Ecocriticism came into being in response to the unfolding environmental crisis, and the first ecocritics thought of themselves as being engaged in a political project, similar to feminist scholarship, where the goal was to affect progressive reforms through applied scholarship. However, the initial hopes for ecocriticism were quickly abandoned, and unlike feminist scholarship, critical race, or LGBT studies, which are generally sympathetic to the corresponding social movements, mature ecocriticism often tends to be inimical toward environmentalism and environmentalists. This is evidenced by the fact that while critiques of environmentalism are commonplace in ecocritical discourse, there is an almost complete absence of critiques regarding the role of financial, corporate, governmental, religious, political, and academic institutions in creating environmental crises. The asymmetry of the ecocritical critique suggests that a dominant strain of ecocritical thought is more closely aligned with conservative, anti-reflexive elements of society than with progressive movements.