Lisa Kemmerer, Philosophy Now, July/August 2006
"Carol Adams offers a philosophical critique of advertisements that is
innovative, even startling, yet which readers cannot help but acknowledge as
her book unfolds....Carol Adams' work is analytical, critical, and shows
remarkably original and independent thinking. Adams has witnessed and
described what the rest of us fail to notice, and backs up her observations
with scores of photographs. She unfolds he grizzly discoveries with a wry
sense of humor, and sends readers out into the world with a fresh vision a
vision that pierces through the images on the magazine rack, in the frozen
meat section of the grocery store, on billboards, or in television
advertisements. Adams' work heightens awareness, shifts thinking, and has
the power to alter behavior what sort of companies do I want to support with
my hard earned wages? Adams' analysis of advertisements is a chilling vision
into the world we all see without seeing. She is right: readers are likely
to be sickened by the realities she unveils. And very likely to feel aroused
aroused to new ways of seeing, understanding, and shopping."
J. M. Coetzee
"The connections traced between rampant masculinity, misogyny, carnivorism,
and militarism operate as powerfully today as when Carol Adams first
diagnosed them twenty years ago."
Toronto Globe and Mail
"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."
Library Journal
"Even readers who do not share Adams's views should find themselves
challenged and perhaps even enlightened by this unique work."
Times Literary Supplement
"Highly readable, often eye-opening ... Adams' central thesis is
compelling."
Julian Bynoe, Outreach Connection
"The content is compelling and often funny ... The Pornography of Meat will
make you think."
Beth Fiteni, Satya
"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."
Vegetarian News
"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."
Ronald D. Le Blanc, Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and
Culture
"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."
Sue Coe, artist
"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."
Rebecca Makkai, National Book Award and Pulitzer finalist for
The Great Believers
"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."
lauren Ornelas, Founder and President, Food Empowerment Project
"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."
Carol J. Adams is the author of the landmark book The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory and The Pornography of Meat. Besides advancing scholarship and developing theory in the area of interlocking oppressions, Carol has created a series of books that address the vegetarian/vegan experience: Living Among Meat Eaters: The Vegetarian Survival Guide, Help! My Child Stopped Eating Meat! and The Inner Art of Vegetarianism and Meditations on the Inner Art of Vegetarianism. She lives outside Dallas, Texas.
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