Feminism, Veganism and The Importance of The Animal Rights Movement.

By Zoe Quiney 

I have something important and a little bit controversial to say. And that is that feminism and veganism are inextricably linked.

 Since my foray into veganism over the last 9 months, I have come to understand that you cannot be a feminist without being a vegan, and vice versa.  Let me explain why.

Feminism is based on the beliefs that men and women should be seen as equals. They should be considered in the same arena, morally and ethically, in every aspect. Why? Because there is no superior sex, therefore the oppression, dominance or preference of one over the other is morally wrong.

Veganism seeks to abolish exploitation of animals in ALL forms by boycotting the industries; food, clothing, entertainment and vivisection, that are dependent on them. Veganism at its core supports the belief that all species are equal, and should be treated with respect and equality, not repression, and dominance. 

Therefore I believe feminism and veganism to be linked; exploitation, dominance and oppression are the common themes. The only differences in the victims are the species.

Let’s take humans and animals. Different species, yes, but is one more important than the other? If you answer yes, perhaps consider that social conditioning, spanning centuries, may play some part in your opinion and beliefs. Considering social conditioning was also to blame for men’s superiority over women, white’s superiority over coloured and straight people’s superiority over gay and transgender people, could, perhaps, it be the same mentality that governs our attitudes towards animals and our treatment of them?

The common theme between all oppressive, cultural beliefs is that the oppressor always assumes superiority over the oppressed. And through cultural and social conditioning, and justification usually based on a business or profitable model,  it is commonly accepted. If we look at the dominance of humans over animals, we can see a common theme which has spanned centuries;  We are socially conditioned to believe it to be true that we are superior, we, as a mass culture accept it to be the case based on justification that it is ‘necessary’ and it is therefore not questioned.

A mere 100 years ago, slaves were considered ‘lesser’ beings, not on the same level as others, and it was generally accepted that they were to be oppressed, dominated and exploited. Apparently ‘normal’, ‘civilised’ members of society accepted this to be true, to the point where they kept slaves themselves without ever considering the moral implications. Looking back this seems utterly absurd doesn’t it?

It also seems absurd that women could not vote, were sexual property for men and were also deemed ‘lesser’; sadly this is a movement that is still being fought the world over  to this day, to gain equality between the sexes.

So take now the animal exploitation industries: Food, Clothing, Entertainment, Vivisection.  It is commonly accepted that we are to ‘use’ animals for our pleasure, just as it was commonly accepted that men were to use women for their pleasure and dominate over them. Animals are considered ‘lesser’ therefore we assume it is correct to exploit them and oppress them.

The themes between all oppressed minorities are glaringly obvious, yet until we move out from the mentality of seeing the oppressed as ‘less than’, we, as a society, cannot and refuse to, see the absurdity. Not only can we not see the absurdity, but anyone who tries to voice their disagreement with that particular oppressive behaviour, is out-casted, ridiculed and attacked.

This social behaviour has been the case throughout each civil and human rights movement since time began; the ones who initially stand up and say ‘this is wrong’, are fought against and ridiculed….until the truth can no longer be turned away from and we evolve our morals accordingly.

We are now currently witnessing the beginning of the movement for the rights of animals, but if we look closely we can see a very dark element of the oppression of animals.  The oppression of animals is largely if not solely, centred on the exploitation of the female of the species; in every case of animal use for food, it is the female which suffers most severely.

Their reproductive systems are used, abused and exploited in order to produce large, unnatural amounts of offspring in the shortest amount of time; to produce the most profit to the industry. Artificial insemination is necessary to keep females continuously pregnant throughout their short lives, in order to produce young for our food.

In the case of dairy; female cows are kept pregnant via insemination, in order to keep producing young calves, and therefore milk. The calves are taken away from the mother at birth and either killed for veal or raised separately to live the same fate as the mother; producing milk for human consumption.

In the case of eggs; female laying hens are kept in cramped conditions and forced to produce eggs at an abnormal rate, which are a product of their reproductive systems. Their bodies become so worn out by this constant and unnatural process, that their lives are ended very prematurely.

The bond between a mother and her baby is profoundly intense, be it a human or an animal. This bond can be observed throughout the whole of nature; yet we exploit and break this bond between animal mothers and their young, for profitable gain.

Can you imagine the pain of having your body kept in a continual state of pregnancy, only to have your precious baby stolen away from you over and over and over again? And when you are too weak, too broken, too damaged to produce any more, when your body and spirit have given up after spending your whole life being exploited for another species; you are sent to slaughter.

So, we wonder, where is the mercy?

Where was the mercy when white men enslaved coloured men? Where was the mercy when women were burnt at the stake for being ‘witches’? Where are the questions? The uproar? Where is the rioting in the streets over the atrocity of it all?

The silence we experience is a product of the deeply engrained social conditioning which allows us to accept absurdities as common place. We justify the actions of the oppressors because we are literally brainwashed into believing that we are ‘better’, ‘stronger’, ‘more intelligent’. Just as men were conditioned to think these things of themselves over women, and white people were conditioned to think these things about people of  ethnic minority.

We MUST see the link. We MUST put these pieces of the same puzzle together. It is our duty to fight on behalf of the oppressed. Be that a woman, a person of ethnic minority, a gay person or an animal. 

Until the world stops exploiting and dominating over female animal’s lives, motherhood and reproductive systems, how can we expect for the same problems to be eradicated in our society? The two are inextricably linked;

“He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.” Immanuel Kant

How can we say that men are not better than women, and one race is not better than another, but believe that humans are better than animals? And how can we accept the female exploitation of the animal world but fight against it in the human world? Are the two not linked? Aren’t the movements for the rights of minorities inclusive of animals too? Do they not suffer? Do they not feel like we do? Do they not count?

I ask you to come from a place of compassion and open your heart to my words; to the plight of the animals, to the plight of women, of black people, of gay and transgender people… so that we may all live together peacefully on this planet. So that we may eradicate the oppression of women throughout the world; human and animal alike. So we may eradicate the discrimination we still feel as a society towards ‘others’ who are ‘different’, including all colours, races and species.

I ask you to join me in the fight for true peace on earth, for true love and harmony between every living being. I ask you to help me be a voice for the voiceless. To consider the animals who are never considered. To give them hope. To show them love To set them free.. As we have so rightfully begun to do….

Letting Go: How To Surrender to The Flow of Life

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” ~ Lao Tzu

We’re a peculiar species, we humans; we think we know everything, when really, we know nothing.

Unlike other species, who are driven by natural, primal instincts, we like to plot, plan and control our lives to such a degree that if they fail to live up to our imaginary projections (which they are likely to) we are often left in a state of despair.

We pin so much hope on what we think our lives should, or want our lives to look like, that when the inevitable twists and turns steer us off course or pull the carpet from under our feet, it can leave us feeling out of control and in a heap of tears and why me?s.

The truth is, our lives are not destined to go exactly the way we want them to. If everyone lived out their childhood dreams, we’d all be astronauts, or living in castles with Prince Charming. Life can be a bitch sometimes.

We imagined it would all be so easy; we plotted our grand six-figure career, our whirlwind romance, our 2-4 children, a dog, and a happily-ever-after ending. But it doesn’t tend to work out the way the movies would have us believe.

What really happens is, we lose our job, our relationship breaks down, we feel lost, we are let down, we lose a loved one. Life throws us lemons and we have no idea what to do with them, let alone how to make lemonade.

Perhaps a handful of people will actually stick the course and live a life they had always imagined, but for most of us, life can be one confusing and sometimes messy place, where we feel a little bit lost at times and can leave us pondering what it all means.

I lead a fairly unconventional life, with a tendency to live impulsively and from the heart. I am aware that this is not — by any means — a conventional existence (who liked conventional anyway?), but it’s my existence.

It wasn’t what I had planned or imagined, and so far it has been a bumpy old ride, but a ride full of lessons and experiences which have shaped the person I am today. And I wouldn’t take one crazy, sometimes painful, always meaningful, bit of it back.

If you had told the girl at the front of her English Class, who was destined to study History of Art at University and go on to work as a journalist in London, get married and settle down, that one day I would be living on a small Indonesian Island, selling vintage clothes barefoot and swimming with turtles, I probably wouldn’t have believed you.

I’d never have predicted that an impulsive one-way ticket to Australia would lead to me living on an olive farm in the Hunter Valley, building fires and making friends with animals I’d never encountered before. And that, this experience would lead to my decision to become a vegan and an animal rights activist.

You see, Life has a funny way of doing its own thing regardless of whether you a) wanted it to happen or b) imagined in a million years it was going to. We can try and whittle our lives down to produce a bespoke future; we can dream of plans and ideas which we think would be the ‘right’ thing to do, or the ‘best’ thing for us.

But life has a sneaky way of proving that it knows best and that actually we are pretty clueless.

It will therefore seek to prove this to us by regularly plonking us into situations which force us to question everything we thought we knew, while simultaneously teaching us everything we need to learn at that time to help us become the best version of ourselves.

A wise man once said, “The key to happiness is to let each situation be what it is, instead of what you think it should be.” There couldn’t be a more simple or profound way of summing it all up; in order to stay sane, it’s important to remember that Life Just Is and that it carries on regardless of our assumptions, actions or expectations.

We suffer when reality doesn’t match our expectations. When we project what we want to see onto something or someone that already is, we feel bad, angry, or hurt when it doesn’t match up.

But it is our decision to create these expectations, therefore it is also our choice to let go of them and learn to see everything and everyone exactly for what or who they are. By letting go of our preconceptions, we can save ourselves the pain of our own self-deception.

Hindsight is always a beautiful thing, and when we look back, we can often gain some much needed perspective. Events in our lives which seemed to provoke chaos at the time, ended up being our greatest lessons and our most valuable opportunities for change and growth.

If we can preempt that valuable lesson by reminding ourselves in the moment, that life always unfolds the way it does for our best interest, whether we want it to or not, then we can gain a huge sense of peace amidst times of unexpected change.

To Let Go is the most important thing we can do for ourselves in this lifetime. To let go of fears about the future, of preconceived ideas of what our lives will, or should look like further down the line, of the need to control every detail of our lives and the people in them, and to just let things be.

To let go is to liberate ourselves and to find a sense of harmony in the moment, as our lives unfold naturally and spontaneously.

This being said, there is beauty and necessity in dreaming and having goals, without which we might be wandering aimlessly in circles, scratching our heads. But the difference is that dreams and goals are fluid and hold promise, they are open to change and negotiation and they keep our passions alive and our spirits hungry.

We don’t always get exactly what we want, but we always get precisely what we need. Sometimes the two are unrecognizable from each other. We will always encounter the experiences, people and situations which are the very best for the evolution of ourselves and our consciousness. This much is true.

Our hearts have an instinctual knowing for what is best for us, at all times. If we can learn to listen to their whispered truth, we can learn to live in a way which is lead more by our intuition, rather than the imagined logic of the mind. When we face an unexpected situation, we can choose to see it with different eyes, and arm ourselves with a new perspective.

What we gain is the strength that comes from facing pain and moving through it, to find what lies beyond it.

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To surrender to the moment and to see it exactly as it is means we can navigate our way through life with more ease, with less stress, less heartache, less feelings of despair or desperation when things appear to go wrong. Because nothing really goes wrong, it just goes a different way to how we thought it should.

There is true freedom and liberation in letting go and accepting life in all its wonderful, unexpected, messy glory, rolling with the punches and finding the hidden lessons amongst it all.

And I promise you this: life will happen, and if you can find your silver-lined cloud in the midst of the storms, it will all be so worth it in the end.