''Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism'' is a 2009 book by American social psychologist

Melanie Joy Melanie Joy (born September 2, 1966) is an American social psychologist and author, primarily notable for coining and promulgating the term carnism. She is the founding president of nonprofit advocacy group Beyond Carnism, previously known as Ca ...

about the belief system and psychology of meat eating, or " carnism". Joy coined the term ''carnism'' in 2001 and developed it in her doctoral dissertation in 2003.Kool, V. K.; Agrawal, Rita (2009). The Psychology of Nonkilling. In Joám Evans Pim (Ed.), ''Toward a Nonkilling Paradigm'' (pp. 349-370). Center for Global Nonkilling. .Joy, Melanie (2003). ''Psychic numbing and meat consumption: The Psychology of carnism'' (Doctoral dissertation). Carnism is a subset of speciesism, and contrasts with ethical

veganism Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet (nutrition), diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is kn ...

, the moral commitment to abstain from consuming or using meat and other animal products. In 2020, an anniversary edition of the book was published by publisher Red Wheel.

Background

Joy, a social psychologist and author, was concerned about linguistic bias inherent in terms like ''

carnivore A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other s ...

'', which were inaccurate and failed to account for the "beliefs beneath the behavior". Carnivores require meat in their diet for survival, but carnists choose to eat meat based on their beliefs.Matejka, George S. (December 2010). Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs and Wear Cows. ''Teaching Philosophy'', 33(4), 422-423. Joy, M. (2011) 009 ''Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows''. Conari Press. . There was no label, Joy discovered, for the beliefs of people who produce, consume, and promote meat eating. She created the term ''carnism'' (Latin ''carn'', flesh or body) to name and describe this dominant cultural belief system. "We assume that it is not necessary to assign a term to ourselves when we adhere to the mainstream way of thinking, as though its prevalence makes it an intrinsic part of life rather than a widely held opinion. Meat eating, though culturally dominant, reflects a choice that is not espoused by everybody", Joy writes.

Synopsis

Carnism, according to Joy, is the dominant, yet invisible paradigm in modern culture supporting the choice to consume meat.DeMello, Margo (2012). ''Animals and Society: An Introduction to Human-Animal Studies''. Columbia University Press. . pp. 138-139. Carnism is an invisible system of beliefs in both the social, psychological, and physical sense. For example, in the physical sense, an estimated 10 billion land animals are slaughtered for their meat every year in the United States, yet most of the animals are never seen—they are kept in confined animal feeding operations, invisible to the public and off limits to the media. Joy maintains that the choice to eat meat is not natural or a given as proponents of meat claim, but influenced by social conditioning. The majority of people, Joy claims, care deeply about animals and do not want them to suffer.Erbe, Bonnie (January 6, 2010)
Understanding Why America Loves Animals, But Eats Them
''U.S. News & World Report''. Bill Clinton, turkey pardon

Joy argues there is a neurological basis for empathy; most people care about nonhuman animals and want to prevent their suffering. Further, humans value compassion, reciprocity, and justice. However, human behavior does not match these values. To continue to eat animals, Joy argues, people engage in psychic numbing, which alters the perception of our behavior towards animals and uses defense mechanisms to block empathy. First, carnism denies there is a problem with eating animals; second, it justifies eating meat as normal, natural, and necessary; third, to prevent

cognitive dissonance In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information, and the mental toll of it. Relevant items of information include a person's actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environmen ...

, carnism alters the perception of the animals as living individuals into food objects, abstractions, and categories. People who hold to these beliefs may also be called carnists.Joy, M. (2001). From Carnivore to Carnist: Liberating the Language of Meat. ''Satya'' 8(2), 26. Through this denial, justification, and perceptual distortion, Joy argues, carnism influences people to violate their core values. Animal advocates and cultural studies scholars have implicated both the government and the media as the two primary channels responsible for legitimizing carnist discourse in the United States.Freeman, Carrie Packwood, Leventi-Perez, Oana (2012). Pardon Your Turkey and Eat Him Too: Antagonism over Meat Eating in the Discourse of the Presidential Pardoning of the Thanksgiving Turkey. In Joshua Frye and Michael Bruner (Ed.), ''The Rhetoric of Food: Discourse, Materiality, and Power'' (pp. 103-120). Routledge. .

Critical reception

Writer Megan Kearns agrees with Joy's argument that the system of carnism is at odds with democracy, but takes issue with Joy blaming the system rather than the people who make carnist choices: " heway we as a society envision eating and animals is contradictory and insidious. Yet it seems incongruous to blame the system and simultaneously hold people accountable to awaken their consciences and exercise their free will." Kearns also notes that not only are there many empathic people who choose to eat meat, but many vegetarians who base their diet on health, not moral reasons. Helena Pedersen of Malmö University questions whether it is accurate for Joy to treat meat eaters as a homogenous group as there may be many different types of meat eaters all of whom have different reasons for eating meat. Proponents of the

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

theory of animal rights, such as Gary L. Francione, do not accept the concept of carnism as they believe it indirectly supports the

animal welfare Animal welfare is the well-being of non-human animals. Formal standards of animal welfare vary between contexts, but are debated mostly by animal welfare groups, legislators, and academics. Animal welfare science uses measures such as longevit ...

position by neglecting to call for the immediate rejection of all animal use and for not explicitly promoting veganism.Francione, Gary L. (October 2, 2012). Nothing "Invisible" About Animal Exploitation Ideology. ''Opposing Views''.

Influence

Journalist

Avery Yale Kamila Avery Yale Kamila is an American journalist, vegan columnist and community organizer in the state of Maine. Biography Kamila was born in Westminster, Massachusetts in the 1970s and grew up on an organic farm in Litchfield, Maine. Kamila adopte ...

reviewed Joy's book in 2020 and said it has "played a pivotal role" in changing "how humans think about animals." Kamila wrote:

In December, Vox put ''Why We Love Dogs'' at the top of its list of "19 books from the 2010s we can't stop thinking about." In January, Joy talked with ''The Washington Post'' about "Why that vegan meal at the Golden Globes set off so many critics." And this summer one of three winning essays (out of 1,242 submissions) in ''The New York Times''' annual Student Editorial Contest was headlined "Bringing Ethics to Your Plate" and cited the book in its second paragraph.

Editions

The book has also been translated into several languages, including Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, French, Traditional Chinese, Swedish, Danish, Croatian, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Dutch. A 10th anniversary edition was released in 2020, with a new foreword by

Yuval Noah Harari Yuval Noah Harari ( he, יובל נח הררי ; born 1976) is an Israeli historian and professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of the popular science bestsellers '' Sapiens: A Brief History ...

References

Bibliography

* Pilisuk, Marc, Joy, M. (2001). Humanistic Psychology and Ecology. In Kirk J. Schneider, James F. T. Bugental and J. Fraser Pierson (Ed.), ''The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology: Leading Edges in Theory, Research, and Practice'' (pp. 101–114). Sage Publications. . *Joy, M. (March 2003). Toward a Non-Speciesist Psychoethic. ''Society & Animals'' 11(1), 103-104. *Joy, M. (Winter 2005). Humanistic Psychology and Animal Rights: Reconsidering the Boundaries of the Humanistic Ethic. ''Journal of Humanistic Psychology'' 45(1), 106-130. *Joy, M. (January 21, 2013). Speaking Truth to Power: Understanding the Dominant, Animal-Eating Narrative for Vegan Empowerment and Social Transformation. ''One Green Planet''. *Joy, M. (February 26, 2013)
Why Horsemeat Is Delicious and Disgusting
''Huffington Post''.

Author interviews

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