When I was a kid, my parents cautioned me not to mess with stray dogs. They drilled into me that a stray-dog bite had to be remedied with 12, or was it 16, shots in the abdomen. This dreadful prospect ingrained a lifelong fear of dogs, of any kind, in me.
Ironically, I ended up living in the United States, where you cannot get away from dogs—nearly 40 percent of American households own one or more dogs.
There is no escaping dog talk either. People talk about dog food, health, daycare, shows, poop, walking, training, grooming, and more.
I, too, will engage in dog talk and write about dog gender and dogmeat.
Because of the limited involvement of animals in our daily lives, we seldom use the feminine-masculine gender classification when talking about animals. For example, most of us use the noun horse but rarely use the specific feminine/masculine nouns mare/stallion.
Conversely, people involved with animals, such as farmers, vets, and breeders, use the feminine-masculine animal forms relatively frequently.
Many Americans are very involved with dogs and find great solace in dog relationships.
With their level of dog involvement, Americans should likely use the feminine dog form often, especially considering the species (dog) and the male form (dog) names overlap.
However, in everyday conversation, Americans do not use the feminine noun for dogs. When needed, they might use female-dog or male-dog to convey gender; this way, they skirt the exact term for a female dog—bitch.
Not using bitch for its original purpose is a complete surrender of the word to its use as a slur. And it is quite a slur. Whereas calling a man a dog is uncomplimentary, calling a woman a bitch is downright derogatory.
Bitch is the worst sexist slur for putting women down—especially women who challenge the stereotypical expectations males have of females.
It is bothersome that the feminine form has developed a much more offensive connotation than the masculine form.
The feminist language police have done nothing to reclaim bitch for polite use in the dog lexicon where it belongs. This reclaim would have diluted the negative connotation of bitch.
Some feminists have broadened the use of bitch to give it a positive twist. For instance, some women celebratorily refer to themselves as bitches. However, the broadened use of bitch reinforces the slang—this bothers some feminists, and rightfully so. (1)
It is unlikely that the word bitch will get sanitized through feminist activism. But dog owners can do their bit. They can step up and use bitch unapologetically whenever the context demands it.
If I were a dog owner, which is never going to happen, though, I would have no problem saying something like, “I have a dog and a bitch. They get along just fine.”
Unlike Americans, people without familial-like feelings for dogs have no qualms about eating dogs. After all, we mostly eat domesticated animals, and the dog ranks high on the domestication hierarchy!
Dogmeat is popular in parts of Asia and Africa. And it should be. It is affordable, nutritious, and I am told tasty.
But dogmeat eaters have been under siege for some time now. The dog is an extended self of the white man and woman, who shape mental frames of reference of people across much of the world. They will do whatever it takes to eradicate what they deem a primitive and repulsive practice.
Most dog meat detractors are meat eaters and have no moral right to ask others to desist from eating a particular type of animal. But that does not stop them.
Knowing they are on shaky ground, dogmeat detractors use the “killed inhumanely” argument for their anti-dogmeat crusade.
But this argument applies to other animals, such as pretty piglets and cute calves, killed for food in countries flagged for inhumane dog trade and slaughter. Why single out dogs?
Instead of standing up to cultural colonialism, many dog eaters and their wimpy governments are apologetic. I have been bothered by their response since 1984, when the South Korean government banned the sale of dogmeat in downtown Seoul, in preparation, for the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
I cannot imagine America banning the sale of a particular meat that some Americans enjoy but is frowned upon in other countries.
Americans think for themselves. Dogs are dear to most Americans, so the slaughter and trade of dogs for food is banned in America. There is no fuss about the ban.
Millions of Indians are emotionally attached to cows as much, if not more, as Americans are to dogs. The Constitution of India directs the state to endeavor to ban cow slaughter.
Despite the emotional and constitutional reasons for banning cow slaughter, initiatives to ban beef generate an intense backlash in India.
Some Indians who have never eaten beef in India start digging into meat burgers and steaks soon after they come to the United States. Attitudes and behaviors are hard to change, but the Indians in question effortlessly shed their sociocultural baggage, accumulated over many years, regarding beef.
Now, if the same people were in Vietnam, Korea, or China, they would balk at eating dogmeat. Those who would try it might not like it because their colonized minds are programmed to relish beef, not dogmeat.
I find the American love for beef and aversion to dogmeat handy. When people ask me, sometimes incredulously, why Hindus do not eat beef, I lay a foundation for my response by asking, “Would you like to have dog stew for dinner tonight…
NOTES
I grew up in a meat-loving family and ate meat until I left home for college. Since then, I have been an ovo-lacto vegetarian. I have not tasted beef or dogmeat.
Even in dog-adoring America, calling a man a dog is uncomplimentary unless someone like Snoop Dog calls you dawg.
In many other countries/languages too, the dog label is uncomplimentary. For instance, in Hindi, calling someone kutte (dog/s) is offensive. Hindi cinema actor Dharmendra has threateningly called the bad guys kutte (dog/s) in many a movie. As is the case in English, in Hindi, bitch (kutiya) is a cruder term than dog (kutta).
To put dog welfare activists on the defensive, dogmeat advocates can highlight the negative environmental impact of pet dog ownership. For example, the carbon footprint of a medium-sized pampered pooch in the United States equals that of a gas-guzzling SUV.
Stray dogs abound in poor countries, and millions of dogs are put to sleep in affluent countries every year. What a waste of food when seen from a dogmeat eater’s perspective.
My first interaction with a dogmeat eater was in the 1980s when I spent a summer with my parents in Imphal, Manipur, Northeast India. Our neighbor, who was from Nagaland, was pregnant at the time. During her pregnancy, she planned to eat the meat of one whole dog. This diet was her ticket to having a bonnie baby. She had an irresistible glow on her face. Part of it might have been the glow of pregnancy, but some of it might have been from the satisfaction she was getting from eating lots of dogmeat.
Article 48 of the Constitution of India pertains to milch cattle.
- Kleinman, Sherryl, Ezzell, Matthew, and Frost, Corey, (2009), “Reclaiming Critical Analysis: The Social Harms of “Bitch,” Sociological Analysis, 3, 1, 47-68.