Growing up, my father rarely missed an opportunity to remind me that as long as I was living under his house, I had to abide by his rules and was essentially under his control. What gave him the ability to claim to ownership over me? What gave my father, and my mother as well, the edge over me was that they bore me, they raised me and provided for me. I follow their rules because I wanted to, not because I was afraid of the consequences if I didn’t. A father may have superiority over his children for a select span of their lives, but this ownership should never carry over to superiority over differing sexes, species or races but it does. Paralleling the way that humans treat animals, many men treat women with disrespect, inferiority and abuse. “Applying images of denigrated nonhuman species to women labels women inferior and available for abuse; attaching images of the aggrandized human species to men designates them superior and entitled to exploit. Language is a powerful agent in assigning the imagery of animal vs. human. “ (785). Words like “bitch” fox” and “cougar” are all words used to describe a woman’s physique, mostly used by men. This raises the question of why use animal names to describe a woman? Why no t men? Why aren’t these same words used to describe a woman’s innerself? If “the use of animals’ [names] reflects the speciesists’ belief that humans fundamentally differ from all nonhuman animals and are inherently superior” then how is it okay to relate a human to these names (789). Human beings are biologically extremely similar to many, if not most, of animal species. According to Wikepedia, “In literal, non-slang use, bitch is a term for female canines, particularly amongst dog breeders. It is also a common English profanity for a woman that typically carries denigrating or misogynistic overtones—such as resemblance to a dog. It is also used to characterize someone who is belligerent and unreasonable, or displays rudely intrusive or aggressive behavior”. From my project two research of female breeding dogs, I have found that female dogs, bitches, are often used solely for pumping out puppies, which in turn leads to profit. These dogs are abused, beaten and disrespected, just as many men treat women. Men call women Bitches because they have some distorted view of superiority over them and feel that they have the right to treat them however they want solely because they were born with enhanced rights. “…Man and mankind too reflect speciesism. Their power to lower women’s status rests on the premise that those outside our species do not merit equal consideration and respect”. Just as ignorant humans abuse animals, ignorant men abuse women (717).
As a new coinsure of animal treatment awareness, it is degrading and boorish to animals, more than to the women at stake. A woman called a “bitch” may sincerely have a conceited, rude attitude and deserve to be called a name such as “rude” or conceited”. The dog, on the other hand, is related to such an ill-mannered person as this, negatively personifying an innocent, giving animal. Most animal dervived names that are given to human are almost always derogatory with negative connotation. “That lady is a whale!”and “You dirty dog!” are often used terms referring to a heavy set person or a sneaky, deceiving person. Animals are not ill-mannered species unless provoked, usually by humans themselves. It is offensive to name impolite humans the names of caring and intelligent animals. http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/superjoker/news/?a=8398
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