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Book Cover for: Bad Dog: Pit Bull Politics and Multispecies Justice, Harlan Weaver

Bad Dog: Pit Bull Politics and Multispecies Justice

Harlan Weaver

Challenges the way we think about pit bulls and their human companions

Fifty-plus years of media fearmongering coupled with targeted breed bans have produced what could be called "America's Most Wanted" dog: the pit bull. However, at the turn of the twenty-first century, competing narratives began to change the meaning of "pit bull." Increasingly represented as loving members of mostly white, middle-class, heteronormative families, pit bulls and pit bull-type dogs are now frequently seen as victims rather than perpetrators, beings deserving not fear or scorn but rather care and compassion.

Drawing from the increasingly contentious world of human/dog politics and featuring rich ethnographic research among dogs and their advocates, Bad Dog explores how relationships between humans and animals not only reflect but actively shape experiences of race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, nation, breed, and species. Harlan Weaver proposes a critical and queer reading of pit bull politics and animal advocacy, challenging the zero-sum logic through which care for animals is seen as detracting from care for humans. Introducing understandings rooted in examinations of what it means for humans to touch, feel, sense, and think with and through relationships with nonhuman animals, Weaver suggests powerful ways to seek justice for marginalized humans and animals together.

Book Details

  • Publisher: University of Washington Press
  • Publish Date: Mar 26th, 2021
  • Pages: 240
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 9.00in - 6.00in - 0.60in - 0.70lb
  • EAN: 9780295748023
  • Categories: Gender StudiesAnthropology - Cultural & SocialDogs - Breeds

About the Author

Weaver, Harlan: - Harlan Weaver is assistant professor of gender, women, and sexuality studies at Kansas State University. He has published articles in a number of journals including American Quarterly, Gay and Lesbian Quarterly, Trans*gender Studies Quarterly, and Emotion, Space, and Society. This is his first book.
Subramaniam, Banu: - Banu Subramaniam is professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is the author of two award-winning books: Holy Science: The Biopolitics of Hindu Nationalism (Washington, 2019) and Ghost Stories for Darwin: The Science of Variation and the Politics of Diversity (Illinois, 2014).
Herzig, Rebecca: - Rebecca Herzig is professor of gender and sexuality studies at Bates College. She is the author of Suffering for Science: Reason and Sacrifice in Modern America (Rutgers University Press, 2006) and the coeditor of The Nature of Difference: Sciences of Race in the United States from Jefferson to Genomics (MIT Press, 2009).

Praise for this book

"This is an astonishing book... The insights and implications ofcontemporary social theory, especially queer theory, are accessible, resonant, and concrete throughout the events andexperiences the author describes."

-- "Choice"