Further delving into Feminism and Animal Rights

I love meat. I don’t really care about healthy living. Short story shorter, I’m not an ecofeminist. The point of this article is that just because I am not an ecofeminist, doesn’t mean I’m not a feminist. It’s been rehashed several times on this website that not all feminists are created equal. I am pro-choice, sex-positive (let’s not snarl about this term, I don’t like it either but I don’t have an alternative), and several other things, but I am not an ecofeminist.

Why am I telling you this?

Because of the following comment:

“There are deep connections between feminism, an ethic of care, and animal rights. For me, those connections are so significant that I cannot imagine any feminist still willing to support the exploitative practices of factory farming and industrial agriculture. The culture surrounding meat consumption is entirely masculinist, to the degree that vegetarianism or veganism is viewed by many in the mainstream as “effete” or feminine. As a male, I am expected to consume large amounts of charred meat products and be able to wield grilling tools. There are more forces at work here to tarnish the reputation of vegans or vegetarians than PETA. I hold every self-proclaimed feminist accountable to the ethic of care. If it does not extend to animals and the choice to consume their “products,” then the feminist care we expect to be extended to ourselves from other dominative forces suffers a contradiction.”

There may be SOME connections between feminism and animal rights – one would expect a feminist to be somewhat compassionate, after all we care about SOMETHING, there’s a good chance we care about something else too. Deep is going a little too far, though. As a city dweller that cannot drive I have no access to local farmers selling half a cow’s worth of meat, thereby avoiding “exploitative practices of factory farming and industrial agriculture.” (Because there are farms that don’t torture animals, etc).

I’m not enthused by animal rights but that doesn’t mean I don’t
think they should exist. I’m just not the champion of them. My main
concern is sexism, such as the sexism rampant in PETA’s advertising.
That is really the only time I get close to animal rights. Saying that
I’m a shitty feminist because I don’t care about animal rights or
because I eat meat is complete and utter bullshit. Essentially that is
what your comment did. You give me a cheap, available alternative to
patriarchal meat consumption and I will gladly eat it (I want it to be
real meat, by the way, not that nasty soy shit (personal views, not
hating on vegans or vegetarians!). Don’t tie it to feminism, though.
Just because aspects of meat culture is sexist doesn’t mean eating meat
makes you sexist. It’s not that it can’t intersect; it’s not that it
doesn’t intersect. It’s just that I am personally concerned with other
aspects of feminism – it doesn’t mean I’m less of a feminist, though.

In the end, I really agree with the comment to another article
discussing this: “Does it really matter, why draw lines? On one hand we
talk about how all this -isms intersect and should intersect in a
progressive society, and on the other we’re distancing ourselves from
people we essentially agree with.”