Tag Archives: Sexualization

Meat Misogyny: The Sexual Politics of Menugate

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TRIGGER WARNING: Discusses state-supported sexism and extreme sexual harassment.

Julia Gillard

Julia Gillard

Many of us in the United States were introduced to Prime Minister Julia Gillard when her sharp counter-attack on Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott’s rampant sexism went viral.  Last month the Australian candidate for the Liberal Party, Mal Brough, came under fire for some unbelievably sexist “jokes” in a fundraising menu.  The menu refers to Gillard as a “Kentucky Fried Quail,” inviting attendees to consume her “small breasts, huge thighs” and “big red box.”

Photo of menu with the comments on Gillard highlighted

The sexist comments against Gillard are not all that I see here.  The overwhelming presence of Nonhuman Animal flesh, particularly the ostentatious meats like “100% Acorn-Fed Jamón Ibérico” speaks the language of masculine power.  The Australian Liberal Party is roughly the equivalent of the Republican Party in the United States: it’s a conservative party, one that benefits men, often at the expense of women and other vulnerable groups. It’s a party that protects the wealth and power of the privileged.  A menu rife with subjugated animals of the “highest class” (premier caviar, foie gras, grass-fed tenderloin, etc.) smells of patriarchal oppression.

Notice also the stab at the Green Party:  “Please ensure you eat up all your greens, before they take over completely.”

The “joke” here is simply a demonstration of patriarchy: eat, consume, dominate, and control women, nature, and animals.  By insulting her body while simultaneously offering it up as food, the message to Gillard and other women is that women’s worth is tied to their sexual desirability, but desirable or not, they are still a resource.  Certainly, men are given the privilege to decide what is desirable and what is not, something which inevitably rests on a woman’s ability to adhere to strictly defined gender roles.  Gillard is a powerful leader who is unapologetic about the oppression she and others experience.  She is a challenge to patriarchy, and patriarchy responds by fragmenting her into breasts, thighs, and genitalia and tossing her on the dinner menu.

KFC poster that reads: "Julia Gillard Snack Pack: 2 Small Breasts, 2 Extra Large Thighs, 1 Red Box"

The Liberal Party has put Gillard on the menu as a object to be eaten, degraded, and disempowered.  Vegan feminist Carol J. Adams has also written on this story and comments:

In The Sexual Politics of Meat, I say “if meat eating is a sign of male dominance, then the presence of meat announces the disempowerment of women.” And one way to try to disempower a powerful political woman is to imply that she is nothing but meat.

Attacks on Gillard’s gender from other influentials is relatively common.  A colleague in Australia sent me this meme listing comments from others which demonstrates the true level of misogyny:

Meme of Julia Gillard with various misogynistic attacks listed along with the person who said them

Calling a woman a witch is a gendered slur, but speciesist slurs are used as well (bitch, shark food, and a cow).  The overlap of misogyny and speciesism demonstrates how women are not even viewed as human, but rather as objects of consumption and resource.  It has been suggested she be drowned, shot, assaulted with bats, kicked to death, and have her throat slit.  In a world where violence against women is at epidemic levels (about 1 in 3 women will experience rape or assault at least once in their lifetime), the violence menancingly and even “jokingly” aimed at PM Gillard is horrific.  When we see threats of violence that draw on imagery of violence against animals (suggesting she be minced like cow flesh and grilled), this underscores how devalued she is simply for being a woman . . . and how Nonhuman Animals are the most devalued of all.

According to Australian independent media, David Farley, CEO of Australian Agriculture Company, called the Prime Minister “an unproductive old cow” while discussing new techniques for animal slaughter.  In challenging patriarchy, Gillard is not conforming to her role as a resource to the  powerful.  Patriarchy insists on repairing this breach, suggesting she must be killed and minced to serve their benefit in another way . . . as meat.

When women are compared to Nonhuman Animals, the intention is to dehumanize them and reduce them to resources for the powerful.  The flip side of this, as evidenced in the menu, Nonhuman Animals who are exploited and killed for food are often sexualized, drawing on the subjugation of women to legitimate their consumption.  The oppression of women and other animals entangle and reinforce one another.  In the understandable commotion over the misogynistic attacks on Gillard, we lose sight of the Nonhuman Animals who are being physically tortured, killed, and literally eaten.    Just as the patriarchal attacks on Gillard fragment her and strip her of her personhood, so does the patriarchal institution of meat-eating strip Nonhumans of theirs.  Behind the “jokes” and the elegant words (brioche, saffron butter poached crayfish tail, porcini cream sauce) are living beings who suffered and died for the benefit of the privileged.

For more information on the sexual politics of meat, be sure to check out the work of vegan feminist Carol J. Adams. 

 

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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PETA’s “Youngest Pinup”

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From PETA:  Women and girls of all ages should “go all the way” . . .  for the animals.

PETA normally waits until people turn 18 before asking them to star in a “provocative” campaign, but not this time. Sixteen-year-old singer-songwriter Samia Najimy Finnerty stars in our new “Vegans Go All the Way” ad. PETA’s youngest pinup is the daughter of actor and longtime PETA supporter Kathy Najimy and Dan Finnerty of The Dan Band.

16 year old girl is posed provocatively with her hand in her hair, lips parted, legs slightly spread. She is wearing a tight fitting gray tanktop and tight black pants. She also has a guitar over her shoulder.

PETA “normally waits” for a girl to reach legal age before they are prostituted for fundraising, but, not anymore.

From this campaign we learn:
1. Statutory rape is condoned.
2. Girls should “go all the way” as though their purpose for existing is to be a sexual resource to others.
3. For women, helping animals means sexually objectifying her body–even if she is still a child.
4. Rape culture reigns. Children cannot consent, and only in a rape culture, would this campaign be acceptable.
5. The sexualization of childhood (girlhood) has encroached on Nonhuman Animal rights advocacy.

Incidentally, PETA had originally planned for the 16 year old to appear on a bed.

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Male PETA Employees Make Women have Sex with Vegetables “For the Animals”

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Not Safe for Work: Discusses pornography and contains sexualized imagery.
Trigger Warning: Discusses pornography

Some may recall that PETA launched a pornography site a few years ago, interweaving graphic scenes of violence with sexualized images of women. Fortunately, it removed the images of women, and the porn site is nothing more than short video clips of factory farms. But that wasn’t the end of the story. The porn is back, now under a new campaign called “Veggie Love Casting Session.”

A bright-eyed white woman simulating oral sex on a cucumber. Meant to resemble an internet porn advertisement. Reads: "Can't get enough veggies? Join now!!! All access starting at $16/year."

On the campaign’s website, various clips of women performing sex acts on vegetables are featured. In the television commercial, women are paraded in front of the camera and inspected for the audience like human meat ready for consumption. The project is orchestrated by men who we hear in the background calling the shots, directing the women to show the audience how much they love their assigned vegetable, then laughing at the woman’s humiliation at the end of her session. Photos of the women are listed at the bottom of the page where viewers can rate them with a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down,” adding another level to the women’s objectification.

Image depicts two women in bikinis performing oral sex on a carrot. From PETA's Veggie Love campaign.PETA even manages to mimic the prevalence of racism in pornography.   The only African American woman featured is shown animalized, crawling across the couch to some broccoli where she devours it with no hands.

An African American woman in a bikini and high heels crawling across a couch towards broccoli.

Many would view this campaign and argue that these women are participating “by choice” and they’re “enjoying it.”  But this is missing the point.  We need to consider what shapes those choices, that being an environment that sees women as sex objects and resources for male enjoyment.  Women are under immense pressure to perform the gender roles they have been assigned.  Under patriarchy, women are socialized to be servants to men.  Women are groomed as little girls, taught that providing sex and pleasure for men is both expected and required of them.  Women are given so few opportunities in this world to achieve and succeed based on their skills, knowledge, and other dignifying qualities, sex work is one of the only options available to them. The vast majority of sex work, incidentally, is high risk, low pay work with very little job security and very little agency (most sex workers are pimped or otherwise trafficked). Importantly, this is an option that’s not even on the table for men.

Pornography and other forms of sexual exploitation also target especially vulnerable women, predominantly girls and women from low-income backgrounds or abusive families, girls and women with little occupational or educational opportunities, and girls and women who are suffering from addictions.Pornography hurts all women, but it particularly hurts at-risk women.

A white woman in a bikini and high heels spanking herself with a stalk of celery.

How does this imagery educate the public about speciesism?

After viewing videos of women performing sex acts on vegetables, videos of Nonhuman Animals being beaten and killed automatically pop up on the PETA website. In other words, images of sexualized and humiliated women are juxtaposed with dying animals. PETA is tapping into a new form of sexuality, one that has been popularized by porn culture: subjugating and hurting the vulnerable for the pleasure of the privileged.  Seeing someone humiliated and suffering for our enjoyment has become sexy.

A woman (possibly of color) in a bikini and high heels leaning against a couch on the floor. Her head is back and her back is arched. She is rubbing herself with tomatoes.

PETA is sexualizing the degradation and humiliation of women. PETA is sexualizing the exploitation of vulnerable people. PETA is sexualizing violence against women.  PETA is sexualizing oppression.

A white woman stuffing radishes into her mouth with painfully stretched cheeks.

The director encourages this woman to stuff as many radishes as possible into her mouth to demonstrate to the audience how much girth she can withstand.

The research is overwhelmingly clear: pornography leads to the degradation of women, the objectification of women, the dehumanization of women, and violence against women. It leads women to internalize this devaluation, and women begin to objectify themselves.  It disempowers women, it leaves women susceptible to domestic violence, and it feeds rape culture.  For more information on how pornography hurts women, check out The Price of Pleasure (warning, the material on the website and in the film are extremely triggering and graphic).  I also recommend Gail Dines’ Pornland or Robert Jensen’s Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity (this book is freely available on his website).

A white woman deep-throating a cucumber.

 

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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Why Sex Doesn’t Sell Animal Rights

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In a previous article with One Green Planet, I documented the rising incorporation of sexist tactics and sexual objectification of women in Nonhuman Animal rights advocacy.  Beyond the well-known and infamous PETA naked campaigns, more and more advocates are turning to the female body to promote veganism and rights for other animals.

In February 2013, a vegan pornography site “Vegan Pinup” relaunched brandishing the slogan:  ”Because veganism is beautiful and sexy!”  Like other vegan pornography sites, Vegan Pinup justifies the sexual objectification of female models with the presumption that images of “beautiful and sexy” naked or nearly naked women put veganism in an attractive light.

The website is set up like the popular alternative-lifestyle pornography site Suicide Girls, which runs on volunteer female models who submit their own images with varying levels of nudity based on the model’s comfort level.  The model pays for the photographer, spends her own time having the photos taken, processed, and sent to the webmaster, and the webmaster then displays them on the website for paying customers.  The models receive minimal compensation.

Vegan Pinup does not profit from customers who must pay to view the photographs (the photos are free to view), but they do profit from an extensive merchandise store.  Unlike Suicide Girls, none of the vegan pinups receive compensation.

World Water Day For PETAPlayboy models working for PETA draw attention to water usage in Nonhuman Animal products by sitting naked in a bathtub in a public square

Essentially what has happened is that the Nonhuman Animal rights movement, a serious movement advocating for social justice, has been co-opted by pornographers and mainstream sexism.  The Nonhuman Animal rights movement is comprised of 80% women, yet it is led mostly by men.  Men construct the theory and men dictate the tactics.  Advocacy on behalf of other animals has become sexualized.

Women are being told that to advocate for veganism or Nonhuman Animal liberation means taking off their clothes and indicating sexual availability.  Activism is no longer about discussing ethics, it’s putting the female body on display for male consumption.   Veganism is now about sex, not social justice or political engagement.

Of course, body image is an important factor as well.  For instance, while Vegan Pinup explicitly states that all body types are welcome, at this time, only thin women are pictured.  More telling, the website repeatedly states the requirement that all models must demonstrate healthfulness, they must look “healthy.”  This has implications not only for body weight (it is unclear how the webmaster decides the cut off on an “unhealthy” looking woman) but also for sexual availability.  A pornography site can’t function unless it’s models appeal to men’s sexual appetite.

Sex cannot sell our movement . . . it can only sell out our  movement.  The proliferation of websites and tactics like Vegan Pinup speaks to the patriarchal infiltration of what was once a powerful site of female political presence.  Encouraging women to strip for Nonhuman Animal rights is encouraging women to strip their personhood and become sexual objects.  Instead of gaining empowerment through political action, women are told they are empowered by disrobing and looking “beautiful and sexy” for men.

playboy_playmate_05_wenn1465803.preview_0Playboy models working for PETA in lettuce bikinis insert veggie hot dogs into their mouths

A plethora of research has demonstrated that the prevalence of sexually objectifying media degrades women’s self-esteem and can lead to mental health issues and eating disorders.  A recent study in Psychological Science, however, has even asserted that sexual objectification leads women to internalize that objectification to the point of impaired self-efficacy.  Women who are socialized to believe they are objects, in other words, are less likely to engage social activism that challenges that oppression.  For a mostly female movement, increased objectification and reduced efficacy could prove disastrous.

This post was originally published by One Green Planet on March 15, 2013.

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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