Sociologist and Social Justice Activist
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In 2014, the home of infamous serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer went on the market. This sale was understandably a contentious one. Seventeen boys and men, many of whom were children, gay, prostituted, and/or persons of color were raped, tortured, killed, and sometimes eaten by Dahmer at the site. Twenty-five years later, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) made a bid to purchase it.
Continue readingThrough primary socialization, humans are taught to understand, engage with, and fill various social roles as necessary for participation in society. Nonhuman Animals living in or around human societies are often folded into this socialization process. Socially constructed identities may be projected onto other animals and this can lead to considerable stigma for humans and other animals alike. The politics of “pet” adoption illustrate this.
Continue readingAggravating sexist understandings of Nonhuman Animal rights advocacy can only encumber efforts to achieve Nonhuman Animal liberation. Heganism works to assuage fragile masculinity to encourage men’s participation. In doing so, however, it reinforces the notion that veganism is essentially “for women” and that men will be stigmatized if they participate without veganism being explicitly defeminized. The otherizing of women, however, is exactly the type of otherization that sustains speciesism. Hierarchies must be dismantled, woman-hating must be challenged, and all persons–be they men, women, human, or nonhuman–should be acknowledged as sentient beings worthy of equal moral consideration.
Continue readingA century ago, vegan founders warned that a disregard for science would imperil the movement’s effectiveness. “Veganism has everything to gain by a wholehearted scientific attitude, and everything to lose by an unscientific approach,” one such leader concludes. Has the modern vegan movement heeded the warning?
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