Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Art and Design Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 31 - 40 of 40

Full-Text Articles in Art and Design

The Dairy Issue: ‘Practicing The Art Of War’, Melissa Boyde Jan 2018

The Dairy Issue: ‘Practicing The Art Of War’, Melissa Boyde

Animal Studies Journal

: This paper offers several stories in response to philosopher Vinciane Despret and sociologist Jocelyne Porcher’s considerations on ‘dairy’ cows and work. These include stories from the cows in the herd that I have lived alongside for 30 years, a kind of auto-ethnographic approach; and stories and a few facts about the dairy industry in Australia. These accounts are informed by another story, told by the feminist philosopher and writer Hélène Cixous. Three works by artist Yvette Watt tell more stories about the lives and deaths of cows. One of my underlying interests is in the possibilities of narrative to …


Demystifying Dairy, Deidre Wicks Jan 2018

Demystifying Dairy, Deidre Wicks

Animal Studies Journal

In this paper, I examine the dairy cow, her body and disposition, with a specific focus on the way we humans have designed her for our purposes, through the use of selective breeding and reproductive technology. I will also examine the consequences of this design for the health and welfare of the dairy cow and her calf. I will conduct this examination through the concept of ‘naturalistic mystification’, which I will use to challenge the dominant, hegemonic message, which presents the cow as natural, and milk as a nonharm product. Rather, I will demonstrate that the cow and her milk …


‘Machine Milking Is More Manly Than Hand Milking’: Multispecies Agencies And Gendered Practices In Finnish Cattle Tending From The 1950s To The 1970s, Taija Kaarlenkaski Jan 2018

‘Machine Milking Is More Manly Than Hand Milking’: Multispecies Agencies And Gendered Practices In Finnish Cattle Tending From The 1950s To The 1970s, Taija Kaarlenkaski

Animal Studies Journal

During the last hundred years, mechanization has significantly changed the working circumstances of both humans and animals in cattle husbandry. In Finland, cattle tending was regarded as women’s work up until the mid-20th century. According to a common view, the proliferation of milking machines, starting from the 1950s, caused men to start working in the cowsheds. In this paper, I will examine how the agencies of cattle tenders, cows, and milking machines were constructed during the mechanization process from the 1950s to the 1970s. Special attention will be paid to gendered representations, and changes in the gendered division of work. …


From Rice Eaters To Soy Boys: Race, Gender, And Tropes Of ‘Plant Food Masculinity’, Iselin Gambert, Tobias Linné Jan 2018

From Rice Eaters To Soy Boys: Race, Gender, And Tropes Of ‘Plant Food Masculinity’, Iselin Gambert, Tobias Linné

Animal Studies Journal

Tropes of ‘effeminized’ masculinity have long been bound up with a plant-based diet, dating back to the ‘effeminate rice eater’ stereotype used to justify 19th-century colonialism in Asia to the altright’s use of the term ‘soy boy’ on Twitter and other social media today to call out men they perceive to be weak, effeminate, and politically correct (Gambert and Linné). This article explores tropes of ‘plant food masculinity’ throughout history, focusing on how while they have embodied different social, cultural, and political identities, they all serve as a tool to construct an archetypal masculine ideal. The analysis draws on a …


[Review] Devries, Scott M. Creature Discomfort: Fauna-Criticism, Ethics And The Representation Of Animals In Spanish American Fiction And Poetry. Leiden: Brill, 2016. Critical Animal Studies, 4. 328pp., Wendy Woodward Jan 2018

[Review] Devries, Scott M. Creature Discomfort: Fauna-Criticism, Ethics And The Representation Of Animals In Spanish American Fiction And Poetry. Leiden: Brill, 2016. Critical Animal Studies, 4. 328pp., Wendy Woodward

Animal Studies Journal

Scott M. DeVries’ exhaustive overview of Spanish American Literature serves as a substantial introduction to Spanish American literature in relation to Critical Animal Studies and what DeVries terms Traditional Animal Studies. Motivated by the lack of Spanish American literature featuring in animal studies, his survey convinces of the richness of this literature. The neologism ‘fauna-criticism’ is underpinned by TAS and CAS for their ‘ethical advocacy in defense of nonhumans’ and for their theorising about animals which generates a ‘proper understanding’ of animals (25). The term is intended to avoid the ‘slippages of meaning’ (32) and the ‘baggage’ that has accrued …


[Review] Malcolm Caulfield. Animals In Australia: Use And Abuse. Vivid, 2018. 336pp., Elizabeth Ellis Jan 2018

[Review] Malcolm Caulfield. Animals In Australia: Use And Abuse. Vivid, 2018. 336pp., Elizabeth Ellis

Animal Studies Journal

Reflecting on the last decade, Malcolm Caulfield argues that revelations of extreme cruelty in the live export and greyhound racing industries have ‘altered forever the animal welfare landscape in Australia’ (viii); at the same time, substantial progress in animal welfare has been lacking. Critical to his analysis is another recent development: the backlash by industry interests, supported by their political and media chums, to the articulated concerns of unprecedented numbers of Australians. This disjunction, between public disquiet about animal welfare and the absence of a ‘meaningful political response’ (35), underpins Caulfield’s important account of the use and abuse of animals …


An Auto-Ethnography Of Anti-Dairy Vegan Activism In New Zealand, Lynley K. Tulloch Jan 2018

An Auto-Ethnography Of Anti-Dairy Vegan Activism In New Zealand, Lynley K. Tulloch

Animal Studies Journal

This paper examines my experiences of anti-dairy activism in New Zealand. Using autoethnographic methodology, I discuss the emotional work and core strategies and tactics of Starfish Bobby Calf Project (hereafter called Starfish). Starfish is a grassroots vegan activist group that I founded in 2013. Its genesis began in my childhood, when I became aware of the plight of bobby calves while living in rural New Zealand. It combines both autobiography and ethnography to analyse the emotional process of becoming an activist and campaigning against dairying. In doing so I uncover the narratives that underpin the dairy industry and the larger …


Animal Studies Journal 2018 7 (2): Cover Page, Table Of Contents, Editorial And Notes On Contributors, Melissa Boyde Jan 2018

Animal Studies Journal 2018 7 (2): Cover Page, Table Of Contents, Editorial And Notes On Contributors, Melissa Boyde

Animal Studies Journal

Animal Studies Journal 2018 7 (1): Cover Page, Table of Contents, Editorial and Notes on Contributors


‘White Power Milk’: Milk, Dietary Racism, And The ‘Alt-Right’, Vasile Stănescu Jan 2018

‘White Power Milk’: Milk, Dietary Racism, And The ‘Alt-Right’, Vasile Stănescu

Animal Studies Journal

This article analyzes why milk has been chosen as a symbol of racial purity by the ‘alt-right’. Specifically, this article argues the alt-right's current use of claims about milk, lactose tolerance, race, and masculinity can be connected to similar arguments originally made during the19th century against colonialized populations and immigration groups. In the 19th century, colonizing populations classified colonized populations as ‘effeminate corn and rice eaters’ because of their supposed lack of consumption of meat and dairy. This article argues that a similar practice continues today. It also argues that there is a relationship between the dietary racism ideas popularized …


[Review] Anna Barcz. Animal Narratives And Culture: Vulnerable Realism. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017. Xii,185pp., Sally Borrell Jan 2018

[Review] Anna Barcz. Animal Narratives And Culture: Vulnerable Realism. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017. Xii,185pp., Sally Borrell

Animal Studies Journal

Anna Barcz’s Animal Narratives and Culture: Vulnerable Realism sets out to answer two related questions: what do animals add when they are realistically included in cultural texts, and what is the role of fiction in particular? As part of the examination of these questions, the book identifies what Barcz terms ‘zoonarratives’ and develops the concept of zoocriticism itself. Barcz explains that a twentieth-century acceptance of what is likely (and not only what is definite) within understandings of realism has allowed increased scope to explore animal perspectives in fiction. The book’s focus on animal vulnerability in particular in one sense seems …