My Year of Meats, Article Summary

Article Summary/ Quiz

This article analyzed the implications behind meat and the melding of the American and Japanese cultures. The article discusses the ideas behind making Japan more “wholesome” and American through eating meat. The entire idea of the My American Wife show was to promote beef sales to an originally untouched beef market and this was done through the help of eroticizing and familiarizing the idea of the “average American”. The article touches on the ideas presented in the novel that not fully understanding what we “exoticize” (be it meat or people) is dangerous. The idea is that since the subject at hand is not fully understood and then there is a motion to make it exotic and not grasp the full implications behind its relevance.

The second half of this article analyzes the ecofeminism aspect of the novel. Explaining that through a global perspective we can work towards a sort of “environmental and social justice”. Here the article takes a moment to redefine what the reader might interpret as the “forces of globalization”. It discusses the detrimental aspects of globalization in that giant corporations are able to transcend boarders and avoid the negative implications of their metaphorical web. Essentially, as globalization occurs the mode of capital is becoming easier and there is less to answer too when things go wrong (like the hormones and antibiotics in the meat that are effecting the majority of the people who eat them). There is also a discussion on the media role in the consumptions of meat and the American culture and how this could have an effect on the individuals who lack certain knowledge about those specific topics to make their own educated decision.

Words: 280

Works Cited

Fish, Cheryl J. "The Toxic Body Politic: Ethnicity, Gender, and Corrective Eco-Justice in Ruth Ozeki's "My Year of Meats" and Judith Helfand and Daniel Gold's "Blue Vinyl.." MELUS 34.2 (2009): 43-62. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 7 Apr. 2011.

SL blog post 3

Activism:

This week was all about activism. I passed out all sorts of flyers , I spoke to people, researched countless topics and I attended events galore! Wednesday was the movie night that Chelsey and Kelsey set up. The video was very interesting and we had some speakers from YAYA come to talk about the farmworkers as well. Saturday was the symposium event. Although this event essentially fell through and we weren’t able to get our message across to very many people, it was an excellent learning experience. I’m assuming that our marketing wasn’t in the right place and we probably could have done more to get the word out, but we all conducted a lot of research about the information we would have presented in regards to the farmworkers and became very knowledgeable on how to better plan a successful symposium for the next time. Finally, Sunday I attended the community gardens event AFTER I RETRIEVED MY KEYS THAT I LOCKED IN MY FREAKING CAR!!! This was amazing. It provided us with a firsthand experience of the world these individuals have to do every day. We were able to sit and talk with the women about certain topics that affect them and their daily lives and how they are treated in the fields because they are women.

Reflection:

This week gave me the opportunity to apply everything that we have been learning in the books to real life situations. Talking with these women one on one and actually hearing what they go through and seeing with my own eyes what they need help with was a real eye opener. Although the symposium turnout was rather upsetting, it was firsthand knowledge of exactly how difficult it can be to organize locally much less get people together on a global level.

Reciprocity:

This week was amazingly eye opening for me. My privilege was slapped in my face several times throughout the week (especially at the gardens) and I realized just how difficult it is to organize things that involve more than two people. I learned that SPF 40 is simply not enough when you sweat all the time and horse poop really doesn’t smell as horrible as one might think. I always knew that working on a farm was hard work and it takes A LOT of knowledge and skill to make sure that everything works and all the plants grow properly. I realized today though, that I have always taken for granted my ability to just go home at the end of the day and not really have to worry about the garden or the food growing there if I really didn’t want to. Also, for the first time in my life I locked my keys in my car, which made us an hour late… so I this week I learned to MAKE SPARE KEYS.

Words: 475