The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory by Carol J. Adams

Rating: ★★★★★

Genre: Nonfiction, feminist lit, vegan lit

Synopsis: The first of its kind, Adams dissects the ways in which vegetarian and feminist discourse are similar, and how both vegetarianism/veganism and feminism can benefit if they rely on one another.  Think to the exploitation of female bodies, think to the silence that is wanted.  Think to the pounds and pounds upon violence and death are afforded to who is considered lesser.

Review: There has never been a book that has captivated me so much in terms of both vegetarian and feminist theory.  Finally, someone gets it, they really really get it.  She understands the exploitation of female bodies, she understands the fact that we are supposed to be silent and complicit in our own oppression, she understands that our culture and media and institutions want meat to be on our plates, want women to be submissive, want the total domination of those supposedly weaker and lesser.

Through anecdotes, studies, and analyses of billboards and commercials, Carol J. Adams takes no prisoners with her analysis.  Perhaps my favorite quotation from the book is this: “Vegetarianism announces that it will destroy the pleasure of meals as they are now experienced. Thus it is a given that vegetarians will be unable to determine the shape of the discourse when eating with meat eaters. But, it is inevitable that vegetarians will eat with meat eaters; and it is also inevitable that the absence of meat on their table will touch off a discussion. In this situation, the issue of vegetarianism is a form of meat to meat eaters: it is something to be trapped and dismembered.”  HOT DAMN.  How was it that she was able to describe every single meal I’ve had with my family ever?

I remember when I first announced that I was going vegan.  “Why?  What compelled you?  That’ll last a week.  We’ll just slip eggs into whatever you’re eating.”  Thanks, guys.  And now that it’s been five years, the conversation still remains.  Family members won’t even try the most non-vegan approved foods like the Impossible Burger, a tofu scramble, mac and cheese, or even Earth Balance butter.  I thought it’d be obvious that we wouldn’t be eating these things if they were actually disgusting…but go off, I guess.  Every new person I meet asks, “Oh, why did you decide to go vegan?” And I ask them, “Do you want the real answer, or the nice answer?”  The nice answer consists of me explaining that I learned some very unpleasant things and thusly changed my dietary habits.  The real answer consists of me telling them about how unjust it is that baby chicks who are expected to grow into egg-laying hens are sexed on day 2 of their lives, and the males are either gassed, crushed, or thrown out like garbage.  Not exactly a fun conversation starter…  Just as Carol J. Adams wrote decades ago, my lack of meat was the meat.

And, just as she wrote, it held true and still holds true that women’s bodies are the meat.  Are men boobs or ass men?  Maybe thighs?  Our bodies are symbolically ripped apart to be digested by the patriarchal institutions that run not only our lives but the food we eat.

Is Carol J. Adams the Andrea Dworkin of vegetarian critical theory?  Yes.  Yes.  A thousand times yes.

Sistah Vegan: Food, Identity, Health, and Society: Black Female Vegans Speak edited by A. Breeze Harper

Rating: ★★★★★

Genre: Non-fiction, veganism

Synopsis: A group of females have come together to discuss their takes on food, health, society, and how veganism and “whole food living” has been structured as a trend that white and thin people do.

Review: Now THIS is the vegan anthology I’ve been waiting for!  A. Breeze Harper gathers the thoughts and ideas of multiple black female vegans ad uses them to create a complex, multi-faceted look at the whole foods trend.  Some women deny the label vegan, other women profess a holistic lifestyle, some women worry about the neocolonialism of consumerism today, others discuss what health means to them–as well as the doctors they no longer visit!

This variety of perspectives is wholly necessary in this conversation–especially a variety of perspectives that do not include white voices, who have been the dominating voice of the movement!  Being able to read from these new perspectives opened up a whole new line of thinking for myself.  Certainly there were much-debated discussions such as the comparison of animals to lynching and slavery (yikes), but there were discussions I’d never even seen before, such as the dichotomy between the desire and need for fine furs after having been oppressed for so long, or by having to prove one’s blackness, as well as the other side of the conversation that argues that fine furs are ultimately harmful and perhaps a new form of neocolonialism.  How does one even untangle that in one’s mind?  These ladies did it beautifully.

What was also so intriguing to me was how many women brought up Queen Afua’s books and how they completely transformed their manner of viewing the world and what they put into their bodies.  If Queen Afua did that for so many of our authors, then it’s entirely possible for A. Breeze Harper to do that for many other women–and I for one hope she does!

This collection was insightful, educating, and overall just plain good.  Regardless of how long you’ve been a part of the vegan movement, this is a necessary book to read.  It’s so incredibly valuable and so far, I haven’t read anything else that compares in this area of the movement.

Veganism in an Oppressive World: A Vegans of Color Community Project edited by Julia Feliz Brueck

Rating: ★★★★★

Genre: Nonfiction, veganism

Synopsis: There are many assumptions about vegans and veganism: we’re pushy, it’s a mostly-white movement, we only care about non-human animals.  But really, veganism is a diverse movement that spans across races, religions, activist stances, and desires to see the world change.  But how does veganism affect communities of color specifically and how has it changed their lives?

Review: This is a necessary read for any and all vegans.  This is a book that I wish I owned so that I could mark it up, underline it, quote from it.  With a series of essays and poems and interviews, each author argues for a world that recognizes the pain of non-human animals and the pain of communities of color, and how intertwined they are.

I can’t attest as to how engaging and affirming this is to vegans of color, since I am not a vegan of color, but for me, this book brought to light so many problems and discussions that veganism as a whole has today, such as the strange connection between not eating animals and following only pieces of eastern religions and beliefs, and the metaphor of community trauma (the holocaust, slavery) being applied to non-human animals.

These were conversations I was already aware of, but it was so refreshing to see them discussed within the pages of a printed book, and from the perspective of vegans who are actually a part of those communities.

Additionally, if you’re wondering just how post-colonialism and feminism can be applied to such a movement, these authors will make it clear as they use Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality in nearly all of their conversations surrounding the topic of community, race, and veganism.

Ultimately, this is a must read, and goes to show that we’re already having the conversations that non-vegans want us to have.  Definitely worth it.

Yes Vegan! Un choix de vie/Yes Vegan! A Choice of Life by Catherine Helayel

Rating: ★★★★★

Genre: Nonfiction

Medium: Paperback

Synopsis: In the second edition of her book Yes Vegan!, Catherine Helayel has given us a mini guidebook on what it means to be vegan, answers to your burning questions, definitions, testimonies, and nutritional facts.  Filled with studies, references, restaurant recommendations, and documentary recommendations, Helayel presents the horrors of French animal agriculture.

Review: Helayel’s book is well-referenced, nicely formatted, and easily broken down.  Each section (foodstuffs, non-foodstuffs, nutrition, testimonies, and so forth) has sub-sections, which further break down the topic at hand.  This book is a very well-rounded guide to veganism, for both new vegans, old vegans, and pre-vegans.  That being said, I think she could have easily written a book about each and every topic that she mentioned, but given that this book is supposed to highlight various different arguments for veganism, I understand why she didn’t.

I also really liked this book for purely personal reasons, such as the fact that French is my second language and I now have a whole list of new words to use.  I feel as though I can officially be an angry vegan in two languages, thanks to Helayel’s work.

Additionally, this isn’t my first book about veganism or anti-animal agriculture.  Because of that, I found that I already personally knew a lot of what was being said in the book BUT that just means that somebody new to the subject will have a lot of new information.  What I also really appreciated was the European/France-centric take on this book.  Being an American, I mostly just know about American practices in animal agriculture, so learning about the ways that France treats animals differently was rather shocking to me.

What I also really liked about this book was how she mentioned people as well.  Recently, there’s been a trend where non-vegans try to prove that vegans don’t care about the people of color who work on vegetable and fruit farms.  While this book is mainly about the suffering of animals, she mentions how hard it is for factory farm workers (also predominately people of color) to work under such horrific conditions, and how tanneries tend to be located in poorer countries, and how climate change will affect predominately poorer POC.

And now would be a good time to say the disclaimer: of course, not everybody can just go vegan overnight, and some can’t go vegan at all.  But if you are a person who is able to go vegan (and can speak/read French), I highly recommend reading this book.  She debunks arguments, provides nutritional help, and resources to extend your quest for information.  Overall, I find that Helayel does a good job discussing a subject so few people want to think about.