The oppression has been an issue that has affected human life for a very long time. Man has always seen himself as separate from nature. Nature is not something he is a part of, but a resource that he can do whatever he wants with. The plants are for use to eat, the forests are a source of lumber for us to build with, air is for us to breathe and pollute, and the animals are to be our slaves and our meat. This is nature has always been thought of to man. Only know are we seeing this to be untrue. Social Ecology has brought to light the dangers of thinking of nature as something we own and therefore can do whatever we want with. The extinction of species from the planet, the melting of the polar ice caps, and the pollution of waters all around the world are finally making us realize this to be true. If we continue to use nature simply as a resource and don't find a way to peacefully co-exist with it, we will destroy it, and in turn destroy ourselves.
             A tragedy that has affected our social lives, as much as pollution has affected our ecological lives, is the oppression of women. Women have been oppressed in western society for as long as it has existed. Like nature, they too exist for man and not with him. Up until recently it was thought common knowledge that women were inferior in nearly every way to man. They were to be protected and taken care of, but in no way were they thought equal to man. The Civil Rights Movements of the past century have changed that significantly. We as a society understand that women are equal to man and that they should be given the same opportunities as men.
             There is still a long way to go, though, in the abolishing of both these oppressions. Every passing minute we are still slowly destroying the planet, and women are still at a great disadvantage compared to men in modern society. Ynestra King argues that these problems are not separate issues we need to deal with, but that the destruction o...