Dr. Marti Kheel (f):  The world isn’t simply an aggregate of objects out there, inanimate matter,
it’s living, it’s sacred. As we see nature having subjectivity, we treat nature with respect.

HOST: Halo open-minded viewers, and welcome to Enlightening Entertainment on Supreme Master
Television.  Today’s program features an in-depth discussion by Dr. Marti Kheel, a modern American
philosopher and the author of the insightful book, “Nature Ethics: An Ecofeminist Perspective.”

Dr. Kheel draws connections in modern society among animal abuse, environmental crisis, inequality, and escalating health costs, to urge for a new way of seeing our fellow human and animal co-inhabitants and the natural environment.

Her work encourages an inclusive and holistic way of life driven by empathy and care as the solution for a harmonious world.

Dr. Marti Kheel received her doctor’s degree in religious studies from the Theological Union.
A longtime vegan, her love for animals led her to found the organization Feminists for Animal Rights in 1982.
Currently, she is a visiting scholar in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at University of California, Berkeley, USA.

Her eloquent articles have been widely published in journals and anthologies both within the United States and abroad. Dr. Kheel begins by explaining the meaning of ecofeminism.

Marti Kheel(f):  The term ecofeminism was coined in 1974 by a French woman named Françoise d'Eaubonne, although it seems to have arisen independently at a number of locations at approximately the same time.

And at the broadest level it refers to the idea that the devaluation of women and nature has gone hand in hand in Western patriarchal society.

Ecofeminists connect the devaluation of women and nature with other forms of abuse.
What they look at is a series of dualisms, between reason and emotion; conscious, unconscious; good, evil;  and male, female. So the first half of that dualism is considered superior and the second is considered the inferior one.

And there is this idea that the inferior exists to serve the needs of the superior part of the dualism.  We see examples of this. In terms of the treatment of animals on factory farms, where animals' bodies are literally living machines for the reproduction of flesh or the reproduction of offspring.

And we see examples of that in the way in which wilderness is viewed as something that needs to be cleared to give way to civilization.

In other examples, our myths and literature are bound with images of the evil that needs to be conquered by this hero.  Then we see examples in modern-day society, and the recreation of this conquest through hunting, rodeos, bull fights.

HOST: Dr. Kheel’s realization started with helping a stray kitten look for a home, through which she was exposed to the grief of animals in all aspects of cruelty inflicted on them every day.  

Dr. Marti Kheel’s book, “Nature Ethics:
An Ecofeminist Perspective,” is available at martikheel.com and Amazon.com