On a cherry Tuesday in New York City, many parents drag their children out of their homes to observe the various animals presented for their viewing pleasure. In New York, many parents take their children to the Natural History Museum, in other cities, some parents take their children to the Aquarium where they bear witness to the shows that both animals and humans alike perform. They applaud and screech as they witness these “domesticated” creatures performing tricks. Some choose to savor the moment, obnoxiously posing in front of the animals that cannot react to the blatant disregard of their true essence. Their child-like curiosity only lasts a moment, and then it dissolves as they move on to the next spectacle. Yet the animals remain, trapped, forced to live out their lives as a form of entertainment for humans. It is interesting to note the ways in which humans interact and treat those that are different from us, whether it is another species, or simply a human with different characteristics. It appears that the preferred method is entrapment which manifests in many forms. Whether it is physically in zoos or in aquariums or lawfully by confining them to our rules and regulations or by simply constricting them to our limited viewpoint. We continuously fail these creatures, and rather than attempting to breach those barriers and expand our confined knowledge, many choose to assert dominance over these animals by caging them in zoos and aquariums, left to serve out their lives as a spectacle for the humans to be entertained by, receiving feigned applause and herring as a rewards.
The documentary Black Fish directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaithe serves as a testimony of the efforts of humans to turn “the most unusual creatures into simple metaphors of our own plights.” – Brogan, 980
The documentary Black Fish directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaithe serves as a testimony of the efforts of humans to turn “the most unusual creatures into simple metaphors of our own plights.” (Brogan, 980) The movie documents the life of Tilikum, a performing orca whale that killed three people whilst living in captivity. The film follows the entirety of Tilikum’s time in captivity, including the moment that changed his life forever – his entrapment. Viewers are shown the gut-wrenching moment that began his career as a performer and ended his life with his family. Similarly to Tilikum, many animals are kidnapped from their families and taken to places such as Sea World, where they become a valuable source of income for these industries as performers. The involuntary relinquishment of their will became dollar signs to the corporations that began to profit off the backs of these animals as these shows gained attraction. However, the question remains as to why we humans choose to feed these industries. Why are we captivated by the sight of orcas performing tricks? Why are we awed by the sight of animals? Above all, why do we feel the need to contain and display beings that are uniquely different? Would we still applaud and support these shows if they were humans, not whales? The answer is debatable. The story of Tilikum vaguely mirrors that of Sarah Baartman, a South African Khoikhoi woman who was exhibited as an attraction because of her sizeable buttocks.
The main difference between the story of Sarah and that of Tilikum is that Sarah allegedly agreed to go to Europe, however, it was under the assumption that she would be met with fame and fortune, and not a small cage. She was “forced to show off her derrière in a cage that was about a meter and half high...At times Baartman was displayed almost completely naked, wearing little more than a tan loincloth, and she was only allowed that due to her insistence that she cover what was culturally sacred.” (The Weekly Challenger). Despite the underlying differences between Tilikum and Sarah’s stories, their stories show the tendency of many humans who choose to physically confine and profit of the backs of those who are seen as different. Sarah was forced to live out her days until her death in a cage, where she stood, half-naked for the viewing pleasure of others. What made her different, and unique, was also the cause of her entrapment. One can only imagine the psychological damage that one suffers when you are forced to give up your rights and dignity, in order to please the eyes of spectators. Daily, you are forced to be a spectacle because of what makes you different – you become a walking exhibition. Sarah died at the age of 26 in 1816, some stipulated that this was a result of alcoholism. “It is believed that she drank and smoked heavily to cope with her humiliating ordeal” (The Weekly Challenger). Thus, not only was Sarah forced to give up her dignity, but she also changed in efforts to deal with her new reality. Similarly, Tilikum changed, but physically. He suffered many physical impairments such as a dorsal collapse, sensory deprivation, a paralimbic cleft, and long-term immobility. Thus, both Tilikum and Sarah became different from themselves. They were forced to move away from who they really are as they became new people shaped by the trials of their daily lives. Not only were their dignity and their rights stolen from them, but also a part of themselves. Time and time again, the human method for interacting with beings different from ourselves has continuously been the same. We divide and conquer. We take these beings, such as Sarah, and Tilikum, out of their homes, and we bring them to our own territory, where we display them as objects for our eyes to feast on. We take what is different in them, and we try to capture and tame for ourselves and for profit. In essence, we choose entrapment over understanding. For illustration, orcas have been ranked as one of the most intelligent species on the planet. “Dolphins have so much brainpower that they’re thought to rival humans in intelligence...The cortex of the dolphin brain is more convoluted than the human cerebral cortex. Thus, on at least one scale of brain function, dolphins beat humans.” (NBC News)
Hence, we as humans can learn a lot from dolphins despite the fact that in essence these animals can never truly be understood by us, nor can they truly understand us. We don’t speak the same language. We are not the same. However, rather than recognizing the beauty in biodiversity that our world is home to, many humans see that as an opportunity to profit. So, we trap these animals in a jail of human design and we leave them to suffer in solitary confinement until they are of use to us. Similarly to how Tilikum was confined to a miniature concrete tank for his entire existence. He was jailed and punished to solitary confinement simply for being an animal. Rather than using the existence of beings other than ourselves as a point of learning and the opportunity to broaden our knowledge, we use them as a spectacle to feed our imagination. In The Sixth Extinction? Written by Elizabeth Kolbert, she addresses the issue of the mass extinction of species, as many species are becoming extinct at an accelerated rate. She quotes Ross MacPhee, a curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, who asserted that “In the majority of cases, these losses occurred when, and only when people began to expand across areas that had never before experienced their presence.” (Kolbert, 591). Darwin agreed with this fact, declaring that “We invoke cataclysms to desolate the world” (Kolbert, 585). Thus, we humans both directly and indirectly have caused, and we continue to be the reason for the mass extinction of many species. Furthermore, our methods of interacting with diversity have proven to be in two main ways – death or entrapment (one usually following the other).
"We Invoke Cataclysms to desolate the world" – Kolbert
In the end, similarly to how the frogs in El Valle became figurines “holding cellphones... wearing frilly skirts... striking dance poses, and ashtrays featuring golden frogs smoking cigarettes” (Kolbert, 583) these animals are not respected even in death. Their memory is humanized for the entertainment and the benefit of humans. Similarly to these frogs, after Sarah Baartman’s death, “her body became the object of ‘scientific’ and ‘medical’ research to promote grotesque racial stereotypes” (The Weekly Challenger). Consequently, even in death, she was still used as a means of humans to further their agenda. These beings live on but in a false memory of themselves. Even in death, they are honored not for who they truly are, but in a way that serves and entertains a human mind.
Bibliography 1. Brogan, Jacob. “Don’t Anthropomorphize Inky The Octopus”. The Broadview Anthology of Expository Prose, 3rd edition, edited by Laura Buzzard, Don LePan, Nora Ruddock and Alexandria Stuart. Broadview Press, 2016, pp. 979 - 983. 2. Meserette Kentake, “Sarah Baartman: The ‘First Known Black Female Victim of Trafficking.” The Weekly Challenger , 5 Jan. 2017. theweeklychallenger.com/sarah-baartman-the-first-known-black-female-victim-of-trafficking/. Accessed 17 May 2019. 3. BlackFish, Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaithe, CNN, Magnolia Pictures, 2013 Boyle, Alan. “Inside the Mind of a 'Killer Whale'.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 26 Feb. 2010, www.nbcnews.com/sciencemain/inside-mind-killer-whale-6C10404143. Accessed 17 May 2019 4. Kolbert, Elizabeth, “The Sixth Extinction?”. The Broadview Anthology of Expository Prose, 3rd edition, edited by Laura Buzzard, Don LePan, Nora Ruddock and Alexandria Stuart. Broadview Press, 2016, pp. 583 - 602.
Comments