Elisa Mariño
2 min readDec 4, 2024

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I disagree that gender politics are the distraction so people won't care about environment and social protection. There is a synergy between more equality and caring for the environment and social protection/less inequal societies. But by telling you that western feminist are the enemy, they get you to waste your energy fighting them instead than the neoliberals.

An example: western feminist want to decide over their bodies. The more rights women have, the less children and the better those children live. It is easier to care about one or two children than care about 6. If you have 2 children you might afford good education that means those children would grow up to be better prepared to deal with all the problems you mention. Less children also means less population, which means less pressure on natural resources. But less children means less cheap labour. So the same neoliberals that you are complaining about, attack the "evil" western feminist that aren't providing them with cheap labour and convince you that their cause is taking resources from YOUR fight. And you end doing their dirty work for them, attacking the western feminist for asking for abortion and to have control over their lives instead of having lots of unwanted children that would grow up to be cheap labour and demand a lot of natural resources.

Some people, including men, have explained this better than me. Changes as big as you said are difficult, but sometimes you don't need to do big dramatic things. Sometimes small things like wearing sensible clothes for the weather instead of abusing heaters/airconditioner help. Or trying to use reusable stuff. Or maybe walking a bit instead of taking the car everywhere. Other times it helps to vote to allow women to abort (although changes would take decades to be noticed) or maybe to vote for public healthcare. So my suggestion is: think about small changes that you can make in your life that add up to improve things because everything adds up. And you don't need to do everything or be a radical vegan or a radical enviromentalist. Or a radical antisystem. In the same way that every cent counts when you are saving money, every small action counts if you are consistent.

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Elisa Mariño
Elisa Mariño

Written by Elisa Mariño

Fiction is the art to tell lies to show truths. Politics is the art to use truths to tell lies.

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