Patriarchal Domination Hurts Animal Advocacy.
For those who are newly entering the animal rights community, it usually feels like utopia has never been so attainable. Compassion, empathy, and justice are the main themes of everything the animal advocacy space seems to offer. Many of us would do anything to quit our jobs and fully dedicate ourselves to animal liberation.
Nevertheless, it is important to remember that the animal rights movement, just like any other movement, exists within a society that couldn’t be further from the utopia we dream of. In a world in which sexist, racist, ableist structures are the norm, how sure can we be that our movements are genuinely safe? In a way, our movements have put themselves to the ultimate test: are people capable of creating an alternative sub-society that is non-hierarchical, non-oppressive, and truly egalitarian?
We hate to break to you, but the answer is: it’s complicated.
Activist spaces are not entirely immune to oppressive elements, but they are or should be designed and structured in a way that allows for conversations about oppressive instances, and be able to overcome them constructively and proactively. A resilient movement is one that is open to difficult conversations about its own culture, and willing to continuously learn and grow from experiences with such instances. Creating an alternative space to the current systems that are globally in place is a constant battle that must be fought collectively. Equality is fragile, and must always be protected.
One of the areas that the animal advocacy movement must pay a lot more attention to is sexism and its effects on the movement as a whole.
Sexism, Speciesism, and Patriarchal Domination.
Across the globe many women face discrimination on the basis of sex and gender and are disproportionately subjected to violence, unequal pay, lack of access to education, inadequate healthcare, lack of right to own property and to vote, discrimination, and objectification, just to name a few. Women’s rights movements have fought hard to address these issues and to attain their rights to freedom and equal opportunities. And as societies change, movements change as well. The #metoo movement has been enormously influential in highlighting the prevalence of gender-based violence and sexual misconduct that still exist today.
It’s safe to say that most, if not all of us grew up and live within sexist societies. The particular sexist structure we are most likely dealing with is patriarchal, meaning it is a male-dominated society. One only needs to look in which hands power, wealth, and privilege are accumulated. A male-dominated society is also one in which characteristics and values attributed to masculinity will be most celebrated. The oppression of non-human animals, as well as the animal protection movement itself, operate and exist within and under patriarchal domination (among many other structures of domination and supremacy), so neither of them can be thought of as separate from the other. Structures of oppression, from racism to sexism, to speciesism, all operate together, reinforce each other, and basically support one another. Imagine hierarchical domination as a multi-headed monster, each head representing one structure of oppression. Each head might be a different expression of oppression, such as ableism, transphobia, and white supremacy, but they are all one massive entity that generates inequality, power imbalances, violence, discrimination, and domination. The same structure that is in place to oppress animals, is also in place to oppress women, people of color, workers, etc.
Feminism and animal liberation are both struggles against different but similar expressions of one large system of oppression. Patriarchal domination affects us in striking ways. For instance, one can look at how hunting and eating dead animals for strength is traditionally attributed to masculinity, power, and domination, and how dead animals and women’s bodies are often objectified in disturbingly similar ways and presented as objects of consumption to satisfy the male appetite. Of course, TV commercials and magazines thus will often place naked female bodies around dead animal flesh, clearly because the meat market is targeted at male consumers. Needless to say, there is an enormous amount of pornography that portrays women as animals that may be used and abused, devoid of individuality, autonomy, and agency.
So, it may not be too surprising that 75-80% of the animal protection movement is predominantly female. And given the context (an inherently sexist one), our predominantly female movement is, unfortunately, predominantly male-led.
Sexism and Sexual Misconduct in the Animal Rights Movement.
Precisely because the animal rights movement exists within a sexist context, unless it invests some serious effort into keeping sexist elements outside of the movement, the movement will inevitably be shaped by a sexist culture. Sadly, it is safe to say that the animal advocacy movement has not done enough in this regard, which is precisely why we observe that the animal advocacy movement is mostly being led by men, despite being predominantly populated by women. Needless to say, this can be an incredibly toxic situation, because in a patriarchal society, men have a heightened tendency to abuse their power, making the animal rights scene a potentially unsafe space for women. Patriarchal societies make women more vulnerable to harassment, discrimination, objectification, violence, rape, and murder, and a predominantly female environment that is mostly led by powerful men inevitably leads to harassment, assault, gender discrimination, gender inequality, and gender bias. In order for our movement to grow, to become more inclusive, to mature, and to learn, we must be able to talk about this. For the sake of all of us, including animals.
One of the first steps to effectively deal with this is to recognize the pattern. Unfortunately, there is potentially as much sexism within the movement as there is outside of it; that’s not an easy pill to swallow. This reality directly impacts animals: sexist elements in the movement lead countless women to be compromised in their ability to do their best work, or they leave the movement altogether. They can feel unheard, exploited, and harassed, leaving them burned out and unable to fight for their cause.
The unfortunate result, of course, is that violence against women in our community is shockingly common. Sexual harassment and assault are at least as common within the animal advocacy movement as it is in other spaces, and possibly even more so. Allegations against men range in severity and activists who have encountered sexual harassment experience a range of reactions, such as humiliation, rage, confusion, frustration, and helplessness. They may also experience symptoms of PTSD, depression, and a loss of self-esteem and trust in other people.
Coming forward about such an experience is already very difficult in itself. However, there is added pressure within the animal rights realm. There is often a culture of silence around these issues and men who behave this way. It’s a culture that induces fear of setting back the animal rights movement, damaging the movements’ image, or damaging a man who has done great work for animal protection. The implicit assumption, of course, is that the perpetrator’s work is more worth than that of the survivor, that helping animals cancels out one’s abuse of women, and that the movement would be lesser if it lost a hard-working perpetrator. There is also a culture of self-sacrifice and martyrdom, where we lose our ability to prioritize ourselves at the cost of our own well-being. It’s a culture that makes us stay silent for the animals, sacrifice ourselves for the animals, and excuse sexual misconduct for the animals. Survivors are also threatened with retaliation, lawsuits, and public humiliation. And, of course, survivors are afraid of losing their jobs if they speak up.
All of this together creates an unsafe space in which it is easy for abusers to take advantage of the situation. Women are easily accessible, they are unwilling to come forward to protect the movement and the work done for animals, and if they do, abusers can pull the “but everything I did for the animals”-card, and not uncommonly, can threaten to sue the women who do come forward.
Of course, the movement is not weakened by women coming forward about abusive men, quite the contrary. It is thanks to the women who do come forward that we can begin to do the work necessary to eliminate the existing oppressive elements within our spaces.
What We Can Do.
There isn’t one formula that will eradicate the issue at once, but there are active steps we can take to help the movement move in the right direction.
We have to talk about sexism. We have to stop portraying our movement as a space that isn’t sexist or racist. These elements exist in our movement, and to successfully eliminate these issues, we must talk about them. Don’t be afraid that it will damage the movement, it’s a wildly uncomfortable topic, but one that must be spoken about. Avoiding the issue, and holding on to the belief that cases of sexual misconduct are isolated instances, only leads to the movement losing its most valuable members.
Treat women who come forward with care and compassion. Embrace them as a community and take care of them. Women who come forward gain nothing, and usually, it is the opposite, they take immense risks by telling their story. Take them very seriously, listen to them, ask them what they need, and what would make them feel safe again. Statistically, false accusations are extremely rare. Most women do not come forward, and most of those who do are telling the truth. This is the baseline from which you must assess the situation. A professional HR person will know how to approach the situation and ask the right questions.
Improve your hiring practices. In a movement that is 75-80% female, it cannot be that a large section of leadership positions are occupied by men. Empower and hire women. They have been doing the work for many decades, let them lead the movement.
Expect them to be against all forms of oppression. Making sure that men aren’t overrepresented, doesn’t mean that we don’t hire or work with men. But when you do, expect them to be as feminist and anti-racist as they are anti-speciesist.
Don’t put them on pedestals. Stop putting people, men and women alike, but especially white nondisabled heterosexual men, on godlike pedestals. It is very much up to us to stop reproducing a culture of an immense power imbalance that enables men to abuse their power, and that enables people to submit to abuse.
Keep learning. Learn and talk about consent, inform yourself about sexual misconduct, sexism, and heterosexism. Talk about women’s rights, feminism, and LGBTQIA+. Hold each other accountable with kindness and open minds, especially men. Have conversations about toxic masculinity and patriarchal domination. We can educate ourselves, individually or collectively.
CANHAD empowers animal, environmental, and human rights advocates to fight harassment and discrimination in advocacy organizations. If you work or volunteer for a nonprofit or other activist organization, and you have observed or experienced racism, sexism, ableism, classism, ageism, heterosexism, transphobia, or any other form of discrimination, please go to www.canhad.org and learn more about what you can do.
— Ayse Deniz Kavur
