Animals, anthropomorphism and mediated encounters

147 Pages·2020·1.081 MB·English

by  Claire Parkinson

Animals, Anthropomorphism and
Mediated Encounters
This book critically investigates the pervasiveness of anthropomorphised animals
in popular culture.
Anthropomorphism in popular visual media has long been denounced for
being unsophisticated or emotionally manipulative. It is often criticised for over-
expressing similarities between humans and other animals. This book focuses on
everyday encounters with visual representations of anthropomorphised animals
and considers how attributing other animals with humanlike qualities speaks to a
complex set of power relations. Through a series of case studies, it explores how
anthropomorphism is produced and circulated and proposes that it can serve to
create both misunderstandings and empathetic connections between humans and
other animals.
This book will appeal to academics and students interested in visual media,
animal studies, sociology and cultural studies.
Claire Parkinson is Professor of Film, Television and Digital Media and
Co-director of the Centre for Human Animal Studies at Edge Hill University. Her
research interests cover media, film and animal studies. Her publications include
the books Popular Media and Animals and Beyond Human.
Routledge Human–Animal Studies Series
Series edited by Henry Buller
Professor of Geography, University of Exeter, UK
The new Routledge Human–Animal Studies Series offers a much-needed forum
for original, innovative and cutting-edge research and analysis to explore human–
animal relations across the social sciences and humanities. Titles within the series
are empirically and/or theoretically informed and explore a range of dynamic,
captivating and highly relevant topics, drawing across the humanities and social
sciences in an avowedly interdisciplinary perspective. This series will encourage
new theoretical perspectives and highlight ground-breaking research that reflects
the dynamism and vibrancy of current animal studies. The series is aimed at upper-
level undergraduates, researchers and research students as well as academics and
policy-makers across a wide range of social science and humanities disciplines.
Animal Housing and Human–Animal Relations
Politics, Practices and Infrastructures
Edited by Kristian Bjørkdahl and Tone Druglitrø
Shared Lives of Humans and Animals
Animal Agency in the Global North
Edited by Tuomas Räsänen and Taina Syrjämaa
(Un)Stable Relations
Horses, Humans and Social Agency
Lynda Birke and Kirrilly Thompson
Carceral Space, Prisoners and Animals
Karen M. Morin
Historical Animal Geographies
Edited by Sharon Wilcox and Stephanie Rutherford
Animals, Anthropomorphism and Mediated Encounters
Claire Parkinson
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Routledge-
Human-Animal-Studies-Series/book-series/RASS
Animals, Anthropomorphism
and Mediated Encounters
Claire Parkinson
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 Claire Parkinson
The right of Claire Parkinson to be identified as the author of this work
has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Parkinson, Claire, author.
Title: Animals, anthropomorphism and mediated encounters/
Claire Parkinson.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge,
2020. | Series: Routledge human-animal studies |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019015165 | ISBN 9780367195731 (hbk) |
ISBN 9780429203244 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Animal psychology. | Anthropomorphism. |
Human-animal relationships.
Classification: LCC QL785. P24 2020 | DDC 591.5—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019015165
ISBN: 978-0-367-19573-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-20324-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For Trinny and Logan

Contents
Acknowledgements viii
1 Introduction 1
2 Anthropomorphism, mediation and authority 17
3 When animals look 43
4 When animals feel 63
5 When animals speak 84
6 When animals think 114
Index 133
Acknowledgements
This book was written with financial support from the Edge Hill University
Research Investment Fund.
I am grateful to the many academics who read the proposal for this book as
well as various drafts of individual chapters and the draft manuscript. In some
cases, these have been anonymous reviewers and I want to thank them all for their
insights and constructive comments. Some of the ideas here have been road tested
as papers and talks and I’m grateful to all those who have listened to me, asked
challenging questions and given thoughtful feedback. Thanks to my wonderful
family, human and nonhuman, for their love and unwavering support.
1 I ntroduction
Anthropomorphism is ubiquitous in western popular culture. In general, anthro-
pomorphism refers to the attribution of human characteristics or behaviour to a
god, ‘animal’ or object, and it is the second of these categories – ‘animal’ – which
is arguably the most contentious. Such is its prevalence that anthropomorphism
shapes ideas about nonhuman animals more than any other aspect of their popular
representation. Yet, despite their undeniable and enduring popularity, anthropo-
morphised animals are considered a problem. The overexpression of similitude
between humans and other animals has become synonymous with Disney and a
set of representational practices apparent in popular culture that reduce other spe-
cies to simple feathered, furred and scaled human analogues. Anthropomorphised
animals are, so the argument might go, subsumed into a human social logic where
their commodification, especially for a family audience, is predicated on the eras-
ure of their individual complexity and species difference. In its pejorative sense,
anthropomorphism remains to some extent weighed down with associations to
childishness, a lack of objectivity and sentimentality.
Concerns about anthropocentric conceit motivate valid criticisms of anthropo-
morphism, when it serves only, or primarily, human interests. Kari Weil observes
that ‘as a process of identification, the urge to anthropomorphize the experience
of another, like the urge to empathize with that experience, risks becoming a form
of narcissistic projection that erases boundaries of difference’ (Weil, 2012: 19).
Weil draws attention to the importance of difference in critical discussions about
anthropomorphism. The stakes are high, and in humanising animals we risk losing
sight of them as beings in their own right, with individual experiences and capaci-
ties that are quite different from our own. But there are also good reasons to be
critical of the rejection of anthropomorphism where it is also motivated by anthro-
pocentric concerns that sustain oppression, exploitation and suffering. As Rich-
ard Ryder remarks, ‘The words “anthropomorphism” and “sentimentality”, both
widely used in twentieth century Britain to disparage those who treated nonhu-
man animals in ways considered to be only appropriate to humans, were unheard
in this context until after Darwin’s day’. He goes on to ask, ‘Is it too fanciful to
suggest that they were the animal exploiter’s defences against the logical implica-
tions of Darwinism?’ (Ryder, 1989: 164). Why should it be that the use of animals
as human proxies in biomedical research is not considered anthropomorphic, yet