keep things hidden away when they are in violation of our spiritual awareness of connection with ... more keep things hidden away when they are in violation of our spiritual awareness of connection with others. But those things that are hidden often erupt into view. This is the insidious part of the sexual politics of meat: When those who have been hidden do make their appearance, they are dressed to be killed, with all the accoutrements of sexual consumability. So they enter the oversexualized climate of our culture and meld in. Rather than disturbing our conscience, they reassure. With the sexual politics of meat, privilege creates perspective. Then the privilege disappears and what it allows access to — fun with the bodies of others — is seen as a personal choice. Thus misogyny is simultaneously both inscribed and denied, and eating animals remains business as usual. Inequality, already made sexy, has also been made tasty. ■ newspaper illustrations, a melding of pornography and popular culture, is actually only a particular point of view. These images provide a safe outlet for feelings of unease when one thinks about the miserable lives and deaths of animals who are consumed for food or whose reproductive products are taken from them. We are discomforted by uncomfortable feelings but titillated by sexual references. The absent referent serves our desire not to know about the violence behind what we are eating. But the function of the absent referent not only kills the animal who ends up on our plate, but a part of our spirit, too, because it keeps us disconnected. It helps us live with lies and allows the continuation of forms of violence that could be stopped. These images prevent a specific kind of seeing, a specific kind of representation, the representation of the real lives and deaths of farmed animals. They bolster entitlement to
In view of the global climate emergency and the need for states and municipalities to satisfy cri... more In view of the global climate emergency and the need for states and municipalities to satisfy criteria for their renewable energy portfolios, many policymakers and environmental organizations are willing to overlook the negative consequences of massive-scale hydroelectric developments. The Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project under construction since 2012 in Labrador, Canada should serve as a warning of the destructiveness of large dams, which is no less than it was a quarter of a century ago despite a change in language and new strategies for taking resources from Indigenous peoples. Today, the river and land protectors fighting to halt the Muskrat Falls project in Labrador demonstrate the impacts of this technology, which is neither carbon neutral nor “renewable.” Indeed, the world will need natural floodplains and intact boreal forests for climate resilience. Megadams intended for exporting electricity over long distances can also become barriers to the kind of decentralized, local, small-scale energy systems that the climate justice movement envisions.
keep things hidden away when they are in violation of our spiritual awareness of connection with ... more keep things hidden away when they are in violation of our spiritual awareness of connection with others. But those things that are hidden often erupt into view. This is the insidious part of the sexual politics of meat: When those who have been hidden do make their appearance, they are dressed to be killed, with all the accoutrements of sexual consumability. So they enter the oversexualized climate of our culture and meld in. Rather than disturbing our conscience, they reassure. With the sexual politics of meat, privilege creates perspective. Then the privilege disappears and what it allows access to — fun with the bodies of others — is seen as a personal choice. Thus misogyny is simultaneously both inscribed and denied, and eating animals remains business as usual. Inequality, already made sexy, has also been made tasty. ■ newspaper illustrations, a melding of pornography and popular culture, is actually only a particular point of view. These images provide a safe outlet for feelings of unease when one thinks about the miserable lives and deaths of animals who are consumed for food or whose reproductive products are taken from them. We are discomforted by uncomfortable feelings but titillated by sexual references. The absent referent serves our desire not to know about the violence behind what we are eating. But the function of the absent referent not only kills the animal who ends up on our plate, but a part of our spirit, too, because it keeps us disconnected. It helps us live with lies and allows the continuation of forms of violence that could be stopped. These images prevent a specific kind of seeing, a specific kind of representation, the representation of the real lives and deaths of farmed animals. They bolster entitlement to
In view of the global climate emergency and the need for states and municipalities to satisfy cri... more In view of the global climate emergency and the need for states and municipalities to satisfy criteria for their renewable energy portfolios, many policymakers and environmental organizations are willing to overlook the negative consequences of massive-scale hydroelectric developments. The Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project under construction since 2012 in Labrador, Canada should serve as a warning of the destructiveness of large dams, which is no less than it was a quarter of a century ago despite a change in language and new strategies for taking resources from Indigenous peoples. Today, the river and land protectors fighting to halt the Muskrat Falls project in Labrador demonstrate the impacts of this technology, which is neither carbon neutral nor “renewable.” Indeed, the world will need natural floodplains and intact boreal forests for climate resilience. Megadams intended for exporting electricity over long distances can also become barriers to the kind of decentralized, local, small-scale energy systems that the climate justice movement envisions.
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Papers by Alexis Lathem