The Patriarchal of Meat

          Have you ever watched a television show, and heard the wife of the household, ask the husband “what he wants for dinner”, and the husband would reply, “a big fat steak would be nice”. Though this conversation may happen anywhere besides on television, the importance of it has a much more rigorous meaning. In an in class reading, the article “The Sexual Politics of Meat”, by Carol J. Adams, makes a good reference to the humanism context of man’s actions. Meat eating has been around for decades. In with its consumption has come the identification of society males as being a “constant for men, intermittent for women…” (Adams, pg 36). In a worldwide patriarchal custom, some cultures forbid women from consuming fish, seafood, chicken and eggs. This view also dehumanizes women from the equality of male and female. In today’s time, the phrase “meat” can take on a sexual context, when using reference to women.



        Meaningless this should not be the view that society should get, but in corresponding to this phrase, people can argue that animals should not be referred to in this way either. However, the absent referent to animals is both present and absent, this sometimes can occur on the objective of women. In a media piece discussed in class entitled “'I didn't think of Iraqis as humans,' says U.S. soldier who raped 14-year-old girl before killing her and her family” by Mail Foreign Service [Dec. 2010], the absent referent is present. In the passage, “An Iraq War veteran serving five life terms for raping and killing a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing her parents and sister says he didn't think of Iraqi civilians as humans after being exposed to extreme warzone violence” . “'If I thought that was an OK thing now, I wouldn't be much of a human being,'” ( pg 1), Green said. This quote truly reveals the explicit question of what morally counts as a "human", and what is socally constructed and categorized as an "animal". Adams explains, “Rape, in particular, carries such potent imagery that the terms is transferred from the literal experience of women and applied metaphorically to other instances of violent devastation, such as the “rape” of the earth in ecological writings of the early 1970’s”.
        In females relationship with animals there is only a few aspects that keeps us from being separated. That is the dehumanization of animals; which is broader and gruesome and also the male gaze. A male gaze at a female makes a broader point. In class we viewed a slide showing a soldier holding a prisoner by a rope that is tied to his around his neck. A quote by Theodore Adomo is portrayed below it stating "  .

       The possibility of [murder] is decided in the moment when the gaze of a fatally-wounded animal falls on a human being. The defiance with which he repels this gaze—‘after all, it’s only an animal’—reappears irresistibly in cruelties done to human beings, the perpetrators having again and again to reassure themselves that it is ‘only an animal'." This quote relates to the view of the male gaze, when men look at women, and women look at themselves, this determines not only the relationship between men and women but the relations that the women have with themselves. 

       For example in the picture below, a female is viewed in many manners, on the controversial a pig is only viewed as “meat”. However this leads to the question  "does being classified as a human carry any weight in itself?". Just Like the way the 14 year old girl was dehumanized and treated less than the soldier all because she was an Iraqis

Credit: Courtesy of PETA

Unknown Photography.

         Nevertheless, it is what makes meat a important symbol and celebration of male dominance. In a way gender inequality is produced in a individual, because in most cultures such as the United States over a century ago, meat was performed by men. In our economy now, the commodity of meat is so plentiful that we no longer have this same view. As in the media piece, Green states that “I thought I'd be neglecting my duty if I didn't. “' 'You've got a career, you've got a job. It gives you opportunities to do things with your life.” Although this is not a justifiable answer to taking human lives, it is an elimination that many people would use to justify the killing of animals for meat. Adams states that “Men who decide to eschew meat eating are deemed effeminate; failure of men to eat meat announces that they are not masculine” (pg 44).

            He also makes a good reference between these dualistic views. “Sexual violence and meat eating, which appear to be discrete forms of violence, find a point of intersection in the absent referent. Cultural images of sexual violence, and actual sexual violence, often rely on our knowledge of how animals are butchered and eaten” (pg 54).

"Peta ad- which while it promotes kindness to animals, does not look very kind to women."

         Like the woman who asked her husband what he wanted for dinner, someday she might become his dinner. Explaining that there is just a thin line that keeps animals and women separated.Like the way the young girl was killed by the soldier. Although male masculinity is reassured by the food that they eat, a woman or animal shouldn’t have to be a part of this process.




For More Info and References:


Adams, Carol J. "The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist- Vegetarian Critical Theory." New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc. , 2003. 36-45.



Service, Mail Foreign. "'I didn't think of Iraqis as humans,' says U.S. soldier who raped 14-year-old girl before killing her and her family." 21 December 2010. MailOnline. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1340207/I-didnt-think-Iraqis-humans-says-U-S-soldier-raped-14-year-old-girl-killing-her-family.html.


http://www.easyvegan.info/tag/sexy-meat/

By Briana Echols