Every Feminist Needs to Read This

The word I’m about to say can be a very upsetting word. But stick with me, and I promise we’ll end up in a more hopeful place.

Rape.

It’s one of the worst things that can happen to someone. And a great fear for many women. For some, it’s a horrible memory or memories. 

I think we can all agree that rape should never happen. To anyone. 

I identify as a feminist, and you probably do too. 

As feminists, we hold that everyone is entitled to their own bodily autonomy. We believe in equality between all genders. And we advocate that everyone should be safe from sexual violence.

And that’s wonderful. We need to fight for all those things.

And yet, we consume products on a daily basis that result from rape. 

Let me explain what I mean.

A cow, or any animal that’s used for dairy, doesn’t just produce milk. Like humans, she has to have a baby. Her body produces milk to feed her baby. 

In the dairy industry, there are hundreds of millions of cows being used for dairy at any one time. In order to keep up that scale of production, the dairy industry uses artificial insemination. They don’t just let things happen “naturally.” 

So humans must forcibly impregnate every single dairy cow. 

It looks a little something like this: the cow is chained to a rack or confined in a small shaft so she can’t escape. A human (and notably, usually a male human) sticks one arm up her anus, so that he can more easily maneuver and control her uterus. Then sticks a syringe up her vagina and deposits bull semen into her uterus. 

All of this is done without her consent, when she is chained up and can’t escape. She is powerless against this abuse.

Side note - there are only a few farms that extract and export bull semen. Bull semen can be mass produced on a pretty small scale, since a few thousand individuals can produce enough product to sustain the dairy industry. Extraction is also done by human hands. 

It should be noted that the males don’t really have a choice in the matter either. They’re chained or confined so they can’t escape. 

Once she is pregnant, the dairy cow carries her baby to term. Cows actually have the same gestation period as humans. A dairy cow carries her baby for 9-10 months, just like us. 

Cows are very emotionally complex beings. They form strong bonds and preferential friendships. And mothers absolutely love their babies. 

I once visited a rescued mama and baby cow two days after she had given birth. The mama cow was so protective, she placed herself in front so the humans couldn’t get to her baby. She had a really strong mother instinct! 

When the baby is born, the dairy industry faces a problem. The mother’s body produces milk to feed her baby. But if the dairy industry lets the baby feed on its mother’s milk, there’s less milk for them to sell. 

So they take the baby away within a few hours of birth. And the mother and baby never see each other ever again.

The mothers try to prevent humans from taking their babies. They chase the trucks that drag them away. They call out for days and sometimes weeks - so forcefully that sometimes they even lose their voice. 

But all in vain. They don’t have any power in this world. 

Then, the mother cow is milked by machines 2-3 times per day for about a year. A baby calf would usually feed from its mama for about a year, and then start weaning, so her body really only produces milk for a year before production starts to drop off. 

Then she goes through the same cycle of abuse again. 

She is raped. Carries her baby to term. The baby is taken away. And she’s milked for a year. 

Then again. And again. 

A cow’s natural lifespan is 20 years, but her body can only sustain 3-5 pregnancies before her body starts to break down from all the abuse. 

She is then slaughtered for low-grade beef. In fact, 20% of all beef consumed in the US is from dairy cows. 

Every single dairy cow is eventually slaughtered for meat. They are all killed. 

Now at this point, a question comes to mind. 

What happens to the babies? 

If the baby is a girl, she suffers the same fate as her mother. She endures the same cycle of abuse, and ultimately meets a violent end in a slaughterhouse.

If the baby is a boy, he is useless to the dairy industry. Boys can’t be impregnated, and the “dairy” breed of cow is different from the “meat” breed of cow. So they don’t use him for the typical meat you see labeled as “beef” in the supermarket. 

The dairy industry uses the baby boys for veal. 

The baby boys are transported to veal farms, where they are confined to incredibly small spaces in which they can’t move or exercise. They are fattened for veal for 2-6 months, depending on what kind of veal they’re producing, and then slaughtered. 

So really, the dairy industry is the meat industry.

This whole system is built upon the rape and exploitation of the female body. And the mama cows are powerless to fight it. 

The dairy industry has taken this beautiful, ancient, sacred gift of women to create life, and they’ve perverted it into something so incredibly violent. 

How can we ever expect human women to get equal treatment in our society when we consume products on a daily basis that normalize rape (even if they are another species)? 

Gandhi said it best, “One can measure the greatness and the moral progress of a nation by looking at how it treats its animals.”

Rape is rape. And our food system has fundamentally normalized the rape of women.

As feminists, we’ve fought for women’s rights. We’ve rejected societal norms that said women should have less power. We’ve advocated for freedom from sexual violence. 

We’ve fought for our power.

Let’s use that power to advocate for women. All women. No matter their race, nationality, gender identity, socio economic status. Or species. 

All of us deserve bodily autonomy and freedom from violence. All of us.

As feminists, we have the power to reject products of rape. We have the power to normalize compassion on our plates. Only when compassion is normalized will society begin to shift.

Feminism starts in the kitchen.