Audre Lorde famously said in her keynote presentation at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference in 1981: “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own. And I am not free as long as one person of Colour remains chained”. This quote has continued to resonate with feminist, POC and queer activists for many years, as it speaks to the systems of oppression that work to keep us all subjugated. This is an important argument of intersectional feminism, which emphasises the idea that under a system of institutionalised oppression such as our own, all forms of oppression are connected. I argue that this sentiment should be extended to all living beings – animals included.
Before you protest, let me explain. The systematic enslavement and oppression of animals has continued because of the notion of speciesism – the idea that human lives and interests are more important than that of animals because humans are genetically and evolutionarily superior. All throughout history, this same logic has been used as a tool to justify the oppression of others. Is this not the same reasoning that was used to rationalise the subjugation of women? Many academics have also pointed out that this was the logic behind social darwinism, and was used to justify the enslavement of and attempts to eradicate racial minorities all across the world. The belief that men with white skin were somehow more evolved and genetically superior permeated scientific and cultural discourse, and made the white man think he had some sort of god given right to rule the world.
Although most people acknowledge that notions of sexual and racial difference are based on socio-political constructs, the language of dehumanisation still continues when we equate certain cultures with that of animal characteristics or savagery in order to justify their subjugation. This language has been used to justify and uphold colonialism in Australia, South Africa, Rwanda, Congo, Sudan, and most recently Palestine. They cast marginalised communities as an ‘alien other’ and rely on a gross perversion of the politics of love that all creatures on Earth are entitled to. All persons are deserving of love, deserving of life, and deserving of protection, and this must extend to animals as well.
This is not to mention the animal agriculture industry’s detrimental effects on the environment, and the way this further oppresses marginalised groups in our society. The amount of land being cleared for farmed cattle is expanding each year, degrading the land, and often displacing Indigenous peoples with it. Environmental racism leaves many communities of colour and poverty in areas that are heavily contaminated with animal waste and little to no access to healthy food. This is despite the fact that the land, water, and energy that is used to produce such large quantities of animal products, would be far more efficiently used if it was to grow plants directly for human consumption.
Ecofeminism has long been arguing that the oppression of women and the degradation of the environment are consequences of the same systems of power, namely, patriarchy and capitalism. In fact, there are inextricable links between the negative effects of climate change and women’s inequalities, particularly women of colour, migrant women, and those living in rural, remote, conflict and disaster-prone areas. Across the world, women depend more on, yet have less access to, natural resources. In many regions, women bear a disproportionate responsibility for securing food, water, and fuel. As the rate and severity of natural disasters continues to rise, young girls are forced to leave school earlier and earlier to help secure these much needed resourcses, and when these disasters strike, women are more likely to be injured, and less likely to survive, due to longstanding gender inequalities that have created disparities in information, mobility, decision-making, and access to resources and training. Hence, any strategy to address one must take into account the other.
The struggle against animal liberation is also a struggle against everything we see as masculine in our society today. Hunting and killing animals is the basis upon which our understanding of masculinity in the Western world is built. Meat consumption itself has even become masculinised. Reducing meat consumption reduces harm to the environment, human health, and of course, animal welfare. Yet, Australian men not only eat more meat in general, they report less willingness to reduce their meat consumption or consider going vegetarian. An investigation in Australia found that rejecting meat was seen as symbolically rejecting a traditional masculine identity, and conversely, those who abstain from eating meat are viewed by others as less masculine. Ecofeminism proposes that only by reversing current values, thereby privileging care and cooperation over more aggressive and dominating behaviours, can both society and the environment benefit.
How can feminists justify the exploitation of animals when the exact same institutions are working to oppress marginalised groups? All social justice movements should be deeply concerned about the ways in which animals are treated and the unsustainability of the agricultural system as it stands. If we leave animals out of our liberation struggles, then we are taking the playbook of our oppressors, and using it to subjugate others. This exposes that we are not really seeking a system of equality or trying to dismantle unjust hierarchies, we are simply wanting to better position ourselves within it, championing one form of justice while denying another.
So where to from here? Animals need to be included in liberation discourses, because humans are animals, and our oppressions cannot be separated from each other. We, thus far, have failed to recognise that we are also animals. It is evident that these forms of oppression are a continuation of the domination of the ‘other’ (animals, nature, women, indigenous peoples, and subordinate classes) that spans the history of patriarchal, hierarchical colonialism. We must look towards a view of the world that sees every living being as equally important, because we are. In terms of ecological impact, the science is damning. We know that each living organism plays an equally important role in the ecosystem of our world. So why are we still so hellbent on believing that humans are more important? Science has even started to question the very notion of separating organisms into species – a potentially redundant and outdated form of categorisation for incredibly complex beings.
On an individual level, this might look like eating less meat and dairy, or cutting it out of your diet completely if you can. But change can not come purely from individual consumer choices alone, systematically, we must fight for a better world view. A society that stands up for what’s right to create a better world for us, otherwise the planet and every living being will continue to suffer under these same systems of oppression.
Because none of us are free until all of us are free – and that includes every living being on Earth.
