The Pornography of Meat

Rating:
Summary: Interesting [But Abstract] Study of Parallel Oppressions
Review: "The Pornography of Meat" seems largely to be a condensed version of Adams's earlier volume, "The Sexual Politics of Meat". The general premise is the same, as are many of her arguments; however, "Pornography" is much shorter and easier to wade through.

With its informal writing style, "Pornography" reminds me of a journal-slash-scrapbook as opposed to a more scholarly piece of literature. Adams's writing style can be somewhat disconcerting; she shifts gears rapidly, leaving the reader with the feeling that she's jumping from topic to topic without fully resolving (many of) them. Her arguments are sometimes so abstract and theoretical that they seem enigmatic. Additionally, Adams does provide references, but not in an especially organized manner; as a result, it's hard to tell what information she pulled from which sources.

Don't get me wrong, "Pornography" is not without its redeeming qualities. Every few pages, Adams does hit the reader w/an excellent point, making all the other jargon worthwhile. The pictures (and there are many!) are the book's single best feature - but unfortunately they're all reproduced in black and white, many of them shrunk down to a fraction of their normal size so that the critical details are obscured.

One more minor gripe: as one of the leading AR organizations, PETA bears the brunt of anti-ARA criticisms, not all of them invalid. Though Adams does mention PETA's "exploitation" of women in their ads, the discussion is unfortunately very brief. As PETA is seen as the Church of the AR movement (and leader Newkirk as its Pope), I thought a more detailed discussion would have been appropriate (after all, what's more ironic than sexism in an organization designed to eradicate "ism"s?).

Adams is one of the few feminist writers that tackles the topic of "parallel oppressions" (speciesism, sexism, racism, etc.). There are painfully few books that deal with such issues, so "Pornography" is a must for anyone interested in the subject. If you'd like to learn more about feminism in relation to animal rights, this book is certainly worth the price - and is actually one of the few options out there.

Rating:
Summary: I love animals...
Review: As a person concerned and active in animal rights work, I find this sort of rant abominable.
Publishing this whack-job does as much is doing as much for animal rights and women as Oliver Stone has done in "solving" JFK's murder.
The idea that this is scholarship is an embarassment to anyone with a brain. A lot of mumbo-jumbo and bad semiotics and flimsy Deconstructionist lit-crit nonsense.
It's too bad that hacks like this get encouraged. The saddest thing is, this moron probably at one time had a decent brain, a caring heart, and the best of intentions.
Flipping through it is like watching the train wreck of modern education.
One can only hope the reading public will put her out of her writing misery.

Rating:
Summary: Dreadful
Review: As a vegetarian, and as someone who is interested in media and the use of it, I had high hopes for this book. They were sadly not met. The idea is good, but the writing is horrible. Adams is all over the place. Paragraphs jump from one subject to another making no sense at all. It is very hard to follow. And there are few references - instead of foot or end notes Adams uses 'citations' at the back of the book and the reader is left to guess what exactly was cited on the page.
There is such a wealth of material available on this topic, and in the hands of a better writer this book would have been truly amazing.
Don't buy it.

Rating:
Summary: A Wake Up Call, So Simple, No One Can Refute
Review: Carol J. Adams is a brilliant thinker. In this book, she takes a complex, emotional subject and breaks it down to basic terms that everyone can understand. The point becomes so painfully obvious that it is irrefutable. We have all been seduced by the pornography of meat, even women and we are the objectified class! When we see other beings (human or animal) as simply "parts", it is easier to use and abuse them. Domination of "others" seems to come from fear.

We are all, in some form, still operating in our sleep -- unaware of the manipulation. It's time to WAKE UP and this book is an amazing tool that can help.

Rating:
Summary: Love it!
Review: I love the cover of this book. That hamburger has great legs. I'm hungry. Veal anyone?

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Summary: easily the funniest book i've read all year
Review: if christopher guest ever set out to do - in a book about intellectuals - what he has done on film to rock bands and dog shows, The Pornography of Meat would be the result. here is a book that is so bizzarely and feverishly "leftist" that it seems to defy all reason. the book is a carnival of anti-meat, anti-porn, and anti-man rhetoric that may or may not be true. but, honestly, i can't tell you whether or not it is, because i can't wade through this text seriously. it looks SO MUCH like it was written to act as a parody, that i have a difficult time approaching it as actual scholarship. the basic idea seems to be something like this: there is a distinct and provable relationship between the consumption of meat (or at least media depictions thereof) and the consumption of pornographic movies/magazines, etc.. this all presumably builds from the logic of her first book The Sexual Politics of Meat, which i do not own.

the unquestionable highlight of the book are the many pictures that are offered up as evidence of this sordid relationship between porn and meat: the adult video cover where the female character is "hunted" by lustful men, the 30 year old ad for turkey where the bird carcass is layed out in what we are assured is a purposefully lurid pose. the whole thing is really sort of - excuse the pun - undigestable from the point of view of the skeptic. of course, if you're already a zealous, fervid, wild eyed supporter of these sorts of ideas, then this book will be very gratifying. girls with hairy armpits at liberal-arts colleges in vermont are going to be carrying this around like it was the Bible. the only thing that's missing (though perhaps it's there and i just missed it) was a way to tie all of this in with good old fashioned socialism. you know, the oppression of the masses by the ruling elite? the great future that is bound to come when the terror of property is destroyed and we all live on a big hug-a-bear commune and make arts and crafts and uncomfortable itchy hemp shirts? well, other than that, this book is an angry liberals wet dream.

look, let me speak honestly: i'm a man. i don't think of myself as a part of a patriarchy, or as an oppressor or rapist, or even as a good speller. and i do eat meat. plus, i'm a libertarian, which means that everyone regards me as a "conservative". so, you know, this book obviously wasn't written for me. i appreciate and identify with feminists, but books like this give them a bad name. maybe a book like this is supposed to be so "revolutionary" that it shocks everyone out of their dogmatic slumbers, but it just comes of as fanatical and - worse - flaky. so, take my ill-informed phallocentric egodriven opinion for what it's worth. read this book. if i'm wrong, WHICH EVEN AS A QUASI-CONSERVATIVE I CAN ADMIT THAT I MIGHT BE, then this book will be very informative. if i'm right, then you're bound to find this as entertaining as i did.

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious Crackpot Writing!
Review: This book is beyond belief! It is hilariously bad! The connection between pornography and meat? What sort of crackpot comes up with this nonsense?

I actually feel sorry for the author. The poor woman must have suffered a very painful love affair at the hands of a big bad man and she wrote this screed as some sort of twisted therapy.

This book makes me wanna go watch porn, eat a Six Dollar Burger and order the latest DVD of Girls Gone Wild!

The women who read this inadvertantly hilarious stuff are very unhappy people. And just as uptight and shrill and mean spirited and boring as the right wing wackos they rally against. Say what you want about Rush Limbaugh, he at least has a sense of humor about himself. Something seriously lacking in radical Marxist leftists like the ones who read this tripe. But very funny tripe, mind you.

Larry Flynt for President!

Rating:
Summary: Sex and violence selling each other
Review: This more easily digestible offering from Carol J. Adams, furthers the provocative argument put forward in "The Sexual Politics of Meat" -- that meat eating is an intrinsic part of a patriarchal society.

Adam's tells us,

"Before someone can be consumed or used, she has to be seen as consumable, as usable, as a something instead of a someone."

In other words, in order to enjoy pornography, we must forget that the body we are watching is that of a full person who might want to be somewhere other than in front of the camera, naked. And in order to enjoy meat, we must not think of the life of the animal who would rather be out in a field guarding her offspring, than on our plate. Rather, we must think of both as consumable objects.

The book is full of visual images that make that link for us. For example, on page 14, we see a roasted chicken, photographed from above, wings crossed behind what should be the head but is the severed neck. A bikini has been painted on the carcass, so we have the impression of a sunbathing woman, roasting in the sun. A link is clearly being drawn between two consumable objects.

Adams shares many fascinating images from popular culture in which animals are feminized and women are animalized. Sometimes the analogies are clear, sometimes I find them too much of a stretch. But the pictures and arguments are all thought-provoking. 'The Pornography of Meat' is short and easy to read. It would make a great holiday gift for anybody with an interest in feminism.