Description
This paper argues that nuclear testing and nuclear waste constitute acute, intersectional, and complex forms of patriarchal violence. It does so through comparing government discourses surrounding the justification of nuclear testing in the Pacific Islands and industrial pollution in Northamptonshire. Both led to issues of infertility, miscarriage, and children born with birth defects. It proposes a new theoretical framework called ‘Interkincentrism’, which builds upon existing frameworks of intersectionality, incorporating indigenous epistemologies to highlight the ways in which marginalised women have doubly suffered - both physically and psychologically - from anthropocentrism. This dual suffering must be examined through a Kincentric lens that considers both women and nature in unison with one another. The dominant narratives, social hierarchies, and dichotomies by systemic oppressors have facilitated transgenerational violence, subjugation, and silencing of the marginalised ‘subaltern’ from society (Spivak, 1988, 28). As many environmentalists have noted, these systems have worked simultaneously to both commodify and destroy the Earth, apparently for the sake of human progress. This anthropocentric way of thinking is heavily dependent on similar dichotomies that view humans as subjects and nature as an object. Drawing on Spivak (1988), the paper analyses the extent to which anthropocentric discourses silenced or excluded women’s suffering and highlights the inherently patriarchal nature of these practices. Through inter-textual analysis, it identifies key themes within these narratives such as ‘rationality’ or ‘civilizationist’ dichotomies, obstetric violence, and the omission of women from both scientific research and the political sphere. Through its case studies, the paper demonstrates the harmful, complex, specific effects of systemic anthropocentric misogyny in discourse and the catastrophic effects it has for marginalised women’s mental and physical wellbeing.
