What is it like to be a vegetarian ecofeminist? I for one cannot call myself a vegetarian ecofeminist, but I would like to try to see from their perspective.
Seen in this photo is a person slicing what appears to be some type of meat. I was unable to make distinct connections or develop any sort of thoughts from viewing this photo at first. However, my mind then took a different approach. At first, I thought what if the figure was made to represent how Men provided for their families in the early days and how Women were not given the option but instead had to stay at home with the children and clean. My second thought came from my love of animals. I had to ask myself if it was worth the life of a precious animal just because something is said to “taste” good. I have taken several philosophy classes in the past and we speak of Utilitarian ethics. This is when you promote happiness and well being of all things that can feel emotion or pain. Animals can feel pain and can feel emotion and from seeing this photo I can feel that pain. Humans have lost their ability to not be selfish when it comes to food. There are plenty of other options for food that don’t involve taking the life of a living, breathing, emotional animal.
Not even food can escape the labels placed on them by society. This brings me to look at gendered foods. I found an article I want to link at the bottom of the blog about food decision research. Men are said to be able to eat steak, meats, and other foods that are unhealthy. Women, however, should eat healthy, organic foods such as salads. (Zhu) I would be lying if I said I didn’t think of the movie White Chicks when they are on a date and Terry Crews orders chicken and says, “for the lady perhaps a salad.” I’m sure you have all seen the movie, so you understand the reference. In today’s society people are picking and choosing what they eat based on how it makes them feel or look. A man is going to seem less masculine to some if he orders a salad, and a woman might seem less feminine if she orders a steak. Why is it that gender norms translate into our lifestyles, especially something we need to survive?
Gaard and Curtain, two ecofeminists provide insight into how ecofeminists perceive animals. Gaard brings up ecofeminists seeing a tie between sexism and speciesism. She mentions philosopher Peter Singer who I have done previous research on and who mentions utilitarian vs. Kantian views on the treatment of animals. Gaard states that “speciesism is a form of oppression that parallels or reinforces other forms of oppression” (Gaard 20). Utilitarian’s which I previously mentioned before, believes animals can suffer and therefore utilitarians cannot go through with what might bring animals suffering. I believe these feelings could relate to the feelings of Gaard seeing the bird locked up in the cage having its life controlled by another human. I believe she would follow this because of her mentioning speciesism as she does. Curtain took a similar approach to the views and values of vegetarian ecofeminism and looked at it from a moral perspective which everything I have mentioned previously falls under ethical theories. Curtain says “there are persons who have a choice of what food they want to eat” (Curtain 8). To look back of the feelings I felt viewing the image of the person cutting the meat. I felt as if I do choose what I eat and why is it that I have made the choice to eat meat knowing that an animal had to die for it? An ecofeminist such as Gaard or Curtain would examine the ethics and morals behind my decision. The violence inflicted on animals might give off the wrong impression of me and might put me in a violent category. From reading these articles and having previously taken ethics, I truly am rethinking my eating habits. Maybe if I make a change, I will better connect with the animals I am sharing this beautiful world with.
Article:
Is meat manly? Article URL : https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/is-meat-manly-how-society-pressures-us-to-make-gendered-food-choices/2017/01/24/84669506-dce1-11e6-918c-99ede3c8cafa_story.html
Citations:
Curtin, Deane. “Contextual Moral Vegetarianism.” Animal Rights Library, www.animal-rights-library.com/texts-m/curtin01.htm.
Gaard, Greta. “Ecofeminism on the Wing: Perspectives on Human-Animal Relations.” Academia.edu – Share Research, www.academia.edu/2489929/Ecofeminism_on_the_Wing_Perspectives_on_Human-Animal_Relations.
In your analysis of the photo, you bring up some interesting points about gender and the nuclear family. I agree that this chef looks like a man preparing masculine meat for, perhaps, his family. One of my favorite ways to teach people who don’t really understand feminism about feminism, is to ask people to think about who normally cooks in a nuclear family. Then, to follow this question, you ask them how many famous female chefs they know. This leads them to realize that even when society devotes a task to women, they are not recognized for it. This leads to a strange relationship with food, where women commonly prepare it, but men get all of the glamour and success of being a ‘professional chef.’ As Deane Curtin put it in Contextual Moral Veganism, “Here too the experiences of women in patriarchal cultures are especially valuable because women, more then men, experience the effects of culturally sanctioned oppressive attitudes toward the appropriate shape of the body.” Curtin explains my problem with professional chefs through her analysis of societal norms. This allows us to understand why we have this problem with gendered professions, and as a result of that, a problem with gendered food practices. This, again, allows us to analyze the gendering of food, like meat, in relation to the gendering of skills, like cooking, and then we can question why this happens and how it is seen through things like this simple image of a dude cutting meat.
I like the optimistic approach that you use to define the picture rather than directly criticizing it like I did. I haven’t thought about that the picture can tell us about things like man working for his family as a professional chef. I guess perhaps its because what we learn about women and animal being oppressed by men. But that’s different. Now, the question that you asked from yourself that is it worth killing animal just because it taste good, I’ll say no and I believe you have the same answer too. If the reason for killing animal and consuming their meat is because of their taste than I think we should start eating humans because our meat would be tastier than animals as we eat so much better food than animals do. But we can’t do that obviously, we can kill animals because humans have control over them because in reality animals are helpless, they can’t protect themselves from murderers like we humans.
The movie you mentioned as a reference was amazing. I haven’t seen that movie but I can imagine the context. Adding into the discussion from article that you mentioned by Christy Brissette, he talked about how these stereotypes of men having meat harms them increasing risk of cancer and heart diseases. Even after knowing the outcomes and possible risks men still are expected to have red meat, steak and man associated food. We can deal with health issues but we can’t look as feminine by not eating meat.
Gendered based food is not only restricted with men eating meat and women having salads but also having chocolates are being associated with female gender.
Eva Wiseman in her article talks about chocolates eaten by children but now they are also secretly consumed by women too. Statistics showed that only 11% of men eat chocolate however, a third of women dream to have chocolates. Women in general during their menstrual cycle urge to have chocolate however, men, they don’t have to go through any of these things so they won’t understand that urge and at that point for them it is very easy to label chocolate as women’s thing to eat.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/17/gender-eating-men-women
Hi Ashton, I really liked your post this week and I would like to touch on how you explained the photo. You said, “I thought what if the figure was made to represent how Men provided for their families in the early days and how Women were not given the option but instead had to stay at home with the children and clean.” which is a very interesting approach on how to analyze the photo, and one that I did not think of when looking at it. It does make sense though and brings the idea of sexism into the bigger picture, especially because the figure cutting the meat appears to be masculine. When I saw the photo I thought of how there are two knives, one symbolizing the killing of the animal, and one symbolizing the carving of the animal meat. I also felt like it was very manufactured feeling seeing as the ‘man’ in the photo is computer generated and is wearing a chef hat.
I also like how you talked about gendered foods and said, “A man is going to seem less masculine to some if he orders a salad, and a woman might seem less feminine if she orders a steak. Why is it that gender norms translate into our lifestyles, especially something we need to survive?”. This brings up an interesting idea of, why are we conditioned into thinking certain foods are for men and women? I think it is due to our society and culture.