This photograph is of the famous rapper, ludacris. He has a plate of chicken wings/thighs in front of home, with hot sauce and beer. In the upper right hand corner of the image is a female chicken with womanly features such as large breasts, arms, etc..
The text around the chicken says “chicken, beer’. In the center of the image we see ludacris about to take “a bite” out of an actual woman’s leg and is pouring salt on it with his mouth wide open and hand grasping her ankle.
As if to imply that biting a woman’s leg is no different than eating chicken wings.
With this imagery in mind we can analyze it with a few of Carol Adams’ 9 points. First, is that meat eating is a sign of male identity. In this image the male is in control of the female’s body. One of Adams’ other points is that both animals and females are connected in an objectified, fragmented, and consumed way in patriarchal culture. Visual jokes are created to substitute one for the other. This image is telling us women are chicken and that chicken are also women and both are for eating with beer.
This next image is of a pig standing on two legs, holding down a blowing white dress. This advertisement uses iconography to make a pig “sexy”. This is referencing Mary
ln Monroes’ famous image of her standing on a subway vent when the air blows her dress up. This image becomes iconic, recognizable and also an object of the male gaze. Meanwhile, here we see an iconic image of the standard of beauty, the male gaze, sexuality, the fantasy of innocence, transformed from the human form into pig form. This brings us back to women being animalized and animals being sexualized, as what is happening in this image.
The third image is equally as dynamic as the first two. This image is of three guys, who are part of a “meat club” as we can see on the banner behind them. One of them is holding grilling tongs, and each of them are wearing a white shirt. The white shirt reads, “got meat?” and there is an image of the female body posing in a sexual way with the head of a cow on top.
First, “got meat” is reference to the once popular, and retired slogan, “got milk”. “Got milk” has its fair share of sexualized ads. However, “got milk” is telling us indirectly that if we do not have milk we should get milk and we should drink it. With this thought process, “got meat” is telling us if you don’t have meat, you should get some and when you do have meat you should eat the meat.
The image on the shirts, as already described, are of a naked woman’s body and a cow’s head. So, with the caption “got meat” are they suggesting to eat Minotaurs? Are they saying we should be eating women, eating female cows, or both?! Either way the blend between the live human female body and the cow’s head is overall disturbing. It would have at least made more sense to have the meat product on the shirt instead. This is as Adams’ described as “pornographic rendering of women as meat” aka, anthropornography.
The image I chose was of Lady Gaga wearing a meat bathing suit on the cover of Vogue magazine. Adam’s mentions the art show displaying raw meat tacked up. She also describes that “Another 21st century enaction of the sexual politics of meat is the resurgence of the raw as “real”. Which she says is part of some fantasy of consuming flesh and women.
I’ve also included the YouTube clip here>>> of Carl Jr’s 2015 Super Bowl Commercial. Adams’ mentions his name and after googling it I realized I have seen these ads before. It is of a naked woman walking through a farmers market and ends up eating a burger…
An article from lady clever magazine, in response to the ad, says “Apparently, you think that superimposing tomatoes over Charlotte McKinney’s butt and two melons (come on – actual melons?!) over her breasts will sell, too. Ugh. Excuse us as we barf. I think we just caught a whiff of your burgers bullsh*t.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4USya4T9is
https://ladyclever.com/food/can-we-stop-with-the-sexist-and-sexualized-food-ads/
This article is a review of Carl Jr’s ad from the 2015 Super Bowl describing the ad and discussing sexualizing women and meat.