The Secret Life of the Ecofeminist...
While Lily is living with her father, T-Ray, she is oppressed in many ways. T-Ray is abusive and the opposite of a nurturing parent. Since Lily's mother died when she was very young, she has been alone to deal with T-Ray's anger and abuse for the majority of her life. Because of a haunting memory Lily has, she believes that she is responsible for her mother's death. T-Ray does nothing to counter this idea of the guilt that Lily feels her entire life because of it. Lily often sneaks out of her house to go out to the family orchard. There, buried in the ground, she hides a box of things that belonged to her mother. Lily lays on the ground with the belongs surrounding her as a way to feel connected to her mother. In all of these ways, Lily shows that a connection between earthly things is similar to a connection with her own mother. She sees the orchard as a safe place to hide her most prized possessions and as a place where she can be free from the torment of her father. The "central insight of ecofeminism [is] the connection between the domination of women and the domination of nature," (Kirk & Okazawa-Rey 539). T-Ray's control and abuse of Lily can be compared to the ecofeminist ideal that men are oppressive and abusive towards nature just as they are oppressive and abusive towards women. Ecofeminists do not believe men are capable of being as nurturing as women. In this film, inanimate objects that simply belonged to Lily's mother at one point are shown to be more nurturing than her own father.
After Lily runs away, her entire life changes. By living in a home full of women, she is introduced to many things that she has missed because she was raised without a mother. August Boatwright teachs Lily all about handling bees and collecting honey. Lily begins to feel a connection to the bees and with nature. It is here that Lily finally begins to feel happy for the first time in the film, showing the importance a connection with nature has on a girl's life and development. It has been said that today's feminists are working to "continue the work of the many brave and visionary women who have gone before us," (King 559). This emphasis on female lineage is a common factor discussed in ecofeminism. It is seen as the mother's job to teach her daughter how to nurture and love the earth. "The Secret Life of Bees" makes that apparent when Lily decides to stay with "all of her mothers" at the end of the film. While living with her father, Lily was left in the dark about her lineage when her father lied about her mother's death. She was also disconnected from nature because of her lack of a nurturing figure in her life. When she runs away to the Boatwright home she is surrounded by women and nature and it is here that she becomes enlightened about her past and she finally feels like a loved member of a family.
Works Cited:
Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Fifth Edition. Boston: McGraw Hill Higher Education, 2010. Print.
King, Ynestra. The Ecofeminist Imperative. Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Fifth Edition. Boston: McGraw Hill Higher Education, 1983. Print.
This sounds like an amazing movie. I have yet to see it but I feel like this is an amazing end of the semester rental. I thought it was very insightful how you compared Lily's love of the material things to the love of a woman and the earth. It seems that the ecofeminist connection in this movie is made through the nurturing of particular items.
ReplyDeleteI also did "The secret life of bees", I like how you pointed out that the items seemed to be more comforting than her own father. Then linking it to how women believe that men can never be as nurturing as women. I didn't see the correspondence, perhaps because I'm a male, but regardless good point.
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