Intersectional disgust? Animals and (eco)feminism

Abstract

This paper explores tensions between feminisms on the issue of nonhuman animals. The possibility of a posthuman or more-than-human account of intersectionality is explored through the retelling of an encounter with a feminist academic colleague and her experience of disgust toward a book I was carrying (Animals and Women: Feminist Theoretical Explorations, Adams and Donovan, 1995). I argue that such disgust responses can be read as the affective embodiment of unacknowledged human/animal hierarchy and act to impede intersectional theory and politics. Moreover this disgust response is paradigmatic of a certain feminist disavowal of ecofeminism misread as a stereotypical representation of essentialist thinking. Reversing this I argue that it is humanist disgust rather than ecofeminism that may be seen as 'out of date' especially when one appreciates how the more-than-human have come to occupy a significant place in both feminist work and the broader humanities and social sciences. In conclusion the paper claims that feminist engagement with nonhuman animals is entirely consistent with its multi-faceted interrogation of dualist ontology, and, whilst the ethics of this engagement may be complex, it is no longer tenable for feminist work to exclude nonhuman animals from its understanding of sociality, politics or ethics.In this short paper I touch upon three interrelated issues. These are: the place of nonhuman animals in theories of intersectionality, the question of the animal in feminist theory, and the relationship between feminism and ecofeminism. I also

Mapping Human–Animal Interaction Studies: A Bibliometric Analysis

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Mapping Human–Animal Interaction Studies: A Bibliometric Analysis

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Mambu! Breathing Protest: Atmospheric Trauma and Maternal Activism in Central Java

“…The case advances feminist trauma theory by showing how trauma in contexts of slow violence is embodied, relational, and persistently present rather than temporally past. It extends feminist and psychosocial environmental justice research by foregrounding the intersection of ecological harm (Twine, 2010), emotional marginality, and gendered epistemic denial. It enriches scholarship on maternal activism by showing how caring labor becomes diagnostic expertise, political strategy, and collective pedagogy.…”

Linked oppression: Connecting animal and gender attitudes

“…Since animalistic dehumanization may be used to justify differential treatment of women, this concern is understandable. However, animals and women alike suffer from the “relations of power that intersect gender and species” (Twine, 2010, p. 400).…”

Mapping Human–Animal Interaction Studies: A Bibliometric Analysis

“……”

Mambu! Breathing Protest: Atmospheric Trauma and Maternal Activism in Central Java

“…The case advances feminist trauma theory by showing how trauma in contexts of slow violence is embodied, relational, and persistently present rather than temporally past. It extends feminist and psychosocial environmental justice research by foregrounding the intersection of ecological harm (Twine, 2010), emotional marginality, and gendered epistemic denial. It enriches scholarship on maternal activism by showing how caring labor becomes diagnostic expertise, political strategy, and collective pedagogy.…”

Linked oppression: Connecting animal and gender attitudes

“…Since animalistic dehumanization may be used to justify differential treatment of women, this concern is understandable. However, animals and women alike suffer from the “relations of power that intersect gender and species” (Twine, 2010, p. 400).…”

Mapping Human–Animal Interaction Studies: A Bibliometric Analysis

“……”

Mambu! Breathing Protest: Atmospheric Trauma and Maternal Activism in Central Java

“…The case advances feminist trauma theory by showing how trauma in contexts of slow violence is embodied, relational, and persistently present rather than temporally past. It extends feminist and psychosocial environmental justice research by foregrounding the intersection of ecological harm (Twine, 2010), emotional marginality, and gendered epistemic denial. It enriches scholarship on maternal activism by showing how caring labor becomes diagnostic expertise, political strategy, and collective pedagogy.…”

Linked oppression: Connecting animal and gender attitudes

“…Since animalistic dehumanization may be used to justify differential treatment of women, this concern is understandable. However, animals and women alike suffer from the “relations of power that intersect gender and species” (Twine, 2010, p. 400).…”