I recently got a troubling call for papers (CFP) for a conference titled "Meet Animal Meat." I'd just ignore it if the only things troubling me about this conference were the title and the CFP's academic doublespeak, which privileges professional academics while making it inaccessible to most everyone else. But what really concerns me is that the conference claims to be "Informed by feminist investigations of embodiment and bodiliness" and goes on to identify Carol J. Adams and Judith "Jack" Halberstam as the keynote speakers. So here is a conference claiming to be "Informed by feminist investigations embodiment and bodiliness" and it's two keynote speakers are both unapologetically anti-transsexual – that is, two cissexist feminists who disrespect the "embodiment and bodiliness" of transsexuals. (Read more...)
trans/gender identity
Transphobia and Pseudo-Allies
Mirha-Soleil Ross describes an encounter with the transphobia of Carol J. Adams specifically, as well as the transphobia of Feminists for Animal Rights (FAR) more generally. In her description of the events, Ross mentions Greta Claire Gaard, whom she calls "an eco-feminist who support trans rights, at least in theory." I think Ross is right to say "at least in theory," as opposed to in practice, and I wonder if "in theory" is even too gracious. (Read more...)
Transphobia and PETA
Feminism Beyond Transphobia
I no longer feel that continued education about trans issues within women's communities would change their oppressive behaviors in any significant degree, unless they are actually willing to change. It is not the lack of knowledge or information that keeps oppression going; it is the lack of feminist compassion, conscience and principle that is. -Emi Koyama, "Whose Feminism is it Anyway? The Unspoken Racism of the Trans Inclusion Debate"
When it comes to asking, "What are we going to do about transphobia among feminist-vegetarians/ecofeminists?" Emi Koyama just about sums it up. These are people who currently dominate the feminist discourse on nonhuman animals; as authors, speakers (in some cases very well paid speakers), and academic they have a vested interest in continuing the status quo. (Read more...)
Transphobia and Carol Adams
Another example of vegetarian-ecofeminist transphobia and cissexism is described in the keynote address presented on June 17, 2005 at Queer Communities and Controversies, the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education's second annual conference in Toronto, Canada, by transsexual, sex worker, and animal liberation activist, Mirha-Soleil Ross. In her keynote address, Ross describes an encounter with Carol Adams that occurred on July 15, 2000 at the World Vegetarian Congress.
Ross talks about Adams' cissexism, starting with trans-interrogation. Adams uses a metaphor about "fish in the water" to invalidate Ross' gender identity. Adams intrusively attempts to force Ross to answer personal questions about her transsexuality, and reduce her to the status of an object. Adams also uses trans-fascimilation to portray Ross as merely imitating a woman by claiming the Ross simply "chooses" to be a woman. (Read more...)
Transphobia and Feminists for Animal Rights
Most people are aware of the issue of transphobia in the feminist movement by how it is dramatically exhibited through the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival's (MichFest) infamous "women-born-women" policy. The term "women-born-women" is actually a cissexist synonym for a cissexual (non-transsexual) women, and it is used primarily to exclude transsexual women from "women-only" spaces. The term is used as part of a transphobic backlash that employs biological determinism to claim the superiority of cissexual women as "natural" or "real" women while devaluing transsexual women as "unnatural" or "fake."
The now dormant organization Feminists for Animal Rights (FAR), founded by the trans-misogynistic vegetarian-ecofeminist Marti Kheel (who when asked during a panel Q&A what people can do to help trans women, Kheel instead went into a misogynistic, transphobic tirade attacking trans women), also promotes a transphobic "women-born-women" policy. FAR has long been a hub for feminist-vegetarians/ecofeminists closely connected to nonhuman animal advocacy. In fact, while other feminist views exist on the intersection of feminism and anti-speciesism, the discourse is dominated by the FAR clique of feminist-vegetarians/ecofeminists who are featured prominently in books, conferences, and academic journals. (Read more...)
Challenging Feminist Transphobia
White ecofeminism and feminist-vegetarianism is heavily influenced by the reactionary and transphobic writings of some dominant radical culutral feminists. Most notably is Mary Daly and her book Gyn/Ecology, which is filled with transphobia, cissexism, and trans-misogyny directed at transsexual women. A major influence on, as well as of, Daly's transphobia was Janice Raymond, who wrote the transphobic book The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male. Other transphobic influences on feminist-vegetarians/ecofeminists include Robin Morgan and Sheila Jeffreys. (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...)
The Personal is Political
Veganism is a good example of how consciousness-raising about our everyday actions is important to challenging the structure of oppression and exploitation. Veganism takes everyday "personal" actions (e.g., eating, dressing, and recreating) and calls out the political dimensions of these actions. It reveals how eating, wearing, and otherwise using nonhuman animals is not a mere "personal" act, but a dimension of exploitation and human privilege. It makes a connection between the personal action and the political structure of our society. (Read more...)