We hope you had a marvellous Pride weekend and took the time to celebrate your beautiful selves! We wish you a happy and safe year with nothing but love and happiness!
We want you to know that we are here for you and we are trying our best to fight this horribly violent system until we all feel that we can be ourselves everywhere we go.
At London Pride, our very own Lex marched with the Migrant and Anti-Racist Bloc organised by the Movement for Justice By Any Means Necessary & Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants. They got interviewed by Paolo Zeriali, explaining why it is important to fight all oppression. Watch the video below to hear Lex speak or read the transcript below the youtube video.
TW: Lex briefly mentions hateful violence towards them.
[Interview Transcript:
Interviewer: We are in London pride with Lex right here with “destroy transphobia, fight kyriarchy and smash borders”. Let’s try to explain what do all these slogans mean.
Lex: So, as a trans individual I feel that there is so much transphobia and people, like, always misgender me, I was physically attacked last year just for being trans. So I want to destroy transphobia, so every person would be able to live as they are despite whatever gender they are or lack of gender. Kyriarchy is kinda like patriarchy just connecting all oppressions. So it is a fight against racism, transphobia, homophobia, patriarchy and all those. They go into kind of oppression kyriarchy all connected. And I’d like to smash borders so we would live in a place where people can move freely and that wouldn’t depend on if you have papers, what kind of country you are from, because no one choose where to be born, but you should be free to choose where to live.
Interviewer: So your struggle is dealing with multiple oppressions?
Lex: yeah as we don’t live in single issue world, meaning as a queer person I can face oppression as a queer person, but also I am an immigrant, so I face xenophobia and as trans individual I face transphobia. And I cannot separate which issue is affecting me the same like another person cannot say which oppression and how you… So you cannot fight just one oppression, you should realise that they all are connected. Also a disabled person I face ableism. So I think it is important to fight all oppressions and realise how they all are connected.]
During his resignation speech Cameron played the perfect Tory and the perfect politician. I took note of some of the most preposterous things that came out his mouth. If listening to him doesn’t make you throw up, you can watch the full speech in the video below or read the transcript in the Telegraph.
Calling out the Prime Minister
CW: mention of gaslighting (only in the first paragraph)
It seems like in his speech, Cameron is gaslighting the whole world, as he is recreating our present reality by reshaping our memories of the past and denying his own violence. Gaslighting is a serious form of abuse, where the abuser tries to convince the victim of a version of reality that suits the abuser by manipulating the victim through denying reality and convincing them of a different version of the past. The purpose is to make the victim fond of the abuser so as to still be able to benefit from the uneven power relationship.
Blaming the people for Brexit
Throughout the speech Cameron makes sure to allocate the blame to the people for the horror that’s to come (If you want to know why we are devastated by Brexit read yesterday’s post). The first four sentences he utters all stress the people’s role in this decision.
By throwing a big number at us (33,000, 000 people) and making sure to mention every single one of the many countries that had a vote (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Gibraltar) he makes sure to make it sound like everybody and their mom decided for this to happen. After all, as he says, they ‘all had their say’. He conveniently leaves out that the population of 16 and 17 year-olds was not allowed to vote, as the costs would have been too high, apparently. Two people I know who aren’t in the UK at the moment registered a proxy to vote for them but neither of them ever got a polling cart. Obviously this is not some sort of conspiracy, it’s just a testament to bureaucratic democracy failing the people.
Taking credit for people’s achievements
cw: mention of suicide in the following paragraph.
‘I believe we’ve made great steps, with more people in work than ever before in our history, with reforms to welfare and education, increasing people’s life chances, building a bigger and stronger society, keeping our promises to the poorest people in the world and enabling those who love each other to get married whatever their sexuality, but above all restoring Britain’s economic strength’ – this is probably the part that angered me the most. More people are working, and what he doesn’t tell us is that most of them are working more hours for less money finding it increasingly hard to survive. Budget cuts to the NHS, which he is responsible for, are affecting already marginalised people to such an extent that suicide rates are rising so he is decreasing people’s life chances across the board.
Then the dirty Tory dares to take credit for ‘enabling those who love each other to get married, whatever their sexuality’, shitting all over the hard work the people put into this great achievement over decades (plus it is still hard for trans people to even get recognised by institutions, not to mention actually getting married).
Denying his own role
Cameron makes sure to distinguish the decision of the people very clearly from his own campaign for a Britain that’s better off in the EU. He tries to make us forget the horrendous Tory propaganda he has been responsible for, for at least the past six years. He makes us forget that it was him and his government that riled up everyone, from working class people to rich-as-fuck ‘liberals’, against immigration, against muslims, against Eastern Europeans and against the EU.
He tries to make us forget that it was his racist, ableist, classist and misogynist politics that sent the population into despair and made many feel powerless and hopeless. It is his politics that made people like Farage acceptable and even popular. And it is Cameron who is to blame for Brexit.
Playing the martyr
Cameron said: ‘The British people have voted to leave the European Union and their will must be respected’ and ‘The will of the British people is an instruction that must be delivered’ – all of a sudden he is playing the civil servant. A fine civil servant who is blaming the people for his resignation as their decision is so different from his ideology which is why ‘the country requires fresh leadership to take it in this direction’. Nice one, first he messes everything up and then he leaves it to even more conservative and right wing politicians to take it from here. And he is trying to sell this screw up as in the best interest for the people?
Some casual nationalism
‘Britain is a special country’ and ‘I love this country’ reproduce the imperialist narratives of Britain’s greatness and ability to conquer all no matter how hard times are. It feeds right into the ‘we can do it on our own if we stick together as a nation’ storyline that has recently been made popular again through romantic adaptations of the ‘Keep Calm and Carry on’ War time slogan, versions of which are decorating everything from pillows, to mugs and pet food bowls.
Cameron knows however, that the world has changed and Britain has changed so he scrupulously appropriates British diversity to advance a sense of nationalism by pretending that he too, like most of the British people, thinks the melting pot culture to be a good thing: ‘And while we are not perfect I do believe we can be a model for the multi-racial, multi-faith democracy’, he says, trying to make us forget that it was his government who put islamophobic and xenophobic anti-immigration laws into place and that under his government police brutality against people of colour has risen.
This is Sammi’s contribution to the second issue of our zine (transcript below). Thank you, Sammi ❤
Transcript:
‘Porkies’
Speciesist slang for Lies
Lies = Pork Pies = Porkies
If we didn’t milk cows they would have too much milk and it would be really painful for them.
If we didn’t milk cows they wouldn’t produce more milk then they need for their children.
Humans need cow’s milk to keep their bones and teeth strong and healthy.
Calves need cow’s milk to grow strong and healthy.
Cows constantly produce milk with no human intervention.
Cows produce milk for the same reason humans do, to feed their offspring. Humans do intervene; they forcibly inseminate cows without their consent. Rape.
Animals don’t have emotions.
Animals are sentient beings just like humans, they feel emotion just as humans do.
If we didn’t eat animals then they would just roam around and wouldn’t be able to survive.
If we didn’t eat animals then they wouldn’t be forcibly bred and in turn would live natural self-sufficient lives in their natural numbers.
Animals don’t feel pain.
Animals and humans share similar mechanisms of pain detection, have similar areas of the brain involved in processing pain and show similar pain behaviours.
Free range eggs are made by happy chickens.
Chickens kept on ‘free range farms’ are exploited, many kept in horrendous conditions and all eventually share the same fate once they are seen as having no more value to humans – death.
If you stop consuming animal products you’re just letting animals die in vain.
If you stop consuming animal products you are no longer voting with your money to continue the cycle of pain and torture inflicted on animals.
Horses love being ridden, I love my horse.
Many horses suffer from mental and physical health problems caused by humans riding them. No animal should be owned.
Another extract from our zine double issue: This is our ‘Good to Know’ page with some definitions. The images below can be shared, printed out and distributed anywhere and everywhere.
The images read:
ALF: Animal Liberation Front; anybody can be the ALF by liberating animals and sabotaging or destroying animal exploitation facilities; the ALF does not cause harm to humans nor animals.
Ally: Someone who stands in solidarity with you in a struggle that they are not directly affected by; for example: a man who shares our values but will never experience sexism.
Carnism: belief system underlying the choice to consume animal flesh; implies meat-eating as a choice, not a necessity; subset of speciesism; opposite of veganism.
Feminsim: ideology advocating social, political and economic justice for womxn; different versions of feminism advocate also for MOGAI folk, animals and the environment.
Intersectionality: describes the circumstances of working class women of colour who experience threefold oppression.
Kyriarchy: the social structure that keeps systems of oppressions in place; includes all forms of inequality; derived from the Ancient Greek word for master or lord, kyrios; the ideology that dismantles kyriarchy is anarchism.
MOGAI: Marginalised Orientations, Gender Alignments and Intersex.
Privilege: unearned societal power of a dominant group, at the expense of the disadvantaged group; for example: white privilege is the advantage white people hold over people of colour.
Speciesism: discrimination based on species; ideology upholding human superiority over other species and allowing some animals moral consideration over others; Anti-Speciesism is then the resistance towards this system of oppression.
swe(r)f: sex worker exclusionary (radical) feminist; is opposed to sex workers’ rights, and is dismissive of their views; if you’re one of them the same applies to you as for the terfs.
te(r)f: trans exclusionary (radical) feminist; fucked up bigots who we hate because they only recognise cis womxn as womxn; if you’re one of them, leave right now.
Veganism: belief system underlying the choice not to eat animal flesh nor secretions; ethical version of a plant-based diet.
Womxn: alternative spelling of women, implying that we don’t need men to be complete; rejecting the terf term womyn.
If you followed the Asterisk (*) from the zine’s back cover to this blog, this post is the one you are looking for.
Only after printing the zine we realised that it is utterly inappropriate to use the term ‘factory farming’, because it has welfarist implications of abolishing ‘intensive’ and ‘mass’ farming factories, whilst keeping local, small and ‘home’ farms running. This was not our intention at all, and it should be clear from the zine that we are stricktly advocating for the abolition of all animal facilities.
Further, the numbers of the murdered animals we provided are, in fact, far too small. We did not mean to do an injustice to the billions of animals the numbers left out. We see our mistake as a reflection of the constant misinformation that is being spread by the industry and governmental bodies about the impact they really have.
To us, numbers are not of concern. For an anti-speciesist any amount of exploited and murdered animals is far too much, be the number 3 or 3 trillion.
As you can see, there’s still a lot of undoing speciesism ahead of us!
We will provide a more accurate estimate of the numbers as soon as possible.
“Language is not a perfect reflection of reality. It is not a phenomenon of the universe: We produce language, we give it meaning, and we maintain and change language.” – Lisa Kemmerer.
Language helps us to create and shape our understanding of the world. Our world constantly changes, and language changes with it. As a result of active campaigning and growing awareness, there are many terms we now understand as oppressive to marginalized groups. Toxic words are no longer tolerated. As activists challenging oppressive hierarchies, it is incredibly important that our language reflects our politics.
Speciesist terms are so deeply ingrained within language that they have become normalised. Well-known negative phrases like ‘sly as a fox’ or ‘grumpy cow’ applies human qualities to animals through the language that humans have created. As animals are already perceived by society as less-than human, using animals to express these human qualities designates the traits as separate, other, different. Thus, describing a human with speciesist terms or phrases reduces their autonomy and agency because animals have no freedom.
Terminology that is both speciesist and sexist highlights the connected oppressions of womxn and animals by reinforcing their otherness to men – ‘viewed through speciesism, a nonhuman animal acquires a negative image. When metaphor then imposes that image on women, they share its negativity.’ – Joan Dunayer.
Five Terms to Avoid (and why):
It
The pronoun ‘it’ is used to refer to things. And objects. Animals are living beings, so calling an animal ‘it’ implies they are unable to experience pain and emotions. Objectifying animals in this way perpetuates the status of animals as less-than human. The default is often calling animals ‘he/him’ when unsure of their sex and gender, which is generally reflective of our patriarchal cisnormative society as a whole. To disrupt this, we choose alternative terms such as who/they/them.
Pet
Pet implies ownership. People living with animals are often called ‘pet owners’. Anti-speciesists recognize that animals are not property (no matter how much society/the law tells otherwise). We should be distancing ourselves from outdated language– ‘companion’ is more compassionate.
Bitch
Bitch is exclusively applied to womxn and female gender identity stereotypes. A bitch is literally a female dog, yet when used against womxn, ‘bitch’ becomes spiteful, rude or bossy. When used to describe men, ‘bitch’ means feminine and weak. While some feminists have reclaimed the word bitch to destabilize the traditional associations of womxn with femininity, the problem remains. Bitch is a term that has been appropriated from animals and promotes and maintains a system of othering – other than womxn, other than man, other than human.
Chick/bird
Calling womxn ‘birds’ or ‘chicks’ sexualizes and objectifies womxn and animals. Society places value on the bodies of chickens as objects to be exploited or used. Chickens are commodified, killed, and used as products for the benefit of humans. Depicting womxn as ‘chicks’ expresses that it is acceptable to reproduce this system of oppression on the bodies of womxn.
Fur hag
The animal liberation movement itself is not free of sexist language. Most notably, the term ‘fur hag’ is specifically used as attack on womxn who wear fur. Hag, meaning an old woman or witch, becomes ageist and sexist in this context as it is used to purposely diminish and subdue womxn by deeming them uncompassionate and ignorant. There is no similar term to describe men who wear fur, though there are many men in the fashion industry who do. Fur farming is horrifically cruel and violent, yet campaigning against the industry by attacking and blaming womxn ignores the oppressive system that encourages womxn to wear fur as a status/power symbol.
It is crucial that we continue to liberate our language. Speciesist/sexist language hurts animals and women by highlighting their difference from those who western society equates with power (white cis hetero men). Ultimately, being perceived as less-than enables the objectification, exploitation and oppression of marginalized individuals. We will not be part of a system that uses speciesist/sexist language to support this.
Anti-Speciesist Women want our posts to be inclusive. We also use a lot of terms that readers may be unfamiliar with, so we’ve compiled a list of words we use a lot below. Let us know if there are any we should add, and help us make these words mainstream!
ALF: Animal Liberation Front; anybody can be the ALF by liberating animals and sabotaging or destroying animal exploitation facilities; the ALF does not cause harm to humans nor animals.
Ally: Someone who stands in solidarity with you in a struggle that they are not directly affected by; for example: a man who shares our values but will never experience sexism.
Carnism: belief system underlying the choice to consume animal flesh; implies meat-eating as a choice, not a necessity; subset of speciesism; opposite of veganism.
Feminsim: ideology advocating social, political and economic justice for womxn; different versions of feminism advocate als for justice MOGAI folk, animals and the environment.
Intersectionality: describes the circumstances of working class women of colour who experience threefold oppression.
Kyriarchy: the social structure that keeps systems of oppressions in place; includes all forms of inequality; derived from the Ancient Greek word for master or lord, kyrios; the ideology that dismantles kyriarchy is anarchism.
MOGAI: Marginalised Orientations, Gender Alignments and Intersex.
Privilege: unearned societal power of a dominant group, at the expense of the disadvantaged group; for example: white privilege is the advantage white people hold over people of colour.
Speciesism: discrimination based on species; ideology upholding human superiority over other species and allowing some animals moral consideration over others; Anti-Speciesism is then the resistance towards this system of oppression.
swe(r)f: sex worker exclusionary (radical) feminist; is opposed to sex workers’ rights, and is dismissive of their views; if you’re one of them the same applies to you as for the terfs.
te(r)f: trans exclusionary (radical) feminist; fucked up bigots who we hate because they only recognise cis womxn as womxn; if you’re one of them, leave right now.
Veganism: belief system underlying the choice not to eat animal flesh nor secretions; ethical version of a plant-based diet.
Womxn: alternative spelling of women, implying that we don’t need men to be complete; rejecting the terf term womyn.
Anti-Speciesist Collective 