On "Green" Consumerism

Environmental Privatization and "Family Values"

La consommation verte fait partie d'une able among the misrepresentations on the tendance vers la privatisation de Green market. But what is being sold in green l'environnement en ce que les politiques consumerism is not a product but a feel- environnementales sont de plus en plus consumerism ing. My favourite example is baking soda: rkduites aux activitks de l'individu et de la masks its where once it was marketedas a deodorizer sphLre domestique. Non seulement cette for your refrigerator, kitchen drains or cat tendance est-elle problkmatique pour market-driven litter box, it is now being sold as "an les kcologistes - les problbmes origins under a thick alternative to harsh chemical products." environnementaux requi&rent &S solu- layer of morality Better yet, the package says that, by buy- tions plus complexes+nais elle est ing this product, you are a person who destructrice pour les fkministes car elle packaging. "cares about the environment." This is encourage &S valeurs trbs conservatrices lifestyle advertising at its finest: where sur la famille et les rdles sexuels. consumers once waged war on dirt, we forests, or that have been chlorine bleached can now buy peace with Mother Nature. If you've been to a supermarket recently, at the expense of entire ecosystems; peo- When we buy "natural" or "chemical free" then you'll have noticed a distinct trend ple are increasingly more willing to pur- or "organic" products, we can now, it is toward the "greening" of consumer prod- chase organic, or energy-conserving, or implied, feel secure that we've done our ucts. Where once we may have been en- recycled goods, to change what they buy part toward environmental cleanup. ticed to purchase ornately-packaged toi- in order to demonstrate and foster envi- Green consumerism is, actually, an let bowl cleaners that foamed bright pink ronmental responsibility. And certainly, oxymoron. If the adjective "green" has and left a lingering aroma supposedly the consumer has some power to change any meaning at all, it includes reference to reminiscent of roses, we now find rather what gets produced: market research has the systemic problems of over-produc- austere, recyclable bottles of "cruelty suggested that consumers are, in some tion and over-consumption; the point of a free," "all-purpose," vinegar-based house- cases, willing to pay more for "ecologi- "green" politics should be to show how hold cleaners. Where once paper towels cally safe" products, which means that consumerism is, itself, part of the prob- came in a variety of different colour corporations are considerably more likely lem. The implications of this stance are schemes to match any kitchen decor, there to produce them.l potentially wide-ranging; at the very least, is now a distinct emphasis on brown But, as a whole, green consumerism however, "green" means consuming less (whether or not that brown actually means masks more problems than it solves. Be- for the affluent, not just consuming differ- unbleached). And where once packaging yond the problem of regulation (meaning ently.2 Ironically, perhaps, the creation of highlighted words like "easy" or "extra- that the labels "green" or "natural" or these new green commodities may even strength" or "deodorant" or "instant ac- "organic" should actually refer in some exacerbate the problem; they represent an tion," there is now at least equal priority precise way to the contents of the pack- expanding market in a recession-tom given to words like "natural" or "biode- age: at present, they do not), "green" economy, a space for the development of gradable" or, best of all, "environmen- consumerism is part of a process of envi- new products to keep overproduction and tally friendly." ronmental privatization. This process is overconsumption alive. The phenomenon of green consumer- problematicfor both environmentalistand Green consumerism masks its market- ism certainly reflects some sort of aware- feminist politics: environmental privati- driven origins under a thick layer of mo- ness of environmental issues: people are zation depoliticizes environmental prob- rality-packaging: "if you buy this prod- increasingly less willing to purchase goods lems, and does so in the company of a very uct, you can help to save the world." that have been developed at the expense conservative notion of gender. Through this packaging, "green" prod- of small animals' lives, that have been There are, doubtless, many truly or- ucts attempt to elevate the act of buying wrapped at the expense of old-growth ganic or biodegradable products avail- into some sort of moral or political act,

VOLUME 13, NUMBER 3 45 even though buying is actually part of the shifts the burden of responsibility onto a moment. Look at the language: "kinder problem, and even though the act of con- individuals and households, and away to nature," "environmentally friendly," suming could hardly be said to be an act of from states, corporations, and global po- even "safe." These are images aimed at salvation (although, "salvation through litical arrangements. The privatization of women, at motherhood, at the "family." consumption" is certainly part of the pack- environmental change undermines both Green consumerism in particular, and age we are being sold). But the represen- collective and individual resistance; it environmental privatization in general, tation is very powerful in the context of a turns politics into actions such as squash- have a particular impact on women: it is projected environmental crisis: the sup- ing tin cans, morality into not buying women's "traditional" terrain that gets overpackaged elevated as the apex of environmental muffins, and envi- behaviour. On the surface, this may seem ronmentalism into a positive step: a revalorization of wom- •- If environmentalism is seen as taking your own en's work, of "maternal" behaviour. But cloth bag to the there is also a downside: if environmen- • household behaviour, then it is grocery store. talism is increasingly seen as household : women's lives that come under None of these ac- behaviour, then it is women's lives that : the most intense scrutiny as the tions challenges come under the most intense scrutiny as • capitalist eco- the new private ecological morality comes new private ecological morality nomic growth: into focus. And it is also a very particular . - c3 . comes into focus. none of these ac- conception of "women" and "the family" tions makes pub- that gets invoked. lic or collective or Let me give you an example. In a recent co-operative the advertisement "selling" nuclear power (of position is that people feel the need to do process of ecological restoration; none of all things), a kindly grandfather (mother- something, and that green consumerism these actions provokes a serious examina- substitute) explains to his concerned offers them an avenue of contribution. tion of the social relations and structures granddaughter (well-informed for a four- Green products sell a lifestyle that is that have brought about our current crisis. year-old) how nuclear power does not described by such words as "responsibil- Rather, the idea that these actions are part cause acid rain or global warming @re- ity," and that includes such activities as of "saving the earth" would seem to turn sumably, granddaughter can't yet pro- reducing, reusing, andrecycling.Although attention away from subversive, collec- nounce "uranium tailings"), how the frag- these latter actions might at least make tive, or public solutions. ile tree they have planted together in an people think about the legacy of In short, environmental politics are not, orgy of familial bonding requires this overconsumption (landfills, leaching, air and cannot be, simply a question of life- "clean" energy in order to survive. Subti- and water pollution, etc.), they are indi- style. Yet they are fast becoming en- tle: nuclear power for nuclear families. vidual changes, personal decisions, ac- trenched in the private sphere; indeed, It is no accident that "family values" are tivities that tend to be incorporated fairly they are taking the shape of a progres- invoked to sell continuedcapitalist growth unproblematically into daily household sively more intrusive moral code at the in an environmental context that cannot routines without other significantchanges, expense of sustained political critique. I stand such growth, and in a social context and without planting the seeds of broader could give you numerous examples: the in which the nuclear family is subject to social or environmental transformation. person who took up half an hour at the intense critique by feminists. Both "the In this process by which "the environ- meeting of a radical environmental or- environment" and "the family" are hot ment" becomes a question of lifestyle, it ganization to berate a participant for not political items: they are contested ter- becomes depoliticized; it becomes a pri- using recycled paper; the all-candidates' rains, subject to ideological appropriation vate matter, something that people feel "environment" meeting for the 1992 To- by both the left and the right. And where they are helping in their daily lives, even ronto mayoral race, at which the most it is possible to see what an emancipatory though their daily lives have changed heavily weighted question surrounded the project that deals with both issues might little, and even though social and eco- candidates' personal use of water-saving look like (as pictured in some good nomic relations destructive to the envi- showerheads, public transit, and insula- "ecofeminist" analysis), environmental ronment remain fundamentally intact. tion, and not their proposed policies on privatization and green consumerism are Environmentalism is not simply a ques- water quality, air pollution, or energy steps in the wrong direction. tion of personal change; reducing, reus- conservation. No matter how much one The whole project of environmental ing, recycling, and buying "green" prod- might speak about setting an example, or privatization-from "green" products to ucts are not, in our current context, politi- about the interrelationships between per- blue boxes-relies heavily on a privileging cal activities. At best, such isolated ac- sonal and public life, there is no question of the household, especially in these re- tions forestall the inevitability of radical that environmental politics is, in many cession-ridden, supposedly "homeward- change to sociaVenvironrnenta1relations; ways, being subtly reduced to activity in looking" times. It is in the household, the at worst, these actions, however well- the private sphere. private sphere, traditionally women's ter- intentioned, are part of the problem. The But how is any of this a feminist con- rain, that individual change is seen to privatization of environmental change cern? Let's go back to green products, for occur; unfortunately, what is offered as

46 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESILES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME change is only minor alteration, well within ily, the children, the future. Here, we see servative assumptions about women and the parameters of the market, and well the valorization of women's activities in a the family; the idea of green consumerism within the confines of patriarchal con- single sphere of human existence, the as, somehow, a responsibleeveryday prac- structions of women. family, as separate from, but equal to, the tice for women subtly reinforces the idea For the earth-conscious woman, "pro- activities of men in the public sphere of that women's political place is in the tecting the children" means giving up paid work and politics. By valorizing the home. Thus, green consumerism, and the some of the supposedly labour-saving household as the primary locus of change, environmental privatization of which it is devices purchased in the greedy 1980s the trend toward environmental privatiza- a part, is a process that feminists and and buying new ones (composters and tion ends up earthworm farms, perhaps, in addition to reifying a very biodegradable cleaners and recycled pa- conservative (not per towels). But household labour also to mention white The trend toward environmental -! becomes intensified in the environment- and middle-class) privatization reifies a very friendly household: it takes work to flat- notion of woman- : ten the tin cans, sort the garbage, forsake hood, as if this con- conservative (not to mention f the clothes dryer, and scrub with baking ceptOfwoman whiteandmiddle-class) notionof soda rather than let the "tiny scrubbers" were an ideal to- • do it for you. This labour is, of course, ward which all en- womanhood, as an ideal toward unpaid. vironmentally- which all women should aspire. : Failure to comply with these green rules concerned women puts women in particular danger of trans- should aspire. gressing the new eco-moral code of "re- It is clearly the sponsible" household behaviour. To be case that "traditional" women's activities environmentalists should be challenging; "environmentally friendly," to be "kinder may, in some instances, act as a basis for although its face may seem environmen- to nature," requires the use of "green" politicization: one needonly thinkof Love tally friendly and woman-positive, its products, requires recycling, requires the Canal, and the struggles of women like implications are anything but. intensification of household labour. In hisGibbs, who found her concerns as a mainstream "environmental friendliness" mother transformed into critical environ- Catriona (Kate) Sandilands is a doctoral campaigns, none of these requirements mental activism, and eventually feminism, candidate and course director in the De- are located in a process of rethinking through the crisis caused by toxic waste partment of Sociology, York University. household labour, or rethinking the rela- disposal. It is not the case that environ- Despite it all, she usually buys biodegrad- tionship between the family and other mental privatization, or emphasis on indi- able detergent. social relations (even if it's men who do vidual or household change, or green con- the recycling). Instead, there is only a sumerism, somehow foster such politics. l~hichclearly demonstrates the class catharsis, a feeling that living by this new Instead, the progressive atomization of bias of "green consumerism," a problem "kinder to nature" code means something environmental awareness, combined with that this article will not address, but a significant to saving the world for the a forceful use of strongly conservative significant problem indeed for both envi- children, something that springs "natu- representations of gender, would seem to ronmentalist and feminist politics. rally" from women's supposedly tradi- work against both environmentalist and 2~tis worth noting, here, that "consuming tional behaviours. feminist politics. In the case of Love Ca- less" is still inadequate as a political strat- It's not simply that the "environment- nal, women took their "maternal" con- egy; not only does it remain strongly friendly household" gives women a false cerns from the household to the state (and, private and highly individualized, but it sense of security while at the same time in doing so, clearly transcended the fails to address problems of distribution. stimulating consumerism and unpaid boundaries of their "traditional" activi- Try telling a woman on welfare with three household labour. Instead, the ways in ties);environmentalprivatizationsuggests children to "consume less," let alone to which traditional "mothering" roles are that you can "save the earth" without ever "buy green." The fact of any individual's invoked work to the detriment of much leaving the limited realm of the private consumption is not the problem; the prob- feminist politics. The image of the protec- sphere. lem is an economic system that is depend- tive mother, buying "kinder" products for Good intentions notwithstanding, the ent on the expansion of consumer mar- the health of her family (a haven in a label "green" has become a marketing kets. heartless world), is entirely consistentwith tool, a word to sell continued capitalist a neo-conservative agenda of gender and growth, a label for the status quo. Green the family. It is not just that women care consumerism is part of a process by which more about the family, or that they are, environmentalism is being reduced to a somehow, more likely to notice its health question of lifestyle, by which it is be- problems. Indeed, it is also women's re- coming privatized and depoliticized.Even sponsibility to care, to increase activity in worse: this environmental privatization the household in order to protect the fam- plays into a whole series of rather con-

VOLUME 13, NUMBER 3