Meat of the Matter

The Shared Fate of Women and Animals

By Tracey Laszloffy, Best Friends Network Volunteer

March is Women’s History Month, which calls us to be aware of women’s historical and contemporary experiences with oppression. This month is also March Meatout, which calls us to be aware of the suffering of animals who are raised to be slaughtered for food.

Having both of these awareness campaigns during the same month is a great opportunity because while it’s rarely acknowledged, the fates of both women and non-human animals are inextricably tied by the anatomy of patriarchy.

The Anatomy of Patriarchy

Patriarchy divides the world into two distinct groups, assigning differential value to each group such that one is considered highly valued and the other highly devalued. This has resulted in the notion that there are two distinct and mutually exclusive genders, such that the male gender is valued and privileged while the female gender is devalued and oppressed.

Patriarchy also has contributed to the notion that there are two distinct and mutually exclusive categories of species: human and non-human (i.e., “animal”), such that members of the human group are valued and privileged while members of the so-called animal group are devalued and oppressed.

In this way, women and non-human animals share the same subjugated status. A quick way of exposing the connection between women and non-human animals is to consider the preponderance of animal names we use to refer to women (or parts of women) when we want to objectify and denigrate them (e.g., fox, cow, dog, bitch, bat, crow, bunny, heifer, filly, vixen, chick, pussy and beaver). These references “work” because unconsciously, we recognize that both women and non-human animals share the same symbolic role within a patriarchal society: to ensure human-male dominance.

In her groundbreaking work The Sexual Politics of Meat, Carol Adams exposes the link between women and non-human animals. She deconstructs the concept of meat, exposing what it represents and demonstrating its relationship to the oppression both of women and non-human animals. Many of her ideas are presented below.

What is Meat?

In patriarchal societies the presence of meat signifies masculine power just as the absence of meat signifies a lack of power. This association is closely aligned with how we define “male” and “female.” To be male is synonymous with having a penis, while to be female is synonymous with not having a penis. In other words, femaleness is defined by what is absent (a penis, e.g., the meat) rather than by what is present (a vagina).

The language we use reflects the association we make between possessing meat and masculine power. Phrases like “meat of the matter,” “to beef up,” and “meaty issue” all suggest that the presence of meat signifies substance and strength, which is probably why meat is considered the center of a meal and why “real men don’t eat quiche.”

And just as both meat and men are associated with power, primacy and substance, vegetables and fruits, like women, are equated with being passive, placid and secondary. Hence, a plate of only vegetables is seen as lacking, which is why meat-eaters often express bewilderment about how vegetarians survive. Just as some find it hard to imagine how a woman can be potent and capable on her own terms without a man to provide support, many find it hard to imagine how vegetarians survive without meat to anchor their diets.

But What Exactly Is Meat?

Meat is a product of human creation; it does not exist naturally. We have “to do something” to produce meat. Specifically, we have to transform living beings into non-beings, or objects so that we can exploit them without guilt or remorse. By objectifying living beings, violence is inevitable. Since objects don’t feel or suffer, there is no need to feel badly about treating an object aggressively. Hence, transforming animals into meat allows us to enslave, slaughter, butcher and consume them without feeling guilty.

Those who look down at their plates and see “meat” are hiding from the reality that what’s really on their plate is the dead body of a once living, feeling individual who lived a grotesque life and suffered a terrifying murder. Few of us want to be aware of this disturbing truth of violence. Hence, we collude with practices that are aimed at transforming living beings into objects (e.g., meat) because doing so frees us to eat animals without having to acknowledge the violence we are supporting. Similarly, when we mindlessly consume images of women whose bodies have been systematically exploited for pleasure and profit, we collude with the objectification of women (e.g., turning them into meat) which supports violence directed against women.

Butchering Animals and Women

Every year 10 billion farm animals are slaughtered so they can be eaten by people. But before consumers can comfortably eat the flesh of murdered animals, first we have to transform animals into meat…we have to do something to render animals beingless, to objectify them. Butchering is one way of carrying out this agenda.

We carve the bodies of animals into pieces and then rename the hacked up parts to further distance from the reality that what we are eating is the dead body of a once living, feeling being. Terms like "steak," "hamburger," “prime rib,” “veal,” “ham,” “sausage,” or “bacon” help to obscure the reality that we are actually eating murdered cows, calves and pigs.

Even when we call our food what it is, we still use language to deny the beinghood of the animal we are eating. We may use terms like “chicken” and “turkey,” but we never say “a chicken” or “a turkey.” We may order “leg of lamb” but not “a lamb’s leg.” Similarly, factory farmers refer to the animals they kill as “food-producing units” and “bio-machines,” all of which help to objectify animals and obscure the reality that they are living, feeling individuals. The words we use play a key role in butchering animals and creating meat.

To further aid in the creation of meat, most of us obtain the flesh we consume from supermarkets. The modern grocery store hides from us the reality of factory farms and slaughterhouses. It obscures that what we are eating is the flesh of a once living, feeling being. We see sterile, neatly wrapped packages of butchered bodies and never have to think about the little bird who was tortured to death, or the cow who was someone’s mother or daughter and had feelings, needs, and interests of her own.

The literal butchering of animals is paralleled by the metaphorical butchering that women are subjected to by the media. Women are reduced to breasts, asses, thighs, eyes and lips which are ingested by consumers. Everything from advertisements to music videos depict women in fragmented ways, as parts, which obscures the reality that they are whole beings with unique thoughts, emotions, aspirations, life histories, hardships and hopes. The way the media portrays women, as well as animals, often takes on a pornographic tone to the extent that it presents distorted and degrading depictions that imply that women, as well as animals, enjoy being dominated, reduced to parts and consumed.

When women are sexually harassed or violated often they invoke butchering metaphors, saying they “felt like a piece of meat.” This reference works because we unconsciously recognize the shared status and fate that bind women and other animals. Of course, it is unfortunate when the experiences of butchered animals are appropriated to draw attention to women’s oppression without explicitly acknowledging animal oppression. When this happens, the oppression of animals remains invisible, thereby reinforcing their objectification and suffering.

The Rape of Women and Animals

Rape involves implemental violence. It occurs when one being is held down by another “as the fork holds down a piece of meat” (Adams, p. 54) so an implement (knife or penis) may penetrate. While men are sometimes raped, disproportionately it is women who are raped. Nine out of 10 rape victims are female and roughly 1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. (1)

Animals also are raped. Sometimes literally, as when pig “farmers” use “rape racks” to restrain female pigs so they can be forcefully penetrated and impregnated by male pigs. More often animals endure symbolic rapes whereby their bodies are violated by the butcher’s knife rather than a penis. In the case of both women and animals, rape is facilitated by medications or tranquilizers. Factory farms inject tranquilizers into animal feed and slaughterhouses use mechanical or electrical devices to stun animals before they are penetrated by the knife. Similarly, use of the “date rape” drug or more commonly, the endless flow of cheap liquor offered to female bar patrons during Ladies Night, are ways of making women more vulnerable to being violated.

In situations when a women and or an animal refuses to passively “take it lying down,” this often provokes the rage of their perpetrators who respond with heightened levels of aggression (“Okay, you really asked for it you stupid bitch, now you’ll get it the hard way” — quote from a slaughterhouse worker dealing with a terrified pig from All Heaven’s in a Rage by Laura Moretti). Both women and animals are also depicted as being responsible for their rapes. Asking what a female rape victim was wearing implies she invited her violation, just as commercials that depict singing cows and dancing chickens suggest the animals want us to eat them.

Pulling It Together

In a human-male-dominated society, the common denominator in the lives of women and animals is violence and oppression. The bodies of both groups are exploited for pleasure and profit, subjected to physical brutality, and used to do most of society’s dirty, unskilled, undervalued labor. Moreover, the images displayed in the media and through language distort, degrade, and objectify both women and animals contributing to real-life violence. Because the oppression of both animals and women is interconnected, their liberation is also connected.

In the spirit of liberation, here are some things to consider:

1. Don’t use objectifying language. Consider referring to animals as “she or he” rather than “it”; resist the false human-animal dichotomy by referring to people as “human animals” or to other animals as “non-human animals”; accurately name dead animals what they are (e.g., “a dead cow” versus “steak” or “hamburger”).

2. Become mindful of how the media objectifies, distorts and degrades women and animals and resist being seduced into seeing this as pleasurable, amusing or alluring.

3. If you aren’t a vegetarian, consider making a commitment to a non-flesh diet. If you are a vegetarian or a semi-vegetarian, consider committing to a vegan lifestyle. For a Vegetarian Starter Kit, click here.

4. If you are talking to someone who is committed to gender equality but is not a vegetarian, explain the connection between the oppression of women and animals, and vice versa. For more info on Feminism and Animal Rights, click here. Also, to read more about Carol Adams' groundbreaking work in this area please click here.

Photo courtesy of Carol Adams and her Sexual Politics of Meat SlideShow

(1) U.S. Department of Justice. 2005 National Crime Victimization Study. 2005.