The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory
by Carol J. Adams
published
November 1999
(first published 1990)
by Continuum International Publishing Group
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binding
Paperback, 272 pages
isbn
0826411843
(isbn13: 9780826411846)
description
Argues that women & animals are linked as 'absent referents' in the 'texts' of patriarchal society, & that therefore feminist critical theory ...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 361)
recommends it for:
bonfires, fireplaces
I will quote from the book
"to talk about eliminating meat is to talk about displacing one aspect of male control and demonstrates the ways in which animals' oppression and women's oppression are linked together."
"If meat is a symbol of male dominance then the presence of meat proclaims the disempowering of women."
I dislike this book so much as to want my two dollars back, and I'm pretty sure Mother Nature would love it if this dogmatic woman would think twice bef...more
"to talk about eliminating meat is to talk about displacing one aspect of male control and demonstrates the ways in which animals' oppression and women's oppression are linked together."
"If meat is a symbol of male dominance then the presence of meat proclaims the disempowering of women."
I dislike this book so much as to want my two dollars back, and I'm pretty sure Mother Nature would love it if this dogmatic woman would think twice bef...more
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recommends it for:
ecofeminists, vegetarians & vegans, animal rights activists
let me preface this review by saying that carol adams is a true pioneer in the field of eco/vegetarian-feminist critical theory. she sheds light on how systems of oppression intersect with one another and how capitalism, patriarchy, racism and classism converge and are expressed in the oppression and exploitation of animals. i think this is a seminal work in the field and warrants thoughtful reading. it provides an alternative critique of capitalist and patriarchal systems of oppression and i...more
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"[T:]he phrase 'humane slaughter' confers a certain benignity on the term 'slaughter.' [Mary:] Daly would call this process of 'simple inversion': 'the usage of terms and phrases to label ... activites as the opposite of what they are.' [...:] Just as all rapes are forcible, all slaughter of animals for food is inhumane regardless of what it is called" (69-70).
Most compelling are Carol J. Adams' deconstructions of language. Adams' literary examinations of vegetarianism and feminism a...more
Most compelling are Carol J. Adams' deconstructions of language. Adams' literary examinations of vegetarianism and feminism a...more
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Read in October, 2008
recommended to Meg by:
Bob & Jenna Torres of Vegan Freak Radiorecommends it for: vegans, feminists
Interesting but not very cohesively written. Seems to jump around. What she has to say, though, is spot on (connection of social issues, particularly vegetarianism and feminism).
I really like what Carol Adams has to say, and I agree with 80% of what she says, but she doesn't do a great job of saying WHY these power structures and gender roles she's talking exist, and the book seems to dissolve into sentence fragments. Wish the ending was much stronger.
Overall, a fascinating read, part...more
I really like what Carol Adams has to say, and I agree with 80% of what she says, but she doesn't do a great job of saying WHY these power structures and gender roles she's talking exist, and the book seems to dissolve into sentence fragments. Wish the ending was much stronger.
Overall, a fascinating read, part...more
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Read in June, 2008
While vegetarianism is often explained and adopted for environmental and/or animal rights reasons, there is relatively little discussion about its connections to feminism. Adams is strongest when she writes about the gendered/racial cultural significance of meat consumption, as well as relating the literal and figurative relationship between animals and women. She exposes a Western history of vegetarianism and the place of vegetarianism within the lives of past feminists. Although this book o...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
the girlies... or anyone, really
it has a tendency to be a tad one note... in truth the author really has two main points to get across to the reader... but she milks (ha ha! food analogy!) the material well. of interest are her sections on language and animal metaphors as they are employed to describe meat dishes (hero sandwiches, etc) as well as in how victims of sexual violence describe themselves ("i was a piece of meat")... the author navigates the theoretical aspects of this discussion reasonably well.
thus f...more
thus f...more
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Read in July, 2008
I agree that there are links between vegetarianism and feminism, but Adams' books is only a decent beginning into exploring their connection.
Her entire book presupposes there is only one reason for going vegetarian - that it is inhumane and immoral to consume animals. Period. Try sticking any other sort of reasoning, and her argument falls apart. I think she fails to see the shades of gray when it comes to vegetarianism.
What seriously turned me off was her implied disgust for feminists w...more
Her entire book presupposes there is only one reason for going vegetarian - that it is inhumane and immoral to consume animals. Period. Try sticking any other sort of reasoning, and her argument falls apart. I think she fails to see the shades of gray when it comes to vegetarianism.
What seriously turned me off was her implied disgust for feminists w...more
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recommends it for:
anyone who wants to drop "absent referent" in common dinner conversation
Carol Adams combines two without a doubt essential critiques in this book. not only that, but she applies the state of animal exploitation to other modern problems like capitalism and race-relations.
fun!
fun!
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This book wasn't always easy to follow and I felt didn't always leave a compelling evidence trail, and yet held the seeds of truth. I'm a big believer that gender infiltrates our lives in many unnoticed ways which is what makes its oppression so powerful so I give kudos to Adams for drawing the conclusions she has. Unfortunately, I don't think the package of these ideas would really sell unless the reader already had a background and tendency to understand the general premises.
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Back when I considered myself a feminist and when I was a vegetarian, this was the book that made everything fit together. Unfortunately, I am not a vegetarian any more and I would be hard-pressed to call myself a feminist (but then again, that depends on your definition). But it is still a very interesting argument.
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Read in January, 1990
recommends it for:
all women, feminists, those interested in animal & human rights
I don’t know whether it was the style or some other nebulous reason, but I found this book difficult to read. It was well worth the effort, though, because the author presents an important hypothesis about the correlation between the ways women and animals are treated and regarded in society. I found this book to be unique, as some of the information and ideas it presents I’ve found in no other books.
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Read in May, 2003
This is a book I wanted to like, but one I found truly disappointing. Allow me to preface with the statement that I think there is no question of the connection between the mentalities and language-use concerning women and meat. However, this book is far too glib in drawing language-based connections between topics such as rape and non-vegetarianism and is careless in its theorization of issues.
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recommended to Jimmy by:
VeganFreak Radio
recommends it for: people into identity politics, feminists who suscribe to patriarchy theory
recommends it for: people into identity politics, feminists who suscribe to patriarchy theory
As a Marxist-Feminist and an abolitionist animal-rights vegan, this book really annoyed me. Although it does make some excellent points about the cultural interlinking of meat with masculinity in language and the media, at times it seems like it's trying to string some completely irrelevant and unrelated ideas together, mainly through semantics and patriarchy theory.
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Read in March, 1995
This was the first book I bought the week I decided to be a vegetarian. I found it in a new agey store in Sedona, Arizona. It's an important book. It helped me understand omnivore aggression toward vegetarians at the table, which can be a baffling experience. This is good read for new vegetarians with an academic bent. It is actually a little painfully graphic to me now.
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Well, don't be confused by my low score of this book. I think Adams makes many valid points. However, I thought the book was far too academic. I wasn't reading this for a class, I was reading this to bolster my support of a vegetarian lifestyle that I had recently adopted. I guess it did the job in the last respect, but it was quite a chore to read.
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Read in March, 2008
This book offers a useful critical framework for vegetarianism as a historical and literary issue in literary and cultural analysis. The author's analyses of "vegetarian texts" (e.g., Frankenstein) are convincing. But the book is very heavy with academic jargon, so much so that it made me fervently grateful I don't write academic prose any more.
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Read in July, 2008
Well researched and pretty comprehensive. Some pretty strong arguments. Adams makes some pretty compelling arguments linking the oppression of women to domination of animals. Some of the book was theoretically light: could use a stronger theory of subjectivity and felt at times a bit simplistic/essentialist. Decent and quick read. Accessible.
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