Hi everyone and welcome back to my blog.
This week I wanted to talk about what being a vegetarian means, what gendered foods are, and how other scholars view animals and our relationships.
Below I have included a photo of a human figure slicing a piece of meat, which to me shows a disconnection between human and animals. By looking at this photo, we can not even tell what animal the meat is from, or where it is from, or the life of the animal who gave their life to feed us. When we look at this photo, all we see is food. It also gives me a sense of uneasiness because there are two knives in the meat, signifying one knife to kill the animal, and one knife to carve up the animal meat. It just looks very computerized and makes me think about my food choices.
Now lets talk about something called, “gendered foods”. As stated in an article called, “Meat Heads: New Study Focuses on How Meat Consumption Alters Men’s Self-Perceived Levels of Masculinity”. This idea of certain foods being for men or women seems to be a topic of interest on online forums and talks about how meat is a “masculine” food, and salad is a “feminine” food. As stated in the article, “In a series of experiments, researchers found that after consumers experience a threat to their masculinity, the availability of a meat dish lowered their anxiety back to the level of an unthreatened control group. A flesh-free alternative presented to the threatened group did not produce the same anxiety-alleviating effect. The researchers hypothesize this effect is due to the masculinity-symbolizing power of meat. Or, in layman’s terms: eat a steak, feel more like a man”, this means that meat is for men to eat so they feel more manly, and salad is for women to eat to feel more feminine. In my opinion, anyone should be able to eat what they want, when they want, and if their date does not like that, then BYE. For me, I try to not eat red meat as much as possible, but I still like to enjoy chicken quite often, and the occasional steak tips.
Some examples of other scholars view vegetarianism is Gaard and Curtin. According to Deane Curtin, she identifies as a “contextual moral vegetarian” and she says that by being a contextual moral vegetarian that she, “cannot refer to an absolute moral rule that prohibits meat-eating under all circumstances. There may be some contexts in which another response is appropriate. Though I am committed to moral vegetarianism, I cannot say that I would never kill an animal for food. Would I not kill an animal to provide food for my son if he were starving? Would I not generally prefer the death of a bear to the death of a loved one? I am sure I would. The point of a contextualist ethic is that one need not treat all interests equally as if one had no relationship to any of the parties”.
Another point of view is from Greta Gaard, who believes that animals should have rights, and that “feminists that politicize their care for animals see a specific linkage between sexism and speciesism, between the oppression of women and the oppression of animals. Speciesism is defined as the oppression of one species by another” and she even relates to having pets that you neglect, neuter, and control is the same or similar to slavery within humans. Overall, I believe that being a vegetarian is a good thing and does really help the environment and nature. Although I am not a vegetarian, I can respect those who are, and I do try and limit my meat intake on an everyday basis. Thanks for reading!
The way you explain the picture was wonderful. Your explanation make me see that the second knife has a role too. That although the animal is already dead but it is killed by this very guy who now is slicing that meat to consume himself and sell to others. As you said that we cannot know what meat is this but we do presume that no matter what meat it is, it’s for humans to consume.
I want to mention a religious tradition of oppression over animals. Muslim religion is very simple but is made difficult by Muslims themselves. I am a Muslim but I belong to a different sect so we don’t follow this tradition that I am about to tell. Centuries from now when Islam established was a patriarch Abraham. He and his wife couldn’t have a child and after years of praying finally God gifted Him with a son and one day God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son for Him. Abraham agreed to Gods’ command closed His eyes and sacrificed His son. But when he opens his eyes it was a sheep and not His son. This event happened only to test Abraham’s loyalty. It was a lesson for Muslims to sacrifice thing that is most important to them. And I know for all of us our children are most important but God didn’t asked that and neither asked animal sacrifice but Muslims from that event only took the animal sacrifice and not the one God actually wanted. Now every Eid-ul Adha, the day when this event took place, millions of animals are slaughter in the name of Allah all over the world. The worst part of it that I hate the most is that they fill their refrigerator with that meat and eat it for months. They enjoy slaughtering animal and I hate it. I and my sect don’t believe in animal slaughter, because no God will ask for this. I hope that one day they understand the actually meaning of sacrifice the God wants and stop slaughtering sweet, poor animals.
I’ll just add one thing that I did. I went with my friends for fishing and I caught one fish. But as I pulled it out of water I saw it’s suffering that it couldn’t breathe, at that point I started crying and realized that when I have breathing issues when in water how that fish would be feeling right now. And immediately I threw it back into the water. I remember that feeling that I might kill the fish it overwhelmed me and make me think that how can I eat fish and such things that are being killed by us. But I still do eat fish and meat although I eat vegetables more than meat and very less fish I still do and that is because I haven’t killed them. Someone else’s did. It is so cold of me. But we humans are very selfish. But now I’ll make sure that I stop eating animals and sea animals because if we’ll stop eating animals their demand would decrease and thus the animal killing too.
Hi Deanna!
I thought your ideas about the image shown of the person cutting the meat were spot on. I can see the disconnection between the human and the animal. I agree that you can’t tell what the animal is, but at one point it had a life like you and I. Your image connections connects to the readings of Gaard and Curtin in many ways. Gaard and Curtain, two ecofeminists could both agree that the image shows the disconnections we have with our neighbors in nature. You mentioned Gaard’s quote on speciesism connecting to sexism. Women have received such negative comments comparing them to animals and being ranked below which is what I feel a lot of us do when it comes to placing ourselves above animals. Both are totally wrong, and I believe we should have equality for all. Gaard finishes her quote by comparing both speciesism and sexism to parallel forms of oppression, which you have mentioned. In mistreating an animal for our own personal gain, whether it be killing them for food, or sometimes having pets, it can be looked at as forms of oppression. Women placed below men or compared to animals is a form of oppression. They fall hand in hand. The second ecofeminist I mentioned, Curtain focuses on the morals behind killing animals for food. She mentions how we have other food options and because of this we shouldn’t feed into the oppression of animals. I like that you mentioned how you personally are not a vegetarian. Its funny I can say all this and not call myself a vegetarian also. Its made me want to look into my options before immediately going for that chicken or hamburger next time. I don’t want to contribute to the oppression of animals. It also makes me want to go out and do everything for my turtle to ensure he is as happy as he can be. I really enjoyed reading your blog and look forward to the next one!
I never thought of your recognition of the two knifes signifying one as killing and the other as butchering. That was a very good thought to come out of that, and I do not think I would have ever thought of that. I feel the study of men eating meat to feel better is biased. I feel there is not a conscious act that men feel the need to eat meat, but rather meat provides nutrients in a way that can make a man feel full after being made empty. Though I will say there is a stigma on men eating salad and that women should eat salad, but personally I do not feel meat ever makes me feel more like a man, but a nice juicy burger sure can be satisfying, but so can the fatty french fries i eat with it. I would argue its more about a comfort food than meat itself, and maybe there is some relation to feeling like a man and eating meat, but if my pride was struck I think fatty foods would fill me better than meaty food, maybe a nice fatty steak. Also Vegans and vegetarians are 100% correct in that it is definitely a moral high ground. To only eat plant based foods, means more land in general to grow food and nature because not only does it take up land to have a cow, but it takes up land to grow food to feed the cow. with out the cow, the land the cow uses can all go to feeding people. Though I would argue it is ok to eat meat and animal products. The issue lies in respect. There should be respect for the animals while they are alive to have the best lives they could be given. Like our ancestors, celebrating an animal giving its life for us to eat, we should transfer that to today. celebrating an animals life by giving it a happy life, so that it can then become a happy meal (pun intended). Seriously though, tastier meat does come from more free animals. So it should not be that we can not eat meat, but we should eat less meat as well as when we do eat meat, buy from local farmers, from fair treatment farms and sustainable farms too. Overall, I believe animals should and will have rights, but rights start at home and until we can learn to respect ourselves and our fellow humans, then we will never be able to respect anything else.