Words create worlds...
And the world around us urges words to emerge.
Defecatory and Excretory are two words that emerged from me, in conversation with a lot of people over time.
They help me describe the actions of excreting feces, specifically (defecatory) and excreta in general (excretory).
They are accompanied by my understanding of justice.
When combined, they create the concepts of defecatory justice and excretory justice.
The terms defecatory justice and excretory justice are frameworks for thinking both about the material of excreta itself
and the human experience when it comes to elimination of feces, specifically, and other excreta more broadly (e.g. urine, menstrual blood).
They take into account the larger web of life into which humans return their leftover nutrients,
as well as the context of systematic injustice, global systems that manifest harm even in this most basic and universal of human experiences.
I describe these in/justices in more detail below:
Defecatory Justice
This is a theoretical framework, created for both theoretical and practical applications. Defecatory justice examines the power dynamics of all the socio-technical systems that influence human elimination and the subsequent journey of that expelled matter. it "works alongside other visions of justice in the service of collective liberation, planetary regeneration, and the adoption of pro-environmental behaviors. As a practical concern, it seeks to ensure that what comes out of our bodies remains within the natural cycle of decomposition. (Nahar, 2020, p. 114).
While defecatory in/justice focuses on human feces, this lens could examine other issues--other species' feces--as well. There is a particularity to defecation that is different than urinating or menstruating, and so the framework still has utility. However, the human body excretes more than poop! Therefore, four years later, a broader term emerged:
Excretory Justice
The broader frame of excretory in/justice can encompass the material and production of a range of discarded body material (menstrual blood, vomit, sweat, spit, semen, mucous, earwax, dandruff, etc). Expanding from defecatory to excretory justice allows me to bring in urine. Though proximate to fecal production, it is a distinct substance requiring distinct handling. To a much lesser extent menstruation features in this text, though it definitely is the locus of origin of this work--Rethinking Menstruation was the title of my 2002 high school senior capstone. Menstruation is becoming more studied from feminist, queer, reproductive justice, and international development angles (Bobel et al., 2020; Critchley et al., 2020; Tingen, Halvorson and Bianchi, 2020).
Further Thoughts
The argument that human excreta can remain within the natural cycle of decomposition and be safely contained, treated, and processed for reuse or soil reintegration "stands in opposition to the taken-for-granted wastewater treatment and septic processes familiar in many contexts in the "Global North." These systems are problematic not because they have failed to help us resolve a perennial problem of separating human excrement from the places humans eat—they have. But modern wastewater systems enable fantasies of what it means to flush “away” human bodily waste. Away is a false notion; away is always somewhere—places where people and other beings are living. The ways that waste is treated frequently has a negative impact on others through the use of chemicals and the release the hazardous materials into freshwater and landfills. In addition, many of these systems are currently overwhelmed, creating a new set of problems for municipal public works departments" (Nahar 2020, p. 104).
I often say that creating defecatory and excretory justice will require a "revolution from the bottom up!" In recommending that we pay attention to what I call "the back end of food justice," I do not suggest that we abandon concern for other environmental and social issues. "We can be attentive to more than one thing at once, and every issue is interconnected with other issues. But sanitation ethics [can] be included alongside other ethical concerns—access to dignified sanitation [can] be understood as part of a broader set of environmental justice concerns, including human rights, food security, health initiatives" and more (Nahar 2020, p. 105).
Appropriate Citation
Words evolve, and concepts ebb and flow in their utility. I'll keep these definitions up to date as my life using these two terms continues. If either of these support your thinking and action in the world, please cite them using the following citation:
Nahar, S. (2020). Research note: Are we flushing peace down the toilet?: Discipleship and defecatory justice. The Mennonite Quarterly Review, 94(1), 103–115.
The article is available online here.