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"Feminism is about women; talking about cows and hens is changing the subject, or even offensive."
Feminism: the principle
End oppression linked to sex and control over the body and reproduction.
Why excluding animals contradicts the principle
- Milk and egg production is based on controlling the reproduction of females: repeated insemination, separation from their young and disposal when production drops (B7, C10).
- This observation does not equate women with cows, nor victims with each other. It points to a shared structure of control over bodies that feel (L7).
- Part of feminism itself made this link, as Carol J. Adams did in The Sexual Politics of Meat, although not every current accepts it.
The strongest counter-reply
The most serious version says comparisons between women and animals have historically served to dehumanize women.
The answer
Care with such comparisons is legitimate, and the argument does not depend on them (L7). The principle is enough: controlling the body and reproduction of someone who feels, for others' profit, is what feminism fights.
See also
L7 Comparing animal farming to slavery or the Holocaust is offensive.B7 Milk and eggs don't kill anyone.C10 Cows need to be milked.