The Pornography of Meat: New and Updated Edition

The connections traced between rampant masculinity, misogyny, carnivorism, and militarism operate as powerfully today as when Carol Adams first diagnosed them twenty years ago. -- J. M. Coetzee
Adams explores the links between the slaughter of animals and violence directed against women, and ties the carnivorous diet to such patriarchal ideas as ‘the end justifies the means.’ * Toronto Globe and Mail *
Even readers who do not share Adams’s views should find themselves challenged and perhaps even enlightened by this unique work. * Library Journal *
highly readable, often eye-opening ... Adams’ central thesis is compelling. * Times Literary Supplement *
The content is compelling and often funny ... The Pornography of Meat will make you think. -- Julian Bynoe * Outreach Connection *
To say ‘I read’ this book would be an understatement. It’s more like I devoured it faster than my favorite veggie burger ... Adams compellingly illustrates how women and animals are culturally turned into things ... This book would be eye-opening to many, not just feminists and certainly would make readers more savvy of the subtle message behind an advertisement for chicken legs or breasts that is purposefully sexualized. -- Beth Fiteni * Satya *
Adams shows why our culture views subordinate beings as consumable, complemented by an impressive array of visual images, more connections drawn, more in-depth, yet easy to grasp analysis ... I challenge anyone to try and put the book down after flipping through it — it's impossible. * Vegetarian News *
It is important to recognize that one of the key reasons why Adams is such a key figure in animal studies is due to making debates about interlocking gender and animal oppression intelligible, accessible, and engaging beyond academia: as well as opening up important space within it. It is thus important to recognize the invaluable work that this text, along with Adams’s other work, has accomplished. * The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory *
Adams addresses a whole series of very important issues in her book, including the objectification of women, misogyny, racism, rape, male dominance and entitlement, domestic violence, pornography, and the cruel treatment of animals .... Readers should obtain a copy of The Pornography of Meat if they wish to view the kinds of visual representations of women and animals in our modern consumer society that reveal the grave dangers that result from perpetuating the myth of male dominance. -- Ronald D. Le Blanc * Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture *
The Pornography of Meat by Carol Adams, written during the rise of the global Animal Rights movement, is as significant a work as Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Women, written during the French Revolution. Both women are intellectually fearless, revolutionary original thinkers, who have given us the tools and insight, to dismantle the oppression of all beings. * Sue Coe, artist *
A foundational text updated for a world in which its message is more urgent than ever, and a time when -- in response to regressive and authoritarian politics -- we're perhaps readier to see and discuss the ongoing vulnerability of marginalized bodies. The work of progress always starts with taking stock, and Carol Adams continues to do that, asking vital and uncomfortable questions about the eerie parallels between meat culture and rape culture. * Rebecca Makkai, National Book Award and Pulitzer finalist for The Great Believers *
For decades Carol J. Adams and her readers have been collecting visual examples of food companies, restaurants, advertisers, and even the media fixating on the bodies of women and nonhuman animals, merging language and turning them both into mere commodities. With more than 300 eye-opening photos and Adams’ piercing critique, The Pornography of Meat demonstrates with startling clarity how mostly white males have used misogyny, racism, and sexism to further marginalize humans and nonhumans and perpetuate the acceptance of animal consumption but also the consumption of women. * lauren Ornelas, Founder and President, Food Empowerment Project *