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Death, Gender, and Disposability: Telling a Story of Feminist Ecotoxicology under Petrocapitalism in the Santa Barbara Channel
Abstract:
<p>This paper examines how language around oil extraction in what is currently known as the Santa Barbara Channel produces invisible violences. It links the ecotoxicology of petrochemicals (which disproportionately affect people sexed female at birth), such as those produced via the decommissioned Platform Holly in the Santa Barbara Channel off the coast of California, with the specific language, or petro-language, used to discuss oil drilling in the area in online media. In examining the metaphor of referring to oil rigs with “she” pronouns; the ghost ship metaphor of the decommissioned platform; and the use of passive voice, the article links death, gender, and disposability. Among other functions, the use of gendered pronouns ascribes feminization and bodily characterization to Platform Holly, the metaphor of the ghost ship harks back to the material of oil having long-previously itself been alive, and the passive voice abdicates responsibility. Together, these linguistic functions apply a violent settler-colonial logic to the Santa Barbara Channel. The source documents for the article are publicly available journalism documents published online; the article studies them with a combination of discourse analysis and close reading. </p>
Keywords: political ecology, marine social science, discard studies, anticolonial ecofeminism, feminist science and technology studies
Authors:
Maya Weeks, California Sea Grant; Submitting Author / Primary Presenter
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Death, Gender, and Disposability: Telling a Story of Feminist Ecotoxicology under Petrocapitalism in the Santa Barbara Channel
Category
In-Person Paper Abstract