intersectionality 101: addressing racism and classism in animal rights activism (a talk) + USA-centrism

About a month ago I went to the Gold Coast for a few days to present at the Australian Animal Activists Forum. I presented, with Katrina Fox on intersectionality in animal rights. It was mostly a primer, a basic introduction to intersectionality. Going in, I assumed that it would all or mostly be new concepts for people, which is why I made it really basic and really casual, lots of chatty examples and things.

My talk has been up at The Scavenger for a couple of weeks: Addressing racism and classism in animal rights activism.

Overall I was quite happy with it. It was very condensed, as we only had thirty minutes between the two of us, so there were lots of leaps and gaps and so much covered, but still, I understand it's the first time this sort of topic has been brought up at the forum, and lots of talking came out of it, and I hope that it's a conversation that can filter through AR in Australia and keep moving, because I find that intersectionality is severely lacking in Australian AR.

Since this is, specifically about AR in Australia, it has therefore been of ongoing frustration for me that little criticisms have been filtering through looking at it from a not-Australian perspective. Such as someone posted my article at the PPK forum, where mostly the comments were fine but one person was like "Why single out "WASPs" and use a sort of derogatory word at the same time?" which I was frustrated by, because I worked so hard to make this as Australian as possible and then there the USians go, making it all about them again.* After some poking from Miss T, I may have committed the cardinal sin of responding to criticisms on the internet. It's interesting, because the comments on the original Scavenger article, whilst frustrating, didn't provoke me to response because it was so clearly trolling; but in the instance of Isa on the PPK I wanted to prove a point. AR (and many social justice issues) are so incredibly USA-centric in online communities, it is so frustrating and I just want to carve out a space where talking about Australian AR issues is legitimate and doesn't have to be dragged back around to USA issues. I realise that in my talk I used very USA examples, but that's because, due to the constancy of the USA discource, those are the big examples. I would really like to change that.





*apparently WASP is a derogatory term in the USA! Who knew! In Australia it is just a descriptor, there is no emotional or derogatory loading. But I felt a little bit odd about defending my use of the term WASP, because I was reminded of the strident defence of blackface after the Hey Hey thing, how everyone was like IMPERIALIST AMERICANS. But actually I think this is quite different, unless someone wants to enlighten me about WASPs having a history of persecution within the USA leading to the development of WASP as a derogatory term.

crosspostering

So, I've missed crosslinking some posts of me about the place.

I've made two link posts about animal rights/ethics issues at the other blog: one and two; and at vegaroo I've blogged about vegan adventures in perth.

I went to a Greens' fundraiser on the weekend, and, though the Greens are an environmental political party, I was disappointed to see that there was a higher emphasis on 'happy meat' than on vegetarianism at the fundraiser.

Also I have a new tumblr. I am still using my original tumblr for social justice commentary and pretty pictures; but I am also tumbling at fuck yeah lgbt batman, about, you guessed it, lgbt happenings in the batverse, fannish or otherwise.

Hear Me Roar: A forum to consider the parallels and intersections between equal rights and animal rights in society and law (a talk)

I went to a talk last week, which was discussing some of the links between animal rights and other social justice issues, most notably feminism and refugee rights. It was an interesting, and not overly faily talk, and I've reviewed it over at the other blog.

I've left it over at the other blog because it is largely about animal rights issues, but it does, as the title suggests, talk about some other intersectional issues. Going in, I was a bit cautious, because the ease with which vegans have appropriated other issues, and the frequency with which they misuse some of this intersectional stuff, gets me very frustrated all the time (see the comments of this repost of a great Ida@theveganideal post for yet another example of vegans Getting Intersectionality Wrong). But coming out, as I note, I only used my red pen three times in an hour and a half, which I was really pleased with!

And it was an interesting pair of talks, though as I note in my review, it definitely came from a middle-class western feminist view point.