Gender and terror tangled in the weeds

Abstract

Eco-Terrorist. Femme fatale. Botanist. Environmentalist. Scientist. Villain. DC’s Poison Ivy has been challenging ideas about human interactions with the planet since 1966. Exploring alternative portrayals of femininity, power and plant liberation, Ivy sits at a unique intersection between female and plant empowerment – which is complicated by her criminal activities. By examining recently published comic book stories of Poison Ivy in conjunction with academic feminist and terrorism theory, this paper investigates how these two ideas intertwine. Ivy’s approach to the environment and her engagement with nature are inextricably linked to violence in the form of eco-terrorism, and this paper unpacks the extent to which this calls into question her portrayal as a plant-empowered female protagonist. In this way, the article explores ideas of identity and autonomy at the crossroads of feminism and botany through alternative representations of eco-feminism, but also reveals a number of provocative tensions at this very intersection.