Έχω παρατηρήσει πως όταν οι άνθρωποι μιλάνε για “ανθρωπιστική μεταχείριση” αναφέρονται συνήθως είτε σε μη ανθρώπινα ζώα είτε σε ανθρώπους που είναι φυλακισμένοι ή διαφορετικά, θεσμικά περιορισμένοι και ελεγχόμενοι. Εικάζω πως αυτό έχει νόημα από τη στιγμή που το να κρατούνται άνθρωποι σε κλουβιά και κάτω από πλήρη έλεγχο έχει κοινά χαρακτηριστικά με το πώς τα μη ανθρώπινα ζώα αντιμετωπίζονται γενικά στην κοινωνία μας. Παρόμοια, ο όρος “κακομεταχείριση” εφαρμόζεται συνήθως στην μεταχείριση των μη ανθρώπινων ζώων, στα ανθρώπινα παιδιά και στους φυλακισμένους ανθρώπους. Στην πραγματικότητα, η “ανθρωπιστική μεταχείριση” και η “κακομεταχείριση” είναι πραγματικά συνδεόμενοι όροι με τον πρώτο να προτείνεται ως μέσο αντιμετώπισης του τελευταίου. (Διαβάστε περισσότερα ...)
legal system
The Sexual Politics of Carol J. Adams
I'm offended that The Scavenger, an online self-described "progressive" magazine, is uncritically promoting the 20th anniversary edition of Carol J. Adams' Sexual Politics of Meat. By promoting her book, The Scavenger is perpetuating the dominance of the anti-sex worker, anti-trans, affluent White normative feminism offered by Carol J. Adams. In this respect, there's some sort of cognitive dissonance going on here when The Scavenger promotes Adams, whose work is based almost entirely on the assumed given vilification and misrepresentations of sex workers, while publishing another article opposing the vilification of sex workers. (Read more...)
Criminalization Won't Stop the Violence
Dr. Guillotin's Reform
Animal Rights and the Humane Treatment Principle
How PETA Exploits Black Men
The juxtaposition of the lynching of Black men and the slaughter of a bull, from a PETA exhibit in 2005, offends many Black people and anti-racist activists who object to the juxtaposition as dehumanizing and representative of White supremacy. Many of those (mostly White) nonhuman animal advocates who defend the comparison counter that those who object to the exhibit are just being "speciesist."
Anti-Oppression and Law Enforcement
By way of Emily's The Partial Muse, I came across a comment Tim Wise left on Racialicious that backlashes against veganism. Now I think White vegans and other White anti-speciesists can learn a lot from Wise about White privilege and anti-racism. In this respect, I'd recommend people read Wise's work, start with his "Animal Whites" article. However, Wise's comment on Racialicious shows some confusion over anti-oppression work and law enforcement, not to mention a need to learn more about human supremacy and the oppression of nonhuman animals. (Read more...)
Is it Safe to Come Out?
Chris from Deep Roots makes some critical comments about the Coming Out For Animals call for papers, including some discussion of my thoughts on "animal activists" promoting police violence more than being targeted by it. Chris suggests I might have misunderstood the context of the questions being asked in a call for papers. I also got an anonymous hate comment that more aggressively insists that the misunderstanding was intentional. Chris says that the context might have been that in terms of "activist groups" "animal activists" "bear the brunt" of police violence. (Read more...)
Veganism and Prison Abolition
I've noticed that whenever people talk about "humane treatment" they're usually referring to either nonhuman animals or humans who are imprisoned or otherwise institutionally confined and controlled. I guess this makes sense since keeping people in cages and under complete control resembles how nonhuman animals are general treated in our society. Similarly, the term "cruelty" is usually applied to the treatment of nonhuman animals, human children, and human prisoners. In fact, "humane treatment" and "cruelty" are really paired terms, with the former suggested as the remedy to the latter. (Read more...)
Asking the Right Questions
A call for papers has been sent out by folks "looking to anthologize the voices of queers involved in animal liberation." I think it would be wonderful to see more interaction between queer theory and veganism. But some of the questions suggested as topics for this book really bothered me, specifically:
Why do queer activists in Uganda but animal activists in the USA bear the brunt of police suppression in their respective countries? Are they similarly subversive of "cultural" practices that turn out to be critical to the maintenance of state power?