Carol J. Adams

Marti Kheel--A Collective Tribute

2011-11-26T11:44:00.002-06:00

We are long time friends of Marti Kheel, who worked with her as activists in the organization she co-founded, Feminists for Animal Rights and collaborated with her in creating ecofeminist theory sensitive to other animals. We have joined together to create this statement remembering Marti Kheel because this effort represents the kind of work she always believed in—collective and supportive.

Meat Misogyny: Sexual Politics of Meat Chic?

2011-10-13T12:12:00.001-05:00

Over at onegreenplanet.org I respond to four recent images that have been sent to me. I write: So many images, references, newspaper articles and other manifestations of the sexual politics of meat have been flooding in, that we need a moment just to see them all in one place. Warning: be prepared to be depressed or outraged or that strange combination of both that results from living in

It's Vegan Y'all/Shirley's Moussaka

2011-10-11T09:26:00.000-05:00

Let me confess at the start: I didn't expect to like this recipe. I vaguely remembered moussaka pre-1974, and I didn't think potatoes would work in it. So, I postponed trying this recipe. And I waited too late. Now I can't ask Shirley about a few things in this recipe. But, oh my gosh, my friends who still eat dead animals LOVED this recipe. I cooked it one day and served it the next so that all

It's Vegan Y'all/Southwestern Corn Salad Olé

2011-10-03T08:43:00.001-05:00

Of this beautiful dish, Shirley wrote, "This colorful, delightful low-fat salad is perfect for pot lucks, picnics or a summer luncheon or even a Thanksgiving dish. It keeps well. It is worth the trouble of all the chopping to get it together." I don't think enough is said in favor of chopping. Chopping is a very rhythmic activity, and, it's been found that when writers feel stuck, they should

It's Vegan Y'all/Corny Dogs

2011-09-30T22:44:00.000-05:00

The State Fair of Texas opened today! Living in the Dallas area has given me some unusual opportunities. Probably none was so strange as the day I was invited to ride an antique fire truck in the company of a group of jokesters known as the Boneheads. A few hours before the official opening of the State Fair of Texas, they would arrive at the Fair's front gates. Until this year, it had been a

The New York Times: Leading the way in the sexual politics of meat

2011-09-28T08:00:00.003-05:00

Dear New York Times, Of course, meat advertisers sexualize dead bodies. They've been doing it for years. How do you make dead flesh that, when alive, suffered in living and dying, attractive? Just fall back on the classic, misogynist, "make a body consumable approach." Make it seductive. Appeal to the reader you imagine, a heterosexual male. But, what is this trend in the New York Times of

It's Vegan Y'all/Carrot Pecan Cornbread

2011-09-24T15:06:00.004-05:00

Here's another great recipe from Shirley Wilkes-Johnson. In the weeks before her death, Shirley and I had been talking about what recipes a Vegan Barbecue Book should contain. Our vision for her cookbook had been that it represent all the cuisines found today in Texas. It seems that people prefer a regressive view of Texas--that it's all cowboys wearing leather cowboy boots and shooting it up (

Amazon Makes Shoddy Books

2011-09-18T18:03:00.000-05:00

Two copies of the same book? Well, you might think so, but being the author, I can tell immediately when Amazon has produced yet another shoddy book. See the one on the right? It's a different size; Jane Austen (bless her), looks a little different, and the font colors are slightly off. What happened? A good friend of mine ordered 18 copies of this book from Amazon. She was going to to give

Another feminist rationalizing eating animals

2011-09-15T08:20:00.000-05:00

Over at the University of Minnesota blog, Kathy Rudy, an asssociate professor of Women's Studies at Duke University, has posted a blog introducing some of her reasons for a writing a book on animal ethics. I don't know how much of the blog reproduces arguments in her book, but her blog benefits from mischaracterizations. As a feminist-vegan, I wanted to challenge the mischaracterizations. My

Living Among Meat Eaters

2011-09-12T10:49:00.002-05:00

Living Among Meat Eaters is a very special book for me. I wrote it because I had done things wrong for so many years, and it was so liberating when I realized that and found a different way. I realized that people who aren't vegans or vegetarians need our interactions to be about us; as long as it is about us, what WE are doing, what WE believe, it doesn't have to be about them and what they are

It's Vegan Y'all/Cajun Eggless Salad and Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage

2011-09-07T20:21:00.002-05:00

This sandwich is vegan leftover heaven. It's made from Cajun eggless salad and sweet and sour red cabbage. While Reuben sandwiches combine tempeh and sauerkraut, and Texas bbq sandwiches add cole slaw to barbecued tofu, here I took two separate recipes from Shirley Wilkes-Johnson, and added just a little melted Daiya cheese. I love leftovers because they challenge us to be creative! A friend

It’s Vegan Y’all: End of August Feast

2011-09-01T09:59:00.000-05:00

My friend Pat was back from Croatia and coming for supper. The challenge--use as little oil as possible, have it be colorful and no shopping! (I was trying to meet a deadline.) So, what foods did I already have from the refrigerator, pantry, or the Texas-heat wilted garden? I found canned and fresh tomatoes, red peppers, basil, canned beans, kale, cabbage, tofu, and some sweet potatoes

Jane Austen Sightings: A Series of Unfortunate ...

2011-08-31T10:37:00.000-05:00

Perhaps it's so obvious, dear friends, that years ago it was discussed to death (that would be unfortunate). What is the biggest literary allusion in a series of books for children that contain numerous literary allusions? A series of unfortunate... We know Lemony Snicket peppers his books, from a bad beginning to the very end, with references to classic books. Of course, Jane Austen has to

It's Vegan Y'all/Confetti Slaw

2011-08-29T12:43:00.000-05:00

Oh my, this isn't just a delicious recipe, it's a beautiful one. Shirley knew that many coleslaw recipes call for lots of sugar but this one doesn’t need it. Shirley served it in barbecued sandwiches. As Shirley said, "This is similar to what my mother used to make when I was a kid. It was good then and even better now. It is a refreshing salad." Maybe the weather is going to break

Jane Austen Sightings: Piano Playing

2011-08-27T19:11:00.002-05:00

My son, Ben, a piano player, gets credit for the latest Jane Austen sighting. He is reading What Every Pianist Needs to Know about the Body. And, just barely into the book (page 2 to be precise), he finds two references to Jane Austen novels. The authors, Thomas Mark, Roberta Gary, and Thom Miles, are discussing "Finger Orientation." They write, "Ironically, one of the most obvious facts about

It's Vegan Y'all/Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake

2011-08-21T20:36:00.001-05:00

Rick Perry may be gobbling up some Texas-sized attention these days, but we Texas vegans have something he just can't imagine. We've got the legacy of Shirley Wilkes-Johnson's decades-long project to create the best darn vegan recipes this side of the Rio Grande. Perry needs to posture, and those 22 pairs of cowboy boots he's been given don't seem to be helping him these days (supposedly he has

Barbara Pym and Jane Austen's desk

2011-08-11T13:41:00.000-05:00

On August 11, 1943, Barbara Pym visited Jane Austen's house. Here is what she recorded: "Visit to Jane Austen's house... I put my hand down on Jane's desk and bring it up covered with dust. Oh that some of her genius might rub off on me! One would have imagined the devoted female custodian going round with her duster at least every other day." It seems to me that Barbara Pym got her wish!

Jane Austen Sightings

2011-08-10T08:42:00.001-05:00

I have noticed recently, how many references to Jane Austen appear, not in books ON Jane Austen, herself, but just in passing, in novels and nonfiction. I have decided to call these "Jane Austen Sightings." Here's the first one: David Shields in Reality Hunger: A Manifesto observes: #254. The person who loses the presidential election is the person who seems most fictional. In 2000, Gore simply

The Dairy Council Is Wrong: Let me tell you the ways

2011-07-12T20:02:00.008-05:00

Let's begin with the obvious: A new campaign for cow's milk is misogynistic, as it pictures an unfortunate, beleaguered, cowering white man holding milk. Since the brand isn't given we could imagine it was soy milk or hemp milk, but clearly the dairy industry wants us to believe this poor guy is holding cow's milk. Why is he cowering? Why is he beleaguered? Because a woman has PMS. The website

Five myths about vegans

2011-05-14T11:23:00.000-05:00

Though former president Bill Clinton isn’t technically a vegan, his embrace last year of a “plant-based” diet with “no meat” and “no dairy” — and his accompanying 24-pound weight loss — made headlines for a small but growing movement. After all, only 3.2 percent of Americans are vegetarian, and just .5 percent fly the vegan flag, eschewing all animal products and byproducts in their kitchens and

“She loved deeply and well; she believed in justice and worked for it; and she widened the circle of compassion wherever she went.”

2011-05-08T02:29:00.001-05:00

Muriel Kathryn Stang Adams August 2, 1914 - December 12, 2009 As we celebrate Mother's Day this year, I am thankful for so many women who helped to improve the lives of women through their work as activists and thinkers, advocates and politicians, writers and protesters. Among this group, I include my mother. She died a little more than a year ago, and her life (and death) remain close to my

Remembering Shirley Wilkes-Johnson

2011-04-10T21:59:00.005-05:00

A tomato bread bowl holding a festive salad. One of Shirley Wilkes-Johnson's original recipes. Tonight, as we approach what would have been her 74th birthday, I remember Shirley Wilkes-Johnson, who died on Saturday. As we await a public celebration of her life this Saturday in Houston, I want to take a moment to remember. For those who didn’t know her and her marvelous vegan activism, she

Thinking about Anthropomorphism and Social Justice Movements Part 1

2011-03-03T20:06:00.001-06:00

In working on an essay about anthropomorphism, I keep returning to the damage the concept has done in terms of relationships among humans. I began the essay because I was thinking about anthropomorphism of the Deity and the animals, but I can’t ignore how as a concept and a practice it has patrolled human beings. This may seem strange at first since anthropomorphism is defined as “attribution of

Twenty facts about the 20th Anniversary Edition of The Sexual Politics of Meat

2010-06-01T17:30:00.002-05:00

1. It took fifteen years to write.2. It’s been published in China, Japan, Korea, and Germany. I’d love to see French, Spanish, Italian, and Dutch editions.3. Consolidated, an industrial rock group of the 1990s, created a song “The Sexual Politics of Meat.” They used a tape of me reading from the book. You can hear a part of it on the video celebrating the release of the 20th anniversary edition.

Engaging the sexual politics of meat

2010-04-25T20:49:00.002-05:00

Next month, the 20th anniversary edition of The Sexual Politics of Meat will be published. Since it's first publication 20 years ago, I have received some amazing letters from readers. I have been very touched and moved and astonished by what people have said and how they have described how the book changed their lives. This weekend, I received the following letter. I loved everything about it

Remembering Mary Daly

2010-01-06T11:30:00.006-06:00

The first time Mary Daly came for dinner – it was the fall of 1974 – she brought a wine whose symbol was a black cat. A small plastic black cat hung from around the wine bottle’s neck. That night I put it on my dresser top, and it is still there this morning, 35 and 1/2 years later. Of course she brought a black cat. Mary Daly recognized the negation that traditionally happened to women and

"I will do my part" -- giving the Christmas gift of a good death

2009-12-11T08:17:00.011-06:00

This Christmas, my sisters and I are giving my mother a good death. Preparing for a present like this has taken us many years. Once we knew Mom had Alzheimers, we also knew we wanted her to stay at home for as long as imaginable to be supported by and supportive of my father. They live in a Victorian house and sometimes my older sister Nancy said it was like balancing everything on a toothpick.

Leaving Our Mothers

2009-12-05T08:21:00.001-06:00

Of all the anonymous people who have influenced my life, a special place is held by a Norwegian immigrant farmer who hired my grandmother to help with household chores. My grandmother, Nellie, had been orphaned at eight and raised by an elderly childless aunt and uncle. She was a teenager, when, around 1910 or so, she went to work for the nearby farmer, helping to cook and clean up. What

The Life She Has Led

2009-12-04T11:31:00.001-06:00

Her life, now, is constrained by dementia, age, and a recent stroke. But my mother’s fascinating and full life stretches from the beginnings of the Great War to the mess of Afghanistan, 2009. The daughter of a Norwegian immigrant, one of her jobs at General Mills in the early 1940s was answering letters as Betty Crocker. She knew the whirlwind nature of a World War II romance. In 1957, as the

A vegan-feminist lament

2009-10-30T08:54:00.001-05:00

Natalie Portman is being gleefully skewered by bloggers and columnists for comparing attending a dinner with meat eaters with being asked to accept rape. What if Natalie Portman had suggested the opposite, not that meat eating is like rape, but that rape is like meat eating? “He treated me like a piece of meat!” that’s one thing that a rape survivor may say. A battered woman reported: "He really

Hiring Caregivers: “Who’s For My Mother?”

2009-08-26T12:27:00.000-05:00

How Green Was My Valley, a movie from 1941, is a painful movie for me to watch. It’s about conflicts in a Welsh mining town that also tear apart a Welsh mining family. Whenever there’s a mining accident, the call goes out for rescuers who will go down in the damaged mine and work to save the miners trapped there. The call for help begins “Who is for” and then the names of the trapped miners are

2009-07-30T12:24:00.000-05:00

As far as I can learn, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Nelson Mandela, and a host of other world-changing activists and leaders never had to take their clothes off in the service of their cause. They would have laughed at the idea. Is it because they were concerned about human rights? Is there something peculiar to animal rights that has

2009-06-29T14:04:00.003-05:00

A Jane Austen Weekend Carol J. Adams In the midst of a life filled with meeting deadlines and responding to the latest negative images interconnecting women and animals, I recently had a glorious weekend in Hampshire, England. It was a Jane Austen weekend; and it was dedicated to her beginning and end. As I traveled by train from London/Waterloo to Basingstoke I felt so lucky. I was going to

2009-06-04T09:16:00.001-05:00

In May 1995, I bought, at auction, the office equipment of the national office of Operation Rescue. It had been seized earlier that spring to help settle a $1,000,000 legal judgment against Operation Rescue for its role in trying to close down the Planned Parenthood clinic in Houston. The office equipment included six computers. When the constables arrived to seize the

The University of Georgia

2009-05-17T16:47:00.000-05:00

Athens, Georgia. Coming to Georgia in March and finding a fully-formed snow man – err, snow person – greeting me on campus creates a moment of incongruity. Pear trees are beginning to send out blossoms, but snow is on the ground. Georgia has had a rare March snow storm; and after the big wet flakes had lost their fascination, they continued to fall. Trees are down along