The Sexual Politics of Breast Milk in the Amazon

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Content warning: Contains images of victimized Nonhuman Animals.
Not Safe for Work: Contains images of people unclothed.

awa-amazon-tribe-breastfeeds-animals-61

Image credits: Domenico Pugliese | Image was not altered by VFN

In a story with Bored Panda, a photographer’s account of an indigenous tribe in the Amazon highlights the practice of breastfeeding nonhuman species. The above image is used to bait readers into clicking and visiting the site, suggesting that the practice is considered shocking and strange.

From a vegan feminist perspective, this “click bait” is intriguing.

Why stigmatize when humans breastfeed other animals? It erodes that hierarchy of power and dominance–it reminds us that we are all animals.

SqA cow being milked by machineuirrels aren’t the only opportunists. Many humans consume enormous quantities of nonhuman breast milk. Importantly, it is mechanically collected. Why is it stigmatized to drink directly from the breast of other animals? Again, it reminds us that we are animals. Separation also helps to commodify and objectify the persons exploited in the process. This is necessary because intimacy and empathy disrupt oppression.

It should also be noted that breastfeeding in general is rather stigmatized in the “developed” world. Again, this likely has to do with breast feeding reminding us that we are animals, too. Of course, it also uses a sexualized body part for something other than male pleasure, a cardinal sin in the patriarchy.

As shocking as these images may be to some readers, humans breast feeding other animals is not new or unheard of. It is, however, rarely visible in patriarchal, elite-run media spaces and historical accounts.

Image credits: Domenico Pugliese

Image credits: Domenico Pugliese

What is also interesting from this story is that the Bored Panda story fails to include any images from the collection that depict animals in various states of death, decay, and butchery. This gruesome theme featured prominently in the original photographer’s gallery.

But nonhuman suffering does not fit into the journalist’s one-with-nature paradise narrative. Consider the images below, for instance. Bored Panda chose to share the image of a man kissing a monkey, but did not include the image of the monkey broiling for dinner.

The photographer is quoted:

They feed the squirrels and monkeys like they feed their kids, breast feeding. [ . . . ] It highlights how far we have come from where we were. [ . . . ] They are so close to nature. [ . . . ] In fact, it is not even close – they are part of nature.

Indeed, indigenous communities are frequently subject to this romanticization, a process that is objectifying in itself. Inaccurate and infantilizing, these stories make good entertainment for the perceived white audience in the West.

Image credits: Domenico Pugliese

Image credits: Domenico Pugliese

Image credits: Domenico Pugliese

Image credits: Domenico Pugliese

 

Corey Lee WrennDr. Wrenn is Lecturer of Sociology. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology with Colorado State University in 2016. She received her M.S. in Sociology in 2008 and her B.A. in Political Science in 2005, both from Virginia Tech. She was awarded Exemplary Diversity Scholar, 2016 by the University of Michigan’s National Center for Institutional Diversity. She served as council member with the American Sociological Association’s Animals & Society section (2013-2016) and was elected Chair in 2018. She serves as Book Review Editor to Society & Animals and has contributed to the Human-Animal Studies Images and Cinema blogs for the Animals and Society Institute. She has been published in several peer-reviewed academic journals including the Journal of Gender Studies, Feminist Media Studies, Disability & Society, Food, Culture & Society, and Society & Animals. In July 2013, she founded the Vegan Feminist Network, an academic-activist project engaging intersectional social justice praxis. She is the author of A Rational Approach to Animal Rights: Extensions in Abolitionist Theory (Palgrave MacMillan 2016).

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Des Hommes Rongeant des Steaks

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Translation by Hypathie: Feminist and Anti-Speciesist Blog. The original English version of this essay can be found by clicking here.
Man in a suit sits in front of a plate with a raw steak, knife and fork poised in his fists on the table

A la suite de mon essai “Des femmes riant seules avec des salades “, un collègue curieux google-ise ce qu’on pourrait considérer comme le contraire : des hommes mangeant des steaks. Ce qu’il a trouvé, et qui s’est trouvé confirmé lors de mes propres recherches d’images sur Google, est le thème répétitif  d’hommes s’agaçant les dents sur une grosse tranche de viande, souvent avec la fourchette et le couteau fermement plantés de chaque côté de leur assiette.

Man gnawing on raw steak

Le message primordial envoyé par ces images semble être ” JE SUIS UN HOMME ; L’HOMME A BESOIN DE VIANDE “. Ses poings bien alignés et leur prise ferme sur les ustensiles sont des codes genrés communs, présentant les hommes aux commandes et au contrôle de leur environnement.

De façon intéressante, les steaks sont presque toujours montrés crus. L’intention vraisemblable est de montrer la consommation de chair crue par les hommes (un comportement anti-naturel) comme naturelle. Le fait est souligné par l’abondance de photographies qui montrent des hommes consommant le steak directement sans l’aide de couverts, rongeant la chair comme s’ils étaient une espèce carnivore non humaine. A contrario, quand je cherche des images de femmes mangeant des steaks, à maintes reprises, elles sont aux prises avec de la viande crue positionnée au-dessus de leur tête, l’air accablé -personne ne mange la tête à la renverse. Ceci suggère aussi la soumission, une soumission souvent sexualisée à travers leur pose et leur nudité. Quand elles ont des couverts, elles sont davantage montrées les utilisant de manière faible ou peu sûre.

Woman Eating Steak

Par dessus tout, les images de femmes mangeant des steaks sont moins nombreuses, car la notion est contraire aux normes de genre. Quand on en trouve, il est clair que la hiérarchie des genres doit être préservée en démontrant que la consommation de chair (un acte de domination et de pouvoir) est moins naturelle et plus maladroite chez les femmes.

Women Cutting Steak

La viande est un symbole de masculinité. Donc, les hommes interagissent avec la viande pour démontrer leurs prouesses, les femmes interagissent avec la viande pour démontrer leur soumission.

Corey Lee WrennDr. Wrenn is Lecturer of Sociology. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology with Colorado State University in 2016. She received her M.S. in Sociology in 2008 and her B.A. in Political Science in 2005, both from Virginia Tech. She was awarded Exemplary Diversity Scholar, 2016 by the University of Michigan’s National Center for Institutional Diversity. She served as council member with the American Sociological Association’s Animals & Society section (2013-2016) and was elected Chair in 2018. She serves as Book Review Editor to Society & Animals and has contributed to the Human-Animal Studies Images and Cinema blogs for the Animals and Society Institute. She has been published in several peer-reviewed academic journals including the Journal of Gender Studies, Feminist Media Studies, Disability & Society, Food, Culture & Society, and Society & Animals. In July 2013, she founded the Vegan Feminist Network, an academic-activist project engaging intersectional social justice praxis. She is the author of A Rational Approach to Animal Rights: Extensions in Abolitionist Theory (Palgrave MacMillan 2016).

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Veganism, Degrowth and Redistribution

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Bird subsumed in oil spill

By Marv Wheale

The Vegan Feminist Network is dedicated to scrutinizing the interconnections among speciesism, genderism, heterosexism, colonialism, racism, poverty, disablism, ageism, sizeism, ecocide…..  Today I would like to concisely examine some related elements that could exercise a role in overcoming these structures of subordination.

We know that veganism is the credible stance to take against the ideology and praxis of human  supremacy.  Yet when we practice and promote a vegan way of life within capitalism, veganism stands unopposed to the continuation of economic inequality, middle class values/lifestyles, the larger systems of animal use and ecological erosion (obviously vegans do mitigate these troubles to a limited extent).

Chicken corpses on conveyor belt

For veganism to succeed and not be isolationist it must be anti-capitalist and degrowth.  Though socialism may resolve economic class divisions, it’s emphasis on growing the economy puts a strain on ecosystems, nonhuman species habitats and climate (possibly as much as capitalist development).   Mining, industrial agriculture, intensive logging and fossil use are integral parts of many socialist agendas, except  the green kinds.  Perpetual production growth is a dead end for a liveable planet.

Compulsory societal wide frugal living is required for securing biosphere sustainability and enhancement.

We could call it “revolutionary simplicity”. But how do we end indigence with economic contraction?  Don’t the poor need growth to have a dignified life?  

Not in the conventional sense.  Improving employment, wages, living conditions, local vegan food production, education, public health and transportation and providing clean water don’t have the same devastating impacts on nature as aggregate expansion for private or government gain.

Free vegan food being offered at a Food Not Bombs tabling

Dispersing wealth evenly, vegan living, green energy, social housing, workers’ cooperatives, working less hours, men care-giving instead of worshipping porn and sports teams, cultivating talents, idle contemplation and revelry are types of progress that don’t ravage the earth and living beings like commercial extractivist societies do.

Redistribution, economic democracy,  animal/human animal equality, producing and consuming less, and post-growth economies would be powerful forms of intergroup solidarity and justice for all.

Veganist degrowth and redistribution is not a full-grown theory, plan of action or affiliation.  It is nonetheless worth exploring and perilous to dismiss.  Something nonvegan socialists and capitalists should adopt as well.   

SoaringFrigateBird

Dreamer?  Climate disruption, environmental despoliation, destitution and war may force us to take radical measures.  Now is the time to spread the conversation to raise consciousness to act for a nonviolent transition.

 

Marv is a moderator for the Vegan Feminist Network Facebook page.

Mujeres que se Ríen Solas con Ensaladas

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Translation by María. María is active with Ochodoscuatro Ediciones, a non-profit anti-speciesist book house that is noted for translating Carol Adams’ The Sexual Politics of Meat into Spanish. You can view the original English version of the essay below by clicking here.

Por Corey Lee Wrenn

Lo has visto cientos de veces. Ya sabes, la mujer de ojos brillantes que se está comiendo una ensalada. La cabeza inclinada hacia atrás en gesto de júbilo histérico, aparece completamente superada por la gloriosa mezcla de vegetales que adornan su plato. El folleto promocional de tu cooperativa local de alimentos naturales incluye esta escena. La página web de tu cadena de supermercados las utiliza. Así como los carteles de las paredes de su centro de salud. Montones de organizaciones veganas las utilizan. Diablos, apuesto que, si recuerdo bien, yo misma he utilizado una para ilustrar una publicación en este blog al menos una vez.

Fotos de archivo de mujeres… sentadas solas… con una ensalada tan condenadamente hilarante, que no pueden evitar estallar en risas y deleite.

Hace poco, lo absurdo de estas imágenes ha atraído la atención en Internet, resultando en imitaciones: una página Tumblr, e incluso una obra de teatro.

Comer ensalada no es especialmente divertido. Rara vez induce al éxtasis. Por lo general, resulta más bien una experiencia difícil, que consiste en empujar desordenadamente hojas de lechuga en tu boca. A menudo no es satisfactorio: demasiado aliño, o no suficiente. En realidad, puede que estés pensando si se te ha quedado un trocito de lechuga entre los dientes, y eso te impide sonreír de oreja a oreja entre bocado y bocado. Comer ensalada es, habitualmente, una actividad ordinaria y aburrida.

Cuando tu ensalada no para de contarte chistes.

Pero comer ensalada es una actividad femenina, y como tal, la tarea debe ser realizada para contar una historia particular, que tiene una función cuando lo observamos y documentamos.

La teoría feminista vegana nos dice que los alimentos (aquello que comemos y cómo lo comemos) está firmemente arraigado en las normas de género. El consumo de verduras (siendo la ensalada el tópico omnipresente) es un comportamiento altamente feminizado. Los códigos de género también se manifiestan en la habitual hiper-emotividad de las mujeres en publicidad. Es decir; las mujeres son a menudo retratadas teniendo respuestas emocionales inapropiadamente extremas. La representación de este tipo se suma a la comprensión cultural de la feminidad como infantil, irracional e inmadura. En este caso, incluso un poco alocada. Estas imágenes refuerzan la condición de subordinación de las mujeres. Unir mujeres hiper-emotivas con alimentos hiper-feminizados construyen una perfecta iconografía sexista.

Hombre a punto de tomar un poco de ensalada, sonríe suavemente a la cámara.

Por supuesto, ya me han hecho el inevitable comentario “¡pero los hombres también!”. Es cierto, a veces también se muestra a hombres estando un poquito demasiado emocionados al comer ensalada. Pero, seamos sinceros; ellos aparecen con mucha menos frecuencia representados carcajeándose, con su cabeza echada hacia atrás, en ropa interior, o embarazados. La frivolidad del consumo de ensaladas es, en gran medida, un asunto femenino.

Mujer acostada en la cama con ropa interior blanca comiéndose una ensalada.

Cuando los hombres sean representados en el escenario improbable de comerse una ensalada recostados en una cama llevando un tanga blanco, entonces, hablemos.

 

Corey Lee WrennDr. Wrenn is Lecturer of Sociology. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology with Colorado State University in 2016. She received her M.S. in Sociology in 2008 and her B.A. in Political Science in 2005, both from Virginia Tech. She was awarded Exemplary Diversity Scholar, 2016 by the University of Michigan’s National Center for Institutional Diversity. She served as council member with the American Sociological Association’s Animals & Society section (2013-2016) and was elected Chair in 2018. She serves as Book Review Editor to Society & Animals and has contributed to the Human-Animal Studies Images and Cinema blogs for the Animals and Society Institute. She has been published in several peer-reviewed academic journals including the Journal of Gender Studies, Feminist Media Studies, Disability & Society, Food, Culture & Society, and Society & Animals. In July 2013, she founded the Vegan Feminist Network, an academic-activist project engaging intersectional social justice praxis. She is the author of A Rational Approach to Animal Rights: Extensions in Abolitionist Theory (Palgrave MacMillan 2016).

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Des Femmes Riant Seules Avec des Salades

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Translation by Hypathia: Feminist and Anti-Speciesist Blog. The original English version of this essay can be found by clicking here.

Woman eating outdoors

Vous les avez vues des centaines de fois. Vous savez, la dame croquant dans une salade, les yeux brillants. Tête rejetée en arrière avec une jubilation hystérique, elle est surprise par le glorieux mélange de végétaux qui agrémentent son assiette. Le tract promotionnel de votre coopérative locale d’alimentation naturelle en est orné. Le site web de votre chaîne d’épicerie les utilise. Ainsi que les affiches sur les murs de la salle d’attente de votre médecin. Des tonnes d’organisations véganes les utilisent. Zut, je parie que si je vérifie bien, j’en ai probablement montré une pour illustrer un des billets de ce blog au moins une fois.

Des stocks de femmes… assises seules… avec une salade tellement hilarante, qu’elles ne peuvent s’empêcher d’exploser de rire et de délice.

L’absurdité de ces images a attiré l’attention d’Internet, avec pour résultat des imitations: une page Tumblr, et même une pièce de théâtre.

Manger une salade n’est pas particulièrement drôle. Ça induit rarement l’extase. Habituellement, c’est plutôt une expérience difficile consistant à introduire maladroitement des feuilles de laitue ans votre bouche. C’est souvent insatisfaisant : trop ou pas assez d’assaisonnement. En réalité, vous craignez qu’un bout de laitue reste coincé entre vos dents, et ça vous empêche de sourire d’une oreille à l’autre entre chaque bouchée. En général, manger de la salade est une activité ennuyeuse et ordinaire.

Quand votre salade n’arrête pas de faire des plaisanteries:

Collection of stock photos showing women laughing while they eat a salad

Mais manger de la salade est une activité de femme, et comme telle, elle doit être accomplie de façon à raconter une histoire particulière qui a une fonction quand on l’observe et la documente.

La théorie féministe végane nous dit que la nourriture -ce que nous mangeons et comment nous le mangeons- est fermement enracinée dans des normes de genre. La consommation de légumes (avec la salade comme omniprésent cliché) est un comportement hautement féminisé. Les codes publicitaires genrés montrent aussi de façon régulière une hyper émotivité chez les femmes. D’où découle qu’elles y sont portraiturées avec des réponses émotionnelles extrêmes et inappropriées. Ces représentations ajoutent l’émotivité, l’infantilité et l’immaturité, à l’habituelle compréhension culturelle de la féminité. Ces images renforcent le statut de subordination des femmes. Apparier des femmes hyper-émotives avec des nourritures hyper-féminisées compose une parfaite iconographie sexiste.

Man about to eat a forkfull of salad, smiles softly to camera

Bien sûr, on m’a opposé l’inévitable argument “les hommes aussi”. Vrai, on nous montre des hommes s’excitant légèrement avec des salades, mais soyons honnêtes, ils sont moins fréquemment dépeints riant la tête rejetée en arrière, en sous-vêtements ou enceint.es ! La frivolité genrée de la consommation de salades est terriblement une affaire de femmes.

Woman laying on bed in white underwear eating a salad

Quand on nous montrera des hommes -scénario improbable- mangeant une salade, prostrés dans un lit, en string blanc, alors, OK, on en reparle.

 

Corey Lee WrennDr. Wrenn is Lecturer of Sociology. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology with Colorado State University in 2016. She received her M.S. in Sociology in 2008 and her B.A. in Political Science in 2005, both from Virginia Tech. She was awarded Exemplary Diversity Scholar, 2016 by the University of Michigan’s National Center for Institutional Diversity. She served as council member with the American Sociological Association’s Animals & Society section (2013-2016) and was elected Chair in 2018. She serves as Book Review Editor to Society & Animals and has contributed to the Human-Animal Studies Images and Cinema blogs for the Animals and Society Institute. She has been published in several peer-reviewed academic journals including the Journal of Gender Studies, Feminist Media Studies, Disability & Society, Food, Culture & Society, and Society & Animals. In July 2013, she founded the Vegan Feminist Network, an academic-activist project engaging intersectional social justice praxis. She is the author of A Rational Approach to Animal Rights: Extensions in Abolitionist Theory (Palgrave MacMillan 2016).

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Research Finds Gender Bias in Self-Reported Meat Consumption

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Woman Eating Meat

New research confirms that women downplay their flesh consumption. Gender roles strongly influence our attitudes and behaviors…and this includes what we eat and how we eat it.

Caring about Nonhuman Animals is “for girls.” Women are socialized to be empathetic to other animals, while men are socialized to have instrumental, non-caring relationships with other animals.

For women and men, gender is something that is performed. Eating animals or not eating them is part of that performance. Not only do women eat less flesh than men, they also underreport their actual consumption. This is because femininity requires that women consume less flesh, and women feel pressured to conform to that feminine ideal.

The gender binary aggravates this, pushing women to care about animals (and not eat them) and pushing men to not care about animals (and eat a lot of them). This binary stretches and distorts the behavior of men and women. Performing gender according to this exaggerated binary helps to reinforce the perceived natural differences between women and men. This not only erases the existence of nonconforming persons, but it also supports patriarchal dominance.

What does this mean for activists? First, women are clearly the “low hanging fruit” in terms of outreach, as they are more receptive to anti-speciesist campaigning because of their gendered socialization. It also means that men will be a tougher audience as they must overcome both human and male supremacist ideologies on their path to veganism. According to the research, simply making mention of a PETA video was enough to induce the guilt and denial response from women, but men had no such reaction.

 

Thank you to Carol J. Adams for bringing attention to this story.

Corey Lee WrennDr. Wrenn is Lecturer of Sociology. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology with Colorado State University in 2016. She received her M.S. in Sociology in 2008 and her B.A. in Political Science in 2005, both from Virginia Tech. She was awarded Exemplary Diversity Scholar, 2016 by the University of Michigan’s National Center for Institutional Diversity. She served as council member with the American Sociological Association’s Animals & Society section (2013-2016) and was elected Chair in 2018. She serves as Book Review Editor to Society & Animals and has contributed to the Human-Animal Studies Images and Cinema blogs for the Animals and Society Institute. She has been published in several peer-reviewed academic journals including the Journal of Gender Studies, Feminist Media Studies, Disability & Society, Food, Culture & Society, and Society & Animals. In July 2013, she founded the Vegan Feminist Network, an academic-activist project engaging intersectional social justice praxis. She is the author of A Rational Approach to Animal Rights: Extensions in Abolitionist Theory (Palgrave MacMillan 2016).

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