The Sexual Politics of Meat - 25th Anniversary Edition: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory

by Carol J. Adams

Overview

The Sexual Politics of Meat is Carol Adams' inspiring and controversial exploration of the interplay between contemporary society's ingrained cultural misogyny and its obsession with meat and masculinity. First published in 1990, the book has continued to change the lives of tens of thousands of readers into the second decade of the 21st century.

Published in the year of the book's 25th anniversary, the Bloomsbury Revelations edition includes a substantial new afterword, including more than 20 new images and discussions of recent events that prove beyond doubt the continuing relevance of Adams' revolutionary book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501312830
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/22/2015
Series:	Bloomsbury Revelations
Edition description:	Anniversary
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	363,014
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Carol J. Adams is an activist and author of The Pornography of Meat, Living Among Meat Eaters, and many other books challenging a sexist, meat-eating world. She is a sought-after speaker throughout North America and Europe, and has been invited to more than 100 campuses to show "The Sexual Politics of Meat Slide Show," which is always being updated to include contemporary cultural representations.

Table of Contents

Illustrations

Preface to the Twentieth Anniversary Edition

Preface to the Tenth Anniversary Edition

Preface to the Original Edition

Foreword by Nellie McKay

Acknowledgments

Part One: The Patriarchal Texts of Meat
Chapter 1
The Sexual Politics of Meat
Chapter 2
The Rape of Animals, the Butchering of Women
Chapter 3
Masked Violence, Muted Voices
Chapter 4
The Word Made Flesh
Part Two: From the Belly of Zeus
Chapter 5
Dismembered Texts, Dismembered Animals

Chapter 6
Frankenstein's Vegetarian Monster
Chapter 7
Feminism, the Great War, and Modern Vegetarianism
Part Three: Eat Rice Have Faith in Women
Chapter 8
The Distortion of the Vegetarian Body
Chapter 9
For a Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory
Epilogue:
Destabilizing Patriarchal Consumption
Afterword to the Bloomsbury Revelations edition
Notes
Select Bibliography
Twentieth Anniversary Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

The connections traced between rampant masculinity, misogyny, carnivorism, and militarism operate as powerfully today as when Carol Adams first diagnosed them twenty years ago.” —J. M. Coetzee

“A bible of the vegan community.” —New York Times

“Important and provocative ... Likely to inspire and enrage readers across the political spectrum.” —Library Jourbanal

“Adams' original, provocative book makes a major contribution to the debate on animal rights.” —Publishers Weekly

“In the 20th-anniversary edition of this thought-provoking book, Adams explores the links between the slaughter of animals and violence directed against women, and ties the carnivorous diet to such patriarchal ideas as 'the end justifies the means.'” —Toronto Globe and Mail

“...a richly polemical discussion of the relationships among patriarchal culture, the exploitation of women and of animals, and the politics of meat-eating.” —Joyce Carol Oates, New York Review of Books

“Adams' argument in The Sexual Politics of Meat is as elegant as it is disturbing … It makes even the most cognizant among us feel a twinge of shame for not noticing, and reacting, sooner, and with due outrage.” —James McWilliams, Pacific Standard

“The Sexual Politics of Meat couldn't be more timely, or more disturbing.” —Environmental Ethics

From the Publisher

The Sexual Politics of Meat couldn't be more timely, or more disturbing.

Environmental Ethics

...a richly polemical discussion of the relationships among patriarchal culture, the exploitation of women and of animals, and the politics of meat-eating.

New York Review of Books

In the 20th-anniversary edition of this thought-provoking book, Adams explores the links between the slaughter of animals and violence directed against women, and ties the carnivorous diet to such patriarchal ideas as 'the end justifies the means.'

Toronto Globe and Mail

A bible of the vegan community.

New York Times

Many cultures equate meat-eating with virility, and in some societies women offer men the ``best'' (i.e., bloodiest) food at the expense of their own nutritional needs. Building upon these observations, feminist activist Adams detects intimate links between the slaughter of animals and violence directed against women. She ties the prevalence of a carnivorous diet to patriarchal attitudes, such as the idea that the end justifies the means, and the objectification of others. In Frankenstein , Mary Shelley made her Creature a vegetarian, a point Adams relates to the Romantics' radical politics and to visionary novels by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Dorothy Bryant and others. Adams, who teaches at Perkins School of Theology, Dallas, sketches the alliance of vegetarianism and feminism in antivivisection activism, the suffrage movement and 20th-century pacifism. Her original, provocative book makes a major contribution to the debate on animal rights. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Writer/activist/university lecturer Adams's important and provocative work compares myths about meat-eating with myths about manliness; and explores the literary, scientific, and social connections between meat-eating, male dominance, and war. Drawing on such diverse sources as butchering texts, cookbooks, Victorian ``hygiene'' manuals, and Alice Walker, the author provides a compelling case for inextricably linking feminist and vegetarian theory. This book is likely to both inspire and enrage readers across the political spectrum: we learn, for example, that veal was served at Gloria Steinem's 50th birthday, as well as of the atrocities of the slaughterhouse. One wishes Adams had been more careful about documenting some of her claims--her contention, for instance, that early humans were entirely vegetarian, requires scholarly support. Nevertheless this is recommended for both public and academic collections.-- Beverly Miller, Boise State Univ. Lib., Id.

Library Journal