Taylor Sanaura: Exploring Animal Lives Through Art for 28 Years - Essay Sample

Introduction

Taylor has explored animals and their livelihoods for twenty years. Taylor has been disabled for twenty-eight years, which is Taylor's whole life(existence) (Sunaura Taylor, 2011). For this reason, Taylor developed an interest and desire to learn and explore the animal kingdom. Taylor started painting images of animals that were displayed in factory firms. It is according to chapter 17 of the Beasts of Burden by Taylor Sanaura. Taylor's paintings resulted in many other works of focus, including research. Also, through the paintings, Taylor was able to see and focus on how animals were being oppressed. It was particularly motivating and more accessible by Taylor as Taylor was disabled and like animals in a cage, so did Taylor's disability confine her that paintings were the only better and easy task. Not only did Taylor become confined within paintings but also gained knowledge of how the oppression of animals is interconnected with the disability of people. Furthermore, Taylor was able to learn and increase awareness on the oppressive value. In this case, the oppressive value system is described as that which declares some bodies as normal, broken, and also, some as food.

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Taylor has faced many discriminations including being associated with walking like monkeys do, eating like dogs do, having hands like a lobster, and also as resembling a penguin (chicken). Therefore, from the above discriminative allegations imposed upon Taylor, all those could be the reason why Taylor advocates for the care of crippled animal ethics of care. Taylor, thus, tends to show how painful it is to oppress animals and also disabled people who are confined by their disability. Through Taylor's efforts to address care for animals and the disabled, their lives will change, and the disabled will now feel and enjoy the sense of equity. Animals will now be taken as special creatures which need care. The disabled will have a feeling of being human like any other, and also, have the sense of being equal to other people regardless of their physicality.

As it can be quoted from chapter 17 of the Beasts of Burden: "The overwhelming direction of domestication has been to breed specific traits in animals which increase both their dependency on humans and their utility for humans, with no attention to the animal's interests."

Based on critical theory and postcolonial studies, subaltern as a term refers to the colonial populations. These populations are said to be outside the hierarchy of power of any colony both socially and politically. They are also outside the empire's metropolitan homeland geographically. Therefore, the subaltern is social groups who've been denied, excluded and displaced from socio-economic institutions. The exclusion and displacement are aimed at discrediting the subaltern their political voices. Subaltern, thus, are the lower social classes who have been displaced based on the societal margins. In imperial colonies, the subaltern is used to describe a person who is without human agency. In this case, human agency is determined by a person's social status.

Subaltern social groups are those groups which have been and are oppressed and racial minorities. The groups' social presence is almost unnoticed by the majority of other groups. Therefore, the subaltern is associated with social struggles whose speech and voices have been shut and cannot be considered as being of any relevance or importance. Thus, for one to be termed as being subaltern, several factors are considered including context, time, and place. Since the subaltern are regarded as a person, people, or groups with lack of knowledge (Western) on language, thought and also reasoning. Spivak is justified when she responds, "No" to the question, "Can the Subaltern Speak?". Not unless they learnt the Western and colonial ways, subaltern people could never express their natural forms of knowledge. For this reason, the subaltern can only learn the language of their empires or colonizers for them to be able to speak, which is the only way they will cease to be subalterns. Otherwise, subalterns will continue being slaves through exclusion and displacement for they can never speak and be heard by those who are not subalterns. Therefore, subalterns are those people who cannot speak and express themselves as Spivak puts it (Spivak, 2020). As it can be quoted from her essay, 'the person who speaks and acts is always a multiplicity'.

The US-Mexico border separates the prosperity of both countries (Amilhat Szary, 2020). Mexico being the poor country of the two. The poverty of Mexico comes with it several biopolitical implications, especially at the border. A sense of diversity, differences, and otherness in Chicana has the real truth to the differences between the US and Mexico. The differences are based on race, religion, class, language, religion, cultural conditions, among other factors. The border has brought about power interests by politicians in both countries, discriminations of the overlooked social groups is also another issue. Neglected social groups are mostly subalterns. It is in the region of Chicanas and Chicanos. American feminism arises in Chicanas, where the African American and Native American women have been oppressed. In this case, there is an unequal distribution of power. Symbolic and material barriers are the dominant forces against the discriminated groups (subalterns). Chicana is the leading feminist community.

Anzaldua analyzes the Latina/o cultures as being lawful violence responses that demonstrate migrants and minoritarian groups (subaltern groups) as being disposable subjects. She expresses the need and desire for freedom against the terror. The freedom, however, is almost impossible due to the existence of terrorizing governance. At the US-Mexico border, there exist illegal migrants who pose a risk of racial terror and lawful violence. The illegal migrants form part of the minoritarian groups and also, subalterns. The border is invaded with illegal thoughts of freedom in the US and not on the cultural legality. For this reason, the US government and the Mexican government comes in the mix, and the result brings about state-sponsored violence. Thus, the border is prone to almost all types of violence for the people, which has a massive impact on biodiversity. With the migration of people between the border, politics comes in to help manage the situation and also, several natural resources are depleted, which has a negative impact on biodiversity.

With all these implications of biopolitics in place, Anzaldua tends to complicate our initial understanding of norms. It is due to the reason that the border should mainly be a centre for business and transactions between the two countries involved. However, Anzaldua explains the negative impacts the US-Mexico border has brought about and the biopolitical implications that come with it. As it can be quoted from Anzaldua's work, "drought hit South Texas," which shows the extent of negativity she tried to portray.

References

Amilhat Szary, A. (2020). Halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr. Retrieved 6 March 2020, from https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01002993/document.

Sunaura Taylor. (2011). Beasts of Burden: Disability Studies and Animal Rights. Qui Parle, 19(2), 191. https://doi.org/10.5250/quiparle.19.2.0191

Spivak, G. (2020). Abahlali.org. Retrieved 6 March 2020, from http://abahlali.org/files/Can_the_subaltern_speak.pdf.