Grizzly Man is a documentary about Timothy Treadwell. This film had a lot to say about how people view the environment and gender. Timothy had a pretty normal life growing up, he was on athletic teams and had a loving family. He felt that something was missing though so he moved to California. After he lost the part of the bartender in Cheers to another actor, he lost it. Sick of being rejected, he turned to alcohol, which did not solve his problems. Finally, he found happiness in spending time with the bears of Alaska. While in Alaska, his trouble with human society seemed to melt away. As he became closer and closer to the magnificent beasts he often forgot that they were wild animals that could harm him. He often said that others, who might try to live with the bears as he does, would not survive, yet while watching the documentary, one gets the sense that he himself does not see the danger. It seems as if he thought he was invincible because he had learned a few of the bears habits, but he still didn't know everything. During his last expedition he decided to take his girlfriend along. She and Timothy decided to go back at the usual time, but due to a conflict with the airlines, he decided to go back to his bears. The combination of being in the bear territory at such a late time and the distraction of having his girlfriend may have lead to his untimely death, as well as his girlfriend's.
It is sad that he could not have survived, yet at the same time it does not surprise me. If you mess with nature, it will eventually respond to your presence. I think that really symbolizes humanity's connection with nature. The more we spend time changing things, being where we shouldn't be, the more likely nature is going to fight back. Timothy spent extra time being where he shouldn't have been and humans in general have been spending too much time destroying the environment, therefore nature is going to respond at some point. This relates back to ecofeminism. Timothy as a man, was part of a hierarchy. While his intentions were good (trying to save the bears) he was still just doing whatever he wanted to do. He was dominating nature in his own way, using it for his own purposes. He used to bears to sort of fix his problems when poaching wasn't even a huge problem in Alaska anyways. Timothy would have been better off making his documentary on a more important environmental problem so that he could have made more of a difference. On the other hand, Timothy may have seemed feminine in the way he seemed to care so much for the bears. Caring is seen as a female trait usually, since female traits are usually seen as not as important, caring for the environment has been put on hold. This is a problem ecofeminist see in society and they relate it to the dominance hierarchy in which males usually are on top. All in all, Timothy was just trying to help, even if he was a guy.
I completely agree with you about human's interfering with nature. It seems the more we try to change it the more harm we do, not just to nature, but to ourselves as well. It is hard to correct what we have destroyed in the past, when even when we are trying to do good, our interference is still sometimes harmful.
ReplyDeleteI think its really interesting that you brought up the point that after intervening and dominating nature for so long, nature eventually has a way of fighting back. I guess it rings true in this example and in other circumstances. I think Treadwell's intentions were good but his actions were not always best for both himself and the environment and eventually, he paid the price for that.
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