Defiant Daughters: 21 Women on Art, Activism, Animals, and the Sexual Politics of Meat

Regular price $ 20.00

Edited by Kara Davis, Wendy Lee

Foreword by Carol J. Adams

Lantern Books

3/1/2014, paperback

SKU: 9781590564196

 

When The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory by Carol J. Adams was published more than twenty years ago, it caused an immediate stir among writers and thinkers, feminists, and animal rights activists. Never before had the relationship between patriarchy and meat eating been drawn so clearly--the idea that there is a strong connection between the consumption of women and animals.

But, as the twenty-one personal stories in this anthology show, the impact of this provocative text on women's lives continues to this day, and it is as diverse as it is revelatory. One writer attempts to reconcile her feminist-vegan beliefs with her Muslim upbringing; a second makes the connection between animal abuse and her own self-destructive tendencies. A new mother discusses the sexual politics of breastfeeding, while another pens a letter to her young son about all she wishes for him in the future. Many others recall how the book inspired them to start careers in the music business, animal advocacy, and food. No matter whether they first read it in college or later in life, whether they are in their late teens or early forties, these writers all credit The Sexual Politics of Meat in one way or another with the awakening of their identities as feminists, activists, and women. Even if you haven't read the original work, you're sure to be moved and inspired by these tales of growing up and, perhaps more important, waking up to the truths around us.

Including a foreword from Carol J. Adams herself, this collection of fresh, bold voices defies expectations and provides rousing support for the belief that women have the power to change the world around them for this generation and those to come.

Contributors:

Kara Davis is Managing Director at Lantern Books. She is a street activist who got her start as a teen with the Sanctuary Movement in Arizona, and worked many years with Act Up and Fed Up Queers in NYC. She recently attempted some food activism in the "locavore" crazy Hudson Valley by accepting food stamps for pickled vegetables, fresh tofu, seitan, and nut cheese at the farmer's market, and running a sliding scale vegan C.S.A. Kara is a proud volunteer at the Catskill Animal Sanctuary, and lives in a crumbling old house with her girlfriend and too many rescued cats.

Wendy Lee is Publishing Director at Lantern Books. She spent almost ten years at HarperCollins, before which she was an English teacher and English-language copyeditor in China. She is the author of the novel Happy Family (Grove Press, 2008).

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.