Personally, I thought I understood why the image was chosen before even reading the articles, but once I read the articles, I realized that my reasoning merely scratched the surface of the actual symbolism behind this picture. I was aware of the stereotypical date where the guy gets something like steak or a burger and the girl will get a salad, but the power dynamic behind the “masculine” meat and the “feminine” salad has gone past the idea of just food. When I viewed this image, I also noticed the 2nd knife sticking out of the meat, but why would you need 2 knives for 1 person. I feel that this may seem small, but it shows a level of overkill on the human’s part, as well as the power of life and death which humans have over other species. Another way to view this image is as the meat being woman and the figure is the patriarchal male. The same way men hunt for meat is the same way in which men go hunting for women. Curtin brings up how “the connection of women and animals through pornographic representations of women as meat ready to be carved up… (Curtin 4).” Although women have been connected to meat, they are not the only oppressed group that were grouped with animals. I didn’t really notice it but Gaard brings up how oppressed people over the years have always been associated with some kind of animal. She brings up the “…linkage of women and animals in such derogatory terms for women as sow, bitch, pussy…Nazi propaganda equated Jews to vermin, and blacks have been called coons or jungle bunnies (Gaard 20).” The fact that one oppressed group is being associated with another oppressed group shows that society is aware of the oppression that is taking place in the world, but don’t care. If you think back to our ancestors, they would hunt and gather for their food, yet they understood that balance which needed to be upheld between people and mother nature. Nowadays, we take our resources for granted, so much so, that we have to resort to chemicals and hormones in order to provide us with enough resources (vegetables, fruit, cows, etc.) for us to “survive” (as if we don’t waste billions of pounds of food each years, but don’t worry, there are GMO’s to fix that). The idea of resources having gendered qualities is ridiculous, yet we have grown up with the idea of gendered food for years thanks to social media and television. When discussing the idea of gendered food, I noticed that during social gathers, the man is usually associated with barbecuing, while the women focus on the sides (chips, dessert, and of course the salad). Whether it’s a commercial, a show, or a movie, you will usually see a man behind the grill while the women host. This idea may not seem like a big deal but it’s reaffirming the idea of gendered rolls in the household. Without understanding the balance that is necessarily for all species to coexist, our plant will continue to deteriorate and the separation amongst oppressed groups will continue to grow.
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I love that you provided more than one interpretation of the cartoon. The majority of the blogs I’ve read so far have only scratched the surface. They only interpreted one way. I can see all your interpretations as true, I agree with all of them. The cartoon represents a human versus non-human relationship, a men vs women, and life versus death. I agree with what you said on the women being the meat and the men being the hunters. I saw another blog with images of women marked as meat. The ads said they have the same parts or something along those lines. Each part of their body was labeled with parts like ribs, thighs, and breasts. The ads were pretty much saying that women are to be hunted like animals. Women are again being reduced to animals, which brings another perspective into this. Are humans above non-humans? If not, why are we so offended when we’re compared to animals?
I think your quote of Gaard is very telling on some of the main ideas that were really trying to be conveyed in this section. You think of one of the most severe genocides in history, with the mass oppression of a select group of people. Some of the ways these ideas or gendered stereotypes are put onto food and the way we eat are similar to that of some of the most heinous criminals in history. The dominant group in this case men, feel the need to culture not only everyone around them but men as well. If a man is eating salad they are made fun of at an attempt to improve one’s own self worth. I also like how you incorporated the idea of gendering our other resources, much like in the previous sections talking about women in Africa. I feel as if the way we view eating, food, and resources has been seen as something men provide. When in reality women are more than capable of surviving on their own and providing from themselves as well. We generally view grilling as a manly activity, and this image is continually perpetuated by the media. Men are always considered the griller, the handler of raw meat and fire; while women are dealing with the dantier seeming foods. A lot of men seem to be uncomfortable with seeing a woman behind the grill because of this stereotype, and this only further perpetuates the stereotype. Do you have any idea of ways we help end or change the ways of society’s thinking? I think the only way we could help end this is by being able to talk about what we see and know from tradition. We have to keep an open mind to the world around us, and how all parties not only ourselves take the world in.