Reading Response – 11/14

On Thursday, Professor Brundage posed the question, “Is Year of the Flood a feminist novel?” While I don’t believe that the characters themselves would be labeled as feminist, the novel itself may be labeled as such due to its evident eco-feminism. While reading YOTF, the God’s Gardeners reminded me of this article, “To Be Feminist is to Be Vegan.” The God’s Gardeners do not believe that animals should be killed for most reasons (not even an ant should be crushed) and when animals are used for food production (i.e. Pilar’s bees), they are to be humanely treated. Eco-feminist vegans believe that animal meat and food production is vis-a-vis to female struggle for bodily self-control, as “the female of the species often experiences more prolonged abuse, including an ongoing cycle of forceful artificial insemination (mechanical or manual rape), physical abuse of her mammary glands, and invariably being separated from her young.” It is similar to how patriarchal forces control reproduction through availability (or lack there of) of various reproductive services. While I believe that animals used for food production should be treated more humanely, I do not believe that veganism is needed to be called a feminist as this article calls for.