Book Review: The Intersectionality of Critical Animal, Disability, and Environmental Studies - Toward Eco-ability, Justice, and Liberation

Image: The cover of the book. There are 4 panels on the cover divided by yellow lines. The panel across the top is a picture of an outdoor protest on a city street. A large white banner is centered in the image with red lettering that says "Keep the oil in the ground." The next panel down is hunter green with "Edited by Anthony J. Nocella II, Amber E. George, and J.L. Schatz" in white letters, the main title of the book in yellow capital letters, and the secondary title of the book in white letters. The bottom third is divided into the last two panels situated side-by-side. The left panel is an image of a white cat with black spots who is using a wheelchair outdoors and has their mouth open in mid-meow. The right panel is an image of a beagle, seated with a lead around their mouth attached to a leash and a blue aware ribbon on their neck.

The Intersectionality of Critical Animal, Disability, and Environmental Studies is an academic text that interested me because the blurb describes it as "an interdisciplinary collection of theoretical writings on the intersectional liberation of nonhuman animals, the environment, and those with disabilities." The book does start with a nice dedication "to all of those that have been insulted, shamed, pushed out, and marginalized because of their disabilities within the animal and ecological movements." It is part of a series that claims to link "theory with practice and emphasiz[e] the immense importance of animal advocacy for a humane, democratic, peaceful, and sustainable world." Literature is truly lacking that addresses the intersections and overlaps between disability, environmental, and nonhuman animal struggles so the aim of this book is a noble one. However, I do not think it managed to achieve its goals until after the half way mark. The best chapters in the series by far were those by Sarah Conrad, Sarah Roberts-Cady, and the last one by Amber E. George. Many of the other papers left me wondering if the authors and editors knew what intersectionality was.

The first half of the book has many essays that make the mistake of assuming that parallel suffering is the same as intersectionality. There was generally a lot of, "Animals suffer in these ways. People with disabilities suffer in these other ways," always separating the two categories as if they do not overlap and without showing any meaningful links between the two. As a result of this misunderstanding of what intersectionality is, this a book I would be very cautious handing to someone who is disabled or involved in disability justice work who holds an unfavorable view of how animal and earth liberation movements tokenize disability. Sunaura Taylor's "Beasts of Burden" does a better job and is more accessible. Intersectionality is not about trying to stack oppression to further one's argument. It exists to describe how those dealing with intersecting oppressions in the same body or space are dealing with unique circumstances and struggles that cannot be described simply with, for instance, Black plus woman equals Black woman. Black womanhood is an entirely new experience, not simply a combination of what Black men and white women deal with. Since there is a cat using a wheelchair on the cover, I assumed the intersectionality involving disabled nonhuman animals would be focused on more, but was only mentioned in passing. 

The writings in the anthology do improve as the book progresses. Authors after the halfway mark have a much stronger grasp and better execution of the complex ways that disability animality, ecology, normality, who is considered subhuman, and so on are intertwined in our societies on our planet.  In "(Re)Imaginings of 'Community,'" Mary Ward and John Lupinacci dissect ways in which different activism communities can play into normative dualisms that harm disabled and other marginalized members and also offer solutions and new ways of thinking about problems. Sarah Conrad's "Consider the Spoons" is an excellent and desperately needed critique of the barriers in eco-activism to the inclusion of people dealing with persistent fatigue and other invisible illness and/or disabilities. Conrad offers multiple practical solutions and opens and important dialogue. "Activists are often passionate optimists and idealists. This is what makes activism so powerful... However, these same characteristics can sometimes make activists easily judge... compromising choices that don't reflect a pure and total commitment to the cause." Sarah Roberts-Cady's chapter, "Exploring Eco-Ability" examines a variety of topics but one that stands out is the way in which intellectual ableism is used to marginalize and oppress any group of people that dominant groups deem inferior- both human and nonhuman animals. "Instead of comparing levels of rationality, a more productive way to respond to this injustice is to challenge the underlying assumption that those with greater intellectual capacities may or should subordinate those with less intellectual capacities." Finally, in "Pride or Prejudice?," Amber E. George critiques the portrayal of animals in Looney Tunes, showing how present homophobia, transantagonism, sexism, ableism, racism, and other oppressions were used to create humor. George successfully details the harm caused by regularly exposing the children to such stereotypes.

The second half of this text does fall in line with the stated intentions of the book. I would recommend that people start at page 99 and work forward if they are looking for actual intersectionality and analyses that examine the connections and overlaps of disability, animal, and environmental justice.