Dr. Lisa Kemmerer & Carol J. Adams: Conversations about sexism, sexual harassment and misconduct in animal welfare

Summary: For this edition of “Talking Animals,” I scrapped the usual format to present two discussions about sexism, sexual harassment and misconduct within the animal welfare world—against the backdrop of what seems like an endless flurry of disturbing reports about this sort of misbehavior emerging from multiple fields (showbiz, media, comedy, politics, sports, etc.) First, I spoke with Dr. Lisa Kemmerer, a philosopher-activist and professor of philosophy and religions at Montana State University Billings, who’s written or edited nine books, including “Sister Species: Women, Animals, and Social Justice.” We talked about why these topics are not being discussed (publicly) within the animal welfare movement when it’s otherwise become a red-hot topic of national discussion…the implications and impact of the preponderance of women in animal welfare–Kemmerer estimates about 75%-25% female/male gender ratio…We discussed the CANHAD (Coalition Against Nonprofit Harassment And Discrimination) website, who submits to it and how, and I read a sampling of the testimonials…her view of why sexism and male privilege are key factors underlying this problem…what needs to change to address the problem, and more. The second conversation was with Carol J. Adams, a feminist-vegan advocate, activist, and the author of numerous books, including the landmark work, “The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory.” In August, Adams wrote a paper relevant to this topic, and the day before this show, wrote a two-part blog post entitled, “How Should We Respond To Sexual Harassment And Sexual Exploitation In The Animal Rights Movement.” We talked about the long history of the problem, that for 30 years victimized women in the movement have contacted her with their stories…She touches on Part 1 of the blog post from the previous day, expanding on the term she invokes, “vulnerability of inequality”…She outlines various facets of the supreme importance of forging greater accountability in the movement (an element of Part 2), describing Tofurky’s guidelines for what policies need to be in place at an organization before the company would consider donations …She places in the context of this conversation the germane-anew national discussion about Trump having admitted to sexually assaulting at least one woman, and there’s more than a dozen women who have accused him of sexual misconduct (and the day before, he’d all but endorsed Roy Moore), noting that a sizable contingent of male Trump supporters like it that he views women this way…She offers some suggestions for what steps a victim survivor might take, in addition to visiting CANHAD.org, and more. (http://lisakemmerer.com, http://caroljadams.com) MUSIC: Rebekah Pulley’s “Talking Animals Theme,” Consolidated’s “The Sexual Politics Of Meat,” instrumentals Listen Online Now: https://talkinganimals.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/TANov22-.mp3 | Open Player in New Window