Sexism is rampant in the meat industry. We know this from our readings last week, but this week in Carol J. Adams’ The Politics of Meat, we can understand this idea, and develop a framework around it through understanding her key ideas. The most important ideas from her reading include, “Meat-eating is associated with virility, masculinity. Meat eating societies gain male identification by their choice of food.” and “Women are animalized and animals are sexualized and feminized.” These ideas a fairly simple to understand and see, so let’s look at a few examples. From the list provided, I chose three examples of meat being sexualized that I thought were the strangest and funniest. First, there is this feminized cow. 
What I thought was most interesting about this image is the emphasis on how thin the cow is. This is a huge juxtaposition between how we view women and how we view meat. Sexualized women are often glamorized for being thin, but cows are glamorized for being fat and providing more meat. This ad juxtaposes these ideas in a way that makes me uncomfortable. In Lisa Kemmerer’s The Pornography of Meat, an analysis of Carol J. Adams’ work, she states that “Animals are assumed to want it like women. One can consume either a pig or a woman. One can exploit and destroy a calf or a woman. ‘Because women are not being depicted, no one is seen as being harmed and so no one has to be accountable. Everyone can enjoy the degradation of women without being honest about it’” This is exactly what this image is doing, and it’s much creepier than what ‘meats’ the eye.
My second image takes this idea in another strange direction, depicting the burger as a child, and the doctor as a lucky man who ‘delivered’ (?) it, and now gets to eat it. There is also this strange undertone of sexualization of birth, which again feels very strange here.
Finally, the third image I chose from the list is a Twitter post from ‘butt praxis’, questioning the validity of the sexyness of meat. I think that butt praxis makes a good point here, that this sexiness does not seem real when we think about it critically. What about meat makes men sexy? I would like a second opinion as well, preferably not affiliated with Fox News.
When I went to look for examples of this in my day to day life, I looked up the #meat on Instagram. Here are my search results:
There are two images that stand out here. There are four images of actual meat, but then a lingerie ad, as well as a picture of a regular man. I think this set of images is a perfect answer to the question ‘Who is consumed and who is the consumer?’ This average man clearly is in a dominant position, and in my search of photos of meat, there were no photos of women, but there was this ad for lingerie. As our quotes explained, women depicted to be consumed, or ‘conquered’ which results in these, frankly disgusting, and strange advertisements.
I really liked your blog post; it was informative but still had jokes throughout the read which helped the reading. I looked through a few people’s post and yours stuck out to me because of you #Meat section. I like you idea of showing how meat is still sexualized and masculinized by people to this day. I agree with your concern for the way in which these advertisements are being created. The fact that someone can see the process of giving birth as a sexy experience which will draw men in is just weird. I’d also like to bring up your analysis of the cow with the measuring tape. I was paying attention to the fact that she was a female cow who is being exploited to appease men, but I never thought about the measuring tape. It opened my eyes to the fact that the measuring tape around her waist is to show the “hourglass figure” that men enjoy. I try not to discuss politics, but that fox news joke was really good. Your analysis were fun and provided some insightful information of the sexualization of meat, as well as, the sexist depictions behind each ad.
Hi Peter!
I want to build off the points that you say are the most important ideas from Adam’s The Politics of Meat. I agree that these points are super important and probably some of the most important from the list Adam’s mentioned. I wanted to especially build on meat eating being associated with masculinity. From other articles in our vegetarian ecofeminism section as well as an article I found online; males tend to eat more meat because it makes them feel masculine. You and Adams stated this so why is it I bring it up again? I think it’s important because in these advertisements the target audience is men. Not only are these advertisements showcasing meat of some sort but in doing so they are sexualizing women, once again to target men. It really opens one’s eyes to the patriarchy we see today overpowering women and animals. In another comment, someone mentioned the humor or jokes you included. I think it helped lighten the topic up a bit. Especially being a woman and having to see the posts about the sexualization of women and animals. I wanted to point out the approach you took to finding an image showing the sexualization of animals and women but not as an advertisement. I would have never thought to do that and I applaud you for that. However, it shows how society also feeds into the patriarch. The male in the image is seen as “beefy” or masculine. I hated how I had to word that. There is lingerie under a hashtag for meat which is disgusting. All of these advertisements and social media are so harmful to women and animals and I hope ecofeminists are able to rid society of some of this. Or at least spread awareness of how disgusting these images or portrayals of women and animals can be.