RESCUING LADY NATURE
23
Consumer ecology is a discreet ‘private practice’ articulated within the
dialogue between private industry and the private domestic sphere: a private
response to the popular observation that both these spheres have been
degraded and must be purged.
Consumer ecology is a postmodern brand of asceticism based on
romantic values of idealization, protection and constraint Promoting an
idealized commodity that is chemical and waste-free, consumer ecology
encourages the never ending search for the ‘pure commodity’ that contains as
much ‘pure nature’ as possible, while making the least impact on the natural
world.
In turn, the preoccupation with protection is deeply embedded in the
world of commodity purity as well. Eco-consumers and green capitalists alike
express
their value
of self-constraint by
exercising
self-control in
the
production and consumption of impure commodities. Upholding this impulse
is the belief that down deep we are all greedy consumers who must restrain
the desire to over-consume. Just as the courtly troubadour demonstrates desire
for his lady by promising sexual self-constraint, individuals in society are
encouraged to express their desire for nature by promising to constrain their
inclination to spoil and deplete the environment.
The impulse toward romantic self-constraint assumes a variety of forms,
ranging from self-restraint regarding consumption to reproductive restraint. At
the more benign end of the spectrum, corporations appeal to individuals to
restrain their everyday appetites for ‘natural resources’. Advertisers often deploy
emotionally laden images of nature in their attempt to evoke in individuals a
sense of shame and accountability for the destruction of the natural world. For
example, a few years ago, a TV campaign by Pepsi depicted a sentimental
image of baby ducks swimming in a reedy pond with small children playing in
the sand nearby. The caption read in pink script, ‘Preserve It: They Deserve It.”
Through the use of soft lenses and young children, Pepsi effectively associated
the idea of nature preservation with an underlying injunction against defiling
innocent children. The Environmental Defense Fund had a recent TV
commercial in which the camera zoomed in upon the hands of a white man
crumpling a ‘whole earth’ photograph. As the earth’s image was reduced to a
tight paper ball, a stem voice announced dryly, “If you don’t recycle, you’re
throwing it all away.” In both instances, the message was clear: If individuals
fail to constrain their desire to ‘trash’ nature, the natural world is done for.
Green capital participates in the cult of romantic consumption, promoting
collective self-constraint on the part of consumers. Stonyfield Farm for instance,
recently launched a campaign called ‘Planet Protectors” which makes a
romantic plea to children to change their own unchivalrous ways as well as
those their parents. Planet Protector’s mascot is a cartoon cow soaring through