Rousseau, Marx, and Freire use animals as a point of contrast in defining what it means to be human under conditions of society, labour, and power. Beast fables have historically used animals as allegorical stand-ins for humans rising up against authority. Jack Halberstam’s reflections in The Queer Art of Failure note how animals were frequently used as a site of rebellion in early computer-generated cartoons. In stories like Animal Farm, Watership Down, Babe: Pig in the City and Over the Hedge, the characters grapple with human issues of corruption, oppression, abuse of power, habitat destruction and propaganda.

Carnival of the Oppressed features creatures going about their day. They work hard. They buy things to let others know that they work hard. They have a personal brand. They TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES. They participate.

THE END.