It’s A Man’s Game (1980s, Leeds, England)

It’s A Man’s Game is a short zine written after an anarchist men’s weekend, outlining what they perceived as sexism in the UK’s Hunt Saboteur Association.  The authors argue that all men involved in hunt sabbing engage in behaviors that oppress women, and that women and animals are alike because women are “enslaved as wives” and “used for entertainment, cheap labour, and sex.”

For a zine claimed to be inspired by women’s strength, it is notably absent of evidence of women actually voicing their own concerns with the sabbing scene.  Instead, women are portrayed as yet another helpless and oppressed creature that needs protecting by enlightened men – mirroring the paternalistic dynamic of how many animal rights activists view animals.  (One has to be pretty obtuse to consider oneself a voice for the “voiceless” – animals are indeed very noisy when being injured or mistreated, and have a long history of responding by maiming or killing their attackers.)

The solutions to sexism proposed by the zine are to disassociate with the HSA, have structured meetings to prevent any one person from talking more than another, and to spend time doing blindfolded trust exercises as a group to build respect for women.