What does it mean to become being with, being for, and a being
amongst all beings?
They are all beasts of burden, in a sense, made to carry some portion of our thoughts
Henry David Thoreau in Sunaura Taylor, 2017
Motivation
Animals, unlike people, can neither defend themselves exactly nor be empowered to argue for different representation within human culture. However, I believe that animals have a right to be described, to be illustrated, to be documented in ways that do not rely on destructive stereotypes or ways that diminish them.
Becoming Beings, has come into being, as a result of academic study, professional work and personal animal advocacy. Humans use and abuse animals on a scale so barbaric, so unimaginably merciless that we cannot bear to think about or look at it; yet we have buried that horror and our inhumanity beneath layers of sentimental, remorseless and misleading imagery.
Becoming Beings has emerged from becoming aware of these literary and figurative distortions, the repetition and reinforcement of belief systems though culture, and a desire to change the ways in which we speak of animals.
Responsibility
If we use animals and their likenesses to tell our stories, if we profit from them, surely we are obliged through respect, compassion and gratitude to be certain we speak for them too.
I began to question the disparity between the images of animals that we see and create and the reality of the horrors they endure at our hands. Therefore, I argue, those who make a living out of the image of the animals, those who apply and articulate the essence of animals have a responsibility to the real animals whose likeness we so often use.
Aims
Becoming Beings will explore the representation of animals within picture books, on food packaging, within the stories we tell, within society. We will analyse and discuss stereotypes, falsehoods, visual metaphor and symbolism; we will protest some and we will celebrate others.
We will question that which shapes, paints, carves and moulds the way we think with and about animals and our relationships with them.
Motivation
Animals, unlike people, can neither defend themselves exactly nor be empowered to argue for different representation within human culture. However, I believe that animals have a right to be described, to be illustrated, to be documented in ways that do not rely on destructive stereotypes or ways that diminish them.
Becoming Beings, has come into being, as a result of academic study, professional work and personal animal advocacy. Humans use and abuse animals on a scale so barbaric, so unimaginably merciless that we cannot bear to think about or look at it; yet we have buried that horror and our inhumanity beneath layers of sentimental, remorseless and misleading imagery.
Becoming Beings has emerged from becoming aware of these literary and figurative distortions, the repetition and reinforcement of belief systems though culture, and a desire to change the ways in which we speak of animals.
Responsibility
If we use animals and their likenesses to tell our stories, if we profit from them, surely we are obliged through respect, compassion and gratitude to be certain we speak for them too.
I began to question the disparity between the images of animals that we see and create and the reality of the horrors they endure at our hands. Therefore, I argue, those who make a living out of the image of the animals, those who apply and articulate the essence of animals have a responsibility to the real animals whose likeness we so often use.
Aims
Becoming Beings will explore the representation of animals within picture books, on food packaging, within the stories we tell, within society. We will analyse and discuss stereotypes, falsehoods, visual metaphor and symbolism; we will protest some and we will celebrate others.
We will question that which shapes, paints, carves and moulds the way we think with and about animals and our relationships with them.
Becoming Beings
It is becoming with, becoming kin with other kin and other kinds.
It is becoming kind, kinder.
It matters what being we become.
Taylor, S., (2017) Beasts of Burden – Animal and disablility liberation. New York: The New Press.