Elements of feminist and eco-critical theories both apply to analyzing Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Word for World Is Forest. Through science fiction set on another planet, LeGuin shines a harsh light on devastating human practices that jeopardize Earth and implies that our chances will improve only if we cease and desist our destructive ways. The theme of domination by men of the environment and all creatures in it, and of women with whom they share humanity, joins the ecological and feminist perspectives in ecofeminism.

Because the story emphasizes conflict between the Terrans, colonizing humans from Earth and Asthsheans, beings those native to another planet, and between loggers and hunter-gatherers, the ecological aspects are most readily identifiable. The disagreements about the humanity of the Astheans, as some of the Terrans not only denigrate them as animals but claim that animals do not matter, likewise support eco-theorizing. Respect for the whole planet, expressed through promoting sustainability—engaging in lifeways that use but do not deplete natural resources—is a cornerstone of ecological theories. Yet ecocritical theorists often promote not just passively social but actively political perspectives, associating the ravaging of natural resources with capitalism. Probing the underlying political-economic framework of the Terrans’ intended and actual exploitation of the Asthshean forests supports that aspect of ecocritiques. The character of Davidson inverts traditional views of pastoral paradise, equating Eden with the productive realm where logs, not trees, are what matter.

The Terran humans, operate along polarized gender lines; in their patriarchal social order, males are the primary aggressors who identify females as their subordinates. Feminist theory aids in interpreting how the authors contrast that rigidity to the fluid gender lines of the other world’s beings, the Athsheans, who have female leaders and value emotion. In particular, the misogynist Davidson epitomizes masculine contempt for women, calling them breeding stock. Inverting that equation, however, some feminist theories support nurturing attitudes toward nature write large with women’s natural role as birth-givers, and related confidence in the capacity of female leaders for environmental stewardship.

Feminist and eco-critical theory are both important lenses through which to analyze this 1972 novella, which was quite controversial when it was published. It is a sort of hybrid work of science fiction and speculative fiction, positing a world where Earth has been made uninhabitable because of environmental degradation.

The story's main protagonist, who is a hugely unlikeable character, is Captain Davidson, a mercenary military employee who oversees a logging camp on a planet being colonized and deforested by Earth. The planet is inhabited by highly intelligent humanoids, called Athsheans, who are tree-dwellers and nocturnal. They have green skin, which may be seen as a symbol of their Otherness, a racial identifier. They have being enslaved by the humans, and Davidson thinks of them as subhuman. When it is learned he raped and murdered one of the female Athsheans, Davidson is the target of a revolt by the natives.

As a man who brutalizes women, Davidson's story arc can be significant in tracing the story's feminist themes. Because he oversees the efforts to literally cut down the world the Athsheans live in, he is a force of colonialism and oppression, symbolizing the greedy and dehumanizing tendencies of patriarchal cultures. Davidson's disregard for the forest and for the female inhabitants of the planet he is a mere visitor to serves as a powerful metaphorical critique of western civilization and imperialism, which has led to widespread oppression of women and environmental degradation.