Why stop at men and women? Shall we discuss the subtle nuances of the drag queen, trans-gendered, cross-dressing, gay, or straight responses to Peak Oil? But the fact that we strive to keep gender balance on our peak oil panels suggests that gender roles are important both to us and to your audiences. Let’s see what we can do without stereotyping.
In GENERAL, when women are in a crisis, their first response is to gather their family and children around them, and then seek out their friends and the wider community, have lots of discussions, and arrive at some solutions together. There are many studies on this female behavior, though it would be difficult to separate it from cultural influence. Men on the other hand, GENERALLY tend to strike out alone or in small groups, establish a chain of command, and attack the problems head on with minimal discussion, lots of action and lots of force. Again, is this a guy thing or a cultural thing? Unknown, but let’s call them extreme feminine and masculine responses, on a spectrum of possible responses.
How can we extrapolate these behaviors for Peak Oil? We can imagine that the guys will build micro hydro systems, modify their hybrid cars to be pure electric, or brew bio-diesel in their garages while the gals have in-depth discussions about forming community gardens, give each other tips on canning, sewing, knitting, and sharing the work of transforming their suburb into a village. Techno-fix vs shrinking to fit.
Your individual response depends on who you are, where you live, what your cultural references are, and where you are on the bell curve of masculinity and femininity. The above extreme examples suggest that both kinds of responses are important, meaning we’re all back in therapy, developing whichever side of ourselves is weaker. Individualism and isolation are exactly the wrong response to Peak Oil - communal self-sufficiency is the goal - and yet there’s very much a pioneer spirit to being a Peak Oil believer, so strong leadership is important. And you never know, there might just be some gizmo out there that will really save our butts. (Or maybe we should just legalize the Segway.)
Foresight, ability to take personal responsibility and to take action are critical, regardless of whether you’re starting from the masculine or the feminine. But don’t neglect the psychological stuff - for more depth on that, try the Peak Oil Blues website.
andreapeloso
November 18, 2008 | 10:47 pm1
I don’t know whether women or men differ in their responses to peak oil. I am pretty sure that we are both freaking out to a certain degree, coming up with logical and illogical ways of dealing with the issue.
I basically believe that both genders, and beyond are so hard to pin down that we are all probably going through many similar things, yet there are certain tendencies depending on how we’ve been socialized.
Most of the men I know who are involved in this have a solid background in science, while to be honest I only so far met one other woman that I could talk to who seemed active on peak oil issues.
There may be many reasons for this, one - I believe is that few women really know. My suspicion is that the peak oil scientists (probably more men as well as oil excavaters and engineers) who first began discussing this were often men. They began by attempting to break this one gently to their wives… since opposites attract few people who urgenty care about peak oil will actually both also be partners. The conversations grew stressful. All attempts to alert women went out the window. One will by the hyper responsible one, while the other will prefer to me more in the moment and light hearted, this is of course a perfect fit for both people as it balances. So, the conclusion may have been drawn that women are slow to react about this issue. Of course this is a stereotype that is probably more false than true. But this is what often runs through my mind. I responded immediately with stress and the desire to act and wonder why I do not see more women - however some of the alternative living stuff is pioneered by women and there are possibly a lot of women responding first to this material.
I think more women need to be aware of this since so many women are alone, single mothers, or vulnerable as we all are.
But the deep reason I believe is:
LAUNDRY.
This is, quite simply the most brutal job imaginable without energy. We all know that no one should have to do it. We don’t want to think about it. While some may see the end of the world as some sort of overarching disaster, my personal end of the world is when a particular group of individuals are once again expected to rake large amounts of clothing over steel ripples in hot water. I think I will join a nudist peak oil colony at this point, and just hibernate in the winter. I think power or not, the point is: hell no, we won’t go.
All this to say…. some of the small jobs are really the ones that make life fun or not so great. One of the best things I think we can all do for peak oil is work on self-powered washers for the whole family. Each person simply pedals their own wares. Literally. A bit of exercise, splash, splash, your done… simple.
And there are jobs that I believe were traditionally womens prior to peak oil that should also be shared for their calming quality.
I think a lack of intelligence forms in groups of people when work is segregated and they cannot empathize with the work of the other. So, let’ s all prepare to teach and apprentice one another in everything. True, I may get tired first using an axe, but it is better that I learn and at least chip in… to pun a metaphor…
May we have no such division of labour as this again, and perhaps the men have a few they also want to avoid tackling on their own. Honestly, I think a lot of this stuff is the bull on the table about peak oil. Are we going back to the past in all ways once our energy capacity lowers? There is no evidence that we need to.
One of the ways I think we can transition best in a peak oil era is to make sure that - whenever possible - a traditional role of labour is not distributed in the same way again. Everyone will be smarter, more interested, less in a rut, have more empathy, and also be stronger.
It will also ensure that no group of people need go uneducated ever again.
response to peak oil
July 24, 2008 | 4:14 am2
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