Abstract

The clear entanglements between misogyny and environmental crises in
Shakespeare find expression through myxophobia, a fear of slime. Because it is a border-
crossing, element-defying matter that generates fear and disgust, matter that threatens
degeneration and dissolution even as it remains fundamental to the origins and
continuance of life, slime is elemental to theorizing about both misogyny and ecophobia.
In discussing the early modern period, the most convenient point of entry to these topics
is through the vagina.

Keywords misogyny, myxophobia, ecophobia, vaginophobia, Shakespeare