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Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice QUOTES

Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice QUOTES

1 " Most ecofeminists reject dichotomies and hierarchies as alien to the natural world – nature is interconnections. "

― Lisa Kemmerer , Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice

2 " Many social justice activists--many feminists--continue to work against one form of oppression while feeding the flames of another, without noticing that the blow torch behind the flames must be tuned off before we can have any hope of putting out the resultant fires. "

― Lisa Kemmerer , Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice

3 " Listening to criticisms – and being self-critical – has been and remains central to the survival, growth, and expansion of feminism. "

― Lisa Kemmerer , Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice

4 " Listening to criticisms – and being self-critical – has been and remains central to the survival, growth, expansion, relevance, and applicability of feminism "

― Lisa Kemmerer , Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice

5 " Failing to notice a lack of Latino and African-American representation in congress is a result of systemic oppression – racism. General indifference to the fact that white men dominate large corporations is part of the invisibility of both racism and sexism. A lack of concern about the plight of a “breeding” sow on a factory farm is also a result of normative systematic oppression – speciesism. "

― Lisa Kemmerer , Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice

6 " Women and other animals are exploited for their reproductive abilities, and both are devalued as they age and wear out – when they are no longer able to reproduce. "

― Lisa Kemmerer , Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice

7 " Immersion in the ugliness of injustice, in the hope of change, seems preferable to turning away. . . . there is a reward for courage and determination in the face of helplessness and suffering: Walking into pain in the hope of bringing change moves a person from helplessness and despair to empowered activism "

― Lisa Kemmerer , Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice

8 " A lack of concern about the plight of a “breeding” sow on a factory farm is also a result of normative systematic oppression – speciesism. "

― Lisa Kemmerer , Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice

9 " All human beings are systematically socialized to oppress cattle, chickens, snakes, mice, dogs, and all other nonhuman individuals. After the fashion of Sojouner Truth, might cows and chickens ask: “Ain’t I a female, too?” And would not dogs and snakes ask, "Ain't I a living being, too? "

― Lisa Kemmerer , Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice

10 " Oppressions are by definition linked--linked by common ideologies, by institutional forces, and by socialization that makes oppressions normative and invisible. "

― Lisa Kemmerer , Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice

11 " . . . no human being would wish to trade places with nonhuman animals in factory farms or laboratories. . . . The legal status of women and nonwhite racialized minorities has improved markedly in the past fifty years; matters have grown considerably worse for nonhuman animals. "

― Lisa Kemmerer , Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice

12 " The U.S. system of justice contains laws whereby nonhuman animals have no legal standing, but are defined as “property,” as wives and enslaved Africans once were. Other animals (including mice, rats, and birds) are excluded from the legal definition of “animal” in the U.S., thereby denying these individuals whatever slight protection might be provided by U.S. animal welfare laws, and allowing science to use these sentient beings in any way researchers see fit, without fear of legal sanction. Other speciesist laws prevent animal advocates from using free speech on behalf of hunted animals, while protecting right-to-life advocates who speak out on behalf of fetuses. Institutionalized support for the systematic oppression of nonhuman animals is also evident in the recent Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, as well as in the mainstream media, both of which – unbelievably – label animal advocates as “terrorists. "

― Lisa Kemmerer , Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice

13 " I have often wondered how empathetic women have the courage to repeatedly expose themselves to trauma—entering animal labs, factory farms, and slaughterhouses to witness and record insidious treatment of nonhuman animals—while maintaining a semblance of emotional and psychological equilibrium. Authors in this anthology provide an answer: empathic people face misery head-on, not only to bring about much-needed change but as a means of coping. In a world where unconscionable violence and pervasive injustices are the norm, they have come to see activism as the lesser of two miseries. These women have found that their only hope for peace of mind is to walk straight into that pervasive misery and work for change "

― Lisa Kemmerer , Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice

14 " Activists must not work against one another in their single-minded dedication to one specific cause. Those fighting to protect horses must not eat cattle. We do well to specialize, but we do not do well if we specialize without knowledge of interlocking oppressions—or without the application of that knowledge. "

― Lisa Kemmerer , Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice

15 " Ecofeminist analysis is generally much more expansive than environmentalism and feminism. . . . Ecofeminism draws on ecological, socialist, and feminist thought, incorporating a handful of social justice movements, such as feminism, peace activism, labor movements, women’s health care, anti-nuclear, environmental, and animal liberation. "

― Lisa Kemmerer , Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice

16 " Nature is interconnections. "

― Lisa Kemmerer , Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice

17 " No individual or species is privileged in the world of nature: All eat and are eaten; all become sick and die in their turn. Humans are part of an interconnected continuum of life. "

― Lisa Kemmerer , Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice

18 " Ecofeminists call attention to the fact that environmentalists, feminists, and those fighting racism and poverty, are pulling on different straws in the same broom. "

― Lisa Kemmerer , Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice

19 " It is increasingly difficult for social justice activists to advocate – with a clear conscience – for women, the poor, or immigrants while eating other animals or consuming the nursing milk of cattle. Animal activists have already begun to effectively expose the links of oppression across species. "

― Lisa Kemmerer , Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice

20 " People tend to refer to nonhuman animals as “it” or sometimes “he,” regardless of the individual’s sex. This one-sex-fits-all approach objectifies and denies individuality. In fact, nonhuman animals who are exploited for food industries are usually females. Such unfortunate nonhumans are not only exploited for their flesh, but also for their nursing milk, reproductive eggs, and ability to produce young. When guessing the gender of a nonhuman animal forced through slaughterhouse gates, we would greatly increase odds of being correct if we referred to such unfortunate individuals as “she. "

― Lisa Kemmerer , Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice