Intersections

Intersectionality

What It Is

Intersectionality refers to a living body of scholarly theory and activist practice concerning the ways that different forms of injustice support, compound, and otherwise interact with each other to co-create systems of oppression.

The term “intersectionality” was coined by Black legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw. Previously, Black feminists influenced by the Combahee River Collective had used terms like “interlocking” or “interconnected” to describe interactions among race, gender, class and other systemic forms of oppression.

Our way of thinking is grounded in and informed by this Black feminist body of thought as well as by ecofeminism and by ecological or systems thinking in general. So, in order to develop a more accurate and complete analysis of any problem we are trying to solve, we look for the intersections.

Intersectionality and Animals

One way to identify intersections is to look for the structural interconnections among two or more particular forms of oppression. Another way is to look analyze particular problems, identifying the different forms of oppression that maintain them.

In recent years, more and more scholars and activists have been exploring the many ways that speciesism intersects with other injurious ideologies, the many ways that animal exploitation hurts people too, and the many ways that social injustice contributes to animal exploitation.

Intersectional analyses help us understand problems more completely and inspire more people to work together to solve them. For example, an intersectional analysis of cockfighting allows us to see the role of toxic masculinity (a problem of interest to feminists) in this form of animal abuse.

Anything that helps us understand social problems more accurately and completely aids the cause of social justice. By factoring speciesism into our intersectional analyses, we will become better able to understand and intervene in all of the ways that people hurt each other.

Intersectionality is a way of thinking about systems of relationships and how they interact. In other words, this is a kind of ecological thinking, which we all must learn how to do in order to solve environmental problems. Since everything we humans do is done within our own social ecologies, we can’t hope to solve problems like the climate crisis without some understanding of how those systems work. And, of course, since one of the things people must do (if they can) is quit eating meat and dairy, anything that helps us understand why so many people resist that shift will be helpful. For more, see “Eco-cide” below.

As you scroll down this page, you’ll encounter links to scores of online readings and lectures as well as lists of books. Read, watch, and listen adventurously and actively, mindfully linking new ideas and information to things you already know. The whole point is to become better able to recognize relationships among things that might seem separate.

Whatever problem or project you are working on, take time to think about all of ways that different forms of oppression factor into the situation and all of the harms involved. This will help you identify potential allies and coalition partners. Map out the situation itself, identifying all of the different social and material factors that combine to create or maintain the problem you are trying to solve. This will help you to imagine tactics and to combine those tactics into a strategy.

Because every problem exists within a tangle of social and physical ecologies, no analysis is ever complete, and therefore no analysis is ever perfect. The best any of us can do is to be careful and caring as we try to understand the problems we are trying to solve. We’re all still thinking this through together! Taking action, however imperfectly, will lead to new insights. So, don’t wait until you have everything figured out, because you never will. Do what you can, being kind to yourself and your comrades along the way.

Speciesism and...

For more than 20 years, VINE has sparked and participated in ongoing processes of collective cognition intended to clarify the connections between animal exploitation and other kinds of harm. See the resources at right for broad discussions of such intersections, and then scroll down for ideas and information about specific linkages between speciesism and forms of oppression as well as examples of problems in which such linkages are especially evident.

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Ecocide

The Big Idea

In a sense, all of our environmental woes are rooted in speciesism, which assumes that humans are so inherently special and superior that we may rightly exploit or displace any member of any of the other species of life on earth without regard for the hurtful impact on individuals or ecosystems. Besides leading to water pollution, air pollution, and soil degradation that hurt us too, this attitude leads to untold suffering and death for our fellow earthlings as well as to the collapse of ecosystems.

The intersections don’t stop there. Speciesism leads directly to ecocide not only in the sense of rupturing ecosystems but also in the sense of severing our own ability to perceive the systems in which we participate. Speciesism creates a radical separation between people and the rest of the planet. Besides leaving all of us sadly estranged from nature and other animals, this fosters alienation among people.

As ecofeminist scholars and activists have demonstrated over the decades, human-over-animal is just one element of a “logic of domination” that divides the world into false binaries and then elevates one side over the other. This deeply destructive way of thinking about and being in the world leads not only to environmental despoliation but also to social injustices such as sexism and racism. The good news is that undermining this logic not only helps us to solve social and environmental problems but also brings us into better relationships with each other, other animals, and the earth.

Spotlight on: Animal Agriculture

As a solar-powered sanctuary as devoted to environmental justice as we are to nonhuman animals, we encourage everybody to go vegan for the planet. That’s because, whether you worry about water pollution or climate change, land degradation or acid rain, the most important step you can take is to transition to a plant-based diet. Need some facts to back that up? Here you go…

Overviews

  • Farm Sanctuary’s Plate to Planet page summarizes the consequences that meat consumption has on the health of our planet
  • The Vegetarian Resource Group’s Environmental Information page provides links to scores of relevant studies
  • The Food Empowerment Project’s Pollution page details how emissions from animal agriculture poison the land, water, and air

Reports

Resources

Online References

Books

  • Ecofeminism: Feminist Intersections with Other Animals and the Earth edited by Carol Adams and Lori Gruen
  • Nature Ethics by Marti Kheel
  • Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature edited by Greta Gaard
  • Reweaving the World edited by Irene Diamond
  • Ecofeminism by Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva
  • Rape of the Wild: Man’s Violence Against Animals and the Earth by Andree Collard and Joyce Contrucci

PRO TIP: Like everybody, ecofeminists sometimes disagree with one another. So, if you encounter one thing that one ecofeminist did or said with which you disagree, please do not automatically dismiss all of this rich and ongoing field of inquiry and activism!

...Ableism

Ideas

VINE cofounders Miriam Jones and pattrice jones met in the context of a disability rights campaign, and a majority of sanctuary staff and volunteers are people with disabilities, so we are particularly interested in the conjunction between speciesism and ableism that defines and elevates “humans” by reference to abilities.

Among the most common justifications of human supremacy is the idea that only humans have some particular capability, and that this alleged superiority of ability (which is usually spurious) entitles humans to do whatever they like to nonhuman animals. As disability rights activist Mary Fantaske says, “That’s not just like ableism; that is ableism.”

The idea that certain cognitive or communicative abilities confer moral worthiness along with the right to exploit those who have different abilities harms both humans and nonhuman animals. This idea also factors into the very definition of “human” and therefore plays a significant role in racism and other forms of oppression wherein some group of people is falsely alleged to lack certain abilities and therefore considered subhuman.

We all must challenge ableism wherever we find it, including within ourselves.

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Zoos

Zoos began as expressions of imperial power and then became ways that cities competed with each other to demonstrate their wealth and power. People of color and people with disabilities were sometimes been put on display along with animals. In these days of wildfires and melting icecaps, zoos reflect and reproduce the dangerous ideology of human supremacy.

While some zoos may do some animal rescue or environmental education on the side, all zoos exist primarily to amuse humans by putting captive animals on display. Almost all animals at zoos are permanent captives who may be forcibly bred so that the zoo can sell their offspring. Visiting children are taught to become callous by looking at sad captives and ignoring their distress.

References

...Sexism

“Watch who they beat and who they eat”

Marge Piercy

Since the linkages between sexism and speciesism date back millennia, to the days when woman, children, land, and animals all were considered to be the property of male heads of households (hence the term “animal husbandry”), this intersection has been the focus of the most scholarship and activism over the decades. Unsurprisingly, the preponderance of animal advocates are and always have been girls and women. Nonetheless, failure to adequately attend to sexism within animal advocacy has allowed men in the movement to gain out-sized influence, which sometimes has been exercised abusively. In order to liberate animals and ourselves, we all must come to see the many ways that toxic forms of masculinity hurt everybody.

VINE’s path-breaking work with roosters used in cockfighting offers an illustration of how a feminist analysis can help animals and humans. Unjustly stereotyped as inherently aggressive, roosters are tortured and coerced into acting out human fantasies about masculinity. This hurts them grievously while at the same time maintaining the harmful idea that males are inherently violent. That idea hurts boys as well as girls, men as well as women, and plays a significant role in social problems such as domestic violence.

Resources

Videos

Reading

Online Articles & Essays

Books

  • The Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol Adams
  • Ecofeminism edited by Carol Adams and Lori Gruen
  • Sistah Vegan edited by A. Breeze Harper
  • Sister Species edited by Lisa Kemmerer
  • “Stomping with the Elephants: Feminist Principles for Radical Solidarity” by pattrice jones in Igniting a Revolution
  • “Mothers with Monkeywrenches: Feminist Reflections on the Animal Liberation Front” by pattrice jones in Terrorists or Freedom Fighters?
  • Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature edited by Greta Gaard

Websites

Dairy

Cows exploited for milk—whether on small-scale organic dairy farms or in massive industrial milk-production facilities—are forcibly impregnated so that they will lactate. After they give birth, their calves are wrested from them despite their bellows of protest and moans of sorrow. Each grieving mother is milked for as long as she continues to produce milk at a high volume and then is forcibly impregnated to start the cycle all over again.

It gets worse. Twice each day, dairy cows are hooked up to machines that jerk the milk from their bodies. This rough process, combined with the physical stress of relentless milk production, leaves most dairy cows with a painful condition known as mastitis.

And then it ends. After repeatedly undergoing the acute grief of forced separation from their calves and enduring years of persistent pain due to mastitis and other common ailments, dairy cows are killed for low-grade meat such as is used for canned soup and cheap hamburgers.

References

Websites

Long stereotyped as having “feminine” traits such as passivity and stupidity, dairy cows may be particularly likely to be beaten and otherwise mistreated. Routine brutality toward dairy cows has repeatedly been documented by undercover investigations of dairy farms.

The ability to digest lactose as an adult is a mutation that arose in Europe. For most humans—including most people of African, Asian, and Native American descent in the USA—dairy products are not nutritious. Yet, at the behest of the dairy industry, the US government promotes milk consumption as essential nutrition. This is dietary racism.

Schoolchildren who need subsidized meals are often offered only milk—and may be required to take milk in order to receive a meal. This may lead to headaches, gas, and other symptoms that interfere with education.

...Racism

“What does anti-racism have to do with having an animal ethic?” Let Syl Ko explain…

How can veganism be part of decolonization? Indigenous scholar Margaret Robinson explains…

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More Videos

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Hunger

20

Twenty. That’s the number of people who could eat a healthy plant-based diet using the resources consumed by only one person eating the typical U.S. diet.

While the causes of hunger, malnutrition, and food insecurity are complex, one factor is “meat for the elite” — the tendency of people in affluent countries to consume large amounts of animal products, thereby using far more than their fair share of vital agricultural resources like land and water while at the same time contributing more than their share to climate change—which will worsen world hunger.

That’s why the scores of anti-hunger organizations participating in the 2002 Forum for Food Sovereignty called for people in wealthy nations to “reduce or eliminate” their meat consumption. That is, truly, the least that people who can afford to eat anything they like can do.

Plants to the Rescue

Luckily, numerous organizations—including many vegan organizations—are working hard to creatively intervene in the structural causes of hunger while also getting food to people in need right now. Check out these innovative projects!

References

...Homophobia

As an LGBTQ-led animal sanctuary, we have worked at this intersection for more than 20 years!

Check out this timeline of our work in this realm.

Readings

Resources

Websites

How to Talk about Intersections

Tips and Resources for Animal Advocates

Tips

DO educate yourself

Consult the readings and videos in this section and elsewhere on this page for ideas and examples.

DON'T mistake yourself for an expert

Be aware of the limits of your own knowledge. Avoid lecturing, always remembering that the person with whom you’re conversing might know more than you.

DO start conversations

Share something you’ve learned or have been thinking about, and then ask the other person what they think. Unless you’ve been invited to give a talk, dialogues almost always are more successful than lectures.

DON'T be vague

Of course, since we’re all together in a biosphere, everything is connected to everything else in some way. But, resist fuzzy verbiage in favor of clear statements. If you find it hard to say exactly how X is related to Y, then that’s a sign that you may need to spend more time clarifying your own thoughts.

DO be specific

Talk directly about specific ways that animal exploitation harms humans and our habitat… and specific ways that social injustice harms animals and ecosystems.

DON'T use analogies

Don’t compare different forms of oppression to one another by saying that something is “like slavery” or “like the holocaust” — such analogies ignore important distinctions and are likely to derail whatever argument you are trying to make.

DO be genuine and generous

Admit what you don’t know or are still thinking through. Presume good faith on the part of your conversational partner. Think of yourself — and everyone else — as just another homo sapiens muddling through in the midst of confusing and injurious situations, and you will be less likely to provoke defensiveness and more likely to engage in truly moving conversations.

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Why Should I Care About Animals?

Answers for Social and Environmental Activists

FAQs

Why should I care about animals?

Because you are ALREADY in relationships with animals, and to not care is callousness. Most likely, your relationships with animals —including those you eat or otherwise use— are violent relationships inconsistent with your own values.

What about food deserts?

While it is not true that a vegan diet is necessarily more expensive than a meat-based diet, it certainly is the case that many people do not have access to the fruits, vegetables, and bulk grains and legumes that make it cheap to be vegan. We all should be working to make sure everybody has access to healthy vegan food and working against the corporate welfare that artificially deflates the prices of cheeseburgers and chicken wings. But, unless YOU live in a food desert, this question is a deflection. Whether or not somebody else can afford to be vegan is not relevant to whether or not you will choose to be in violent relationships with nonhuman animals.

Isn't it elitist to go vegan or support animal rights?

Not at all! It certainly is true that people who are scrambling to survive have less bandwidth to devote to the liberation of others, but compassion for animals and support for animal rights are not confined to to any one race or class. In the USA, about 1/3 of the population believe that animals deserve the same rights as people, and there is some poll data showing support for animal rights to be strongest among women of color. African Americans are more than twice as likely to be vegan as whites.

But isn't the animal rights movement all white?

No! To suggest this, as some critics do, is to disrespect and erase the vital work of so many animal advocates of color. This is not to say that the organized animal rights movement doesn’t have work to do to become more diverse and more connected to other justice movements. But do not confuse the failings of animal rights activists with the legitimate interests of animals themselves. Like everybody else, animal rights activists may be hubristic or clueless, but that does not mean the cause is unjust.

But I already work hard for social or environmental justice! How could I possibly squeeze animals in too?

Choose plant-based foods to fuel yourself for your important work for social or environmental justice. Avoid exploiting animals in the process of that work. If you ever work in coalitions, consider inviting animal advocates to the table.

Is there an upside for me here?

The good news is that bringing yourself into better relationship with nonhuman animals offers benefits that include a clearer conscience, a smaller environmental footprint, and a renewed feeling of connection with fellow ecosystem participants. For activists, the bonus is that thinking carefully about speciesism leads to insights about the intersecting mechanics of systems of oppression and greater likelihood of success in bringing about a world of peace, plenty, and freedom for everybody.

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vineIntersections