Specialism, machismo, heteronorma, racism, capacitism ... Fernández (1994, Madrid) denounces that all these oppressions are interrelated and based on binarism. AIA aims to promote the debate on the relations between feminisms and antispecialism in the conference cycle Animals and… organized by the group, on 16 December at 19:00 in Oiartzun: “Feminism and anti-specialism are interconnected and need mutual help.”

What are feminisms and antispeciisms offered?

Feminisms question how we are in the world and what relationships we generate in a structure based on power and domination. It also provides us with tools to unlearn about gender. The same can be done when we establish relationships with other species. Moreover, antispeciism allows us to analyze some of our tendencies within feminism, such as how far we limit our struggle and which enter into political subjects.

What is the relationship between them?

There have been many dissident genres of women and people who, from a feminist point of view, have sought to address anti-speciism, but have made it invisible. Feminisms take intersectionality into account and have come to the conclusion that it's not just about gender, that gender connects with many other things. The species has been abandoned. It should be taken into account that non-human animals are political subjects fighting and that animality also takes into account other oppression, such as race and thickening.

What does machismo relate to specialism?

They are based on gender binarism and man/animal binarism. They have built an idea that there are only men and women, so other genders and other ways of being in the world are excluded. In addition, we have invented animal and human categories, and despite being animals at their base, we have moved away from that idea. This has allowed to generate enormous violence against certain bodies, genders and identities.

What voices are legitimacy given in this construction?

Functional white men. The world is built for that hegemonic profile and the rest of the voices have to show resistance. We have to make more effort to reclaim and validate our own, so it is more difficult for some approaches to assume dominance. So we have to fight in parallel. For example, before feminism was a few bourgeois white women, but others, like lesbofeminists and racist women, have highlighted that not all of us are equal and that these differences deserve recognition.

Non-human animals also have their own voice.

It is important to know what non-human animals are asking us because they are fighting oppression and liberation, and if we were to take a decision on behalf of one of them to learn more about their preferences.

To do that, you imagine another world, what does it look like?

I'm not very clear about it, because that world internalizes everything we don't know. It should be based on care, collectivism and recognition of others. In addition, it should take into account all relationships to create a less violent model for all.