The first book on language and nonhuman oppression, ANIMAL EUALITY:LANGUAGE AND LIBERATION shows that deceptive, biased words sustain injustice toward nonhuman animals. Speciesism, the failure to accord other animals equal consideration and respect, survives through lies.Contrasting evolutionary reality with popular notions of human uniqueness and superiority, Animal Equality discredits the term "lower animals." Compelling evidence of nonhuman thought and emotion debunks language that characterizes other animals as unreasoning or insensitive.Vivid descriptions of hunting, sportfishing, zoos, "aquariums," vivisection, and "animal agriculture" reveal the cruelty that misleading words legitimize and conceal. Animal Equality leaves no doubt: speciesist abuse relies on euphemism, doublespeak, and other linguistic ploys.Conventional English pronoun use categorizes other animals as genderless and inanimate. This usage not only falsifies, Joan Dunayer shows; it also encourages disregard of nonhuman beings.Dunayer uncovers the speciesist attitudes and practices underlying much racist and sexist language, such as the epithets "monkey" and "bitch." "Animal" pejoratives foster both human and nonhuman oppression, she demonstrates.Every animal--nonhuman or human--deserves equal protection, Dunayer argues. Representative legal cases illustrate the need to legislate a new definition of nonhuman animals: as persons, not property.Offering vocabulary and style guidelines, Animal Equality proposes new language that will bring us closer to nonhuman liberation.This groundbreaking book lays the foundation for a new area of sociolinguistics: critical discourse analysis from an animal rights perspective.CONTENTSForeword by Carol J. AdamsAcknowledgmentsPrologue: From Vivisection to Animal Rights1 Speciesism and Language2 False Categories: How We Define "Us" and "Them"3 Animal Attributes: The Verbal Dichotomy4 Victims Mistaken for Game: The Language of Hunting5 Cruelty by Deception: The Language of Sportfishing6 Freedom Denied: The Language of Zoos7 More Speciesism on Display: The Language of "Aquariums" and "Marine Parks"8 In the Name of Science: The Language of Vivisection9 Feeding on Flesh, Milk, Eggs, and Lies: The Language of "Animal Agriculture"10 Pronoun Politics11 "Bitches," "Monkeys," and "Guinea Pigs": "Animal" Metaphors12 Persons of Other Species: Toward Legal Redefinition Style Guidelines: Countering SpeciesismThesaurus: Alternatives to Speciesist TermsNotesSelect BibliographyIndex