Does Gender Matter?

Today I came across a shocking, yet ultimately unsurprising statistic. Animal advocacy groups are dominated by women; we make up 85% of their members. In contrast, when animal abuse is reported, over 90% of the culprits are men.

Of course, we must remember that in both scenarios, these are individuals. Clearly 85% of the female population is not in an animal advocacy group, and 90% of males aren't animal abusers. Nevertheless, I think that these numbers can mean something.

If I am to look at the Loving/Killing binaries of animals, it is clear that those who advocate for animals love them, and those who abuse them kill them. Is Loving versus Killing animals a gender war? Females respecting animals versus males taking them out? Could it be that as women grow more powerful in society and therefore gain a voice in ethics and humane treatment of animals that loving animals will overpower killing animals? I can only wish.

In the meantime, this statistic shows that the animal rights movement is one led by ladies. And in every battle to improve the lives of animals (politics, science, entertainment, industry), we will be going up against those who run these sectors: mostly men. In this sense, patriarchy and speciesism will have to be combated against in order to promote justice to animals.

Initial Response to "Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs and Wear Cows" by Melanie Joy

Just finished Melanie Joy’s book and it was fantastic. A big point that I get away from her is that there is hope because humans do care about animals. The reason why the meat industry is invisible and that people are actively in denial is because we know deep down that we do care about these animals and that if we bear witness to their suffering we will be morally obligated to react. “Silence only helps the oppressor.”

I think that a strong visual will deeply help my project. The invisible will become visible. Even though my project is all about carnism, this invisible ideology that allows us to perpetrate violence upon animals, ultimately I want my argument to be that this invisibility and confusion and moral inconsistency of how we treat animals can change. The invisible can become visible, and the time is now.

The majority of Americans eat meat. Yet, I do believe that the majority of people are compassionate, or at least strive to be a good person. Or else, what is the point? People do not wake up in the morning with the intent of being complicit in the slaughter of animals. An interesting thing to find is how many animals humans are complicit in the slaughter of daily, weekly, monthly and then yearly. Perhaps over a lifetime as well.

Another urgent aspect is that eating meat is a choice. Carnists do choose to eat meat; they play into the normalization, natural and necessary argument imposed by greater forces: the meat industry. Vegetarians are the ones who choose to step out of this system of violence to eat compassionately. Eat meat is a choice, the evidence shows that cutting out animals products can greatly improve health, the environment and hey, billions of animals. Why the hell not?

Bearing witness to the suffering of those victimized by American eating habits seems to be the vital part of an equation to compassion. By witnessing, we actively acknowledge and empathize with another being.