establishes the kind of reign that he wants to maintain in their household, which is based on his Mormon beliefs. As the man of the house he sets the rules and needs to be obeyed and respected by his wife and all of his kids. Danielle rebels, physically fights him and is grounded without any money, food and the keys of her car.

These two scenes exemplify of a patriarchal self/other dualist presence, because in both households there is a clear notion of the man being or aspiring to be the leader of the family.

Both situations appear to be undesirable for the characters and they both suffer either physically or in the limitation of their freedom, essentially stripped from their rights. Even though a child is supposed to listen to his or her parents, and heed their advice, it should only be because their parents advice and guidance will be for their own benefit, this does not seem to be the case, because it only serves the two patriarchal men’s interests, which is unjust. The interests and judgments of the ‘self’ are more important and more of value than those of the ‘other’ as is the point of view of both men. A young woman who is still regarded a child based on her age is considered not to know what is best for her. A young guy who appears to be gay is considered to desire ‘wrong’ sexual feelings and thus “Condemned as unnatural” (Sandilands & Erickson 2010,

10). In both cases they are expected to show notional behavior according to what patriarchal views have established to be the characteristics for a heterosexual man and for a woman. For the third time in this thesis, a dominant hegemony of patriarchal self/other and natural versus unnatural dualism causes a young woman and this time also a young man to be excluded, oppressed and deemed deviant, because they are different and do not abide to patriarchal established so-called normative and set notions that these characters are supposed to embody.

Such expectation based on dualist notions are detrimental to the well-being of individuals as it

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Agard 54 makes them unhappy, which is reason enough to escape. The next chapter elucidates on the benefits of their escape. As discussed in other chapters, the wilderness is a space for self- development and in this film there is an interesting form of self-discovery that takes place, a discovery that extends to not only the main characters, but also to their parents.

A queer ecological self-discovery in the form of an ecoqueer sensibility.

Katie Hogan, a queer environmentalist, writes in her essay Undoing Nature: Coalition Building as

Queer Environmentalism (2010) about an ecoqueer sensibility (also called queer sensibility by

Mortimer-Sandilands). She states “an ecoqueer perspective brings into bold relief how resistance to “against nature” can take many forms, and that resistance itself can expand knowledge and practices of environmentalism” (Hogan 2010, 237). From this we are to understand that this resistance whether it comes from interior or exterior struggles it will cause a form of understanding or shift in a person’s perspective. And rather than considering being in nature or the wilderness as an escape from the social world, nature is actually “rooted in the social world”

(Hogan 2010, 237). She says this, because even though characters escape society, what ever they do and go through in nature affects their society and their interactions in nature are still part of the social world. The fact that they left, alerts their family members. Their mothers are concerned and are prepared to do anything to safe their kids and reconcile. Clarke’s situation does not really change for the better, but you could say that he shows the full extent for his capabilities, which determines for Clarke’s mother that things need to change. There is no escaping from that social world, all that happens is a change and this change is caused by the focus –a self-containment or seclusion- that this trip motivates.

The following events launched Danielle and Clarke into the second act. When Danielle discovers the name of her real father and his address in California, she desperately wants to travel to him to meet him in hopes that she can escape the possible Mormon life that she would have to outlive with her new soon to be father. Clarke only takes his father’s car for their California

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Agard 55 bound trip after his homosexuality was confirmed to his father when he saw the posters of naked men that his mother tried to get rid of. Scared to get a beating, Clarke runs off and takes the car to escape. Danielle and Clarke finally left town and are now travelling through the wilderness as they leave the state of Oklahoma while passing small unfamiliar towns. This is the first time in the film that all film shots, close-up or long shot are filled with green landscapes instead of their indoor housewalls or their small town on the background. As it has been stated earlier, Mortimer-

Sandilands and Erickson make use of the film Brokeback Mountain in the introduction of their publication on Queer ecologies. In that analysis they establish several notions, but they also describe the concept of the wilderness in the queer ecological sense and with that also a wilderness notion which denotes of the notion of possible self-discovery in nature. In the case of Brokeback

Mountain “Wilderness is, in this film portrayed as a vast field of homoerotic possibility”

(Mortimer-Sandilands & Erickson 2010, 24). This means that a form of self-discovery is being able to explore that sexuality that, characters Jack and Ennis in Brokeback Mountain, but also

Clarke in Dirty Girl, to a certain extent can explore and figure it out. It is necessary for Clarke, because the sessions at the chiropractor made him believe that he is 65 percent gay and 35 percent straight, which according to his chiropractor can be reversed to be more straight than gay. We are not to assume that anybody is stuck in a certain sexual role, because sexuality can be

‘trans’ and thus fluid. Theorist Myra Hird argues that “we need to resist the temptation to name certain species as queer...[and] consider how we might understand trans in humans, say, from a bacterial perspective” (Hird 2006, 45). Meaning that we should not categorize sexuality in fixed notions and see it as invariable, instead we should understand sexuality as changeable, ‘trans’ or adaptable. This does not mean that a person’s sexuality by definition changes or better said becomes versatile or more open to experimentation and all sorts of interests. With some it can happen and with other it does not. One thing that needs to be clear is that sexuality does not change on command and it should not, it should flow how ever it goes. All sexualities are equal.

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A lot happens during Danielle’s and Clarke’s trip and everything seems to go splendidly, until the car finally breaks down and they find out that Clarke’s father reported his credit card that they were using as stolen. Eventually Clarke’s father captures them as he drove his other car, and he attempts to bring them home with force. The following scene concludes, but also completes Clarke’s self-discovery. While driving back, Clarke provokes his father into pulling the car over to attack him, while he tells Danielle to flee. This is a very altruistic and selfless act, which exhibits a completion of Clarke’s self-discovery as he faces his fear of getting beat up.

Maybe also ironic, since the reason that enabled this trip was him fleeing from his father to avoid getting beat up. Clarke gained a form of ecoqueer sensibility, meaning that he has attained a quality of being able to appreciate and respond to complex emotional or aesthetic influences.

Thus, this constitutes that and ecoqueer sensibility is gained on the road through the wilderness, because of the self-discovery they went through. Their trip has made appreciate queerness and nature which allowed them to develop a new sense in their character which makes them take a stance and defend it.

Biotic community as solution: Allies, wholeness, and inclusion.

Now that the characters have gained an ‘ecoqueer sensibility’ they need to move on to a stage where this sensibility spreads to a level of community. When Timothy Morton mentions environmentalist Aldo Leopold’s notion of a ‘biotic community’ he mentions that “community is a holistic concept” (Morton 2010, 277), which he later on explains as “For the sake of the whole, parts might be left to die—the whole is bigger than their sum, after all” (Morton 2010, 277). This seems to refer to the essence of holism,xxix which means that the parts of a whole are intimately interconnected, and cannot stand separate from it, nor can they be unreferenced from that whole.

This indicates that community is of essence, because if these so-called parts are not connected to that whole it will all fall apart. You could metaphorically compare it to an atom that consists of

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Agard 57 neutrons, protons and electrons that keep each other together, if one of the three would give up, the atom as a ‘whole’ would cease to exist.

Greta Gaard has a very fluid vision of ‘community’; she states “I use ‘community’ to refer to a sense of mutuality and reciprocity (rather than a parochial identification with a particular group)” (Gaard 1993, 45). This signifies of her belief that community should bring all sorts of different humans (lgbtqi, men, women, etc), animals and other beings together to a place of exchange and mutual benefit. That is what the biotic community is about, but what the word

‘biotic’ emphasizes is that this form of community is connected with the natural environment.

Since community means ‘togetherness’ it signifies that there is no community present when not all groups are included and if one part is astray it affects all other parts and the community is lost, because its interconnected.

In the third act Danielle reaches her father, although she finds out that her dad’s wife does not want her husband to meet Danielle. This upsets Danielle, but she will not give up. She battles her way into the garden where she finally meets her father. They have a talk, she finds out that her father has another daughter and that she cannot stay. She returns home completely devastated, but she soon adjusts to her reality, although she misses her best friend Clarke. In the last scene of the film Danielle takes part in a talentshow and stands alone on stage, about to break down while singing a song that makes her cry, because she misses Clarke with whom she would rather sing a duet on stage. Luckily for her Clarke enters the talent show hall and they continue to sing together. This scene actually depicts that the protagonists did not just achieve the notion of a

‘biotic community’, but they also maintain it and continue to act on it. As Clarke goes on the stage we see his mother taking a seat next to Danielle’s mother, they give each other a friendly kiss on the cheek. Although they have not seen each other in a while, their notion of mutualityxxx remains. Mortimer-Sandilands states the following:

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Bulldozing the trees or pulling up the undergrowth in a downtown park can be as much a

threat to the public expression of gay male culture as it is to urban nature, and polluting a

beach that acts as a center for outdoor lesbian activity can destroy both biotic and social

communities (Sandilands 2001, 175).

In the third act we do not see any forms of destruction, the entire world seems normalized. as seen through the colorful wide shots of an audience that is respectful and seems to enjoy listening to the singing of the main characters. It seems like the entire community is in balance, no visible hatred towards different sexualities or against self-willed women. Mortimer-Sandilands does remind us to how the world of these characters would look like if the oppressions had continued, imbalanced. In the beginning of the film the situation was different; it was far from a biotic community. The protagonists had been living in a broken society, everybody lived separate lives and there was no unity, which causes isolations that on their turn cause complications as nobody is in tune with their environment, both ecological and socially. The protagonists were ‘parts’ that were able to fix themselves in order to be a good functioning asset to the ‘whole’. Danielle’s and

Clarke’s community was destroyed on a social level, because of oppressive regimes stemming from particular religious rhetoric and culturally embedded patriarchal notions.

The protagonists did not only change the environment around them, but they also took on the issues within them. Clarke learned to embrace his nature (sexual orientation), his attraction to men. Danielle learned that it is not needed to discriminate, designate and dump. Sex is not the most important thing and she does not have to prove herself. To continue on Sandilands argument, she means to say that in this case the relationship of the protagonists with their nature was off, therefore their social lives were off. Now that they fixed it and are in tune with themselves, their nature is in tune with them again. This is how their symbiotic relation is formed with nature, they feed of each other and are connected in a balanced way. Which proves of the interconnectedness of parts that combined together represent the ‘whole’ that is their “biotic

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Agard 59 community”. Although they have not fully achieved their dreams, they achieved to be in a state of full appreciation. Danielle does not get to be with her father and Clarke still goes to a military camp, but their mothers fought for them so that they all can enjoy living in a normalized, naturalized (non-hateful) environment.

Conclusion: a naturalized world

This chapter firstly verified that otherness and unnaturalness are similarly seen as deviant and it also proved that the tendency to classify people with a different sexuality as ‘unnatural’ is misplaced. First of all, because the argument on their side is that such deviant sexualities go against nature, while there are plenty examples of so-called deviant sexualities happening amongst animals and other organisms in nature. Next to that, it became clear that because of the similarities between Danielle and Clarke’s oppression, they began to recognize their resemblances.

The discussion taught that ‘others’ (or so-called ‘unnaturals’) can view each other as ‘others’ as well. What this chapter did convey though is that it is easier for an ‘other’ to recognize the oppressions that another ‘other’ (or so-called ‘unnatural’) goes through. It could maybe sound a little hypocritical because it does mean that it is about recognizing similar characteristics in other people to come to the conclusion that he or she are alike. Which is what dominating groups in the form of ‘self’ have been doing all along. Then again it is important to recognize yourself in others, but it is about the extent, it needs to be deeper and it needs to go across barriers such as physical likenesses or small group confinements. Danielle and Clarke may recognize their resemblances, but they are not exactly the same. First of all, Danielle is a woman and straight, second, Clarke is a man and gay. They succeed at surpassing these differences and extend

‘selfness’ to other groups as humanity should do to all ‘othered’ groups (whether human, animal or plant) which leads to the world becoming a whole.

The trip in the American wilderness presents itself to be a fight against the oppressions that

Danielle and Clarke had to deal with daily. Their escape allows them to be alone on the road,

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Agard 60 which causes them to bond even more and to find out how similar they are as they share the same goals. Danielle who did not want to do anything with Clarke, because of his ‘gayness’, which in her opinion rendered him unuseful, completely changed. So much that she even encourages Clarke to explore his sexuality. It exemplified of an understanding and that she was able to set aside her feelings or earlier thoughts, but it also shows that she was able to tell herself that her goals are important, but the goals of ‘others’ or giving the opportunity to someone else’s development would not stand in the way of reaching her own goal. This is a selfless act that came from gaining an ‘ecoqueer sensibility’. It involves consideration, appreciation (Danielle appreciates her mother much more than in the beginning) and formulating a ‘symbiotic response’ to the complex situations in front of them. It is interesting, because they simplified these complex situations that others, especially the ones who cause oppression, cannot get over with. This sensibility does not confine to the main characters, which is beautiful because it spread onto their mothers. Having an ‘ecoqueer sensibility’ thus means that one is to explore their feelings, and stand for what is right. They essentially enter a stage of activism, as the mothers quickly decided that it is best to fight for their children’s well-being. Whether it has to do with bringing them home safely or divorcing a husband to get rid of a reign of terror in one’s household, an

‘ecoqueer sensibility’ causes action, because of the newly gained insight.

Now that the characters have control of the situation and gained an insight on higher perspectives, they become part of a ‘biotic community’ as they have become more in tune with their surroundings and thus their community. Two characters who had nothing to do with each other before in life have become friends and allies in their fight against their oppressions. The same counts for their mothers, who did not know each other before. Even though, they might not have become the best friends ever. They still have a mutual understanding for each other.

Such an understanding is a part of the whole, meaning if the whole world achieved this status the whole world would be a better place, which is more in balance with its nature.

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In the end, this analysis brought to the fore that ‘otherness’ and ‘(un)naturalness’, are comparatively similar, because they both constitute what the dominant groups see as different, abnormal, inferior and as beings that are in desperate need to abide to patriarchal notions. An

‘ecoqueer sensibility’ represented an insight gained after they bonded, discovered their similarities and learned new tricks, which naturalizes them internally. The ‘biotic community’ serve as a catalyst that precipitates a naturalizing effect to the complication at hand.

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Conclusion II. Concluding the road movie’s ecocritical make up.

This dissertation sought out to prove that a woman in a genre that is commonly known as a masculine and man’s genre is able to achieve a variety of objectives through several different paths. Whereas men from a patriarchal standpoint would not consider nature to be the place for a woman, much less even experience something that is remotely near a self-discovery in nature.

What the film analyses in this thesis proved, is that these patriarchal presumptions are incorrect.

This is based on the ‘Road Movie’ genre examinations, ecological theories and the films that gave these women an accommodation in which a woman’s capabilities, achievements and basically ways of disproving negative patriarchal presumptions, were displayed.

Ridley Scott’s film Thelma & Louise verified that ‘first’ and ‘second’ places can be oppressive territories for women, because of the particular situation that they live in. Thelma’s

‘first’ and ‘second’ places were at home in a small midwestern town with her controlling and disrespectful husband. Next to that the way of life in the town that Thelma and Louise come from is dominated by men who can easily get away with anything that they do against women.

George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road substantiated that ‘self/other dualism’ acts as an source of inspiration for oppressive regimes stemming from male culture. This form of dualism arranges

‘others’ in a pyramidical formation that devalues them in ranking and importance in comparison with men and the ones who are referred to as the ‘self’. With this men justify their reign and that women are to benefit them in the way they desire, which is oppressive. Abe Sylvia’s Dirty Girl compared self/other dualistic notions, specifically ‘otherness’ and ‘(un)naturalness’, as two patriarchal notions that are used by dominant heteronormative groups to emphasize that being different than them different, is seen as being abnormal, inferior and not natural. They oppress

‘others’ and force them to abide to patriarchal notions.

These oppressions caused women to escape their oppressive ‘homes’ in hopes to find solace somewhere else. They all used nature’s wilderness as a place to escape to. Thelma and

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Louise experienced wilderness as their ‘third space’, which gave them the opportunity for self- development to contemplate their lives and look at their problems from an outside perspective. It helped them to get insightful skills and the self-confidence to fight back. In Furiosa’s case, the wilderness provided the chance to challenge nature in a more harmonious way. By wisely and respectfully taking on every nature obstacle, and by looking for a green safe haven, Furiosa discovered an insight that regards the idea of ‘earth others’, which represents nature and non- humans, next to Furiosa and her group who are considered ‘others’. Becoming one with nature propounds equality for all humans and non-humans. For Danielle and Clarke the wilderness presented to be a place where they bonded, discovered their similarities and learned new tricks, which naturalized them internally. Finally, they gained an ‘ecoqueer sensibility’ which is the insight they gained in the wilderness and it allows them to attain a quality of being able to appreciate and respond to complex emotional or aesthetic influences.

Eventually, their newly gained insights made them take action to make use of new solutionary notions that helps them to communicate what their stance is or establishes a better world to live in. A ‘sense of place’ and ‘planet’ meant for Thelma and Louise that they could communicate their stance. These notions presented the chance to fight back, not just for themselves, but for the sake of all women as they do not surrender to men even though they lost their lives it was all for a cause greater than themselves. Furiosa and her ‘fellowship’ discovered that they can use the key idea of a ‘global democratic community’ to their benefit to extricate themselves of self/other dualistic inspired regimes and start a new and fairer regime build on equality. Lastly, in the case of Danielle and Clarke the ‘biotic community’ precipitated a naturalizing effect to themselves, their parents and their surroundings. It meant in their situation to appreciate the good things that have come from their experience in the wilderness, to gain the respect they deserve and to change their lives by being able to remove their greatest patriarchal antagonist.

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This dissertation demonstrated that the scholarly fields of Ecocriticism, Ecofeminism,

Queer ecology and ‘Road Movie’ genre theory definitely harbour notions that conjoin and shed light on each other as they are aligned in a sort of cause and effect trajectory in which women and lgbtqi persons are set on a path escapism, self-discovery and ultimate liberation. The main argument that this thesis posited is that ‘Road Movie’ women and lgbtqi persons desperately attempt to escape oppressions based on notions such as ‘first and second space’, ‘self/other dualism’ and so-called ‘sexual unnaturalness’, because these areas do not present to be safe, fair, just or equal at all. Remember if those presumed notions were natural examples of things are supposed to be, it would have meant that they could rejoice in these oppressions, but they cannot. Just like in most road films the road through the wilderness appears to be an area of self- discovery to escape to and where they gain ecologically inspired insights based on the notions of a ‘third space’, ‘earth others’ and an ‘ecoqueer sensibility’. In essence, their development (a sort of in-between stage) steers them into a particular direction to find the knowledge and skills needed to continue to the next stage. It becomes time to face their oppressive obstacles and thanks to solutionary notions such as a ‘sense of place/planet’, a ‘global democratic community’ and a

‘biotic community’ they can overthrow the old patriarchal and dualistic ways in order to establish something new, closer to nature and much more equal to any species on earth.

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Notes i “Masculinity” Oxford dictionaries. Web. “Possession of the qualities traditionally associated with men” (this word will be used more often throughout the thesis. It will not always be used from a theoretical perspective, but at times just from the prespective of its dictionary definition). ii Self-discovery is theoretically a broad field that would need specific elucidation. Although in this thesis it will only be specified to more specific notions, such as ‘third space’, a notion which will be explicated later on. iii “Nature” Oxford dictionaries. Web. “The phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations”. iv With a few exceptions, Russ Meyer’s Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) and Steven Spielberg’s The Sugarland Express (1974). v In the 90’s, feminist and New Queer Cinema (NQC) road films contested male heteronormativityv by naturalizing gender and queer sexualities. After 2000 the short-lived ‘NQC’ movement ceased to be. Feminist films did continue to appear, but only sporadically. Women’s and lgbtqi road film experiences are not as abundant and seem to be conjoined in a crisis caused by male heteronormative dominance. vi “Ecology” Oxford dictionaries. Web. “The branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings”, “The political movement concerned with protection of the environment”. Origin: Late 19th century (originally as oecology): from Greek oikos house + -logy. vii As nature is a very broad concept I’d like to specify (mainly to avoid confusion) that nature generally refers to the definition expounded in footnote number 3, and I do not try to attempt to make an overt connection to Timothy Morton’s ‘Nature’with a capital N. Although it might feel like that at times, but that is mainly because the imagery in the case studies clearly display a point of view that Morton accuses humanity of. He says, “Putting something called Nature on a pedestal and admiring it from afar does for the environment what patriarchy does for the figure of women” (Morton 2007, 5), meaning that we abuse nature to our own benefit, even when we think we are doing something great for nature. viii With essentialism is meant that, whether you are heterosexual or an lgbtqi person, male or female, black or white, they each have their own traditional characteristics. ix This thesis shall continuously include all sexualities, referred to as ‘straight’ and ‘lgbtqi’, because of the following reasons. If I only focus on heterosexual women, how wouldn’t there be a level of hypocracy in my arguments that argue the dominance of heterosexual men over women in general? I’d be excluding ‘others’ and this thesis should regards all women. Not all women are straight, whether it is overtly obvious or not. x Although Rick Altman, a genre theorist, researched what a genre entails on a global level –without specifically researching the Road Movie genre itself- in his publication Film/Genre (1999). His theoretic consultation is one that cannot be missed in any research that regards genre theory. To add some definition to the understanding that we should have of the ‘Road Movie’genre, Altman mentions that the ‘Road Movie’ is rather a new film genre (Altman 1999, 140), a result from the ‘genrification process’ (a term used by Altman, not to be confused with the word ‘gentrification’). This means that genres are borrowed from “existing other media” and other inspirational sources (140). On another note, Altman also states that “genre films share certain fundamental characteristics” (24). Obviously the fact that road films mostly take place on the road, there is always a trip on the road involved, but more importantly the ‘Road Movie’ has “repeated and similar encounters that make the middle of the film” (25). Think here of the self-discovery that the main characters experience outside of urban areas, the shootout or robbery scene, or the intimate love scene or the antagonist who keeps tracking the protagonists. xi This mixture of ecocriticism and genre theory is intriguing to the point that it should be argued that the necessary genre theory should be referred to as ‘Ecocritical Road Movie genre theory’ (a term never coined by its conceiver, Patrick Brereton), because solely standard ‘Road Movie’ genre theory would not be sufficient. xii “Dualism” Oxford dictionaries. Web. “The division of something conceptually into two opposed or contrasted aspects, or the state of being so divided” For example: “a dualism between man and nature”.

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xiii The ‘self’ being a person who equates him better than the ‘other’, based on the notion that the ‘other’ lacks characteristics that the ‘self’ owns and regards as better. In essence the ‘other’ is the one oppressed and finds embodiment in the notion of ‘otherness’. xiv Genre theorist Rick Altman confirms in his book Film/Genre (1999) that there is such a thing as a ‘buddy film’. He says, “Thelma and Louise crossed the buddy film with the road movie” (Altman 1999, 141). Here he discusses that the film industry, in particular Hollywood, experiments with the mixing of genres as a postmodern solution to shift from the classical genres to cater new ideas to their audience. xv The ‘Road Movie’ genre has been criticized for having a preference to men as protagonists, with often women as companions for sex relief and other generalizing film roles (one example is the so-called ‘jezebel’ type of woman, which often feels like it is used to tell the story of men that were persuaded by this bad-apple-type of woman, as a sory of subliminal underlying message). Another role that women have often played in this genre is that of being the damsel in distress, the one that needs rescuing and stereotypically she would fall in love with her ‘male’ savior. xvi “deterritorialization” Oxford dictionaries. Web. See works cited. “The severance of social, political, or cultural practices from their native places and populations”. xvii The first film actually shows less of an environmentally unstable world. The visual presence of is more overtly present as from the second film and so on. xviii The reformist strategy refers to temporary solutions, the ones that do not go back to the root in order to try solve the world’s problems. To elucidate, as it is stated in the text, all problems –whether environmental, war, pollution, oppression of women and people of other ethnicities and so on- are eventually when you go back into time connected to each other. Dualism and patriarchy are broad and big terms, which are not per se the main focus of this thesis, but they do helps us understand where the problem comes from. Essentially duality and patriarchy – a social system of a reign by one single group of sameness, men- caused it to be normal to have a group that rules all ‘others’ based on struggles for power with as reward to take and get what ever that powerful group (or groups) desires. There is no or hardly any giving back. xix It should be stressed that this does not pertain to all men. The film will also display that, but one must imagine that in a world where your gender gives you power over ‘others’, most would succumb to the seduction that power has over people and species. Although in a time such in the 21st century there are many men whose eyes may be opened in the sense that they set out to respect others. There are still other men who fare by the old ways. And if this current culture would disappear, the strongest might take over again and a severer form of patriarchy might return. xx Green, refers to nature, wilderness and relations to concepts in balance with the environment. That is why Furiosa refers to a ‘green’ place, that she remembers from when she was little. It is a fertile place where they will be safe and will be able to take care of themselves. xxi You could almost say that these women speak as one entity, maybe even ‘mother earth’ herself, because they overtly express that mothers can heal the world and that men killed the world. xxii It is interesting to note that it is the group of women who spared Nux’s life and they also told him several truths about Immortan Joe –for example that he is a liar and that he does not care about the lives of his soldiers- which Nux discovered to be true. xxiii It is true that the notion of women having to be very poised, charming, neat, sweet and lovely was a lot more present in the earlier half of the twentieth century. This has been slowly whithering away, but sometimes, and it differs per culture and country, there are still some stereotypical notions present that men or society expects to be a trait that women should have. xxiv “Matriarchic” Oxford dictionaries. Web. “Of or of the nature of a matriarch; characterized by matriarchy; matriarchal.” xxv Sandilands often goes back to even neolithic times, but she also examines Native American tribes who were often matriarchies.

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xxvi “Symbiosis” Oxford dictionaries. Web. “Interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both”. Although, they are not organism in the microbial sense, I mean to refer moreso to the fact that they are two human beings in close proximity, who discover their similarities and they both benefit from each other because of the closeness that they grew into. xxvii The mere fact that there are hardly definitions to be found in dictionaries, but also since Mortimer Sandilands coined the term about years ago, whereas you would find a definition for Ecofeminism, which is a scholarly field that has existed quite longer. xxviii In the film it is clearly stated that he is a chiropractor. Although it seems unfitting. xxix “Holism” Oxford dictionaries. Web. “The theory that parts of a whole are in intimate interconnection, such that they cannot exist independently of the whole, or cannot be understood without reference to the whole, which is thus regarded as greater than the sum of its parts. Holism is often applied to mental states, language, and ecology”. Origin: 1920s: from holo- ‘whole’+ -ism; coined by J. C. Smuts to designate the tendency in nature to produce organized ‘wholes’ (bodies or organisms) from the ordered grouping of units. xxx “Mutuality” Oxford dictionaries. Web. “The sharing of a feeling, action, or relationship between two or more parties” For example: “co-operation has been based on the principle of mutuality”.

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Filmography

Brokeback Mountain. Dir. Ang Lee. Perf. Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, Michelle Williams, Randy Quaid, Linda Cardellini, Anna Faris. Focus Features (USA, Canada), September 2nd, 2005. Film.

Dirty Girl. Dir. Abe Sylvia. Perf. Juno Temple, MillaJovovich, William H. Macy, Mary Steenburgen, Dwight Yoakam, Jeremy Dozier, Maeve Quinlan, Tim MGraw. Serendipity Point Films, The Weinstein Company (USA), September 12th, 2010. Film.

Mad Max: Fury Road. Dir. George Miller. Perf. CharlizeTheron, Tom Hardy, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Roadshow Films, Warner Bros. Pictures (AUS/USA), May 7th, 2015. Film.

Thelma & Louise.Dir. Ridley Scott.Perf.Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Harvey Keitel. Metro Goldwyn-Mayer (USA), May 24th, 1991. Film.

Boys on the Side. Dir. Herbert Ross. Perf. Whoopi Goldberg, Mary-Louise Parker, Drew Barrymore. Warner Brothers, 1995. Film.

Grand Canyon. Dir. Lawrence Kasdan.Perf. Dany Glover, Kevin Kline, Steve Martin, Mary McDonnell, Mary-Louise Parker, Alfre Woodard. 20th Century Fox, 1991. Film.

Gun Crazy. Dir. Joseph H. Lewis. Perf. Peggy Cummins, John Dall. United Artists, 1950. Film.

Electronic sources (web publications) Oxford dictionaries. Web. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/

The Green Fuse/topics. Web. (never referenced, just a read to form my understanding. http://www.thegreenfuse.org/ecofem.htm

Nature Critical Word Press. Web. (references to publications and information, which I used). https://naturecritical.wordpress.com/queer-ecology-queer-ecocriticism-reading-list/

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