Intersectionality: the contribution of the gender category for understanding violence against animals

Abstract

Today, violence against animals has become a complex issue because, among other reasons, it constitutes an antecedent to social violence, especially against women, children or other vulnerable groups over which aggressors exercise power and control.

The “gender” category contributes to the analysis and understanding of violence against animals and reveals a relationship between this and violence against population groups – including women – that have historically been victims of discrimination.

Afro-American jurist Kimberlé Crenshaw has constructed a paradigm of intersectionality to help us understand the way these groups are more prone to being victims of violence to the extent there is intersection of different factors rendering some more vulnerable than others.

Crenshaw’s proposal and the contributions of other women authors have made it possible to identify the usefulness of the intersectionality paradigm for understanding violence against animals, and particularly dogs, as domestic animals and the animal species most commonly found in Costa Rican society.