Reconstruction Vol. 15, No. 3

Return to Contents»

Nature's Keepers?: Constructing Women's Environmentalism in Green Marketing / Cara Okopny

Abstract:

This article dissects the current state of discourse in environmental advertising aimed at women, exploring the language and imagery from a feminist perspective. Examining three green advertising campaigns pervasive in women's lifestyle media in recent years, I discover that the gendered origins of environmental discourse in American popular culture continue to impact efforts to sell environmentalism to women. I trace the evolution of definitions of environmentalism in American popular culture, and comment on the debate among feminist environmentalists and media critics over these definitions. I highlight common tropes surrounding environmentalism in green advertising, such as nature's presumed purity and its association with women's presumed purity; assumed connections between motherhood and able environmental stewardship; and apparent efforts to limit environmentalism to the domain of white women. I argue that the hegemony of such tropes, particularly in media aimed at women, is ultimately anti-feminist, limiting definitions of environmentalism in popular culture, essentializing women's roles, and narrowly defining who ought to care about the environment. In exposing these anti-feminist tropes, I seek to encourage a discussion among feminist scholars about how feminists can best respond to the pervasiveness of such definitions in the current media space.

Keywords: Ecocriticism, Feminism, Media

Introduction

<1> A broad range of motherhood narratives focus on the heightened pressures, internal and external, that mothers feel to protect their children from real and perceived threats from the natural environment [[1]]. Some feminist environmentalists embrace the elevated social value they derive from the responsibilities of motherhood, and welcome their complementary new roles as environmental guardians (Hutner, 2011; Miller-Schroeder, 2011; Shaw 2011). These mothers stress the importance of integrating environmentalism into childrearing, contending that embracing one's inner "Eco-mom" is not just another responsibility that comes with motherhood, but one to be relished (Hutner p. 46; Miller-Schroeder; Shaw, p. 53). Playing the role of the Eco-mom, contends Hutner, is not just about living a green lifestyle, but also about serving as the family's environmental watchdog, being "the mom on duty in the playground telling children to knock it off" (Hutner, p. 46). Steingraber, for example, writes passionately about the pressure she feels as a new mother to protect her children from environmental harm. Her accessible writings on environmental toxins, cancer, and women, and her critique of lifestyle modification as risk prevention have helped expand discussion over mothers' roles in American environmentalism to a more general audience beyond feminist environmental critics.

<2> Defining the sentiments of Steingraber and other Eco-mom advocates as "material memoirs," Alaimo (2010) observes that although Steingraber's extensive scientific research on the harmful affects of human exposure to environmental toxins may help readers understand the impact of such toxins on individual lives, individualized narratives detailing personal quests to uncover one's "ecological roots" (in the words of Steingraber) do not help move environmentalism forward as a social movement. Alaimo and Seager (2003) contend that such material memoirs are hindered by the fact that they do not emerge from an oppositional stance, nor do they engage feminist deconstructions of the institutionalization of power and gender (p. 96; p. 961).

<3> Alaimo, for example, cautions that such memoirs do not "forge a solid identity politics of gender oppositions, but instead dramatize the miasma of uncertainties and interconnections in risk society" (p. 95). Seager similarly contends that material memoirs are a distraction for feminist environmentalism, arguing that "the strength of feminist environmentalism-bringing into focus environmental assaults on the (female) body-could be considerably enhanced by curiosity about the production of the culture of (masculinist) institutions that plan and produce those assaults" (p. 961).

<4> Other feminist environmentalists focus their criticism of Eco-mom narratives on concerns that bearing and raising children may become a gateway to expanded definitions of women's work, however noble or altruistic such work may seem (Ray; MacGregor; Sturgeon). These scholars warn that the construction of "natural connections" between women and the earth essentializes women's social roles and may ultimately prove disempowering. The notion that women are, by their very nature, maternal earth keepers may even hinder environmental political agency, since, these critics argue, such notions have traditionally limited women to private sphere environmentalist pursuits (Ray, 2011; MacGregor, 2004; Sturgeon, 2009).

<5> Having recently completed a broad study of the discourse and imagery in environmental narratives in some of the United States' most popular women's lifestyle media, I hope to shed new light on the work of these feminist environmental critics and cultural environmental studies scholars. In this essay, I present a feminist discourse and content analysis of three pervasive green marketing campaigns in women's lifestyle media in recent years--each intended to speak to women about environmentalism in terms marketers assume that women readily accept.

<6> A close examination of the imagery and discourse in these campaigns illustrates that green marketers' attempts to appeal to Eco-moms and draw on the dominant environmental narrative in American popular culture, ultimately maintains narrow, static definitions of who ought to care about the environment. Moreover, such imagery and discourse represents a failing in American popular culture's definition of environmentalism, in that the current definition leaves unacknowledged the impact of patriarchal systems of power in creating environmental problems; and limits the definition of the environmentalist to young, white women. At its core, defining American environmentalism as the sole responsibility of women and mothers relies on gender oppression, and, as the Eco-mom narrative is manipulated by marketers in the lifestyle media space, it informs the popular definition of environmentalism as a new type of women's work, or mothers' work, among an ever-wider cross-section of American women.

<7> As my analysis demonstrates, the debate over the role of the Eco-mom in American environmentalism is not limited to a philosophical discussion among feminist scholars. Since my findings suggest that green marketers have adopted this trope in their efforts to reach women consumers, its growing hegemony in the popular culture space seems in little doubt. And marketers are not reading material memoirs, which may present a more nuanced understanding of their target audience; they are following social science research. Recent sociological studies demonstrate that American women tend to carry "green guilt;" the sense that they bear a special social responsibility in the environmental sphere, making them generally more concerned about the state of the environment than men (Zelezny, 2000, p. 444). Such sentiments are further born out in research indicating that women are thirty-three percent more likely to make financial contributions to environmental organizations than men (ecoAmerica, 2011). [ [2]]

<8> In illuminating the current state of the discourse and imagery in green marketing campaigns aimed at women, I comment on how the tropes green marketers rely on in the construction of green marketing discourse are reflective of the historic evolution of gendered definitions of environmentalism in the U.S. popular consciousness. The three advertising campaigns presented here naturalize women's connection to the environment by presenting women as pure, maternal, and white. Such discursive framing and homogeneous imagery perpetuates long-standing tropes in the American popular consciousness: that environmentalism depends on women, that women must draw on their natural maternal tendencies to serve as a vanguard for environmentalism.

<9> Tracing women's roles in the development of American environmental consciousness, I discuss the historical origins of the woman as "natural environmentalist," a definition that has, quite clearly, carried forward over a hundred years into the current media space. I highlight the evolution of narrow character tropes in the discourse, particularly the perpetuation of racialized, heteronormative definitions of environmentalism, and discuss the role of such definitions in current and future environmental discourse. I conclude by contextualizing the discourse and imagery in these advertisements in the current debate among feminist environmentalists, commenting on the role of the Eco-mom in popular definitions of American environmentalism.

<10> The advertising campaigns I will discuss were not chosen at random but were three of the most ubiquitous green campaigns culled from Good Housekeeping, Latina, O, The Oprah Magazine, Real Simple and Whole Living from 2008 and 2011. The campaigns include a print campaign for a green home product producer, Seventh Generation that appeared in Good Housekeeping, Real Simple and Whole Living; a print campaign for environmental non-profit Oceana which also appeared in Good Housekeeping and O, The Oprah Magazine; and a television ad campaign created for the launch of Clorox's Green Works natural cleaning products line in 2008 and posted to YouTube. [ [3]]

<11> The Seventh Generation and Clorox Green Works campaigns were standard product-based campaigns. The Oceana campaign was a fundraising and awareness campaign, which, while different in its objectives, was just as ubiquitous, and illustrated an even more overt attempt by the marketer to appeal to women's "green guilt." Most significantly, while the Oceana campaign was created by an environmental service organization, the campaign relied on the same static tropes evident in the Seventh Generation and Green Works household product ads.

Naturalizing Environmentalism

<12> A rhetoric of maternalism, and discourse which naturalized connections between motherhood and environmental stewardship, permeated all three campaigns--perhaps most succinctly illustrated by a Seventh Generation print ad which declared "In Planet Home, You are Mother Earth." Hays (1998) explains that prior to the late 17th century, women were not considered to have "maternal instincts," and children were often expected to establish themselves in the world with little family support. In short, the modern Western notion that women are natural mothers, let alone natural earth mothers, is a product of social construction (Hays, p. 19). Feminist environmentalists like Ray (2011) caution that promoting the idea that mothers and the natural environment are inherently linked necessarily anthropomorphizes nature and naturalizes the social structures that construct motherhood (p. 82).

<13> The Mother Nature iconography that arises out of the notion that mothers are natural environmentalists was prevalent throughout the Seventh Generation and Clorox Green Works green household product campaigns. In the Seventh Generation print ad for baby wipes, diapers, and laundry detergent, for example, a young, thin, white mother, wearing a visible wedding ring, leans over her baby, presumably after just having changed the baby's diaper. The mother and child look into each other's eyes, while the child holds a Seventh Generation diaper. The main narrative text, appearing in all block letters above the image, reads: "In Planet Home, you are Mother Nature"--with the term Mother Nature appearing in the largest font. The subscript reads: "For over 20 years, we've been creating naturally safe and effective household products to help you protect your world from hazardous chemicals."

<14> Forming a visual pyramid with mother and child at the apex, and two supporting images forming the base of the triangular shape: a two-story suburban home and three products; baby wipes, diapers, and laundry detergent, Seventh Generation marketers construct the Mother Earth icon in an almost religious setting; a stained glass window of the domestic, linking the home and the natural environment, the mother and the divine.

<15> Seventh Generation's use of such imagery and discourse is not a new phenomenon owing to the predominance of the Eco-mom movement in the popular media space, but reflective of a long history of identification between Mother Nature and the feminine in American popular culture (Corbett, 2006, p. 47). Andersen (2005) links the modern use of such iconography in environmental discourse to a cultural epiphany in the 1960s, when Americans first saw photographs of the Earth from space, and were appalled by thick smog covering large areas of the globe.

<16> During this period, the environmental movement, seeking to capitalize on this new environmental consciousness to promote social change, employed discourse and imagery tied to the protection of the "dying planet" in marketing materials (Andersen, p. 296). Moreover, while such images of Mother Earth are ultimately rooted in the long-standing Western trope romanticizing women in need of protection, "deserving because [they are] pure and chaste" (Andersen, p. 297), their acceptance in popular discourse may be traced to well-meaning environmental groups in the 60s, who were understandably seeking to capitalize on increased social consciousness in popular culture. The efforts of 1960s environmentalists to capitalize on the space images employed the language of civic duty, urging Americans to save a powerless and pure Mother Nature, while unintentionally propagating static, socially constructed tropes drawing natural connections between mothers and environmental stewardship. Fifty years later, such tropes enable marketers to build a narrative of naturalized childcare, and link this narrative to civic duty, suggesting that purchasing Seventh Generation products is an empowering, responsible way for women to protect their children.

<17> Ray's contention that the broad acceptance of such imagery in popular culture necessarily anthropomorphizes nature is strikingly borne out in a series of fundraising and awareness print advertisements created by the conservation non-profit Oceana. In the campaign, which appeared in a range of America's most popular women's lifestyle magazines in 2010 and 2011, a number of minor television celebrities warn readers about environmental threats to turtles, whale sharks, and tuna.

<18> While the Oceana campaign relied heavily on celebrity associations, using young white television celebrities in each of the four print ads in the campaign, the celebrities enlisted by Oceana were relatively minor stars, primarily television actresses and actors with limited recognition in a primarily white, educated, upper-class demographic. Despite the use of these celebrity pitch people, the creators of the campaign leveraged many of the same tropes evident in the Seventh Generation and Green Works product campaigns I analyzed, and relied heavily on the anthropomorphization of animals in their sales pitch, suggesting that Ray's commentary in very much evident in the current media space. The use of static environmental tropes in these ads, despite the presence of recognizable pitch people, speaks to the reliance on and acceptance of such tropes even among marketers working on behalf of an environmental organization.

<19> The most ubiquitous of Oceana's advertisements appeared five times in America's most widely-read women's lifestyle magazines in 2011, and featured two young white actresses from television comedy programs primarily aimed at educated young people: Angela Kinsey from the sitcom The Office and Rachael Harris, a former correspondent on The Daily Show.[ [4]] The Kinsey/Harris advertisement features a photograph of the two actresses snorkeling with a turtle, accompanied by a direct challenge to the audience, "Angela and Rachael want to get sea turtles off the hook, do you?" The subscript continues, revealing more emotional language:

Angela Kinsey and Rachael Harris are in love with…sea turtles. But, they're in real trouble and need our help. Over 1.4 billion fishing hooks and other gear catch hundreds of thousands of sea turtles every year. Go to Oceana.org and sign up to help Angela and Rachael get sea turtles off the hook.

<20> In the main image, one of the women is shown with her hands folded over her heart, while language like "in love with" emphasizes the emotional connection between the women and the animals. The two actresses gaze lovingly at the turtle, and, according to the language in the ad, feel compelled to protect it, as they would a helpless child. Neither actress is portrayed in a sexualized manner; each is wearing a formless black wetsuit, neither appears to be wearing makeup, and both have their hair pulled back. The audience is supposed to identify with Kinsey and Harris, smart, funny, successful women, less concerned with personal appearance than a worthy cause or an adventurous lifestyle. For all their ostensible sophistication, however, Kinsey and Harris are demonstrating traditional maternal values, and the animal in the ad is quite strikingly anthropomorphized as their child. The discourse suggests that women are the natural protectors of the oceans' creatures, and "our help" is not a general appeal to concerned citizens, but a direct appeal to women.

<21> Another Oceana advertisement, features actress January Jones of Mad Men, best known for portraying a traditional 1950s and early 1960s American housewife trying to reconcile her role as a mother with her own interests and ambitions.[ [5]] Jones is young, thin, white, heterosexual--the archetype of a traditional 1950s housewife. The text at the top of advertisement reads: "January Jones is scared of (for) the Biggest Shark in the World;" the word "of" is scratched out in the text and replaced with the word "for." The subtext reads: "And you should be scared for whale sharks, too. Shark populations are crashing around the world. Healthy oceans need sharks. Join January Jones [weblink takes readers to a petition] and Oceana in the fight to save them."

<22> This Jones advertisement is less overtly maternalistic in its imagery than the Kinsey/Harris ad, but perhaps does not need to be--after all, for many women, Jones is one of popular culture's easiest associations with the traditional conception of American motherhood and women's historic aspirations to fill the role of the good mother while aspiring to sophistication and empowerment.[ [6]] Like Kinsey and Harris, Jones is portrayed in an asexual manner, dressed in a black wetsuit with little make up and a utilitarian hairstyle.

<23> The overt modification of word choice in the tag line reminds the audience that Jones is appropriately feminine in that she is scared of, rather than, for sharks. The discourse demonstrates Jones' care and empathy (even for a "scary" animal), emotional vulnerability, and a desire to protect an apparently helpless creature. The animal is again anthropomorphized, as the discourse implies that good mothers bear a responsibility to protect vulnerable children.

<24> Another advertisement in the series features Kate Walsh from the television medical drama Private Practice, a spin-off of Grey's Anatomy .[[7]] Walsh is another thin, attractive, heterosexual white woman. In Private Practice, Walsh portrays a neonatal doctor, a profession directly associated with motherhood and a duty to care. The Oceana advertisement seemingly draws on this reference in portraying Walsh's concern for baby sea turtles. Walsh is pictured kneeling over a baby sea turtle, gazing down at it kindly as it struggles to work its way to the ocean. Walsh appears to be nudging the turtle forward as a mother would encourage her child's first steps. Unlike the other protagonists, Walsh is casually dressed, and slightly more feminized in a flowing red sundress. Neither her dress nor her pose is sexualized, and she wears little make up, with her hair in a ponytail.

<25> Much as the other advertisements built associations between their pitch people and motherhood, the Walsh advertisement portrays a woman whose celebrity status is directly associated with childbirth, a nurturing figure helping nudge a baby turtle out to sea. Moreover, in that turtles are, according to the ad, impacted most by their inability to nest, there is a direct appeal to mothers among the audience, who may identify with difficulties in securing their children's safety in an increasingly dangerous world.

<26> A fourth print advertisement, which featured Adrian Grenier from the HBO drama Entourage, was striking for several reasons.[ [8]] The most obvious difference in this ad was that Grenier is male and of Latino descent. Grenier's presentation is similar to the other ads: he is pictured wearing a wetsuit and swimming with Bluefin tuna. At the top of the page, the title text reads: "Adrian Grenier wants to stop Bluefin tuna from going too fast." The subscript continues: "Bluefin tuna, one of the fastest fish in the ocean, can't outswim our appetite. Scientists say we're eating them to the brink of extinction."

<27> Although Grenier's portrayal in this advertisement may at first glance appear analogous to the portrayals of the female protagonists in the other advertisements, there are subtle differences, which speak to the gendering of the discourse. All four ads are in keeping with Goffman's (1988) theory of subordination in which advertisements featuring women tend to positioned women off center in the frame, while men tend to appear squarely in the advertising frame. In the Grenier ad, Grenier looks directly at the camera from the center of the frame. The women who appeared in the other Oceana ads were all framed in the lower third or off center, and never looked directly at the camera.

<28> Based on his position among the tuna and the darkness of the image, Grenier also appears to be swimming in deeper water than any of the other protagonists. He is completely submerged underwater without a breathing tube, unlike some of the other protagonists, who appear to be snorkeling near the surface. The darkness of the imagery in the Grenier ad may also illustrate another pattern identified by Baumann, in which darkness in complexion, hair color, or overall tone denotes the masculine (2008, p. 12).

<29> The language in the Grenier advertisement also lacks the sort of emotional or maternal tenor evident in the other advertisements. The main script simply reads: "Adrian Grenier wants to stop Bluefin tuna from going too fast." The tagline creates a sense of urgency, and is direct and terse, rather than posed as an emotionally-based challenge like the ads featuring female protagonists.

<30> Since the Grenier advertisement appeared in women's lifestyle media, we must still assume that the advertisement is directed at women, and the apparent attempts in the discourse and imagery to draw a gendered distinction between Grenier and the female protagonists in the campaign's other ads is therefore notable. It is also notable that while the presentation of Grenier in the advertisement is distinctly gendered, Grenier, a former fashion model, is not associated with the traditional, macho, masculine archetype in popular culture. With his shaggy hair and soft features, Grenier's character on Entourage is a model turned actor, who is frequently teased by the other characters on the program for being "pretty" and feminine.

<31> Grenier's gendered presentation is further evident in the lack of anthropomorphization of the tuna in the ad. The ad tells the audience that human behavior--eating tuna--is the cause of the problem, not unhealthy oceans or other wider environmental reasons. In discussing the political outcry over dolphin deaths from tuna nets in the 1990s, Robbins, Hintz, and Moore (2010) write, "Even for most activists, tuna are not perceived as holding interests comparable or even close to dolphins. We simply do not empathize or identify with tuna like we do with dolphin" (p. 220). If Robbins, et al.'s contentions are to be believed, presenting a tuna as vulnerable is unlikely to resonate with an audience. In determining which celebrity supporter to feature in the tuna ad, Oceana marketers may therefore have recognized that the audience was less likely to respond to a strictly emotional, maternal, or anthropomorphized appeal for tuna, and may therefore have selected Grenier as their pitch person.

Essentialized Tropes

<32> Just as the use of Mother Earth iconography in environmental discourse may be traced to early efforts to market American environmentalism in the 1960s, an underlying premise in all three ad campaigns, the inherent purity of nature, may be traced to a key premise in the construction of environmental definitions at the inception of the American conservationist movement at the turn of the 20th century. Kosek (2004) explains that early naturalists and conservationists imbued definitions of the wilderness with racialized notions of purity and pollution, equating the inherent purity of nature with the inherent purity of whiteness, and the presence of non-white native peoples, for example, as potentially polluting or otherwise sullying the wilderness in its natural state (p. 126).

<33> John Muir and his contemporaries saw the American wilderness as a vast, external space beyond society, predicating their worldview on the assumption of an inherent duality between pristine wilderness and sullied human society. In their discourse, they therefore constructed a definition of wilderness in opposition to society, "the essence of nature, pure nature, unpolluted" (Kosek, 2004, p. 139; Taylor, 2005, p. 89). Early definitions of nature among conservationists also sought to imbue pure, clean nature with restorative properties, and, as Kosek explains, the idea that nature was inherently curative further contributed to the inclusion of racial undertones in the discourse. Popular culture began to accept the notion that in order for whites to benefit from "nature's curative powers," those with darker skin--the ecological other--needed to be kept out of natural oases (Kosek, 2004, p. 139).

<34> Kosek explains that "discourses of purity placed diluted racial subjects and degraded landscapes into the same 'grid of intelligibility,' wherein understandings of and fears surrounding race at the turn of the twentieth century became the raw substance out of which wilderness as an idea and a landscape was forged" (2004, p. 129). Just as 1960s environmentalists' adoption of the Mother Earth trope may have contributed to the further gendering of environmental discourse, the discourse of these early conservationists, widely considered the progenitors of American environmentalism, racialized popular culture's understanding of environmentalism at this early stage, when environmentalist principles were just beginning to enter the popular discourse.

<35> Nor did the gendering of environmental discourse begin in the 1960s. Much gendered environmental language may be traced to the gendered language of the women's suffrage movement at the turn of the 20th century. At the same time Muir and other conservationists were drawing public attention to the protection of the American wilderness, suffrage advocates, seeking to expand their political purview outside the home, were arguing that it was unwise to entrust men with community oriented, volunteer pursuits such as environmental stewardship (Rome, 2006, p. 442; Taylor, 2005, p. 88-9).

<36> One woman, for instance, compared men's motivation to perform "municipal and state housekeeping" to "a bachelor trying to run a house without the help of a woman," and this, they claimed, demanded an expansion of women's traditional home-making roles outside the home, to the municipality (Rome, 2006, p. 444). Early American feminists began to define themselves as "municipal housekeepers" (Rome, 2006, p. 442-4, Taylor, 2005, p. 89). Jane Addams (1913) quite succinctly stated the case for municipal housekeepers, writing "The very multifariousness and complexity of a city government demand the help of minds accustomed to detail and variety of work, to a sense of obligation for the health and welfare of young children, and to responsibility for the cleanliness and comfort of our people."

<37> Such attempts to extend women's agency beyond the private sphere were necessarily couched in the gendered discourse of the times. As women's presence in the public sphere expanded, environmental discourse grew even more gendered as male conservationists sought to differentiate their environmentalism from the efforts of the municipal housekeepers, professionalizing environmental organizations, revoking women's memberships, deriding the use of sentimental language in environmental advocacy, and defining conservation in opposition to "women's environmental causes" (Rome, 2006, p. 450). According to Rome, there were a number of reasons for the growing gender divide over environmentalism, perhaps the most salient of which was the fact that many male conservationists were working outside the home, and mainly sought to address environmental issues tied to their workplaces, viewing pollution, for example, as an economic problem. The majority of female conservationists were volunteers, and expressed concern about environmental issues based on value judgments--morals, public health, etc.

<38> Rome explains that this gendered evolution of environmental discourse, along with efforts by anti-environmentalists to portray male conservationists as effeminate, led male conservationists, who controlled the public space, to attempt to further separate themselves from woman environmentalists in the public discourse (Rome, 2006, p. 452-3). Taylor (2005) finds that as the conservation movement evolved into modern environmentalism between 1914-1959, environmental groups' male leadership continued to exclude women, and focused on market-based partnerships with the private sector, rather than political activism (p. 93). The gendered evolution of environmental discourse therefore shaped much of popular culture's understanding of environmental movement until the emergence of the modern environmental movement of the 1960s, when Anderson's "epiphany" and the dominance of Mother Earth iconography in environmental discourse only served to reframe and strengthen gendered rhetoric.

<39> Perhaps, then, this evolution is key to understanding a curious phenomenon in the environmental discourse in these ads. Despite women's substantial relative progress in political agency since Addams' time, the basic premises of these early definitions of women's political agency and women's environmentalism appear to have carried through to today's definitions of environmentalism in popular culture, and marketers are therefore comfortable using such tropes in green ads directed at women. Gendered discourse with racialized undertones remains the accepted method of selling what are essentially specialty products to women who are relatively educated, or at least, consider themselves sophisticated among their peers when it comes to social awareness and responsibly managing the home.

<40> In attempting to sell green cleaning products, marketers therefore draw on a long tradition in American popular culture of naturalized dualities between purity and society, home and city, women's work and men's work, curative nature and ecological other. The ecological other trope is not worth emulation because unlike the "ecological subjects" of these advertisements, it is impure, dirty, and unnatural (Ray, 2013, p. 2). It should come as no surprise that green advertisers rely heavily on images of purity and whiteness, and the construction of parallels between those images and nature in selling green cleaning products.

<41> As a company specializing exclusively in eco-friendly products, Seventh Generation's use of language and imagery which draws dualities between nature and society, home and city, is significant in that the company may be assumed to be targeting women who already favor eco-friendly products over ordinary products. Much like the designers of the Oceana campaign, the assumption by these marketers, then, appears to be that even women who tend to favor green lifestyle choices are conditioned to the idea that purity is inherent in nature, and, perhaps, that nature's purity is associated with whiteness. The assumption of inherent dualities between the purity of nature and the pollution of society, between home and city, women's work and men's work, is revealed as part and parcel of accepted environmental discourse, even among those who may consider themselves socially conscious, or environmentally sophisticated. The white mother, performing gendered tasks within the purity of the home, becomes the accepted image of the American environmentalist. In Seventh Generation's campaign, products are presented as a means of naturalizing the home, insulating and inoculating oneself from sullied society, restoring one's home environment to its natural state of purity.

<42> In one of the campaign's ads, a young white woman is pictured chopping fresh vegetables in a high-end kitchen, while her young son sits, content and occupied, at a nearby kitchen island. The kitchen bears all the trappings of the affluent suburbs: marble countertops, a farm sink, bright, white cabinetry, and an expansive bank of windows along which a phalanx of stainless steal pots hang ready, looking out onto a lush garden. In this domestic fantasy, dinnertime prep is a relaxing endeavor in a pristine environment, with relaxed children within arm's reach, and ample time to prepare a fresh and healthy meal.

<43> The images appropriate the kitchen's interior as the pristine site of nature, constructed in opposition to the busy suburban neighborhood the audience can imagine outside the home. The scent of "lemongrass and clementine zest" dish liquid, the scent of nature, pervades the immaculate kitchen and completes the powerful, subliminal association between the domestic and the natural environment in the mind of the consumer. The woman's child is safe and accounted for, inside the home and within reach. She will provide for her child and husband by cooking a meal, the Seventh Generation dish liquid will ensure that any "pollution" that may result is adequately handled, that the kitchen will return to its natural, pristine state, much as the natural environment renews itself. The associations with the purity of nature, the parallels drawn to the sanctity of the home, and the gendered representations of labor weave together to present a powerful sales message.

<44> A 2008 television campaign created for the launch of Clorox's Green Works plant-based cleaning products line, is even more overt in appropriating gendered, racialized cultural associations and the idea of nature's restorative power. In one television ad from the campaign, the audience follows a floating daisy petal into a brightly lit suburban kitchen that bears many of the same class markers as the kitchen in the Seventh Generation ad.[ [9]] There are white cabinets, a young, white mother cleaning while her son plays at a kitchen island. Her son is even about the same age as the child in the Seventh Generation ad. The similarities are so striking that if one were to view this ad and look at the Seventh Generation print ad without any taglines or branding, one might assume that the ads were created by the same company for the same product.

<45> A female narrator with a standard Midwestern accent introduces the product, "From nature, comes Green Works." The 30-second spot ends with, "Green Works, Naturally," overtly playing on the word association between natural/inherent and natural/environment. Like Seventh Generation, Green Works posits a self-evident connection between the cleanliness of one's home and the purity of the natural world; the clean home is, in the tradition of Muir, connected to nature, unsullied by the modern world outside the home, white, bright, relaxing, and populated by white people.

<46> Another Green Works spot from the campaign begins with a wide-angle shot of a field with mountains in the background and moves quickly from this "wilderness" into an intimate home space.[ [10]] A bottle of cleaning solution is sitting on a table. A flower on the product's label comes to life, moving away from the bottle and losing a petal, which floats into a brightly lit, pristine suburban kitchen which mirrors the kitchens in the other ads. As the camera moves into the kitchen, the narrator intones, "bring the power of nature inside," as a thin, attractive white woman happily cleans various surfaces in her home. She moves to clean the bathtub (always fun), as her son, about the same age as the boys in the other ads, runs outside with his dog, seemingly carefree and oblivious to the decisions his mother is making to keep his home toxin free. As in the other ads, all the backgrounds are bright and white, emphasizing purity and innocence.[ [11]]

<47> Again, there is only one child, and again he is male; he is neither a screaming baby, nor a curious, awkward toddler, nor a sullen teenager--as in the other ads, he's about five or six years old, just old enough to occupy himself in the presence of his mother, not too old to present a problem. In the Green Works home, the mother's family structure is sound and roles are defined. At midday, she cleans the bathtub while her son runs with his dog in an open field.

<48> The exclusive portrayal of young boys (and an un-gendered infant) in Seventh Generation and Green Works ads appears to harken to 19th century popular culture's Republican Motherhood trope. This trope inferred that mothers were best suited to instill morality in their sons because as women, by nature were more virtuous than men (Freedman, 2002, p. 49). Much as the popular trope in the early conservation movement equated women's innate caretaking nature with a unique environmental sensibility, the Republican Motherhood trope, ostensibly validating women's virtuous nature, served to limit women's public sphere agency, since it inferred a duty to the home and childrearing. Situating mothers with their sons in the home reinforces a culture sensibility that has pervaded American popular culture for nearly 150 years: the private sphere is a safe, maternal space, free from the immorality of the dangerous world sons grow up to occupy--the public sphere.

<49> The striking homogeneity of the subjects in the two campaigns speaks to the racialized subtext. In defining which types of physical bodies are best able to restore nature's purity, and constructing such an archetype in apparent opposition to the ecological other, these ads appear to suggest that the act of purifying the home, and, by extension, the performance of environmentalist acts, are the domain not just of women, but of white women (Ray, 2013, p. 2). While the women's media I surveyed for my project included some of America's top-selling lifestyle magazines aimed at women of color, there were no sustained ad campaigns in any of these magazines for eco-friendly products or causes.[ [12] ] Indeed, the only environmentally-themed ad in any of America's top six best-selling women's magazines during 2010 and 2011 featuring a women of color was a single ad in the January 2011 issue of Essence for a hybrid car, which featured an African-American family.

Conclusion

<50> Images of white women tending to children and animals, like those that appear in the ad campaigns profiled here, appear natural and non-controversial to us; after all, such images and associated discourse have historically dominated representations of women's environmentalism in American popular culture. Yet such imagery and discourse ultimately relies on an essentialized vision of the relationship between women and the environment which bears critical examination. Despite significant progress in women's rights, racial equality, and gay rights as the environmental movement has evolved, these marketing campaigns demonstrate that American popular culture's environmental trope, which one would assume was progressive, and had evolved with broader culture, remains anti-feminist and exclusive.

<51> What's more, the campaigns discussed here were not a randomly selected cross-section of advertisements in American mass media--they were the most ubiquitous green ads in media aimed at women. It is not just that these ads are reflective of broader popular culture's definitions of environmentalism; marketers, including those who are selling a form of activism (Oceana), clearly believe that even socially-conscious women readily accept such tropes, and that these tropes reflect women's understanding of their roles in American environmentalism.

<52> If we, as feminists, are to contest such anti-feminism in popular environmental discourse, Eco-moms, cultural ecofeminists, and other feminist environmentalists must first seek to ensure that Eco-moms are not unintentionally contributing to popular culture's acceptance of these anti-feminist definitions of environmentalism; and second, present a united effort supporting more inclusive tropes through consumer choice, whether deciding which eco-friendly household product to buy, or which environmental organization is worthy of one's contribution. Much like Jane Addams and the municipal housekeepers saw the growth of American cities as an opportunity to assert women's socio-political roles, or environmentalists in the 1960s saw images of the polluted earth viewed from space as an opportunity to raise social awareness, many socially conscious women understandably view motherhood as a powerful potential platform for environmental social change.[ [13]]

<53> As MacGregor has argued, it is not enough for feminist environmentalists to agitate in the public sphere as mothers. We must agitate as citizens, embracing a more inclusive, politicized definition of environmentalism in popular culture (MacGregor, 2004, p. 71). Re-defining environmentalism more inclusively will help de-gender environmentalism in the popular consciousness, constructing an environmentalism which is more accessible to all genders, races, and sexualities, preventing any one group from claiming or naming environmental cultural authority, and creating opportunities for greater environmental change.

Notes

[1] These narratives range from Sandra Steingraber's Raising Elijah: Protecting our children in an age of environmental crisis (2013) to the more accessible and lifestyle driven narratives detailing an emerging environmental consciousness accompanying motherhood, such as celebrity, Jessica Alba's The honest life: Living naturally and true to you (2013). As a Latina, Alba may be helping to introduce new audiences to material memoirs.

[2] Women are also more likely than men to accept climate change (Hickman, 2010).

[3] These commercials were collected from a larger project on network morning television programming

[4] March, April, and May 2011 and May 2010. O, The Oprah Magazine issues and Good Housekeeping's May 2011 issue.

[5] The first ad takes up a full-page and was found in O, The Oprah Magazine's August 2011, while the second ad consisting of two-full pages appeared in the September 2011 issue.

[6] Danuta-Walters and Harrison (2014) argue, however, that in later seasons of Mad Men, Jones is less than a perfect mother who often resents her children and neglects her role as mother (2014). The association of Jones as an ideal 1950s housewife and mother persist, however, particularly for those who have never watched Mad Men.

[7] April 2010. O, The Oprah Magazine.

[8] January 2011 and September 2010. O, The Oprah Magazine's

[9] 2008. YouTube, estimated to have originally aired from 2008-2010, during network programming aimed at women including The Today Show, Good Morning America, and The Early Show (and collected as part of larger project).

[10] 2010. YouTube.

[11] A third Green Works advertisement (cut for brevity) produced the same narratives as the other two but featured a young daughter alongside her mother instead of a young boy. The ad for laundry detergent features a modern, clean, and brightly lit laundry room. The young thin white woman is doing the family's laundry while her young daughter places wild flowers in a vase (2009, YouTube).

[12] Even more striking since minority communities tend to face greater environmental threat (Gupte, 2002, 50).

[13] Many women also leveraged their cultural capital as Republican Mothers for greater social freedoms including the right to vote (Evans, 1989).

Works Cited

Addams, J. (1913). Women and public housekeeping. Blackmask Online. Retrieved from:http://netlibrary.net/eBooks/WPLBN0000622828-Women-and-Public- Housekeeping-by-Jane.aspx?&Words=Jane%20Addams

American climate and environmental values survey (ACEVS). (2011, Sept. 11). ecoAmerica.

Alaimo, S. (2010). The undomesticated ground: Recasting nature as feminist space. New York: Cornell University Press.

Alba, J. (2013). The honest life: Living naturally and true to you. New York: Rodale.

Andersen, R. (2005). Selling 'mother earth:' Advertising and the myth of the natural. In D. King and L. McCarthy (Eds.), Environmental sociology: From analysis to action (215-229). New York: Roman & Littlefield Publishers.

Baumann, S. (2008). The moral underpinnings of beauty: A meaning-based explanation for light and dark complexions in advertising. Poetics, 36:1, 2-23.

Corbett, J. B. (2006). Communicating nature: How we create and understand environmental messages. Washington D.C.: Island Press.

Danuta-Walters, S. & L. Harrison (2014). Not ready to make nice: Aberrant mothers in contemporary culture. Feminist Media Studies, 14:1, 38-55.

Evans, S.M. (1989). Born for liberty: A history of women in America. New York: The Free Press.

Freedman, E.B. (2002). No turning back: The history of feminism and the future of women. New York: Ballantine Books.

Green works [advertisement]. (2010). YouTube.

---. (2009). YouTube.

---. (2008). YouTube.

Goffman, E. (1979). Gender advertisements. New York: Harper & Row Publishers.

Gupte, M. (2002). Gender, feminist consciousness, and the environment: Exploring the 'natural' connection. Women & Politics, 24:1, 47-62.

Hays, S. (1998). The cultural contradictions of motherhood. New Haven: Yale University.

Hickman, L. (2010, Sept. 15). U.S. women more likely to accept climate change science than men, study finds. The Guardian.

Hutner, H. (2011). The birth of an eco-mom. Journal of the Motherhood Initiative, 2:1, 37-51.

Kosek, J. (2004). Purity and pollution: Racial degradation and environmental anxieties. In R. Peet & M. Watts (Eds.), Liberation ecologies: Environment, development, social movements (125-165). New York: Routledge.

MacGregor, S. (2006). Beyond mothering earth: Ecological citizenship and the politics of care. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.

---. (2004). From care to citizenship: Calling ecofeminism back to politics. Ethics & The Environment, 9:1, 56-84.

Miller-Schroeder, P. (2011). Teaching about women, the environment and mother earth. Journal of the Motherhood Initiative, 2:1, 67-80.

Oceana [advertisement]. (2011, May). Good Housekeeping Magazine.

Oceana [advertisement]. (2011, Jan.). O, The Oprah Magazine

---. (2011, May). O, The Oprah Magazine.

---. (2011, Apr). O, The Oprah Magazine.

---. (2011, Aug.). O, The Oprah Magazine.

---. (2011, Sept.). O, The Oprah Magazine.

---. (2010, Apr.). O, The Oprah Magazine.

---. (2010, May). O, The Oprah Magazine.

---. (2010, Sept.). O, The Oprah Magazine.

Ray, S.J. (2013). The ecological other: Environmental exclusion in American culture. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press.

---. (2011). How many mothers does it take to change all the light bulbs? Journal of the Motherhood Initiative, 2:1, 81-101.

Robbins, P., J. Hintz & S. A. Moore. (2010). Environment and society: A critical introduction. UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

Rome, A. (2006). 'Political hermaphrodites': Gender and the environmental reform in progressive America. Environmental History, 11:3, 440-463.

Seventh Generation [advertisement]. (2010, Apr.). Good Housekeeping Magazine.

---. (2010, May). Good Housekeeping Magazine.

Seventh Generation [advertisement]. (2011, Oct). Real Simple Magazine.

Seventh Generation [advertisement]. (2011, July). Whole Living Magazine.

---. (2011, Sept.). Whole Living Magazine.

---. (2011, Oct.). Whole Living Magazine.

Shaw, L. (2011). Ecomothering: Creating and nurturing a sustainable world. Journal of the Motherhood Initiative, 2:1, 52-66.

Seager, J. (2003). Rachel Carson died of breast cancer: The coming of age of feminist environmentalism. Signs, 28:3, 945-972.

Staingraber, S. (2013). Raising Elijah: Protecting our children in an age of environmental crisis. Boston: DeCapo Press.

Sturgeon, N. (2009). Environmentalism in popular culture: Gender, race, and sexuality and the politics of natural. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press.

Taylor, D. E. (2005). American environmentalism: The role of race, class and gender in shaping activism 1820-1995. In L. King & D. McCarthy Auriffeille (Eds.), Environmental sociology (87-106). UK: Rowman & Littlfield.

When it comes to recycling, women talk more trash. (2009, Nov. 13). Plastics Make it Possible.

Zelezny, L. C., P. Chua, & C. Aldrich. (2000). Elaborating on gender differences in environmentalism. Journal of Social Issues, 56:3, 443-457.

Return to Top»

ISSN: 1547-4348. All material contained within this site is copyrighted by the identified author. If no author is identified in relation to content, that content is © Reconstruction, 2002-2016.