Modern scientific language still encodes the sexualized coercion of nature

Evidence

Here, in bold sexual imagery, is the key feature of the modern experimental method—constraint of nature in the laboratory, dissection by hand and mind, and the penetration of hidden secrets—language still used today in praising a scientist’s “hard facts,” “penetrating mind,” or the “thrust of his argument.” The constraints against penetration in Natura’s lament over her torn garments of modesty have been turned into sanctions in language that legitimates the exploitation and “rape” of nature for human good. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 682

Categorization

• SEED: Strong essay seed for Eco-Justice Education: tracing the ‘thrust of his argument’ idiom back to Bacon’s rape-metaphor shows how everyday scientific talk quietly imports a mastery ethic.
• XREF: Payoff of ch43 claims about Bacon warranting nature-exploitation and courtroom-witch imagery; also connects to ch4 claim that the mechanistic worldview sanctioned domination of nature and women. — connects to: Grammatical gender made nature feminine across European languages — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 71; Early modern poets equated mining the earth with sexual violation of women — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 231; Scientific authority has repeatedly been deployed to justify female intellectual inferiority — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 653 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Nature’s figuration as submissive female gave scientific exploitation normative sanction #corroborates (0.95) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 755
• The mechanistic worldview sanctioned domination of both nature and women #corroborates (0.95) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 64
• Patriarchal sexual hierarchies persist even in biological theory. #corroborates (0.90) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 82
• Language intertwines descriptive and normative claims about the world #expands (0.90) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 956
• The Scientific Revolution’s death of nature licensed nature’s manipulation #corroborates (0.90) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 761
• The human concept carries masculine bias because gender and nature dualisms intertwine #expands (0.85) — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 140
• A scientific framework’s presuppositions are culturally and historically conditioned #qualifies (0.85) — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!, 148
• Nature’s misrecognition is socially constructed and socially correctable #expands (0.80) — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 470
• Women-nature identifications are historical constructions, not biological essences #expands (0.80) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 49