Summary Of Carol Adams's 'Pornography Of Meat'

Maddy Bowen
WMST 1306.06
Professor Lori Peterson
7 May 2014
Women’s Studies Final Paper Carol Adams, author of The Pornography of Meat, takes a deeper look into the implications of the progressive feminist movement and how it’s served as a catalyst of change to end this sexualization of women. As well as the many different ways in which this message appears in both the media and the gendered world that surrounds us; as she explores the content presented in a wide range of advertisements as reference points. Adams argues that, “viewing other beings as consumable is a central aspect of our culture” (p.12). According to Adams, men see the world they live in as a hierarchy in which women exist only to be known as a step above the animals.
Even our ordinary, everyday language reminds us of how many ways that food is sexualized. Take a look at what the thesaurus entries are for ‘desire’; the overlap of vocabulary is shocking: appetite, hunger, hungry look, craving, greed. Both food and bodies whet the appetite, stimulate the juices, make the mouth water, activate the taste buds, excite, smell good, titillate, allure, seduce. In an age that The Atlantic has dubbed “the end of men,” the message of Adam’s first publication The Sexual Politics of Meat is needed more than ever. The Pornography of Meat, takes this message further by making a greater effort to communicate with the audience most fit for the concepts she discusses. How does Carol Adams’ use of the ‘women as meat’ metaphors function to provoke a change-of-thought amongst the American public that our male-driven society has contributed to the sexual objectification and subjugation of women in society?
How does someone become a piece of meat? This is the question of which all the sustenance (in the book) stems. The valued concepts and driving purpose for which the novel stems, is due to Adams’ effort to base the answers of this provocative question by explaining in detail the hidden meanings presented within the culture around us. In essence, The Pornography of Meat is a written account of the social and political values in which Ms. Adams’ delineates her point of reason as to why this sexual objectification and subornation of women leads to the takedown of such a powerful female society. She targets an audience made up of young women generally in their twenties or so. Majority of who are a very driven, forward-thinking, open-minded group that shares awareness for the negative impacts of the patriarchal influences in society. Adams recognizes that this is the audience that best suits her intended message and for this she also sees the active involvement that these individuals serve to the active service and contribution within the political realm. This generation of motivated “do it ourselves” group of people are tech savvy which is also highly beneficial to the message Adams seeks to produce across the nation. Also, her intended audience recognizes the role that the media serves in feeding the continued stereotypes of men and the specified reference towards women—according to traditional ideals of a patriarchal society. Through the misrepresentation of women and the media’s push to provide a publicized, more mainstream type of porn, women across the nation are rising up; and the Pornography of Meat is giving these individuals a reason to do so.

Carol Adams seems to emphasize two concepts in particular to act as the primary themes of her message. Those include the topic of sexual objectification as well as subordination of women in the male directed media.  what era or wave do these two concepts reflect or associate closest to?? In society today, women are rampantly put on display as if their only purpose is to serve a man by pleasing him sexually. This is how Adams describes the male population, as believing to live in a world where they are the reigning king and women on the other hand are not only second tier but in terms of placement they are hardly above animals. This assumes a number of things, including the idea that a woman does not retain the choice to deny a man of his requests. As if women serve to a man’s world. Consider the ideology of separate spheres that took full control over women’s day-to-day lives after WW2 had ended. Women were given the role of ‘home-maker’ and were expected to remain in the home as caretaker—only to tend to the services requested or needed by the family. Where as the men took the role of work life and held authority over all family members, as the provider he was in control of everything and had the ability to dictate what ever it was that he wanted. Take for instance Women’s magazines, which offer extensive advice to their readers that in order for them to catch a man and keep him, they need to serve him steak and lots of it.
This is not only a reference to steaks and pork ribs, but a reference to serving up their bodies as a way to ‘keep him around.’ Male power is exemplified in so many ways through societal norms. For example, the male “bonding” that takes place as part of the ‘meat-eating culture’ in various male-identified gathering spots, such as, steak houses, fraternities, and strip clubs. And then of course there are the endless advertisements for meat companies and fast-food chains that make “wink-wink” gags about legs, breasts, thighs, and so on and so forth. One of the more disquieting examples discussed both in the book and in Adams’s traveling lecture and slideshow, is a pork industry comedy publication called “Playboar.” A highlighted feature of this illustrious publication is a parody ad for the “S&M Hog Equipment Warehouse.” Under the tagline “It Hurts so Good!” This use of exploitation and language to convey a message that benefits the business is commonly achieved through advertising. Fixations on women 's body parts expressed through ads for the breasts, legs, and thighs of chickens and turkeys are amongst many others that provide messages of this regard. As though to tell women of the need to be satisfying for men’s sexual appetite; essentially just blatantly telling them to submit—as to be
‘consumed’—to male power. With many of the same words crossing over to describe what is sexually desirable and undesirable in each case. In fact, we sometimes have trouble even talking about food without metaphorically invoking sex, and vice versa. Additionally, some other uses of eating expressions are equally recognized in the sex domain. American English includes those such as: hunger, craving, appetite, eating, nibbling, licking, sucking, swallowing, biting, devouring, gobbling, stuffing, feasting, etc. Moreover, the body is dessert or women are desserts metaphors are also used by Americans to talk about sex, such as penis as ‘lollipop’, women as cookie, women as cheesecake (Fernández, 2008). Women’s perfumes advertise as if to function as way to become the tempting, attractive meat for men to indulge. It seems that sex is perceived as more pleasurable in the American culture (at least for males) as the “foods” in their eating/food metaphors are mainly appetizing foods like desserts or snacks. Words such as these are so ingrained into the frequent and everyday conversation that goes on as a form of casual interaction between people everywhere. With this, Adams attributes the observation that if there is a constantly-involved reference put in place for such casual interaction, how do we expect to make any progress in the expanse of sexualization through advertising and promotion. It is a provoking question that leads her audience of intelligent young women to consider the repercussions of this societal concern.
Gone are the days where men rule the house, where women are expected to be housewives, and where women are to submit to a male dominated society.
This is the reality of the matter. We no longer live in a society such as this one, at the very least there are questions that have arisen from even the most patriarchal of areas in society. Change is being made and that is the result of this message Adams’ seeks to promote within the females of a new forward-thinking society. In an interview by the Conductive Chronicle in October 2010, Adams was asked the following question, “What progress have you seen in cultural acceptance of your theory?” (Dunnewold) To which she answered, “Mostly changes through the progress on women’s health care including, rape crisis centers, battered women’s centers, sexual harassment laws, reproductive choice, all is because of the feminism movement.” The fact that we have made it to this point is an achievement worth celebrating, but once more it is not over yet. We, as women, are still not treated equally in a variety of ways and this is still our struggle. I think bell hooks’ work is a great example of how she was able to challenge feminist groups and successfully provide a valid reason that they should seriously consider gender’s relation to race, class, and sex, a concept coined as ‘intersectionality’. hooks makes a great point, in which she directs to all people—regardless of gender, by covering the significance of pushing for greater male
involvement in the equality movement; she explains that in order to make change happen, men must do their part.
The third wave of feminism is a critical point of the current developmental changes for women. More often than ever we see women standing up as a sign that the third wave is making progress and not just within their community. Women are recognizing that this is not just about feminism it is about getting the same respect across the board.

Works Cited:

Adams, Carol J. The Pornography of Meat. 1st ed. New York: Continuum, 2004. Print.

Dunnewold, Ann L. "Twenty Years of “The Sexual Politics of Meat:” An Interview With
Carol J. Adams." Cchronicle.com. Conductive Media, 23 Aug. 2010. Web. 17
Oct. 2013.

Kemmerer, Lisa. "The Pornography of Meat by Carol Adams | Philosophy Now."
Philosophynow.org. Philosophy Now, 2006. Web. 14 Oct. 2013.