This is a guest post from Al Lattin of PETA.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) recently ruffled some feathers with its list of animal-friendly alternatives to anti-animal expressions. Don’t want to support the suffering of the slaughterhouse? Then stop “bringing home the bacon” and “bring home the bagels” instead. Think that “killing two birds with one stone” is pretty awful? Try “feeding two birds with one scone.”
While some people mocked PETA’s suggestions for kinder, more inclusive language, many of the conversations around this issue have been thoughtful, which is exactly what PETA wanted—to plant a seed and spark discussion.
If you think this is all much ado about nothing, I can tell you from personal experience that our words do matter.
As a trans man, I know exactly what it’s like for someone to look at me and immediately try to figure out “what”—not “who”—I am. We humans like to categorize everything, including other living beings, but not everyone fits into a neat little box (and that’s a good thing!). It’s more common than you might think for someone to give up on trying to “figure it out” and just call trans people “it,” instead of saying “he” or “she” (or simply respectfully asking how they prefer to be addressed).
“It”—the same pronoun you’d use for a sofa or table.
The same pronoun that many people use for nonhuman animals.
Here’s the problem. Calling animals “it,” using “pig” or “dog” as a slur, talking about “beating a dead horse” or worse reveals that we are stuck in an older, less enlightened time, when humans knew almost nothing about animals’ behavior and thought nothing of eating them, wearing them and using them as cheap burglar alarms.
We now know that pigs have temperature preferences and can learn through trial and error how to turn on the heat in a cold barn. Chickens will forgo a treat if they know they will get a larger reward later. Prairie dogs talk to each other about predators, and they get specific, giving details about size, shape, color a, d speed. Fish form friendships—recently in Thailand, a porcupinefish kept vigil by his friend, who had become entangled in a net, until snorkelers came to the rescue (you can see it online). Crocodiles surf ocean waves for fun, young alligators repeatedly slide down slopes and baby alligators go for rides on their older friends’ backs.
In other words, nonhuman animals are feeling, intelligent individuals—not objects.
Calling them “it” signals ignorance and laziness and a refusal to see who they really are.
Peter Singer, who popularized the concept of animal rights in his groundbreaking book Animal Liberation, says, “Many social movements recognize that language matters because it both reflects and reinforces injustices that need to be remedied” [emphasis added]. As an example, he writes, “Feminists have provided evidence that the supposedly gender-neutral use of ‘man’ and ‘he’ to include females has the effect of making women invisible.” (Calling trans people “it” has the same chilling effect.)
People of color and people with disabilities have rightly challenged racist and ableist language. So why shouldn’t we also challenge speciesist language? In the same way that racism, sexism and all the other ugly “-isms” allow us to discriminate against humans based on the color of their skin, their gender or some other arbitrary factor, speciesism allows us to ascribe an inferior status to animals. It’s the same mindset in each case: the idea that “I” am important and “you” are not, because you are “different.” And, in each case, it’s wrong.
Civil rights activist and feminist Audre Lorde believed,
There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle, because we do not live single-issue lives.
I agree. Social justice issues are all connected. That’s why, as a proud animal rights advocate and trans man, I will “bring home the bagels” and “feed a fed horse.” Words can shape how we think and act. We should use them for the greater good.
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