The Sexual Politics of the Vegetarian Section of the Freezer!

Was doing my grocery shopping today. On my way to the vegetarian section of the freezer, I noticed there was a man choosing some vegetarian frozen options. Noone out of the ordinary, your average Joe if you will, but you know what? I stopped in my tracks because at the moment that I noticed him, I had to mentally slap myself on my mental behind because not only was I shocked, but I was also puzzled. Puzzled that a MAN would be buying vegetarian food. Had it been a woman I am certain my reaction would have been blind indifference. However, here was this man making the choice I agree with and do you know what rushed through my mind?? "Huh! What's HE doing there? Oh, he's probably buying for his girlfriend!"
Can you believe that?? This is what society has reduced us to! It's a truth as old as time, but for a man not to eat MEAT points negatively toward his masculinity! For a woman, it has always been expected that she would ensure her man received the meat, since he was the dominant member of the family and for the dominant member of the family, the best foods are firstly his. Confound it, but I still cannot believe I subconsiously associate men with meat and meat with power. But I do. I do, and I believe that mostly everyone does too.
This was the idea behind an extremely interesting book I read last year. Click here
to check it out. The objectification of animals is equated with the objectification of women. The consumption of meat, equated with the consumption of women (whether through pornography or rape). It's an extremely interesting book and one which I would encourage anyone to read.



According to the website here's a little peek at what to expect:

- Sexualized fragmentation. Fragmented body parts of animals who will be eaten depicted in such a way that thoughts of women as sex objects are clearly evoked as well. Breast and thighs advertised on menus, as well as specific examples like "We serve the best legs in town," draw upon the patriarchal fixation on women's bodyparts.

- Animals feminized/sexualized. Animals presented in poses and clothes human females are represented in our culture (svelte legs, a "chick" in high heels, often animals posed like women, animals who are four-legged made to appear both "sexy" and bipedal, animals in bikinis). "I ate a pig..." Exactly who are they referring to?

- Back-entry shots of both animals and women. In pornography, back entry shots are constructed to convey both women's accessibility and imputes to them an "animal-like" nature, that is, "animal-like" in a speciesist culture, a view that sees women as desiring being sodomized; sometimes animals who are seen as consumable are positioned that way as an invitation to consumption.

- Connecting flesh eating and other forms of animal oppression to prostitution and pornography ("strip", "buck-naked", "Live Nude Lobsters!", and the "Happy Hooker," etc.).


Now you must excuse me, I have some peas to shell and a hut to clean... "COMING HONEY"