The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory (Bloomsbury Revelations) Read online

  The mass movements that preceded animal rights made such a movement inevitable. Civil rights set the tone and structure that helped the antiwar forces that followed, and the vast numbers of women in these campaigns—working as underlings in movements for the rights of others—naturally led to fighting for their own interests. Patriarchy is synonymous with exploitation, and there is no more accepted form of exploitation than that of animals and the environment.

  Both woman’s secondary status and meat-eating are deeply personal issues. As has been said before, women are the only oppressed people who—as a whole—live intimately with their oppressors. All beings live intimately with food—and if the exploding diet industry and obesity epidemic are any indication, humans are now more dependent on food psychologically than ever before. Since animal liberation relies on weaning ourselves off flesh, milk and eggs, and since food continues to be a chief—if not the chief—emotional support, the animal rights movement faces enormous and violent opposition.

  Feminism too has been marginalized, demonized, mocked and ignored, for it shakes society to its very core. Nostalgia is comfort food for the soul, and to abandon it and rewrite history accurately (embracing all people, and all animals) denies the public the archetypes it has grown accustomed to—the strong father, supportive mother, heroic knight, vulnerable maiden. Like meat-eating, women’s subservient role is glorified, its benefits far more extolled than its drawbacks. Reading a glossy magazine is like inhaling candy—spending hours getting dressed up is the ultimate fun—the attention that in burgeoning adolescence feels uncomfortable soon grows into something no chick can do without. Women become complicit in their oppression—power can be gained from outward beauty and sexual wiles, for a limited time. The sleight of hand is more apparent when it’s applied to the subjugation of non-whites and animals. For centuries—from happy mammies to smiling broiler hens—those on the receiving end of violence have been portrayed as delighted to fulfill the duties of their perceived functions.

  But while the civil rights movement has seen widespread acceptance and honor, women and animals suffer historical absence and modern-day dismissal. Their exploitation is so entrenched that the endless slights coloring our view of ourselves/them (from the invisibility of older women in society to the use of the word “pig” as a putdown) go unnoticed. Martin Luther King, Jr. has a federal holiday; Susan B. Anthony dollars were discontinued in 1999. A quick youtube search is instructive if unscientific: “civil rights” yields a first page of tributes to the 1960s movements, while “feminism” yields Bill Maher, Ali G. and “men on the street” giving their opinions on equality. (“Women’s rights” brings higher-minded criticisms of Islamic misogyny, but the first video is an 1899 short featuring “suffragettes” getting their skirts nailed to a wall.) Look up “animal rights” and you’ll find comedy sketches galore. Ridicule and outrage continue to be the first reactions to the concept of non-violence. Socially, it seems odd to see otherwise empathetic companions so up-in-arms, considering that, in the case of animals especially, what one is hoping they’ll object to is torture and murder. Likewise, anti-feminism is nursed by a drought of imagination—because there is no easy fix, because equality raises so many questions—people dismiss it, lumping pay equity in with same-sex bathrooms then changing the subject.

  Both animal rights and feminism require perpetual vigilance to a far-off goal. If the root and goal of both oppressions is domination, a consistent activist must fight all forms of amorphous exploitation. To paraphrase Carson McCullers, everything we touch is the result of another’s suffering.

  The book you are holding uncovers the interconnectedness between women’s (people’s) exploitation and animals. It is as groundbreaking today as when it was first written. Carol J. Adams gets to the heart of our acceptance of institutionalized violence—the systems supporting cruelty and the rationales feeding the system.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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  In the years during which this book took shape, many people encouraged my ideas and helped me to examine the nature of the sexual politics of meat.

  Thanks to Catherine Avril and Mary Sue Henifin who, in 1974, advertised at the Cambridge Women’s Center for a feminist-vegetarian roommate—and selected me. Thus it all began. Mary Ann Burr who taught me about vegetarianism in exchange for information on feminism; Mary Daly for whom my first paper on the subject was prepared; and Carroll Smith-Rosenberg who encouraged my early historical excavations.

  Originally a book on feminism and vegetarianism by me was to appear in 1976 but though it identified the overt connections I sensed it was incomplete and I withheld it from publication. Thanks to the Vegetarian Times, Laurel and Gina of Amazon Quarterly, Jean and Ruth Mountaingrove of WomanSpirit, and the women’s collective of the second wave: a magazine of the new feminism for publishing my early work, and to the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective for mentioning the book that never was in Our Bodies, Ourselves. And to Jane Adams who lived with the dramas of that time.

  I owe much gratitude to Carol Barash of Critical Matrix: Princeton Working Papers in Womens Studies who energized and catalyzed my thoughts; from this catalyst and energy, my feminist-vegetarian theory took shape. I appreciate the ongoing faith that Susan Squier, Helen Cooper, and Adrienne Munich, the editors of Arms and the Woman had in me, and their challenges that helped me refine my ideas. Avis Lang of the Heresies Collective helped me frame arguments fundamental to this book. Theresa Corrigan and Stephanie Hoppe asked me if I had written anything on the history of animal rights; “The Distortion of the Vegetarian Body” evolved in response to this question. A different version of this chapter, which incorporates as well themes in “For a Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory,” appears in their anthology, And a Deer’s Ear, Eagle’s Song and Bear’s Grace: Relationships between Animals and Women (A Second Collection), from Cleis Press, and I thank them for asking the question and for supporting my work.

  For affirming my voice, giving me guidance and other forms of moral support over the years, thanks to my parents and my many friends, both those named above and Marie Fortune, Nancy and Merv Fry, Chellis Glendinning, Susi Parks Grissom, Mary Hunt, Diane Miller, Ken Reichley, Bina and Dave Robinson, Nancy Tuana, Melinda Vadas, Ann Valliant, Cathy Weller, and the women of the Bloodroot Collective—who enact feminist-vegetarian theory at their restaurant in Bridgeport.

  For reading and making valuable comments on parts of the book, I thank Maureen Fries, Diana Hume George, Dudley Giehl, Susanne Kappeler, Liz Kelly, Jim Mason, Rose Sebouhian, and Doug Shepard. My gratitude to Geri Pomerantz for her devoted research on the subject. Thanks, too, to David Erdman for assistance with information on John Oswald; Jim Hala, Paula Sue Hayes, Jane Lilienfeld, Karen Lindsey, CeCe Quinlan, Susan Schweik, Marjorie Procter-Smith, and the women of New Words Bookstore in Cambridge for directing me to valuable references; Alex Hershaft of Farm Animal Reform Movement for statistics on animals who are butchered; the late Henry Bailey Stevens for encouraging my research on Agnes Ryan; Connie Salamone for her pioneering work; Josephine Donovan for information on the Crossroad/Continuum Women’s Studies Award; Carol Hurd Green and Elizabeth Rechtschaffen of the Award Advisory Committee; Bruce Cassiday, for entering into the spirit of my challenge to conventional language about animals; and my editor, Evander Lomke, for suggestions that helped to shape my manuscript into a book.

  Over the years I have benefited from my association with the women’s communities of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Dunkirk and Fredonia, New York, and Dallas, Texas. Without access to good libraries in these cities and elsewhere, I would have been beref of much historical material that enriches feminist-vegetarian theory. Specifically, the staff of the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women of Radcliffe College, the British Library, the New York Public Library, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas at Austin, and the Dallas Public Library provided much assistance. The interlibrary loan staff of the State University
College at Fredonia and the Dallas and Richardson Public Libraries worked diligently on my behalf, miraculously obtaining for me obscure books from the eighteenth century as well as more recent writings. I am very grateful to them for this.

  Financial support from two sources helped to galvanize my work during the past year and I am deeply indebted to them for their faith in me. My thanks to The Culture and Animals Foundation for funds to complete the book, and Tom and Nancy Regan of the CAF for their support, as well as to the Durfee Foundation which through a Durfee Award provided me with the funds to purchase a computer to expedite writing.

  During the flurry of revision, Arthur and Virginia Buchanan and Nancy Hayes were immeasurably helpful by providing child care; Melinda Vadas and Cathy Weller attempted to track down the image reproduced on the cover, and Dorothy Teer discovered it in her slide archives. Thanks to each of them for their time. I am grateful as well to the anti-pornography feminist network and specifically Pornography Awareness, Inc. (PO Box 2728 Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27515–2728), Women Against Pornography, Women Against Violence in the Media, and Women Against Violence Against Women, for recognizing the implications of a beach towel called “Cattle Queen” that encouraged “Break the Dull Beef Habit,” and made accessible an image that had permeated popular culture yet was not easily available.

  With a topic such as the one this book addresses the research possibilities were endless. I have had to limit my focus to identify the initial issues that arise when engaging in feminist-vegetarian discourse. Otherwise, like Casaubon’s work in George Eliot’s Middlemarch, my key to the patriarchal meaning of meat eating would have remained only a growing pile of uninterpreted notes. Though in one sense this book is a final product, I see it more as part of a process of analysis that challenges the dominant culture. The issues it has neglected or only partially and perhaps inadequately developed offer future opportunities.

  Finally my work owes much to Bruce Buchanan who provided me with the time and space to think and write about this subject and Douglas Buchanan, now nearly five, who enlivens my hope that the next generation can reject the Sexual Politics of Meat.

  Ten years later . . . and still we struggle to make the connections and be change-agents. For those who have supported me in my writing and my life, I am immensely grateful. I appreciate all those who have written to me over the past decade with stories and examples. I am thankful for those who have worked to bring me to their campuses, and to engage in dialogue with students about the sexual politics of meat. I am pleased to be a part of an ever-expanding network of activists and thinkers who are working for a more compassionate society; they are truly inspiring! For the help I received in preparing the tenth anniversary edition of The Sexual Politics of Meat, I would like to thank: Marie Fortune, Mary Hunt, Pat Davis, Batya Bauman, Martin Rowe, Kim Stallwood, Debbie Tanzer, Trisha Lamb Feuerstein, and Evander Lomke. For the statistics on the number of land animals killed yearly, I thank the Farm Animal Reform Movement (P.O. Box 30654, Bethesda, MD 20824). For the statistics on the number of sea animals killed yearly, I thank Dawn Carr and the researchers at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (501 Front St., Norfolk, VA 23510). I remember with gratitude the life of Kenneth Reichley; faithful friend. Bruce, who weathers it all in stride, continues to provide me with time, space, and attentiveness. For Douglas, now fifteen, and Benjamin, ten, my hopes continue.

  Twenty years later . . . and we continue to challenge oppression. Thanks to all the vegan businesses and organizations that have supported my work, especially MooShoes, Sweet and Sara, VegNews, Vegan World Radio, Pangea, Vegan Essentials, the American Vegan Society, the North American Vegetarian Society, the Toronto Vegetarian Association, and the Spiral Diner. I am thankful for feminist and vegan bloggers and activists who notice offensive images and make connections and for the many student activists and professors who have brought me to their campuses.

  A big hug and many thanks to Nellie McKay for writing a foreword to this twentieth anniversary edition and for all she does in the world—and a hug to her mother and her sister, Robin Young, too.

  Thanks to Pat Davis, Josephine Donovan, Melinda Fox, Matthew Calarco, Martin Rowe for their help with the Preface to the twentieth anniversary. I am grateful to David Barker, Editorial Director at Continuum, for moving this edition through the process of publication.

  To filmmakers Tami Wilson and Jennifer Abbott, thanks for their interest in The Sexual Politics of Meat.

  I am grateful to Mary Finelli, Batya Bauman, Evander Lomke, Mary Hunt, Marie Fortune, Mary Max, Nancy and Jane Adams, for ongoing support of my work, to Catharine MacKinnon, Tom Tyler, John Jermier, John Sanbonmasto, Cat Clyne, Kim Stallwood, Robin Morgan, Paul Waldau, Lisa Isherwood, and Rosemary Radford Ruether for their engagement with my work, and to the many people who have sent me images and references since the tenth anniversary edition was published, including: Liz Abbott, Tom Abram, Carla Agnesi, Jared Allaway, Michael Angus, Cintia Anselmo, Nicholas Atwood, Jenny Azman, Julianne Baecker, Alexandra Bass, Meghan Beeby, Edita Birnkrant, Diana Blaine, Ryan Blodgett, Janice Blue, Patti Breitman, Patrick Browne, Kristin Burlage, Colleen Buyers, Gregory Carlin, Judy Carman, Anthony Carr, Sarah Carrier, Angela Carter, Avalon Carthew, Jane Cartmill, Liz Chiarello, Bob Chorush, Lydia Comer, Katherine Cooke, Marj Cramer, Karen Davis, Karen Dawn, David Del Principe, Kelly Coyle DiNorcia, Devery Doleman, Annette Dunkelman, Dave Eaton, Shannon Elliott, Andy Ellis, Margaret Ende, Cath Ens, Allison Ezell, Diane Farsetta, Zoe Fasolo, Beth Fiteni, Deseree Fontenot, Lesley Fox, Jerry Friedman, Jack Furlong, Greta Gaard, Emily Gaarder, Stacy Goldberger, Michael Greger, Jeff Green, Jonathan Grindell, Amie Hamlin, Elizabeth Hartman, Joseph Hayns-Worthington, Sarah Hecht, Morian Henderson, Denise Hollenbach, Leslie Holmes, Karen Hofman, Karen Hurley, Avital Isaacs, Nistha Jajal, Matthew Jeanes, pattrice jones, Erin E. Armi Kaipainen, Caroline Kane, Anil Kanji, Erica Kelly, Linda Kelson, Lisa Kemmerer, Jason Ketola, Anna Lappé, Erika Larson, Renée Lauzon, Giulia Levai, Noa Lewis, Matthew Liebman, Donna Litowitz, Bruce Lord, Jayne Loader, Brian Luke, Sheila Mahadevan, Randy Malamud, Richard Marsh, Dave McLaughlin, Matthew Melnyk, Sarah Meng, Catharine Morales, Alan Munro, Pascal Murphy, Deb Murray, Vicki Murray, Amy Tharp Nylund, Benjamin Palmer, Peter Pearson, Emily Pepe, Benjamin Persky, John Phillips, Eric Piotrowski, Rebecca Pitman, Bhaskar Raman, Joanna Randazzo, Marguerite Regan, Pamela Rice, Sarah Sue Roberts, Bina Robinson, Lauren Robinson, Pat Ritz, Carolyn Sawyer, Carol Scherbaum, Judith Schiebout, Mindi Schneider, Naomi Schoenbaum, John Seebach, Lisa Shapiro, Paul Shapiro, Lindsay Spaar, Alison Stanley, Eileen Stark, Katherine Stewart, Cheryl Stibel, Kyle Svendsen, Debby Tanzer, Cathleen Tracy, Jose Valle, Jason Van Glass, Stephen Wells, Mason Weisz, Nancy Williams, Drew Wilson, Tami Wilson, Moni Woweries, Laurel Zastrow, Tita Zierer.

  Thanks to Bruce, still weathering, still striding, still supporting. For Douglas, twenty-five, and Benjamin, twenty, who help me engage with these ideas and have become good vegetarian cooks, my hopes fulfilled.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS TO THE TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY/ BLOOMSBURY REVELATIONS EDITION

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  Thank you to David Avital, David Barker, Mark Richardson, and Ian Buck at Bloomsbury for their work to bring out this Bloomsbury Revelations edition of The Sexual Politics of Meat, and their commitment to creating a new afterword with recent examples of the sexual politics of meat. It has been a joy to work with them. I also want to acknowledge the ongoing support of Kevin Ohe, US Publishing Director for US operations, and the work on my behalf of Elizabeth White, Academic Rights Manager for Bloomsbury Academic. Thanks to Evander Lomke, Gene Gollogly, and Martin Rowe, formerly of Continuum and now of Lantern Books, for their thoughtful and loyal support of this author for a quarter of century. It’s made all the difference! At a pivotal moment, Jo-Anne McArthur provided important insights.

  I am an incredibly lucky author in that readers not only embraced this book but also began conversations with me about images and news that confirmed my thesis. I’ve benefited fr
om twenty-five years of being in a community that perceives interconnected oppressions and works for liberation. That I’ve been fed incredible vegan meals around the world by vegan chefs and cooks is like the frosting on the vegan cake; as activists, we have discovered and shared the joy of delicious animal-free food preparation. This nurture and nourishment cannot be underestimated. I remember Shirley Wilkes-Johnson and Marti Kheel, lost to us too soon. Co-authors and co-editors Patti Breitman, Virginia Messina, Marie Fortune, Josephine Donovan, and Lori Gruen have helped to shape my thoughts over the past twenty-five years. I am in their debt for the education and sisterhood that working on books with them engendered.

  Thanks to the many people who emailed me, tweeted me, and posted on Facebook images that illustrated ongoing international examples of the sexual politics of meat. Sigh. Thank you to the photographers and organizations whose images are used in this afterword. The staff at the Richardson Public Library continues to support my (often impatient and always eager) quest for information and books; bless them. To my children, Douglas and his spouse, Kelly, and Benjamin (born the same year as the first edition of The Sexual Politics of Meat, and now himself at a quarter of a century): I’m so grateful to be your feminist-vegan parent. And to Bruce, who continues to support my activism and writing in all the ways that are possible and then some.

  Finally, I want to thank you, my readers, who have kept this book in print for a quarter of a century. We know that empathy can be learned. May it be contagious! May feminist-vegan theory and practice flourish!

  PART I