Oppression Connections
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Columbus Day and Oppression -- Against Humans, Against Animals, Against Nature
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Animals, Nonviolence, and the International Day of Peace
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Offensive Billboard Coming Down, But Did PETA Learn Anything?
Dear PETA, We're Awaiting Your Apologies
Published August 20, 2009 @ 02:22PM PT
There is now an update here; the billboard is being replaced.
In the privacy of my home last week, I had an out-loud profanity-laden response to the PETA billboard recently put up in Florida when I saw a photo and read about it. Sure, PETA's made me angry a number of times, but this time? This time, I was outright floored. And I can't imagine that the attention-seeking organization isn't losing a lot of supporters over this one, including people who've until now been doing their best to hope PETA would soon change its tactics. But no such luck. Instead, we get this terribly offensive "Save the Whales" campaign.
Fighting Discrimination on All Fronts: Adopt-a-Less-Adoptable-“Pet” Day!
Published August 12, 2009 @ 05:39AM PT
Between six and eight million cats and dogs enter the U.S. shelter system every year; half of these animals won't leave alive. As if the odds aren't daunting enough, some animals face added obstacles to adoption: old(er) age; medical and/or physical problems; behavioral and/or emotional issues; a need to be the only animal in the home; a bond to a friend or family member necessitating joint adoption; membership in a so-called "dangerous breed"; and dark coloring.
Because Objectifying Women Never Gets Old
Published July 27, 2009 @ 03:01PM PT
Out of Dubai comes a pair of sisters taking an unfortunate page from PETA's book:
Sisters Janice Shaw and Sarita Barnett are looking for the city's first Ambassador with a Voice for Animals (AVA) and are hoping 100-150 women, aged 17-30, will join in the event, which culminates in a pageant and gala dinner at the Grand Hyatt hotel on October 23.
The competition seeks to discover a woman with a genuine passion for animals and their welfare. The winner of Miss AVA 2009 will spend time helping out at K9 Friends and Feline Friends. She will also be expected to educate the public and spread awareness about how a pet needs to be looked after. . . .
The competition will include a one-on-one interview with each woman on her passion for animals and the pageant will feature all the contestants parading first in T-shirts and shorts and then an evening dress.
Maybe I'd take the competition's goal of "discover[ing] a woman with a genuine passion for animals and their welfare" seriously if every woman interested in the role weren't required to "parade" around in an evening dress and, presumably, be judged on how conventionally attractive she is. So no woman over 30 and no woman uncomfortable being publicly displayed and judged on her physical appearance could possibly be the best candidate to speak and act for the animals of Dubai?
It's not just the United States or Dubai or any other city or nation where this crap is still a problem. And it's not just PETA or men or blatant sexists who perpetuate this crap. And god, am I getting tired of it. Excuse me while I go scream my frustration into a pillow.
Food Not Bombs: Connecting Compassionate Movements for 30 Years
Published July 23, 2009 @ 07:58AM PT
To the list of things I'm terribly embarrassed to admit, add that I didn't realize until sometime in the last year that Food Not Bombs, founded in 1980, beyond being a generally peaceful, nonviolence-promoting, social justice-focused grassroots movement, is also a vegan movement. Over the years, I heard the name of the group periodically and saw info on events or meetings, but clearly, I never looked into it much. But now I know, and of course, I was excited to see Keith McHenry, co-founder of the movement, at AR2009.
My first encounter with him was alongside Deb of Invisible Voices at the Food Not Bombs table in the exhibit hall, and I have to admit--I was enamored with him right away. You know how some people just exude goodness? He's like that. Anyway, I also hadn't heard about one of Food Not Bombs' latest projects: Since July 4, they have been baking bread in a solar oven (and then sharing it) in front of the White House every day, in a campaign titled "The Change We Knead Now: Bake Bread for World Peace." The campaign is calling on Obama to do the following (you can sign the online version of the petition here):
"Human Exceptionalism" Exceptionally Arrogant
Published July 16, 2009 @ 12:35PM PT
Friends, I've landed in Los Angeles, and I'm now writing to you from a hotel lobby computer while waiting to check in. I have a lovely story to share with you later tonight or tomorrow morning about the flight here, but in the meantime, please enjoy this smart, thoughtful guest post from Tracy Habenicht, author of the always thought-provoking blog Digging Through the Dirt. -S. Ernst
For hundreds of years white men have lived as if the Earth and its inhabitants and resources were theirs for the taking.
Animals were beneath them, people of color were reduced to "savages," and the land was stripped and degraded. White men placed themselves on the top rung of the planet's hierarchy.
Much of that belief exists today in the form of "human exceptionalism," what "bioethicist" and animal-rights opponent Wesley J. Smith defines as "the view that ultimate moral value comes with being a member of the human species."
Women and people of color are now included next to white men, at least by definition, but animals and nature are still looked down upon.
Women, Cows, Speed Bags, and Steaks: One of These Things Is Not Like the Others
Published July 13, 2009 @ 08:16AM PT
The Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence wants you to know that "it's not acceptable to treat a woman like [a piece of meat]."
Look! They've even devised an ad campaign to spread the word!
The ad depicts a large chunk of "meat" - a cow (or pig?) thigh, suspended in the air, hanging upside-down by a hook thrust violently through the limb. The "meat" slab is dressed in a mini-skirt and halter top in order to denote its female gender.
What possible issue could I, a vegan feminist, take with this message?
Religious Discrimination and the Killing of Egypt's Pigs (Part 2)
Published June 24, 2009 @ 06:47AM PT
Please see part 1 of Kelly's exploration of this topic, "Egypt's Pigs: Beaten, Stoned, and Burned Alive (Part 1)", as well. -S. Ernst
Egypt is predominantly Muslim, with an estimated 85-90% of Egyptians practicing Islam. In contrast, about 9% of the country's population is comprised of Coptic Christians. In nations with such a power imbalance - where new legislation must conform to the religious majority's personal beliefs - those who belong to minority faiths are particularly vulnerable to discrimination.
Indeed, as the consumption of "pork" is prohibited by Islamic religious doctrine (and pigs are reviled as dirty and foul animals*), virtually all of Egypt's pig farmers are Coptic Christians. As we saw in Part 1, raising pigs for human consumption is their livelihood.
Obviously, a mass of animals, crammed into deficient housing and subsisting on garbage, constitutes a public health risk in and of itself. The Egyptian government's stated "public health" reasons might seem plausible, had they not initially cited "swine flu" as the overriding concern. Authorities promise that the "culls" aren't the end of pig farming, but rather a new beginning: with the nation's existing pig population gone, the government can relocate the farming operations to larger, less urban areas. Even so, Egypt's Coptic Christians remain skeptical - and with good reason.
