Cirrus@Austlit

'By framing salvation - both of the self and of Earth - through childbirth and Earth cultivation, Miller suggests that no such redemption is possible. Because human consumption and apocalyptic disaster have produced this population crisis, bearing more children will only heighten the tension between the people and their Earth. (74) Before entrepreneurs appropriated the land, women were considered to have been 'closer' to the Earth than men by their mere proximity to it on a daily basis, as well as their trust in nature to provide food, succour and income. [...]ecofeminists explain that privatisation of the land - especially in third-world countries - is seen as a direct assault on women's bodies, because women are seen as being both more responsive and more nurturing of nature/5 Women delegated to subordinate roles that make them subservient to men and not the Earth thereby find themselves unable to effect the necessary social changes that preserve their environment and society/6 Within a religious context, then, ecofeminism highlights the ways in which spirituality, the Earth and humankind's fate are impacted by dystopian disasters. Ecofeminism highlights the problems of gender inequity and damage wrought to the Earth, but it attempts to head off the 'if this goes on' scenario that Booker describes as typifying dystopian literature/8 Fury Road demonstrates that unchecked environmental crisis leads to death and destruction that cannot be undone even by the best theories and practices of equality and preservation. [...]Miller's contrast of ecofeminist principles demonstrates that no matter how mindful the spiritual practice, even the best intentions cannot undo the irreversible damage that kills the Earth and its inhabitants. Just as Miller criticises Immortan Joe's patriarchal religious practice for its inability to transcend a painful death brought on by suffering in a ravaged Earth, he also suggests that death and destruction will similarly plague the Vuvalini and their matriarchal faith. Because ecofeminism is dependent on gender parity to restore balance, the death of both women and men leaves the film's supposedly happy ending in question.40 While Furiosa, the wives, Max and Nux seek the Green Place, their roles are equal.' (Publication abstract)