The Sexualization of Women and Nature

Over the course of my life, I have heard the term “sex sells” in movies, tv shows, and everyday conversation between peers. However, at what cost? In today’s patriarchal society, women, people of color and nonhuman animals are looked at as something to be “consumed” by the white male who is the “consumer” (Kemmerer). 

Carol J. Adams is a feminist, advocate for animal rights, and an author.  In an interview with Adams by Annie Potts, Adam’s discusses nine feminist-vegan points, one of which states that “Women are animalized, and animals are sexualized and feminized” (Potts 13). In today’s food advertising culture, companies use sexual imagery and “objectification/fragmentation/consumption” to appeal to the male gaze and desires in order to sell their products and sexually exploit woman (Potts 13). As stated in last week’s blog post, the consumption of meat is seen as “manly” and “masculine”, therefore advertisements will target the male’s eye by including sexual imagery for the consumer. In the image below, it shows a man with chicken wings on a table below him. Looking at the man, in his right hand he is holding a woman’s calf and in the left hand it is assumed that he is pouring salt onto her calf. The woman’s leg is held close to the man’s mouth looking as if he is about to take a bite out of her.  By depicting the woman’s leg as a “piece of meat” it highlights the inequality, sexism, sexual violence that occurs in Western society. This image is one example of the “consumed” and the “consumer”. 

In the two images below, one depicts a company called “Buns N’ Thighs” and a picture of a chicken winking at the onlooker, standing in a flirtatious way. The other image shows only the legs of a woman in fishnet leggings and red high heels, while the top of the woman is a burger and a thought bubble that states “Eat Me”. This can be related to Adam’s term ‘anthropornography’, coined from Amie Hamlin, in The Pornography of Meat, where images of domesticated animals are shown in a way that is “sexually inviting… so that the body wanting to be consumed” is “explicitly represented” (Potts 14). 

“The sexualization of animals and the sexual objectification of women thus overlap and reinforce one another” -Carol J. Adam’s

After seeing all of the sexist ads on Carol Adam’s site, I started to look for other ads that are out there, exploiting woman and nature. I stumbled upon a post called “11 Depressingly Real Examples of Sexism in Meat Marketing” on the PlenteousVeg website. Diane Vukovic, the author of the article, who also references The Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol J. Adams, posted this image below from a Burger King ad.  The text stating, “It’ll blow your mind away” has sexual implications along with the photo of a white woman opening her mouth to the sandwich. This image shows not only the women being sexually exploited but is presented by the artist as “sexually consumable” (Potts 14). 

We live in a world where privilege protects privilege and “even if the world of slavery ended, the conceptual world that co-existed with slavery and allowed slavery to exist, lives on” (Potts 19). Humans look at the enslaved live animals as consumable items and we will butcher them for meat knowing that how we treat animals will not be the fate of humans (Potts 19). Women are weighed down by their gender, and the same could be stated for female nonhuman animals. Female nonhuman animals are looked at to reproduce, produce dairy products and eggs and continue the “objectification/fragmentation/consumption” cycle (Potts 13). Therefore, it can be stated that “if animals are burdened by gender, by gendered associations, by the oppression that is gender, then clearly they can’t be liberated through representations that demean women” such as all the images shown above (Potts 20). One way that Adams believes that we could stop this inequality ravaging the nation is for the United States government to stop “subsidizing meat eating and dairy products” making it more expensive and potentially deterring customers from buying (Potts 21). We can survive without eating meat and instead adopt a vegan lifestyle. Humans are connected to nonhuman animals whether they would like to admit it or not. Therefore, highlighting these means of oppression, sexual inequalities and species inequalities will help to liberate both women and animals in this patriarchal society that we live in.

Works Cited: 

Kemmerer, Lisa. The Pornography of Meat by Carol Adams. Philosophy Now. 2006.

Potts, Annie. The Politics of Carol J. Adams. Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture. 12-24.

Vukovic, Diane. 11 Depressingly Real Examples of Sexism in Meat Marketing. PlanteousVeg. 2021.