The Sexual Politics of Animal Research

In a dream two nights ago, I had started a job as a research assistant at the hospital nearby. We were studying a tumor growth and had to go to the basement where all the animals were kept to retrieve two boxes of small, soft, grey female mice. As I followed the primary investigator down the hallway to the mouse room, I saw in front of me a young sow. She stood on a metal cart that was designed to prevent her from lying down. We wondered why she had been left there in the hallway - there did not seem to be any other person nearby. The primary investigator went to get the mice, and I walked to the sow. She grunted softly as I approached her. I came close and scratched her head, patted and stroked her back. As I placed my palm on the warm, smooth area behind her ear, I tried to send her love, calm, and respect. My employer came back with the mice and smiled at us. "I hope they are nice to you," I said to the sow as we walked away. I felt helpless, hypocritical, and confused. When we returned to our lab, I excused myself for a while. Later I remember finding out that she had been killed in the experiments that day. All I could tell myself was that she met a kinder end than if she had been killed for meat. She had been fully anesthetized, for example - but what narrow paths for meaning we allow these strong and gentle creatures to walk!

I have read two of Carol Adams' books - "The Sexual Politics of Meat" and "The Pornography of Meat". I read "Pornography" first and I did not expect to like it. I felt she used the word pornography in the title because she assumed that I, the reader, am opposed to pornography. This annoyed me. Once I began reading it, I found Carol's writing style to be unfocused and unclear. Her interpretations of heterosexual intercourse are certainly a part of its violent history and construction, but she doesn't encourage a radical reinterpretation. Is she sex-negative? She seems align herself with Dworkin and McKinnon on topics of sex and female subjectivity. I was also frustrated by her lack of proper citations. She gives example after outrageous example of disgusting (male) behaviors toward women and animals, but you must take her word about incidents and interpretations because she rarely includes her sources. That being said, I would recommend these books to anyone. Her ideas are so important for us all to consider and struggle with. Now that I have read the "The Pornography of Meat," I am no longer annoyed with the title. Carol and I may have different views on pornography, but that does not change the fact that the images she presents and analyzes in her book are exactly what she calls them. They are advertisments to (male) spectators enticing them to objectify, dominate, brutalize, penetrate, consume, and disregard (feminine) animals. I am grateful that she helped me to make this connection so clearly, and to consider its implications in my own life.