After Carol J. Adams’ pony was shot and killed, she had a realization that shaped her life.
“That night I bit into a hamburger,” Adams said. “Suddenly, I stopped. I thought, ‘I am eating a dead cow.’ I saw the same thing differently.”
Author gives lecture on feminism, meat
Feminist author and animal rights advocate Carol J. Adams discusses the connections between the objectifications of women and meat in advertisements during her Sexual Politics of Meat lecture Thursday in South Kedzie Hall.
—Adams is both a vegan and a feminist. She said after she gave up meat, she began seeing the connections between feminism and veganism.
More than 150 students and community members attended Adams’ Sexual Politics of Meat Slideshow and Lecture Thursday evening in South Kedzie Hall, where Adams spoke of her philosophies.
Students Promoting Animal Rights, or SPAR, Great Issues, Womyn’s Council, Animal Studies Program and ASMSU co-sponsored the event.
ASMSU is MSU’s undergraduate student government.
Adams’ lecture was an educational opportunity, said Mitch Goldsmith, president of SPAR and a social relations and policy and women’s and gender studies senior.
“We’re looking to educate people who have not noticed the interconnections and energize and revitalize people who have,” he said.
The lecture focused on the connection between the oppression of women and animals.
“I’m looking at how women in our culture are animalized and how animals are feminized and sexualized,” Adams said.
Adams is the author of several books, including “The Sexual Politics of Meat” and “The Pornography of Meat.”
She used a slideshow with pictures of advertisements and images from her books to supplement her lecture.
Adams said in the U.S., advertising represents public attitudes about meat and the female body.
“I think (images and advertisements are) a way now of hiding misogyny and making it safe to be misogynistic in a culture where sexual assault is illegal,” she said. “The problem is attitude.”
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The oppression of women and animals is interconnected on campus as well, Goldsmith said.
“When we do a vegan outreach and we see men that (say) they love the way meat tastes and they love chicken breasts and legs, (we) see the way they regard animals’ body parts in a sexual way,” he said. “It’s something we’ve been grappling with for quite a while (on campus).”
Comparative cultures and politics junior Beth McReynolds became a vegetarian after reading information about pigs, cows and other animals used for food.
“When I first got to State, it was difficult because there weren’t very many vegetarian options,” she said. “There were some options, but they were very limited.”
Wearing an outdoors camouflage jacket, agribusiness junior Patrick Vincent said he felt “like a fish out of water” at the lecture.
“I want to learn about the sexual politics … (but) I’m going to keep eating meat,” he said.
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Womens’ and animal rights advocates should become involved with other activist groups to unite under oppression, Goldsmith said.
“I think that it’s important to have empathy with whoever is being oppressed,” he said. “Sympathy is not something you only have so much of — empathy can be boundless. This is something we should all do as caring beings.”
