Publication details
Animal Colonialism in Ruth Ozeki’s My Year of Meats
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2024 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | In the words of ecofeminist scholar and activist Vandana Shiva, the modern era witnesses a form of colonization where “life itself is being colonized,” with the bodies of women and nonhuman animals serving as the last frontiers. This chapter engages with Shiva’s assertion, exploring the entwined subjugation of minoritized women and nonhuman animals, conceptualizing their bodies as colonized territories strategically manipulated for profit. This is done primarily through the control of their reproductive cycles and their dietary regimes. The chapter explores the concept of milk and meat colonialism and shows how it constitutes a form of environmental injustice perpetrated against both human and nonhuman animals. It also highlights the interconnected nature of environmental injustice and reproductive violence by showing how “environmental injustices intersect with individuals’ ability to determine whether and when to have children and how to parent in safe and sustainable communities”. The central focus of this analysis revolves around the notion of animal colonialism, and its portrayal in Ruth Ozeki’s novel, My Year of Meats (1998). Here, the exploitation of nonhuman animals mirrors that of (minoritized) women, positioning them as colonized subjects abused as tools of assimilation and instruments of patriarchal dominance. This narrative reveals a nexus where American imperialism converges with the commodification of meat, resulting not only in environmental degradation and environmental injustice but also in the consolidation of control over the bodies of (minoritized) women. |