Whatever Happened to Green Feminism?

Just doing some Googling, I found a very interesting article published in Zmag - a pub that I have a lot of respect for. The article was published in March, 1996. The article is, quite simply, atrocious, and should not have been published in Zmag. Not only are the ideas expressed in the article unseemly, they're also speciously supported, at best. This is not quality work, and does not belong in a serious publication. I won't dissect the article in detail, unless someone challenges me to do so - it'll just be a lesson in S & M.

First, we start with some history:

The trouble with being a founding member of anything is that you always remember the intentions of those founding meetings and the words you wrote down to guide you.

A founder?! We found a founder?! Impossible! The birth of the U.S. Green Party is shrouded in mystery and secrecy, and I'm starting to see why - nobody wants to cop to it!

I always found green feminism to be particularly inviting. Indeed, green feminism used to be known as “post-patriarchal values” but we changed the name to feminism because we felt nothing good could come from the word “patriarchy.”

Nothing good could come of using the word 'patriarchy', so y'all decided to use a word that all people would love - feminism? Jeezoo! At various times of my life I've lived in a bubble of sorts - not getting out much - not reading the newspapers - stuff like that, but never in a million years could I have conceived of using such an incendiary word and hoping that anything good could come of it. This 'Green Zone' thinking is, as I've pointed out numerous times on this blog, all too common in the Green Party. You thought Rethugs don't get out much? Try attending a Green Party meeting.

This information, however, comports with what Charlene Spretnak told me, expressing surprise that 'post-patriarchy' had been changed to 'feminism'. So, at least I'm starting to get a picture of how the Green Party was hijacked here in the United States.

Not enough women in the Green Party of California? The party that began with roughly one man to every three women is now lucky if it sees one woman to every seven men.

Exactly as I suspected. How in the world, I thought, did they ram this 'Feminism' thing into the Ten Key Values statement? There's part of our answer - numbers. Basically, a bunch of feminists got together to start a new party - the U.S. version of the Green Party - and they tried to co-opt the mission of the worldwide green and Green Party movement to fit their own agenda - feminism. Gosh, that pisses me off.

There are a few of books that address the U.S. Green Party tangentially, but no direct accounts yet. We need this history. The Green Party should sponsor a book on itself. Even if it is lobsided, it'll be better than nothing.