Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to call everyone's attention to a short story that's appearing in this month's Delta Sky Magazine. It's called "Man versus Mother" and it's under the genre of Green Fiction. The story is about a Middleweight Boxer who agrees to fight Mother Nature. It's even got a beautiful rendition of Mother Nature by an artist named Sharon Tancredi. The story is linked below:

http://www.delta-sky.com/2008_07/thoughtleader/

If you're looking for a couple of minutes entertainment with a strong Environmental Theme, check this story out! Thanks!

This is a very interesting piece. I really like the analogy of a wrestling match, because it is socially acceptable to beat up your opponent in a wrestling match, and it is socially acceptable among humans to beat up Mother Nature. Thank you for sharing this piece with us.

I do have one question. I had trouble understanding one sentence of the story, and I'm wondering what you think it means: "Not since the sacred duty of pregnancy have men caused more pain upon women, and it would be generations before women would forgive them." I'm familiar with the concepts of ecofeminism, and I find them to be fascinating and controversial. However, I still don't really understand this particular sentence. What do you think? Here is the Wikipedia article about ecofeminism:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecofeminism

Another resource on this topic is the book, The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory, by Carol J. Adams.

First of all, thank you for taking the time to read the story! I appreciate any and all feedback I can get on the piece.

In answer to your question, the sentence was meant to be an answer to an issue previously brought up in the story, where the women smirked when asked about whether the fight itself was okay since it was a man versus a woman. They smirked at the time, and the sentence in question basically answers that the women knew the worldwide pain was going to happen. I mention pregnancy in the sentence because I've had a number of female family members and friends who are or were pregnant who describe quite a bit of pain during the process, and men are a contributing factor to that pain. While pregnancy is a beautiful thing, women have to put up with that pain for nine months, while men will never truly understand how much of a toll that takes, that is, of course, until Crackerjack makes the men of the world feel the beatdown.

The forgiveness referenced in the sentence in question refers back to the smirks women gave while polled. It's basically an "I told you so", and the women of the world in the story don't mind holding this particular grudge!

I'm glad you brought up the idea of Ecofeminism. I was not aware with the concept, but I must say it's incredibly intriguing, especially in relation to my story. I appreciate the link to the web entry, and plan on studying this movement more.

Thanks again, and I hope that answers your question!

Thank you for helping me to understand that part of the story. I do agree that, in history and in the modern day, men have inflicted a lot of pain on women. However, I'm not sure I would say that they contribute to the pain of pregnancy, at least not intentionally, unless of course they abuse or neglect the women they have impregnated.

I, too, am really fascinated by ecofeminism. Ecofeminists tend to assert that the same root attitude gives rise to both sexism and environmental destruction. I wonder if this is true. It certainly seems possible. However, since both men and women degrade the environment, this oppressor's mentality must be able to captivate people of both sexes.

Thanks again for your story! I hope you will keep referring us to your other environmentally-themed stories, should you choose to write more.

I agree with greeniac121212, that the pain of pregnancy is not caused by men.

Mr. Telofski -- I read your story on a Delta flight earlier this month. I was quite astonished by it. It seemed less a story about environmentalism and more like an ecofeminist rant. You are young and maybe a little niaive, so I would like to point out some elements of your story that BOTH men and women might find offensive:

-- In your story, only the men of the world are responsible for environmental harm. The women are vengeful smirking shrews who have nothing to do with environmental harm, but they are looking forward to some payback on the men of the world who seem oblivious to the harm they are causing.

-- Women have a "sacred duty" to become pregnant. (that whole paragraph was a kicker.)

-- Men force pregnancy and the pain of pregnancy on women. (huh??) It is women's sacred duty, after all--implying again that women really have nothing to do with it.

-- Women tend to hold eternal grudges and are vengeful, since they are helpless to prevent environmental harm or pregnancy or pain. They can only sit back and hate the men for it.

So in your happy ending, in this world of sexist absolutes, the men learn their lesson and pick up their plastic bottles and put them in the recycling bin. I assume the men also stop inflicting pregnancy on women?

I read excerpts of the story to my husband on the plane, and he was astonished to learn that the story was written by a man. But I still contend that the story is equally offensive to both men AND women.

I don't think that any story can serve as a perfect allegory, and I think that anyone who attempts to write an allegorical story will have to simplify whatever they are writing about to some extent.

There a million different facets of environmental destruction that could lend themselves to the writing of allegorical stories. For example, there is the way in which capitalism contributes so viciously to our environmental problems. There's our dear old president. There's globalization. And then there's the ecofeminist approach.

No story is going to be able to ring entirely true as an allgory, and this piece of green ficiton is clearly more simple than the true story that has led the human race to engage in environmental degradation. Greeniac 11350 does make some very interesting points that might be good to take into consideration should you choose to edit this story.

In the meantime, thank you for sharing your allegory for one of the many stories of our path to environmental degradation. Although it does not present the whole story, since no allegory can, it does make some really good points, and I thank you for sharing your thoughtfulness with the public.