Insurgent Vulnerability and the Carbon Footprint of Gender

Abstract

Gendered stances, styles, practices, and modesof thought permeate the representations of the science of climate change, the activist response to climate change, and modes of consumerism responsible for releasing massive quantities of carbon into the atmosphere. This article critiques two predominant forms of masculinity - the masculinity of aggressive consumption that has increased the carbon footprint of the U.S. and the free-floating, transcendent perspective presented by the official U.S. accounts of climate change. The article argues that a stance of ‘insurgent vulnerability' counters the sense of enclosed imperviousness proffered by both masculinist consumerism and abstract technological perspectives. It concludes with a note of caution about the term ‘vulnerability' which may reinforce gender dichotomies, heteronormativity, and the reduction of the environment to a ‘resource'.