“Animals summoning forth images of things that are “natural, wild, and free” accord with the “masculine” spirit of adventure and conquest idolized by our culture. Animals summoning forth images of things that are “unnatural, tame, and confined” represent a way of life that western culture looks down upon. The contrast can be vividly seen in our literature.
Whereas in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick the hunters of the great white whale conceive of their prey as an awesome godlike being, in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the little boys view the nursing sow… as an object of disgust. The analogy between women and nonhuman animals overlooks the perhaps more crucial comparison between women and farm animals.”

http://www.upc-online.org/thinking_like_a_chicken.html#thinking