Blog: In the Eyes of an Animal

By Ondine Sherman

March 29, 2026

Can gazing into the eyes of an animal change our lives? This piece emerges from my PhD research on the transformative potential of eye contact between humans and other animals, grounded in relational and ecofeminist theory. Scholarship suggests that eye contact can deepen human-animal connection, unsettle anthropocentric worldviews, and influence individuals to rethink their ethical responsibilities to animals. My qualitative research with Australian “Animal People” echoes the power of the mutual gaze.

Emmanuel Levinas argued that the Face of the Other “speaks”, and eyes possess their own language (Levinas 1961/1980: 66). Building on this, Lori Gruen notes that we may encounter animals and still not “look them in the eye”; once we do, our relationships can change (Gruen 2013: 223–31). Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka similarly encourage us to “look into the eyes of an animal, to recognise the person there – familiar, yet mysterious, an independent locus of meaning and agency” (2011: 40). These are invitations to take seriously the possibility that animals look back, and that this looking back matters ethically and politically. In this framing, eye contact is not just a visual event but an embodied, relational practice. Drawing on Simone Weil, Iris Murdoch, Vinciane Despret and Elisa Aaltola, such moments can be understood as practices of with-ness, attention, or attentive love. They decentre the human, effect an unselfing, and invite us into animals’ worlds, their umwelten (Despret 2004; 2008; 2016; Aaltola 2018; Murdoch 1971; Weil 2009).

To explore how animal-human eye contact may influence pro-animal values and behaviours, I spoke with twenty young Australian Animal People: those who self-identified as having animal rights values, were vegan (or aspiring to be) and engaged in animal advocacy.

Continue reading Ondine's piece at the International Association for Vegan Sociologists - https://www.vegansociology.com/blog/