Why Women Should Care About Animals
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Animal Rights and Women’s Rights go hand in hand. Here, I’ll explain. And I’ll do it in bullet points:
- Eating animals kills women:
- Heart disease is the number one killer of women in the United States (source). Most heart disease is prevented or reversed through a healthy vegetarian or vegan diet. (source 1, 2, 3, 4)
- Over half a million women are expected to die of cancer in 2009. Nearly half of all women will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives (source). Cancer is strongly linked to the consumption of meat and dairy (source 1, 2) - Animal cruelty hurts women:
- Women at women’s shelters regularly report that their abusers threaten, hurt or kill the animals in their family. Abusers will often use animals or children as pawns to control women. (source 1, 2, 3).
-Slaughterhouses produce violence: “for men who have to crack the heads of animals all day seem to get into the habit, and to practice on their friends, and even on their families, ” (source). Counties with slaughterhouses have higher rates of violent crime than similar counties without slaughterhouses (source). - Females (of any species) are often primarily valued for their reproductive capacity:
- Egg laying hens’ bodies are so severely over-worked that after only one year of egg laying, they are often too weak to produce more eggs and are sent off to slaughter (source).
- With genetic manipulation, forced impregnation, hormones and more, modern dairy cows often produce ten times more milk than they would produce naturally. As a result, the cows’ bodies are under constant stress. (source) - Kindness to animals rehabilitates women:
- Homeless dogs in Pups on Parole get a second chance at a happy, healthy life through a women’s prison program that let’s the women prisoners train the dogs. “Not only are the inmates rehabilitating the dogs, but the dogs are rehabilitating the women who work with them. The resident dog handlers have gained a new sense of confidence in themselves and learned a valuable new skill.” (source)
This is just a short list. Give me more time and I’ll write a book on this topic.
But til then, check out these books: The Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol Adams or The Feminist Care Tradition in Animal Ethics by Josephine Donovan and Carol Adams. And check out this flier excerpt from Feminists For Animal Rights:
Animal Advocacy is a Feminist Issue
In patriarchal society women and animals are….
raped, beaten, hated, enslaved as pets, exploited as wives, sold for money, used for entertainment, cheap labor, sex experiments…In patriarchal society women and animals are considered…
inferior, “cute,” childish, uncontrollable, emotional, impulsive, instinctive, irrational, evil, property, objects…In patriarchal society women and animals are referred to as…
chicks, bitches, pussies, foxes, dogs, cows, beavers, birds, bunnies, kittens sows, lambs, shrews, geese, fillies, bats, crows, heifers, vixens…Every year in the United States alone…
Billions of animals are enslaved, tortured and murdered in “animal agriculture,” vivisection laboratories, the entertainment industry, by hunters and fishers, in traps and on fur farms, and by other modes of human exploitation
These issues don’t get the attention they deserve from feminists. It’s time to recognize the link between speciesism and sexism. And it’s time to act.
—
(Marc’s post comes to me via Vegan Primate via Stephanie at Change)
Again, I totally agree with you. And thanks for introducing me to Feminists for Animal Rights.
~ Recent blog post: ‘I Am an Animal’ Achieves One of PETA’s Goals ~
Give me more time and I’ll write a book on this topic.
But til then, check out these books
I count at least 40 of ‘em.
Granted, some of these examine the intersectionality of animal exploitation and factors other than gender (race, ethnicity, etc.), but I think this only underscores the point, i.e., that *all* forms of oppressions are interrelated.
~ Recent blog post: Dog Deserve Better’s 6th Annual Chain-Off – Freedom for Chained Dogs ~
Well said… the tie between the male dominated patriarchy and human dominated animal exploitation is definately linked.
Thank you for calling it.
~ Recent blog post: Animal Cruelty – Slaughter of Cats or Cows – What’s the Difference? ~
Marc couldn’t be more wrong. The mindset that allows men to objectify, exploit and abuse women is the same mindset that allows humans to objectify, exploit and abuse animals. In fact, patriarchy was born from animal domestication. Once people settled down and became “civilized” farmers, instead of gatherer/hunters, they were no longer able to follow the herds of animals. So they captured and domesticated (enslaved) them. Once people realized they could “own” and exploit other animals, it didn’t take long for them to realize they could do the same thing to other people. Powerful men would raid neighboring villages (early warfare), kill the men, capture the women and children and animals and land. The women and children would be “married” and enslaved, (in ancient times marriage was a form of property transfer), and the animals would be taken as “prizes.” The most powerful men in the village were the ones who owned the most land, animals and slaves and who had the most wives – all considered property of men. The men controlled every aspect of the lives of women, children and animals (including their reproductive rights).
Sadly, today, both powerful women and men continue this history of oppression against other animals (and in many cases, against women and children too).
Really, everyone needs to care about animals. They are alive and regardless of your beliefs we should respect all creatures.
Danielle