2 of 6: EcoSex @ U Conn - Weiss's EcoSex - Student Responses: Alissa's Take -

Dear Earthlings:

The EcoSex course at U Conn is in process.  It's a great experience.  We are reading amazing books.  Thinking out of the box and across disciplines.  Students are sending their responses in, with discussion questions.  In class, we connect the dots: a holograph of what we've read together, the "required readings."  Multiple perspectives and good synergy.  Here, we offer a glimpse.  Stefanie Iris Weiss's EcoSex: Go Green Between the Sheets, was one of two introductory books.  We got five responses: from John, Alex, Adam, Rhiann, Alissa, and Michael.  

Here's Alissa's take:

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Eco-sexuality has a viable argument for why people should change their habits not only to help the environment we live in, but to protect themselves as well. I think the fatal flaw to eco-sexuality is that considering it is a newer topic, not enough people are well versed in the subject matter. After reading Eco-Sex I feel as if I am more aware of the subject, but prior to reading the book I had no idea about all the waste and hazards to things that seemed as simple as perfume. The book is not only useful in the respect that it can educate others, but it elaborates and gives sources and alternatives. The problem I always saw with buying organic products, before enough knowing about all the false advertising that surrounds green products, is that they are much more expensive. Organic products always seemed to be more expensive, but the author points out that there are cheaper “do it yourself” methods that not only work, but are fairly easy to make.

Eco-sexuality has a huge shock factor, while reading I wanted to get up and check all the products I own for certain chemicals and even contemplated the vegan lifestyle. Admittedly I was scared while reading the book, thinking about how all the products I have used could be causing me harm on the inside or could lead to things as extreme as cancer. Eco-sexuality is not just about saving the environment it is about making a change to satisfy yourself and your future. The concept of eco-sexuality is particularly appealing because it includes more than just buying products that are eco-friendly but the term “eco” applies to how the product came to be. What type of materials a product was wrapped in, or how are the conditions for the workers who made the product? Eco-sexuality encompasses a wide range of factors that affect how the product came to be.

Eco-sexuality is a striking concept because in the book it speaks about improving your sex life by eating correctly or doing natural things to relax, but in the end the book is speaking about activities and products that will create a healthier and happier person. The tips given that follow the guidelines of eco-sexuality are the keys to a happier, more secure you. The book takes the focus off buying things because it is the easy choice or not exercising because you do not feel like it. Eco-sexuality focuses on the positive effects that living an eco-sexual life will give you. The author makes the reader more aware of ways to boost their morale while doing something that is healthy and environment friendly.

The author presents a new perspective of that opposing the media and the greenwashing or brainwashing they lead members of society to believe absurd ideas. I like how the author still allows the reader to hold their own opinion, but allow them to view the situation from an alternate perspective. The author shows how the media and pharmaceutical companies make people insecure about problems that may be easily fixable.  Stephanie Iris Weiss allows her readers the freedom to be themselves while reading. She does not force any ideas upon her readers, but gives them sources to back up her opinions and the ideals of eco-sexuality.

Why do you think that more people have not adapted to an eco-sexual lifestyle?

What are the disadvantages you see or that could potentially create a problem in living an eco-sexual lifestyle?

Does society’s view or conformity make an eco-sexual lifestyle more difficult to lead?

Alissa Maus

Published with permission

WGSS 3998 - Ecosexuality and the Ecology of Love

Prof. Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio

U Conn, Storrs, Spring 2013

Course Announcement and Description

Dear Earthlings:

Let "nature" be your teacher in the arts of love.  Education is the heart of democracy, education to love.  Come back for more wonders: Students Responses to appear every Tuesday.  Book Reports scheduled every other Thursday.  Check out our summer offerings:  Ecosexuality in Portland, OR, July 17-21.  Info and Registration here! 

Namaste,
 

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

   

Follow us in the social media

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: 
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ 

Website: www.serenagaia.com 

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse 
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings 

Author's Page/Lists all books: 

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA 

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini
 

 

1 of 9 - EcoSex @ U Conn - Book Reports - Microcosmos: Michael's Take

Dear Earthlings:

The EcoSex course at U Conn is in process.  It's a great experience.  We are expanding horizons with clustered reading: Theory of Science, Cultural Theory, Ecological Theory.  We each read related books, then report to group.  More thinking out of the box and across disciplines.  Students are sending their book reports in.  In class, we connect the dots. From a holograph of what we've read together, the "required readings."  What's the connection with our clustered themes?  Multiple perspectives and good synergy.  Here, we offer a glimpse.  Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan's Microcosmos is one of two "Theory of Science" books.  We got Michael to report on it.  

Michael Maranets:  
A Book Report on Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Microbial Evolution 
by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan

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Microcosmos by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan, provides a fascinating look at the life of microbes as they evolved over the course of the planet’s history. The experience of reading the book in the context of an Ecosexuality class has been informative in many ways. The book itself is very heavily based in the microbiology of evolution and tracing the path of the planets development to be suitable for life in the first place. In the context of an Ecosexuality class this has particular relevance because of the heavy emphasis of symbiosis at every point in the book’s description of the evolution of the planet and the evolution of the microcosm.

            Similarly, the themes of this book certainly fit within the broader scientific themes discussed within the class, particularly with regards to the aforementioned symbiosis, the unappreciated or unacknowledged role that microorganisms play in planet wide symbiosis and the contributions of both towards Gaia Theory. Like the other books written by Margulis that have been read for this class, Microcosmos deals heavily with microbial symbiosis and the origins of sex. It is closer to Symbiotic Planet than Mystery Dance in terms of its content and how it approaches the idea of symbiosis. In terms of style it is also closer to Symbiotic Planet because it does not deal with as wide-ranging a field of academia as Mystery Dance did, focusing instead entirely on microbiology. While it does discuss the sex lives of bacteria and how the molecular basis for the genetic exchange involved in sex arose, its focus is on a much more basic level biologically than the emphasis on larger zoological discussions of eukaryotes in Mystery Dance. I would also say it is aimed at a more biologically literate reader than Symbiotic Planet was but that it is still readily accessible to anyone who has taken even high school biology.

            The detail given to the idea of symbiotic evolution is much more thorough than anything previously encountered in this course. An example of this can be seen as Margulis traces a likely mechanism for evolution of the various energy generating systems within the microcosm that lead eventually to aerobic respiration that we carry out and its tremendous efficiency. In her discussion of how fermentation or the breakdown of sugars in the absence of oxygen arose, Margulis describes the tremendous inefficiency of this mechanism and how the final products of fermentation like ethanol and acetate can still be used to harvest additional energy. The truth of the former can be seen by the fact that humans are now increasingly looking at microbial produced ethanol as a source of alternative energy to replace oils. In the bacterial world what happened instead was that other microbes arose that could take these molecules of fermentation products, utilize it in their own metabolic pathways, and subsequently create products which the original fermenting bacteria could then feed on themselves. This cycle of food and waste between these symbiotic organisms is one of the first examples of intra-species cooperation she posits in the history of life on this planet and is one that continues to this day in places low on oxygen and light.

            Another example she provides to describe the tremendous importance of symbiosis in evolution showcases that even bacteria that we may think of as being pathogenic may actually be symbiotic in other organisms. She describes the problem faced by a researcher of amoeba (one of the most basic forms of eukaryotic life) that had been plagued by outbreak of pathogenic bacteria, which seemed to kill all of the amoebic samples in his lab. While safeguarding a sample of uninfected amoeba in another researcher’s lab, the scientist began selecting for amoeba that could survive the pathogenic bacteria. Eventually he had large quantities of these amoeba that could survive being infected by 40,000 bacterial cells. He then retrieved one of the original samples and transplanted nuclei of the now immune cells into the original strain and put the nucleus of original amoeba into these immune amoeba. What happened was quite surprising. The amoeba, which continued with bacterial infection but had a new genome via its transplanted nucleus, was able to survive indefinitely. The samples that lacked bacteria but had the genome of the amoeba that survived infection, started dying off without bacteria, and only after he incubated the growth medium with the appropriate strain of bacteria did these amoeba start surviving.

            Given the title of the book, a large amount of time is spent describing the intricacies of the microcosm. I think her argument for the idea of ‘super-organism’ she alludes to in Mystery Dance is laid out in its clearest form in Microcosmos. She describes the work of researchers who have argued for a degree of consciousness of bacteria as they interact with each other. In describing these bacteria, Margulis personifies them to be a collective all working on the same problem akin to how humans now dedicate billions at genetic problems like cancer that threaten our existence. But, she also goes on to describe how this microcosmic ‘super-organism’ is responsible for all other life on Earth and how our symbiosis with them is the most crucial aspect of why other life more complex than bacteria arose. The first example of this she gives is that of nitrogen-fixation in organic molecules. Turning the inert gas nitrogen into the molecule that can be used as the primary backbone of all DNA and proteins in all living things is extremely energy intensive. Humanity has learned how to achieve this process for the production of fertilizer but it is extremely energy intensive and would not be possible without fossil fuels. And yet, one of the earliest bacteria evolved the ability to fix nitrogen into molecules, which can be used by all organic life. The process is energy intensive in these organisms too, which is why so few other organisms adopted this evolutionary niche subsequently. The symbiosis that occurs as a result of these nitrogen-fixers is two-fold. First, their symbiotic relationship in the roots of all living plants allows these plants to grow in the first place. All organisms that consume these plants and each other subsequently rely on the nitrogen from these bacteria. Without the evolution of these bacteria, no other life could have evolved and if something were to happen to these bacteria in the present, all life on Earth would quickly cease.

            The other major example Margulis gives of the symbiosis of the ‘super-organism’ and other life is that of the planet’s oxygen rich environment, which was not present for the majority of Earth’s existence. The pursuit of the ‘super-organism’ to find ever more efficient sources of electrons eventually lead them to the energy readily locked up in water. The oxygen that enabled the rise of life larger than microbes was only possible because of the waste products generated by the ‘super-organism’.

            These ideas certainly fit within the class’s discussion of Gaia Theory. As mentioned in Symbiotic Planet, Gaia Theory is purely the observation of our planetary symbiosis from the macroscale of space. The plethora of examples Margulis provides as to the altruistic cooperation evidenced by bacteria in their evolution and the consequences of their evolution for all other life certainly provide a compelling argument for the view of Gaia Theory we have been discussing.

            The organization of this book is very similar to that scene within Mystery Dance. Margulis proceeds in a chronological manner starting from the competing ideas for the origins of life on the planet and then into the possible mechanisms for how life continued to evolve using a progression through the microbial fossil record before getting into the intricate beauty of reproduction and the genetic recombination of DNA that defines it. The topics are wide-ranging within the study of bacteria and life, but for the purposes of the class limited purely to the symbiotic basis for Gaia Theory, which we have been discussing. The book’s insight is particularly keen given it was written in 1986 before there was as much evidence for many of the theories that Margulis provides in this book.

Michael Maranets

Published with permission

WGSS 3998 - Ecosexuality and the Ecology of Love

Prof. Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio

U Conn, Storrs, Spring 2013

Course Announcement and Description

Dear Earthlings:

Let "nature" be your teacher in the arts of love.  Education is the heart of democracy, education to love.  Come back for more wonders: Book Reports to appear every other Thursday.  Book Reports scheduled every other Thursday.  Check out our summer offerings:  Ecosexuality in Portland, OR, July 17-21.  Info and Registration here! 

Namaste,
 

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

   

Follow us in the social media

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: 
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ 

Website: www.serenagaia.com 

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse 
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings 

Author's Page/Lists all books: 

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA 

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini
 

 

1 of 6 - EcoSex @ U Conn - Weiss's EcoSex - Student Responses: John's Take

Dear Earthlings:

The EcoSex course at U Conn is in process.  It's a great experience.  We are reading amazing books.  Thinking out of the box and across disciplines.  Students are sending their responses in, with discussion questions.  In class, we connect the dots: a holograph of what we've read together, the "required readings."  Multiple perspectives and good synergy.  Here, we offer a glimpse.  Stefanie Iris Weiss's EcoSex: Go Green Between the Sheets, was one of two introductory books.  We got five responses: from John, Alex, Adam, Rhiann, Alissa, and Michael.  

Here's John's take:

Response to Stefanie Iris Weiss's EcoSex: Go Green Between the Sheets

Weiss wrote a very intriguing book that sent me to my cabinet on numerous occasions. I found that all the items I use in my shower – my shampoo, conditioner, soap, and even my shaving cream – all contained various toxins she listed. I was too afraid to reach into the fridge and check those out as well. But I did start drinking my coffee black.

That said, Weiss makes me hate my life. Reading her book thoroughly makes you want to inspect every aspect of your existence, from not only reducing your general carbon foot print, but checking the brand of your shower curtain. At some point it just gets to be too much, though the general philosophy and spirit of the book is something I can get behind, I don’t have time for my class schedule never mind going through my house and checking every material good to make sure it has been eco certified. While I will certainly make a conscious effort to try and get the more intimate things of my life (shaving cream, for example) from a more eco-friendly source, the sad truth is that I, like most of society, simple can’t afford a perfectly ecological lifestyle. I worked (and am still involved with) a permaculture farm in Old Saybrook. The farmer is one of the most ecological and least consumptive people I know. His diet consists mostly of what he grows, and feeds his chickens with restaurant scrapings. He lights his house with candles, but I’m pretty sure they aren’t from Rawganique. That doesn’t make him unecological (not that Weiss is making that argument). The Weiss book is a handy companion to find alternatives to our consumptive lifestyle, but I couldn’t slug through every single word of her recipes and alternative finds (I don’t use dildos, and I’m very comfortable with my mattress and pillows, thank you very much).

The recipes (the food sounds delicious) weren’t all that bad. What bothered me were all the statistics that precluded the recipes. Weiss wrote a 203 page book and included 40 citations. For a work that cited as many alarmist statistics as she does, that’s not nearly enough citations. For a published work making pretty declarative claims, that’s a big deal. Especially since we, as students, would get an F for making as many unsourced claims as she does. I can’t account for the veracity – or falsity for that matter – of most of her claims, but for example, my Dad replaced all the pipes of our house once with copper piping. It was a big deal because most developers are using some new plastic “flexi-pipe” because it’s cheaper than copper. The reason flexi-pipe is cheaper than copper is because we’re very quickly approaching peak copper in society. But on page 135, Weiss calls copper “an inexpensive and readily available metal.” My red flags waved and a quick Internet search for “peak copper” yields thousands of results and sources for the rising price of an increasingly rare metal. While I’m on board with the environmental movement, Weiss seems to make the argument that everything in our homes will give us cancer and murder us while we are sleeping.

I enjoy her bit on Tantric Sex and intimacy. As someone who’s practiced those things, it’s definitely an awesome inclusion and a nice sigh of relief in a book that’s filled with mostly lists of alternatives to our deadly cosmetics.

To contrast the Tantra, I wasn’t on board with her Abortion section on pages 139-40. I consider myself a quiet Pro-Life advocate. I’m a man, so I won’t ever have to make that decision personally, therefore I try to keep my opinions to myself and just try to help in any way I can. I think the truck that Conservative organization drives around campus is insane and should be criminal. I think our society needs to not stigmatize bastard births, unmarried parents, and most importantly, needs to get on the adoption train. Reading a lot of “Green Literature” already makes me feel like an outcast: the overwhelming use of the pronouns “her” and “she” automatically directs environmentalist literature toward women, labeling her section on abortion “Your Choice” and automatically saying “Yea abortion, not a big deal” makes me feel even more so. I don’t know any Pro-Choice advocates who say abortion isn’t a big deal, or something to do on a whim. Instead of coming off with a sympathetic eye to readers who might not be on board the abortion train, Weiss assumes her reader is female and doesn’t mind having an abortion. As a man who already feels outcast in this genre of literature, she doesn’t have to rub it in.

Overall, I found the book’s philosophy fascinating and a lot of the methods and suggestions innovative. But I felt self-conscious the entire time knowing I was not her target audience, and now understand why so many of my peers are resistant to this subculture. Not only that, but her lack of citations calls her credibility into question and doesn’t inspire confidence.

Questions for Discussion

1.     Is abortion an environmentalist issue?

2.     Why does (or doesn’t) an environmentalist have to be Pro-Choice?

3.     How can we introduce Vancouver’s 100-Year Sustainability Plan to local communities? 

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John D. Nitowski

Published with permission

WGSS 3998 - Ecosexuality and the Ecology of Love

Prof. Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio

U Conn, Storrs, Spring 2013

Course Announcement and Description

Dear Earthlings:

Let "nature" be your teacher in the arts of love.  Education is the heart of democracy, education to love.  Come back for more wonders: Students Responses to appear every Tuesday.  Book Reports to be scheduled soon.  Check out our summer offerings:  Ecosexuality in Portland, OR, July 17-21.  Info and Registration here! 

Namaste,
 

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

   

Follow us in the social media

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: 
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ 

Website: www.serenagaia.com 

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse 
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings 

Author's Page/Lists all books: 

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA 

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini