Feminism, at its core, is the belief in the equality and the complete humanity of all people. Inter-continentally, this notion has manifested itself within societies as an empowering tool for womxn (and other marginalised groups), encouraging them to exercise choice when it comes to their bodies and to their life decisions.
This same feminist principle can easily be understood within the context of the industrial food animal production (IFAP) project that depends entirely on the female animal. Within this industry the female animal’s reproductive system is hijacked by capitalist interests, commodified and systematically exploited. She does not have a choice and the sentience of her very being is discounted with a chilling ease.
The female animal is prohibited from being an animal, she is denied existing in her true nature. Instead, human dictates that she be artificially inseminated and subsequently prevented from nurturing and raising her offspring. In the case of the female cow, that her milk, instead of nourishing the bodies of her calves who depend on it, be drained from her each day to quench the unrelenting thirst of fully grown humans.
The animal industry, like the patriarchy, has been completely normalised across cultures. For years, womxn have been viewed by the male gaze as sexual objects existing to please the needs of men, so too, female animals are viewed by the capitalist craving as reproductive machines and edible products existing to please the greed of humans.
Let us always remember that a female cow produces milk, not because she is a cow, but because she is a mother, and that a female chicken lays eggs, not because she is a chicken but because she is a mother. Until the female animal, her reproductive system and her sentience is acknowledged, respected and protected internationally, womxn and their humanity will not be either.