Rachel Carson: Feminist of the Day:
 | "Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species -- man -- acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world." |
Rachel Carson is most famous for writing A Silent Spring, and exposing DDT for the poison that it is.
But she wasn't a feminist, a Life Magazine interview shortly before she died described her as "unmarried, but not a feminist" (5 words that say a lot about the attitudes towards women, marriage and feminism). She said: "I'm not interested in things done by women or by men but in things done by people." Unfortunately sexism affects all women, even those who want to ignore it. Those who had a vested interest in defending pestisides were more than happy to use sexism to try and silence her. She was portrayed as being a hysterical spinster (again a phrase which tells you a lot about the people who said it).
I understand why women want to believe that they, as an individual, can escape from a sexist society, that they can be a person not a woman, but unfortunately we can't. It's not those of us who draw attention to sexism that stop that from happening, but our sexist, misogynist society, which continues treating us like the other.
Conclusion: She says she's not a feminist, and I believe her, but her work was very important.
