Objectifying women and sexualizing meat: An interview with Carol J. Adams

There is something very similar in the way we cut animals up into body parts, turning them into objects for our consumption rather than seeing them as whole beings, and the way in which we cut women up into parts in order to treat them, not as whole human beings, but as sexualized bodies or body parts. When it comes to organizations such as PETA, who regularly feature the sexualized bodies of women in their ad campaigns, many excuse this particular form of objectification, arguing that we must do anything we can to save animals, but why is it that we so readily accept the objectification and dehumanization of women? Even when we object to the similar representation and treatment of animals? And why is it that we think it appropriate to exchange or replace one form of exploitation for another, as these ad campaigns which use women’s bodies to ‘sell’ animal rights, do? Meghan Murphy explores the connections between women, meat and objectification with vegan-feminist intellectual and activist, Carol J. Adams, author of The Pornography of Meat and The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory. For more on Adams’ work, visit: www.caroljadams.com

This interview originally aired on August 22, 2011 on Vancouver Co-op Radio CFRO 102.7fm

Interview with Carol J Adams (Originally aired Aug 22 2011)

Objectifying women and sexualizing meat: An interview with Carol J. Adams
/
Meghan Murphy

Founder & Editor

Meghan Murphy is a freelance writer and journalist from Vancouver, BC. She has been podcasting and writing about feminism since 2010 and has published work in numerous national and international publications, including The Spectator, UnHerd, Quillette, the CBC, New Statesman, Vice, Al Jazeera, The Globe and Mail, and more. Meghan completed a Masters degree in the department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at Simon Fraser University in 2012 and is now exiled in Mexico with her very photogenic dog.