Radikalna empatija: feminizam, nejedenje mesa i aktivističke prakse
Radical empathy: feminism, refusing to eat meat and activism

Author(s): Natalija Iva Stepanović
Subject(s): Gender Studies, Agriculture, Ethics / Practical Philosophy, Human Ecology
Published by: Durieux
Keywords: feminism; refusing to eat meat; politics; activism; ecofeminism;
Summary/Abstract: I argue that refusing to eat meat is an act of compassion as well as feminist action. Even though connection between vegetarianism and femininity existed earlier, during romanticism and suffrage movement, the first consistent theory of feminist vegetarianism was The Sexual Politics of Meat written by Carol J. Adams in 1990. Adams claims that it is possible to connect our treatment of animals and our treatment of oppressed ethnic, racial and class groups and women in general with structure of absent referent. Absent referent transforms real experience of oppression into metaphor thus masking suffering. I suggest that ethic of care is feminist ethical paradigm which makes suffering visible and helps us rethink animal liberation. Second part of essay deals with activism in practice: its mainstream form (PETA’s sexist campaigns) and more radical circles. Both forms reproduce patriarchal power relationships either by treating women as objects or by marking them as sentimental or hysterical and trying to silence them.

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