Neither Man nor Beast: Feminism and the Defense of Animals

Citation

Adams, C. J. (2018). Neither Man nor Beast: Feminism and the Defense of Animals (Bloomsbury Revelations ed.). Bloomsbury Academic. (First published 1994 by Continuum.)

Chapter Summary

Context and Argument

Carol J. Adams, author of The Sexual Politics of Meat, argues in this book that cultural attitudes to women and to animals in modern Western culture are linked, and that the link has enabled the systematic exploitation of both. The book draws on environmental ethics, theology and feminist theory. It is organised in three parts and a coda: the first applies what Adams calls, following Marilyn Frye, the "arrogant eye", a way of seeing that arranges everything around one's own interests; the second reworks feminist theory to include animals; the third moves from the experience of misery to practices of grace. Several chapters are revised from earlier articles and book chapters. The Bloomsbury Revelations edition of 2018 adds a new foreword by the author and new images showing the continuing relevance of the argument.

Part One: Examining the Arrogant Eye

Chapter 1: Eating Animals. The opening chapter examines how talk about eating "meat" turns the eating of animals into something that appears to be an individual choice but is a cultural production. It develops the idea of the absent referent, by which the animal is made to disappear from the product, and discusses the way vegetarians' arguments are heard as moralising.

Chapter 2: The Arrogant Eye and Animal Experimentation. Adams applies the "arrogant eye" to scientific research on animals, arguing that claims of objectivity can justify treating animals, and sometimes women, as objects of control, and questioning the reliability of animal models.

Chapter 3: Abortion Rights and Animal Rights. The chapter, revised from an article in Between the Species (1991), considers the relation between the two causes. It argues that female bodies, human and nonhuman, are subject to control over reproduction, and warns against anti-abortion use of animal rights language.

Chapter 4: On Beastliness and a Politics of Solidarity. The chapter looks at how women and people of colour have been represented as beastly, and argues for a politics of solidarity that recognises racism, sexism and speciesism as connected, including within the animal rights movement.

Part Two: "We Are One Lesson": Transforming Feminist Theory

Chapter 5: Ecofeminism and the Eating of Animals. Revised from an article in Hypatia (1991), the chapter presents ecofeminism as a framework joining concern for gender, nature and animals, and argues that feminism has neglected the place of animals.

Chapter 6: The Feminist Traffic in Animals. Adams asks how animals are used in feminist writing and metaphor, and argues that feminist theory should avoid reproducing the hierarchies it criticises.

Chapter 7: Reflections on a Stripping Chimpanzee: On the Need to Integrate Feminism, Animal Defense, and Environmentalism. The chapter argues, as its title says, that feminism, animal defense and environmentalism need to be integrated.

Part Three: From Misery to Grace

Chapter 8: Bringing Peace Home: A Feminist Philosophical Perspective on the Abuse of Women, Children, and Pet Animals. The chapter links domestic violence with the abuse of animals in the household and argues that protection of women, children and animals should be considered together.

Chapter 9: Feeding on Grace: Institutional Violence, Feminist Ethics, and Vegetarianism. Revised from a piece first published in 1993, this chapter treats vegetarianism as a response to institutional violence, based on a feminist ethic of care and relationship and not on rights and rational autonomy.

Chapter 10: Beastly Theology: When Epistemology Creates Ontology. Adams critiques the religious ideas that have supported human dominion over animals, and argues for a rethinking in which animals are regarded as subjects.

Coda

A short coda closes the book.

Key Concepts

Part One

• Arrogant eye: a way of seeing, from Marilyn Frye, which treats everything as resource for one's own interests.
• Absent referent: the process by which the living animal disappears behind the language and the product of "meat".
• Corpse eating: Adams's term for eating animals, used to counter the euphemism of "meat".

Part Two

• Ecofeminism: the view that the domination of women and the domination of nature and animals are connected.
• Traffic in animals: the use of animals as metaphor or resource in feminist as well as patriarchal discourse.

Part Three

• Institutional violence: the structures that make harm to women and animals routine.
• Feminist ethic of care applied to animals: ethics based on relationship and response rather than abstract principle.
• Beastly theologies: religious frameworks that set humans above animals.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A distinctive argument. The book challenges the way the animal rights debate has been framed by Singer and Regan, by asking what feminist theory adds. It is useful for seeing that the dominant arguments are not the only available ones.
• Interdisciplinary range. The essays move between philosophy, theology, literature and social critique, and connect animal defense to the abuse of women and to environmental concerns.
• Concrete topics. Experimentation, abortion, domestic violence and religion give readers specific questions on which to test the theory, and not only general principles.
• A reissued edition with fresh framing. The 2018 edition has a new foreword and images, and the chapters can be read separately.

Limitations

• A collected, revised set of essays. Because several chapters began as separate articles, the book has a thematic unity more than a single sustained argument, and readers who want one developing thesis may find the chapters uneven.
• Dated references. The main text is from 1994, and the cultural examples and debates it cites reflect that period; the new foreword and images do not change this.
• Demanding for newcomers. The book assumes some familiarity with feminist theory and with the Singer–Regan debate, which it criticises without setting out in full.
• Some positions are contested. The chapter linking abortion rights and animal rights, and the claim that vegetarianism follows from a feminist ethic, will not persuade all readers. The book is an argument from a particular standpoint.

Where It Fits in the Course

This is the feminist counterpart to the Singer and Regan tradition, and it works best after reading at least one of them. Singer's Animal Liberation and Regan's Empty Cages are the arguments Adams criticises as incomplete, and her account of the movement's origins challenges the way it is usually told. Cora Diamond's article offers a different challenge to the same tradition, from the philosophy of language and moral concepts. Alasdair Cochrane's Animal Rights Without Liberation is a revision of the rights tradition from within and contrasts with Adams's relational ethics. Adams's own The Sexual Politics of Meat is the companion volume: Neither Man nor Beast builds on the concept of the absent referent developed there, and the two are best read together. Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass shares the emphasis on relationship and reciprocity.

How to Use This Book

Suitable for upper-level undergraduates and graduate readers with some background in either feminist theory or animal ethics. Read Part One first, beginning with Chapter 1, since it introduces the central terms. Then choose by interest: Chapters 5 to 7 for the feminist theoretical argument, Chapter 8 for domestic violence and animal abuse, Chapters 9 and 10 for the ethics of vegetarianism and the religious critique.

Read it alongside Singer or Regan and write down how each treats the same example, such as eating meat or animal experimentation. Treat Chapter 3 as an argument to be examined, not a settled conclusion. If The Sexual Politics of Meat is unfamiliar, read its argument about the absent referent first.