I’m not entirely sure what type of meat that is (pork? maybe?) or what the whole loaf of meat typically looks like, as I have been a vegetarian for almost 8 years now, but it looks to me like this image has had a little photoshopping done. I think it looks like a loaf of bread that has the meat texture applied to the slices. I’ve seen that anonymous character doing many food-related activities, however the addition of the chef’s hat kicks the character out from its context and into the more well-know world of the Pillsbury Doughboy. With these things in mind, it appears that the Pseudo-Doughboy has murdered one of its own species and is preparing to participate in cannibalism. It doesn’t matter what type (read: species) of dough of which the Pseudo-Doughboy and loaf are made. It’s also a proportionately massive loaf. I’m interpreting this image as speaking to the leading-majority, speciesist attitude of food consumption as well as the fact that “American consumers throw away 21.7% of the meat they purchase–needlessly killing billions of animals” (Animal Kill Clock).
Society has conditioned its members to believe that there is a positive and negative body type, character traits associated with the gender binary, and, with the rise of social media, an increase in self-consciousness and insecurities. This is oppressive to all genders, making it more difficult for people to accept themselves, nevermind begin to accept others. Fitting into the stereotypical mold formed by the gender binary, masculinity has come to represent domination, stoicism, meat-eating, beer-drinking, and being muscular; as Curtin remarks, “to have muscle you need to eat muscle.” Femininity is often considered an antonym of masculinity. It represents submission, sensitvity, salad-eating, fruity-cocktail-drinking, and being slender; as Curtin writes, “women are associated with vegetables and passivity.”
In food commercials, if the product is typically cooked in the kitchen, you can almost guarantee there will be a female actress; if the product can be cooked on a grill (so, if it’s a meat product), you can almost guarantee there will be a male actor. This reinforces the outdated husband-wife relationship roles where the wife cooks and cares for her family, and the husband cooks on occasion handling the “important part,” the meat. This scene also reinforces the idea that meat is and should be a significant part of a person’s diet.
I appreciated that both Curtin and Gaard comment on the fact that vegetarianism and veganism are not accessible to everyone, and even if one is able to be a vegetarian, they may not be able to guarantee their food was harvest by someone with proper working conditions and a fair wage. Because of this, it’s more important for those who do have the access and ability to commit to vegetarianism to lessen the stress on the livestock and people living in developing economies. Curtin comments that, “much of the effect of the eating practices of persons in industrialized countries is felt in oppressed countries. Land owned by the wealthy that was once used to grow inexpensive crops for local people has been converted to the production of expensive products (beef) for export.”
Curtin wrote more about non-human animals in the context of food-sources, whereas Gaard wrote more generally about the human-animal relations. Gaard took into consideration animals in the livestock/factory farming industry, zoos, and pets. Running through Gaard’s theory was this story of her interaction with Bella, the parkeet, at a local video store. She explains that she feels connected so deeply to the bird because, as feminism explains, women have a relational self-identity. In contrast, men have an autonomous self-identity, leading to their development of a rights-based ethics rather than the ethic of care that relational self-identity produces. In order to reduce suffering on non-human animals, Gaard suggests limiting or forgoing relationships with animals as pets. In addition to this, those who have the access and ability could choose to practice vegetarianism or, even better, veganism. Curtin notes that women may have more gender-specific reasons for vegetarianism, and thus “for men in a patriarchal society moral vegetarianism can mark the decision to stand in solidarity with women.”
