Law and Petro-Masculinity

The concept of "petro-masculinity," proposed by political scientist Cara Daggett, refers to a psychological and cultural association between fossil fuel extraction and use and the values of historically rooted gender hierarchies. It involves a fundamental association of extractivism and other forms of environmental destruction with power and masculinity, as contrasted with environmental protection which is understood as carrying connotations of femininity and weakness. To put it more bluntly, petromasculinity captures the notion that digging for coal, driving fuel-guzzling SUVs, or taking military action in order to control another country's oil is for strong men with guns, and worrying that the planet might become unlivable is for meek girls with flower crowns. This is an idea that is readily found in advertising, popular culture, and political rhetoric around the world. My contention is that it is also found in law. This article examines how petro-masculinity may be expressed and endorsed by those crafting law and policy in the United States and other countries. Drawing on feminist legal theory and ecofeminist discourse, I argue that such expressions of petro-masculinity impact and become embedded in law, through executive, legislative, and judicial decisionmaking. The influence of petro-masculine approaches has wide-ranging effects in limiting policy outcomes, through championing of climate denial, resistance to ending reliance on fossil fuels, commodification of nature, bolstering of authoritarian claims to power, deprioritization of gendered environmental harms, and gendered attacks on environmental defenders. Through this inquiry, I explore the possibility and necessity of addressing stereotypical social constructions of gender in order to meaningfully combat the inequalities and harms that they give rise to and the possible futures presented by a legal structure free of petro-masculinity.