Glaciers aren’t just big hunks of ice, according to feminist and post-colonial academics, but have feelings. This sentiment is considered to be more valid than eeevil masculinist and White science. This sentiment is also embodied in the peer reviewed article “Glaciers, gender, and science: A feminist glaciology framework for global environmental change research“. A gander at the abstract will give you a good taste of the insanity contained in the article:
“Glaciers are key icons of climate change and global environmental change. However, the relationships among gender, science, and glaciers – particularly related to epistemological questions about the production of glaciological knowledge – remain understudied. This paper thus proposes a feminist glaciology framework with four key components: 1) knowledge producers; (2) gendered science and knowledge; (3) systems of scientific domination; and (4) alternative representations of glaciers. Merging feminist postcolonial science studies and feminist political ecology, the feminist glaciology framework generates robust analysis of gender, power, and epistemologies in dynamic social-ecological systems, thereby leading to more just and equitable science and human-ice interactions.”
Let’s delve a bit more into the realm of insanity…
In the introduction they state a sane and ration statement made by a geophysicist:
“Ice asks no questions, presents no arguments, reads no newspapers, listens to no debates. It is not burdened by ideology and carries no political baggage as it crosses the threshold from solid to liquid. It just melts”.
Of course, being post-colonial feminists, they only state this bit of sanity in order to dash away as far as they can therefrom, and go on to say:
“But the ‘ice is just ice’ conceptualization contrasts sharply with conclusions by researchers such as Cruikshank, who asks if glaciers listen”
Yes, according to the new academic liberating ideology of feminist and post-colonial frameworks, a hunk of ice LITERALLY listens to people… But wait! It get’s even more insane, because:
“A critical but overlooked aspect of the human dimensions of glaciers and global change research is the relationship between gender and glaciers.”
Oh, Heaven forbid that anyone mis-genders a freakin’ hunk of frozen water!
