Intimate Familiarities? Feminism and Human-Animal Studies

The study of human-nonhuman animal relationships, like women’s studies, is a relative newcomer to the academy. Both grew partly out of political movements of the 1970s, challenging different forms of oppression. Here, I ask whether there are insights each could draw from the other, despite their differences. I do so from personal academic experience of both: But I write also from my own engagement in those social movements of the 1970s and my belief that politics that ignore other oppressions cannot be liberatory politics for anyone. Undoubtedly, there is some overlap between the concerns of both movements: Both, for example, have a concern with rights (however problematic that concept (Donovan, 1990; Slicer, 1991)). Another common ground is in their respective critiques of Western culture’s profound commitment to distinguishing “us” from “others,” which extinguishes differences among those others (Plumwood, 1993) and in turn can help to reinforce oppressions or abuse (Adams, 1993; Pagani, 2000).