Our Hen House
Our Hen House
  • Home
  • Podcasts
    • Our Hen House Podcast
    • Animal Law Podcast
    • Flock Bonus Content
    • Antiracism Audio Series
    • Limited Series: Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan
  • About
    • About Our Hen House
    • Inside the Coop – Bios
    • Join the Flock
    • Suggest a Guest
    • Press Coverage
    • Policies
    • Contact
  • Learn More
    • Videos
    • Blog
      • Book Reviews
    • Hen Press
    • Why Animal Rights?
      • Animal Testing and Research
      • Clothing
      • Companion Animals
      • Dairy
      • Eggs
      • Entertainment
      • Fishes
      • Meat
      • Veganism
      • Wildlife
      • What to do?
  • Donate
BlogNewsletter — DailyNewsletter — Weekly

‘Dehumanization’ Made Possible by Low Status of Animals

by Visiting Animal March 5, 2014
written by Visiting Animal
520
Today we welcome writer Jon Hochschartner to Our Hen House. Jon will discuss why, among other things, “the fight against speciesism and those against racism, sexism, and classism, among others, are connected.”
 
***

‘Dehumanization’ Made Possible by Low Status of Animals
by Jon Hochschartner
iStock_000000943548XSmallThroughout history, when one human group exploits or oppresses another, the dominant group invariably justifies its actions by likening the subordinate group to animals. This isn’t a coincidence, and it’s long past time for those who consider themselves to be progressives, but remain indifferent to the plight of animals, to realize it.
By successfully linking subordinate groups to animals in the popular imagination, dominant groups are able to justify their position by tapping into society’s widespread speciesism, which views the exploitation or oppression of animals as legitimate. In this way, the fight against speciesism and those against racism, sexism, and classism, among others, are connected.
In “The Eternal Jew,” a racist, 1940 Nazi propaganda film, Jews are explicitly compared to rats, a species upon which humans place particularly little value. “Where rats appear, they bring ruin by destroying mankind’s goods and foodstuffs,” the narrator intones. “In this way, they spread disease, plague, leprosy, typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery, and so on. They are cunning, cowardly and cruel and are found mostly in large packs. Among the animals, they represent the rudiment of an insidious, underground destruction – just like the Jews among human beings.”
In 2013, a white 911 operator in Texas compared African Americans to animals on social media. “Call after call are black people fighting and screaming and hitting each other and they want to yell at me and treat me like shit,” the operator wrote. “Black people are outrageous! They are more like animals.”
The writer Samuel Johnson, who died in 1784, reportedly compared women’s participation in public life to animals unnaturally mimicking human behavior.” A woman’s preaching is like a dog’s walking on his hind legs,” Johnson said. “It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.”
Arguing in favor of forcing women to carry pregnancies to term after 20 weeks, in 2012, a Georgia state representative implicitly compared women to livestock. “I’ve had the experience of delivering calves, dead and alive – delivering pigs, dead and alive,” the male lawmaker said. “It breaks our hearts to see those animals not make it.”
In “The Principles of Scientific Management,” an influential 1911 monograph by Frederick Winslow Taylor in which the techniques of modern capitalist exploitation are outlined, Taylor repeatedly compares human workers to domesticated animals. “Now one of the very first requirements for a man who is fit to handle pig iron as a regular occupation is that he shall be so stupid and so phlegmatic that he more nearly resembles in his mental make-up the ox than any other type,” Taylor writes. “The man who is mentally alert and intelligent is for this very reason entirely unsuited to what would, for him, be the grinding monotony of work of this character.”
CagedMore recently, in 2012, Terry Gou, the chair of Hon Hai – parent company of the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, Foxconn – compared his workforce to animals and suggested he could learn management techniques from the director of the Taipei Zoo. “Hon Hai has a workforce of over one million worldwide and as human beings are also animals, to manage one million animals gives me a headache,” Gou said.
As these examples show, the struggles for human liberation and animal liberation are linked, if only because dominant human groups employ speciesism to justify the exploitation or oppression of subordinate human groups that society deems “animal-like.” Thus, by bettering the conditions of animals, we remove one important psychological bar to bettering the conditions of humans.
Take the subject of class. Progressives are well aware that raising the wage of the lowest-paid workers will boost the income of higher-paid workers as expectations for ‘fair’ compensation rise. Conversely, progressives know that lowering the wage of the lowest-paid workers will drag down the income of higher-paid workers as expectations for ‘fair’ compensation fall.
This should hold true when it comes to the relation between the treatment of animals and the treatment of humans. As expectations rise for what constitutes fair treatment for animals – the supposed lowest of the low – expectations for what constitutes fair treatment for humans will also rise. In contrast, the dehumanization of human groups is made possible by the low status of animals. The sooner the anthropocentric left recognizes this, the better.
***

photo

Jon Hochschartner


Jon Hochschartner is a freelance writer from upstate New York. Visit his website at JonHochschartner.com.

Share 0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
previous post
Foster Puppy Pippa
next post
Does Your Smile Mean the Same as Mine? Thoughts from the Bottom of the World

You may also like

Episode 336: Jonathan Balcombe and “What a Fish Knows”; Ryan Patey and...

Do You Find Social Media Terms Confusing? Yeah, Me Too…

Rolling Out the Results: “Meat Ethics” by Runner-Up Joanna Strittmatter

“The Art of Defiance”: Ellen Kanner Interviews Jasmin Singer (PART I)

For the Our Hen House Etsy World, Spring Has Finally Sprung

Helping Animals, One Can of Vegan Dog Food After Another …

Episode 332: Patrick Battuello of Horseracing Wrongs, and Melissa Amarello from Advocates...

Animal Law Scholarships

Turning Trash into Furniture (and Into Activism)

Episode 18 of the Our Hen House TV Show is Now Viewable...

Search Episodes

Subscribe to our Shows

Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsSpotifyStitcherPocketCastsAmazon Music
More
  • Apple PodcastsApple Podcasts
  • RSSRSS
  • SpotifySpotify
  • Google PodcastsGoogle Podcasts
  • Amazon MusicAmazon Music
  • StitcherStitcher
  • PocketCastsPocketCasts
  • CastBoxCastBox
  • Player.fmPlayer.fm
  • TuneInTuneIn
Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsSpotifyStitcherPocketCastsAmazon Music
More
  • RSSRSS
  • Apple PodcastsApple Podcasts
  • Google PodcastsGoogle Podcasts
  • SpotifySpotify
  • Amazon MusicAmazon Music
  • StitcherStitcher
  • CastBoxCastBox
  • Player.fmPlayer.fm
  • TuneInTuneIn
  • PocketCastsPocketCasts

Subscribe to OHH Emails

We don’t spam or share your email with others. Privacy policy.

Please Check Your Email to Confirm Your Subscription!

Instagram

Join us On Facebook

Join us On Facebook

Keep in touch

Facebook Twitter Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

©2023 - Our Hen House - All Rights Reserved


Back To Top
Our Hen House
  • Home
  • Podcasts
    • Our Hen House Podcast
    • Animal Law Podcast
    • Flock Bonus Content
    • Antiracism Audio Series
    • Limited Series: Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan
  • About
    • About Our Hen House
    • Inside the Coop – Bios
    • Join the Flock
    • Suggest a Guest
    • Press Coverage
    • Policies
    • Contact
  • Learn More
    • Videos
    • Blog
      • Book Reviews
    • Hen Press
    • Why Animal Rights?
      • Animal Testing and Research
      • Clothing
      • Companion Animals
      • Dairy
      • Eggs
      • Entertainment
      • Fishes
      • Meat
      • Veganism
      • Wildlife
      • What to do?
  • Donate
Our Hen House
Search Podcasts
  • Home
  • Podcasts
    • Our Hen House Podcast
    • Animal Law Podcast
    • Flock Bonus Content
    • Antiracism Audio Series
    • Limited Series: Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan
  • About
    • About Our Hen House
    • Inside the Coop – Bios
    • Join the Flock
    • Suggest a Guest
    • Press Coverage
    • Policies
    • Contact
  • Learn More
    • Videos
    • Blog
      • Book Reviews
    • Hen Press
    • Why Animal Rights?
      • Animal Testing and Research
      • Clothing
      • Companion Animals
      • Dairy
      • Eggs
      • Entertainment
      • Fishes
      • Meat
      • Veganism
      • Wildlife
      • What to do?
  • Donate

Subscribe

Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsSpotifyAmazon Music
More
  • Apple PodcastsApple Podcasts
  • RSSRSS
  • SpotifySpotify
  • Google PodcastsGoogle Podcasts
  • Amazon MusicAmazon Music
  • StitcherStitcher
  • PocketCastsPocketCasts
  • CastBoxCastBox
  • Player.fmPlayer.fm
  • TuneInTuneIn
Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsSpotifyAmazon Music
More
  • RSSRSS
  • Apple PodcastsApple Podcasts
  • Google PodcastsGoogle Podcasts
  • SpotifySpotify
  • Amazon MusicAmazon Music
  • StitcherStitcher
  • CastBoxCastBox
  • Player.fmPlayer.fm
  • TuneInTuneIn
  • PocketCastsPocketCasts

OHH NEWSLETTER

We don’t spam or share your email with others. Privacy policy.

Please Check Your Email to Confirm Your Subscription!

 
Sign In

Keep me signed in until I sign out

Forgot your password?

Password Recovery

A new password will be emailed to you.

Have received a new password? Login here