Who Cares?: Women, Emotion, and Bodies in Animal Activism by Allison Wallis A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in Sociology Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario ©2017 Allison Wallis WHO CARES?: WOMEN, EMOTION, AND BODIES IN ANIMAL ACTIVISM Abstract This thesis uses a critical feminist lens to examine the role of gender in shaping animal rights (AR) activism in North America. It draws on the content of eight semi- structured interviews conducted with AR activists who live in a mid-sized Canadian city. I argue that North American AR activism is a feminized space within the public sphere, by virtue of the emotional labour of care that characterizes it. This community of mostly white, female AR activists reflects a dominant patriarchal hierarchy of legitimate knowledges. Insofar as we are a society constrained by gender, the women use strategies of activism that draw on their bodies and emotions which, within the gendered constraints of society, are acceptably female forms of knowledge and expression. They experience corporeal effects, observable in high rates of burnout and PTSD among activists, and through exclusions of bodies through the practices of veganism and nude activism. ii WHO CARES?: WOMEN, EMOTION, AND BODIES IN ANIMAL ACTIVISM Acknowledgments I am incredibly proud and honoured to have completed this project with unending support and encouragement from all of the fine, intelligent, and caring people who grace my life. Thank you to Jacqueline Kennelly, my thesis supervisor and mentor. The transparency, honesty, reflexivity and care with which you guide your students has been an unbelievable gift – to myself and to others – as I have navigated a world that feels so foreign. Thank you, also, to Lauren Corman for your involvement in this project. Your tough questions have inspired me to push forward in thinking and writing around this subject. Thank you to the professors who have challenged me intellectually, and who have pushed the boundaries of my comfort in the classroom and on paper. Thank you for recognizing quiet intellect, and for thoughtfully making space in your classrooms. Thank you, in particular, to Paula Whissell for the genuine care that you have for all our students and faculty. Thank you to the animal rights activists with whom I have worked, and who have contributed so meaningfully to this project. It would not have been possible without your effort. Thank you for working for animals, and thank you for working to inspire compassion and care in others. Thank you to the animals. Thank you to my peers and colleagues, with whom I have grown so close. I could not have been blessed with a better, more encouraging, caring, or intelligent group of comrades. Thank you, in particular, to Oliver Crosby, Kent Hall, and Preeti Hothi. You have, individually and collectively, inspired me with your enthusiasm for teaching and learning, and with your beautiful, critical minds. Our Friends Against Research and Thesis Stagnation (FARTS) group has been a crutch for me throughout this process. Truly, you are the kindred spirits I had hoped that one day I would find. Thank you to my sister and my parents for your continued support. Thank you to my best friend and partner, Ronald Garson. Words cannot convey my gratitude for the love you have shown and the support you have so selflessly given me throughout this process. Thank you for bearing with me on this emotional roller coaster, and for picking up the slack while I was married to this project. Thank you to Kayla Hill, Kerry Turner, Seghen Woldai, Kerry Maclaine, and Heidi Hanson – my girls – who have been with me from the early days. Thank you for being the incredible, inspiring women you have grown to be, and thank you to Kayla and Seghen for blazing the Master’s trail for me – had I not seen you both struggle and succeed before me, I might not have considered it an option. Thank you, most of all, for the laughter. iii WHO CARES?: WOMEN, EMOTION, AND BODIES IN ANIMAL ACTIVISM Table of Contents Who Cares?: Women, Emotion, and Bodies in Animal Activism .......................... 1 Abstract ........................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................ iii Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................... 1 My Beginnings .................................................................................................... 1 Scope of My Research ........................................................................................ 3 Main Arguments and Overview of Chapters ...................................................... 4 Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework and Literature Review .................................... 7 Theoretical Framework ....................................................................................... 7 The Emergence of a Feminist Ethic of Care ....................................................... 7 A feminist ethic of care for animals .................................................................. 12 Affect, Activism and Women’s Organizing for Animals .................................. 15 Review of Literature ......................................................................................... 20 Toward Emotion in Social Movement Literature ............................................. 20 The Gender of Emotions ................................................................................... 22 Carrying the Burden of Emotion ....................................................................... 28 Conclusions ....................................................................................................... 37 Chapter 3: Methods and Methodology ................................................................. 39 Critical Feminist Methodology ......................................................................... 39 iv WHO CARES?: WOMEN, EMOTION, AND BODIES IN ANIMAL ACTIVISM Recruitment ....................................................................................................... 39 Field Observation .............................................................................................. 43 Interviews .......................................................................................................... 44 Reflexivity and Positionality............................................................................. 45 Pseudonyms in Activist Research: To Name or Not to Name?......................... 56 Conclusions ....................................................................................................... 60 Chapter 4: The Gendered Structure of Animal Activism ...................................... 61 Thinking Rationally, Feeling Empathetically ................................................... 66 “Getting it”: Seeing is Believing....................................................................... 72 Compassion for Animals: Care Work in the Public Sphere .............................. 75 Compassion. .................................................................................................. 76 Masculinizing Compassion. .............................................................................. 83 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 92 Chapter 5: Women, Bodies, and Affect in Animal Activism ................................ 95 An Industry and a Movement Built on Bodies ................................................. 96 Embodied Legitimacy of Veganism .................................................................. 99 Nude Activism and the Exclusion of Human Bodies ....................................... 111 Burnout (Compassion Fatigue) ....................................................................... 122 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 127 Chapter 6: Discussion and Conclusion ............................................................... 129 v WHO CARES?: WOMEN, EMOTION, AND BODIES IN ANIMAL ACTIVISM Implications..................................................................................................... 131 Limitations and Future Research .................................................................... 132 Appendices .......................................................................................................... 136 Appendix A: Facebook Callout ....................................................................... 136 Appendix B: Letter of Information ................................................................. 137 Appendix C: Letter of Consent ....................................................................... 139 Appendix D: Interview Guide ......................................................................... 141 References ........................................................................................................... 143 vi WHO CARES?: WOMEN, EMOTION, AND BODIES IN ANIMAL ACTIVISM Chapter 1: Introduction My Beginnings The groundwork for my interest in undertaking this research project was laid over the course of the past seven years. I came to the conversation about animal rights in 2010. Until that point vegetarianism was completely foreign to