Susan Griffin

Last updated
Susan Griffin
Born (1943-01-26) January 26, 1943 (age 81)
Los Angeles, California, US
Alma mater University of California, Berkeley
Occupations
  • Philosopher
  • essayist
  • playwright
  • poet
Notable workWoman and Nature (1978)

Susan Griffin (born January 26, 1943) [1] is a radical feminist philosopher, essayist and playwright [2] particularly known for her innovative, hybrid-form ecofeminist works.

Contents

Life

Griffin was born in Los Angeles, California, on January 26, 1943, [2] and has resided in California since then. Following her father's death when she was 16, she bounced around the family but was eventually taken into the home and family of noted artist Morton Dimondstein. Her biological family were of Irish, Scottish, Welsh and German ancestry. Having spent a year in a post-War Jewish home, her German heritage wasn't openly spoken of and she initially demonized Germans, but later made several trips to Germany (including to the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp) to reconcile her Jewish and German heritages. [3] [4] She attended the University of California, Berkeley, for two years, then transferred to San Francisco State College, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Creative Writing (1965) and her Master of Arts degree (1973), both degrees under the tutelage of Kay Boyle. [5] She has taught as an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley as well as at Stanford University and California Institute of Integral Studies. [5] Griffin has taught at the California Institute for Integral Studies, Pacifica Graduate Institute, the Wright Institute, and the University of California. [6]

She currently lives in Berkeley, California. [7] Griffin's papers are located at the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, at Harvard University. [8]

Work

Griffin has written 21 books, including works of nonfiction, poetry, anthologies, plays, and a screenplay. [5] Her work has been translated into over 12 languages. Griffin describes her work as "draw[ing] connections between the destruction of nature, the diminishment of women and racism, and trac[ing] the causes of war to denial in both private and public life." [7]

"Rape: The All-American Crime" (1971), an article published in Ramparts, was one of the first publications about rape from a feminist perspective. [9]

Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her (1978) has sold more than 100,000 copies, [5] and draws connections between ecological destruction, sexism, and racism. [7] Considered a form of prose-poetry, this work is believed to have launched ecofeminism in the United States. [5] Griffin attributes her connection to ecofeminism to her upbringing along the Pacific Coast, which she believes cultivated her awareness of ecology. [7]

Griffin articulated her anti-pornography feminism in Pornography and Silence: Culture's Revenge Against Nature (1981). [10] [11] In this work she makes the case that although the pursuit of freedom of speech could lead to a position against the censorship of pornography, the freedom to create pornography leads to a compromise of "human liberation" (since liberation of humankind would include the emancipation of women). She argues that pornography and eros are separate and opposing ideas, with pornography "express[ing] not a yearning for sexual liberation but its opposite, a desire to silence eros." [12] [13] According to Griffin, pornography's origins are rooted in a widespread fear of nature, [11] and pornographic imagery "objectifies and degrades the (usually female) body". [14] This, according to Griffin, teaches women to self-deprecate, and fuels an unhealthy, perverted culture. [11] In contrast, Griffin argues that "real sexual liberation requires a reconciliation with nature, a healing between body and spirit". [11] Critics largely responded to Pornography and Culture with contempt, many complaining that it came off as more of a rant than realistic philosophical discussion. [11] [15]

Awards

Griffin has received a MacArthur grant for Peace and International Cooperation, NEA and Guggenheim Foundation fellowships, and a local Emmy Award for the play Voices. [16] She is featured in the 2014 feminist history film She's Beautiful When She's Angry . [17] She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1993 for A Chorus of Stones: The Private Life of War. [18]

Criticism

Many critics praise Griffin's blunt takes and insights to the role of feminism in every major issue today, while others have criticized her writings for being too convoluted or ranting. Largely, reviews for Griffin's work take opposing views on the intertwining and complicated connections she suggests between the woman and larger worldly issues such as war, disease, pornography, and nature itself. [14] These webs are mirrored in her unique writing style which critics have reflected upon extensively. [14]

In a 1994 review by Carol H. Cantrell, Griffin's Woman and Nature is characterised as "hard to describe. Most of it looks like prose on the page but the thought is fragmented, metaphorical, and discontinuous; there are plenty of stories, but they too are often elliptical and metaphorical." [19] In a review of What Her Body Thought: A Journey into the Shadows, Susan Dion of The Women's Review of Books wrote: "...Griffin is not merely reiterating old themes in feminist scholarship or the history of medicine; rather, she probes, ponders, and suggests different ways of considering many interrelated issues...Griffin's musings and hypotheses are fresh, smart, and instructive, if not always convincing." [20]

Published works

Related Research Articles

<i>Story of O</i> 1954 novel by Pauline Réage

Story of O is an erotic novel written by French author Anne Desclos under the pen name Pauline Réage, with the original French text published in 1954 by Jean-Jacques Pauvert.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Françoise d'Eaubonne</span> French ecofeminist (1920–2005)

Françoise d'Eaubonne was a French author, labour rights activist, environmentalist, and feminist. Her 1974 book, Le Féminisme ou la Mort, introduced the term ecofeminism. She co-founded the Front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire, a homosexual revolutionary alliance in Paris.

Cultural feminism is a term used to describe a variety of feminism that attempts to revalue and redefine attributes culturally ascribed to femaleness. It is also used to describe theories that commend innate differences between women and men.

Diana E. H. Russell was a feminist writer and activist. Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, she moved to England in 1957, and then to the United States in 1961. For the past 45 years she was engaged in research on sexual violence against women and girls. She wrote numerous books and articles on rape, including marital rape, femicide, incest, misogynist murders of women, and pornography. For The Secret Trauma, she was co-recipient of the 1986 C. Wright Mills Award. She was also the recipient of the 2001 Humanist Heroine Award from the American Humanist Association. She was also an organizer of the First International Tribunal on Crimes against Women, in Brussels in March 1976.

Greta Gaard is an ecofeminist writer, scholar, activist, and documentary filmmaker. Gaard's academic work in the realms of ecocriticism and ecocomposition is widely cited by scholars in the disciplines of composition and literary criticism. Her theoretical work extending ecofeminist thought into queer theory, queer ecology, vegetarianism, and animal liberation has been influential within women's studies. A cofounder of the Minnesota Green Party, Gaard documented the transition of the U.S. Green movement into the Green Party of the United States in her book, Ecological Politics. She is currently a professor of English at University of Wisconsin-River Falls and a community faculty member in Women's Studies at Metropolitan State University, Twin Cities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrea Dworkin</span> American feminist writer and activist (1946–2005)

Andrea Rita Dworkin was an American radical feminist writer and activist best known for her analysis of pornography. Her feminist writings, beginning in 1974, span 30 years. They are found in a dozen solo works: nine books of non-fiction, two novels, and a collection of short stories. Another three volumes were co-written or co-edited with US constitutional law professor and feminist activist Catharine A. MacKinnon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Mackey</span> American novelist, poet and academic (born 1945)

Mary Lou Mackey is an American novelist, poet, and academic. She is the author of eight collections of poetry and fourteen novels, including the New York Times best-seller A Grand Passion and The Village of Bones, The Year The Horses Came, The Horses At The Gate, and The Fires of Spring, four sweeping historical novels that take as their subject the earth-centered, Goddess-worshiping cultures of Neolithic Europe. In 2012, her sixth collection of poetry, Sugar Zone, won a PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award. Another collection, The Jaguars That Prowl Our Dreams: New and Selected Poems 1974 to 2018, won a 2018 Women’s Spirituality Book Award from the California Institute of Integral Studies; and the 2019 Eric Hoffer Small Press Award for the best book published by a small press. Her first novel, Immersion, was the first novel published by a Second Wave feminist press. Long concerned with environmental issues, Mackey frequently writes about the rainforests of Costa Rica and the Brazilian Amazon. In the early 1970s, as Professor of English and Writer-In-Residence at California State University, Sacramento, she was instrumental in the founding of the CSUS Women's Studies Program and the CSUS English Department Graduate Creative Writing Program. From 1989-1992, she served as President of the West Coast Branch of PEN American Center involving herself in PEN's international defense of persecuted writers.

Feminist views on BDSM vary widely from acceptance to rejection. BDSM refers to bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and Sado-Masochism. In order to evaluate its perception, two polarizing frameworks are compared. Some feminists, such as Gayle Rubin and Patrick Califia, perceive BDSM as a valid form of expression of female sexuality, while other feminists, such as Andrea Dworkin and Susan Griffin, have stated that they regard BDSM as a form of woman-hating violence. Some lesbian feminists practice BDSM and regard it as part of their sexual identity.

Marti Kheel was a vegan ecofeminist activist scholar credited with founding Feminists for Animal Rights (FAR) in California in 1982. She authored several books in deep ecology and ecofeminism, including Nature Ethics: An Ecofeminist Perspective and several widely cited articles in college courses and related scholarship, such as "The Liberation of Nature: A Circular Affair", "From Heroic to Holistic Ethics: The Ecofeminist Challenge", and "From Healing Herbs to Deadly Drugs: Western Medicine's War Against the Natural World". She was a long-time vegan in diet, lifestyle, and philosophical commitments, working out her understanding of its implications in every area of our human relationships with nature and its constituents, and she found a wide audience for those deep reflections. Reportedly, she had pursued a raw vegan diet later in her life. Her pioneering scholarship in ecofeminist ethics is foundational for continuing work in these fields.

<i>Against Sadomasochism</i> 1982 radical feminist anthology

Against Sadomasochism: A Radical Feminist Analysis is a 1982 radical feminist anthology edited by Robin Ruth Linden, Darlene R. Pagano, Diana E. H. Russell, and Susan Leigh Star. The authors critique sadomasochism and BDSM, with most identifying sadomasochism as rooted in "patriarchal sexual ideology".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ecofeminism</span> Approach to feminism influenced by ecologist movement

Ecofeminism is a branch of feminism and political ecology. Ecofeminist thinkers draw on the concept of gender to analyse the relationships between humans and the natural world. The term was coined by the French writer Françoise d'Eaubonne in her book Le Féminisme ou la Mort (1974). Ecofeminist theory asserts a feminist perspective of Green politics that calls for an egalitarian, collaborative society in which there is no one dominant group. Today, there are several branches of ecofeminism, with varying approaches and analyses, including liberal ecofeminism, spiritual/cultural ecofeminism, and social/socialist ecofeminism. Interpretations of ecofeminism and how it might be applied to social thought include ecofeminist art, social justice and political philosophy, religion, contemporary feminism, and poetry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ecofeminist art</span> Artistic practices grounded in ecology

Ecofeminist art emerged in the 1970s in response to ecofeminist philosophy, that was particularly articulated by writers such as Carolyn Merchant, Val Plumwood, Donna Haraway, Starhawk, Greta Gaard, Karen J. Warren, and Rebecca Solnit. Those writers emphasized the significance of relationships of cultural dominance and ethics expressed as sexism (Haraway), spirituality (Starhawk), speciesism, capitalist values that privilege objectification and the importance of vegetarianism in these contexts (Gaard). The main issues Ecofeminism aims to address revolve around the effects of a "Eurocentric capitalist patriarchal culture built on the domination of nature, and the domination of woman 'as nature'. The writer Luke Martell in the Ecology and Society journal writes that 'women' and 'nature' are both victims of patriarchal abuse and "ideological products of the Enlightenment culture of control." Ecofeminism argues that we must become a part of nature, living with and among it. We must recognize that nature is alive and breathing and work against the passivity surrounding it that is synonymous with the passive roles enforced upon women by patriarchal culture, politics, and capitalism. Ecofeminist art is an art form that showcases the intersectionality that is present among gender, environmentalism, and social justice. It grabs ideas and concepts from the original term "ecofeminism" which was created to highlight the parallels between the historic oppression and exploitation of both women and the environment. This style of art can be presented in many different mediums including performance art, original literature pieces, and visual art displays. In simpler terms, ecofeminist artwork is environmental art that has been created by a woman who values gender equality and stronger representation of nature.

Ivone Gebara is a Brazilian Catholic nun, philosopher, and feminist theologian. She is notable for her writing on ecofeminism.

Vegetarian ecofeminism is an activist and academic movement which states that all types of oppression are linked and must be eradicated, with a focus on including the domination of humans over nonhuman animals. Through the feminist concept known as intersectionality, it is recognized that sexism, racism, classism, and other forms of inter human discrimination are all connected. Vegetarian ecofeminism aims to include the domination of not only the environment but also of nonhuman animals to the list. Vegetarian ecofeminism is part of the academic and philosophical field of ecofeminism, which states that the ways in which the privileged dominates the oppressed should include the way humans dominate nature. A major theme within ecofeminism is the belief that there is a strong connection between the domination of women and the domination of nature, and that both must be eradicated in order to end oppression.

Aoki Yayoi was a Japanese scholar and eco-feminist critic. She wrote extensively on sexuality, abortion rights, reproductive technologies, and women in the workplace. While she accepted short-term positions at various universities and community colleges, Aoki maintained a non-institutional status.

Gloria Feman Orenstein is a feminist art critic, pioneer in the field of the women of Surrealism and scholar of ecofeminism in the arts. Orenstein's Reweaving the World is considered a seminal ecofeminist text which has had "a crucial role in the development of U.S. ecofeminism as a political position".

Catriona Sandilands is a Canadian writer and scholar in the environmental humanities. She is most well known for her conception of queer ecology. She is currently a Professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. She was a Canada Research Chair in Sustainability and Culture between 2004 and 2014. She was a Fellow of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation in 2016. Sandilands served as president of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment in 2015. She is also a past President of the Association for Literature, Environment, and Culture in Canada (ALECC) and the American Society for Literature and the Environment (ASLE).

Darlene Pagano is a feminist activist, radio producer, and editor. She is most famous for her conversational piece "Racism and Sadomasochism: A Conversation with Two Black Lesbians" published in collaboration with Karen Sims and Rose Mason in a radical feminist anthology entitled Against Sadomasochism: A Radical Feminist Analysis, for which she is also credited as co-editor.

<i>Françoise dEaubonne et lécoféminisme</i> 2019 non-fiction book by Caroline Goldblum

Françoise d'Eaubonne et l'écoféminisme is a book written by Caroline Goldblum and published in 2019 by Passager Clandestin. The book appeared in the context of renewed interest in ecofeminism in France and the republishing of essays by Françoise d'Eaubonne, including “Écologie et féminisme, révolution ou mutation ?" in 2018 and “Le Féminisme ou la mort" in 2020. It aims to understand the foundation of d’Eaubonne's conception of ecofeminism and is the first book dedicated exclusively to the subject.

References

  1. ↑ "Griffin, Susan, referencing American Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide from Colonial Times to the Present, The Gale Group, Inc., 2000". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  2. 1 2 "Susan Griffin". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
  3. ↑ "Susan Griffin". Utne Visionary. January 1995. Retrieved 2019-10-22.
  4. ↑ "SUSAN GRIFFIN: FEMININE AND MASCULINE". Pulse Berlin. 2 May 2015. Retrieved 2019-10-22.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Hear Her Roar: Ecofeminist Author Susan Griffin Isn't Going Away". Cal Alumni Association. 2017-03-28. Archived from the original on 27 March 2018. Retrieved 2018-03-27.
  6. ↑ "Papers of Susan Griffin, 1914-2015 (inclusive), 1943-2015 (bulk)". hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2023-09-13.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Bio – Susan Griffin". susangriffin.com. Retrieved 2016-12-11.
  8. ↑ Griffin, Susan. "Collection: Papers of Susan Griffin". Hollis for Archival Discovery. Retrieved 10 January 2022.
  9. ↑ Griffin, Susan (September 1971). "Rape: The All-American Crime". Ramparts: 26–35.
  10. ↑ Willis, Ellen (1981-07-12). "NATURE'S REVENGE". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Willis, Ellen (12 July 1981). "NATURE'S REVENGE". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  12. ↑ Tonella, Karla (1981). "Susan Griffin Pornography and Silence: transcript of KPFA broadcast". bailiwick @ the university of iowa libraries. The University of Iowa. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
  13. ↑ Griffin, Susan (28 July 2015). Pornography and Silence: Culture's Revenge Against Nature. Harper & Row. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
  14. 1 2 3 Douglas, Carol Anne (July 1990). "Male Biology as a Problem : Woman the Natural". Love and Politics : Radical Feminist and Lesbian Theories. San Francisco, CA, USA: ISM PRESS. pp. 78–9. ISBN   9780910383172.
  15. ↑ WOMAN AND NATURE: The Roaring Inside Her by Susan Griffin | Kirkus Reviews.
  16. ↑ "Susan Griffin: Plays". susangriffin.com/. Retrieved 2024-09-04.
  17. ↑ "'She's Beautiful When She's Angry' Tells The Feminist History Left Out Of Your School Textbook". The Huffington Post. 2014-12-15. Retrieved 2017-03-04.
  18. ↑ "The Pulitzer Prizes: General Nonfiction". Pulitzer.
  19. ↑ Cantrell, Carol H. (1994). Griffin, Susan (ed.). "Women and Language in Susan Griffin's Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her". Hypatia. 9 (3): 225–238. doi:10.1111/j.1527-2001.1994.tb00459.x. JSTOR   3810198. S2CID   144630099.
  20. ↑ Dion, Susan (1999). Griffin, Susan (ed.). "Sick and Tired". The Women's Review of Books. 17 (1): 11–12. doi:10.2307/4023361. JSTOR   4023361.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.