Open Access#SaveBenjy
Author(s) -
Eimear Mc Loughlin
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
humanimalia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2151-8645
DOI - 10.52537/humanimalia.9984
Subject(s) - personhood , subjectivity , popularity , irish , sociology , human sexuality , gender studies , natural (archaeology) , environmental ethics , political science , law , epistemology , biology , philosophy , linguistics , paleontology
This paper explores the #SaveBenjy Crowdfunder campaign to save a Charolais bull in the Republic of Ireland who expressed sexual interest only in weanling bulls and not the heifers he was expected to impregnate. The prominence and popularity of #SaveBenjy is anything but coincidental. In May 2015, the referendum on gay marriage sought to legalize same-sex marriage. Consequently, #SaveBenjy provides a timely lens through which to view Irish attitudes towards sexuality, while also raising important questions around nonhuman subjectivity and personhood. #SaveBenjy blurs the boundaries between nature and culture and thus, demands a new paradigm within which the nonhuman animal can be appreciated as being inherently and simultaneously natural and cultural.