Melanie Joy

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Melanie Joy 2015

Melanie Joy (born September 2, 1966 ) is an American social psychologist , publicist and vegan activist. She coined - mainly in English-speaking countries - the concept of Karnismus (Engl. Carnism ) and developed in their publications theories about why people eat animals. She is one of the founders of ProVeg International .

Carnicism

Joy describes Karnismus as an invisible social system of beliefs that sorts animals into the categories "edible" and "inedible". As an ideology , it is characteristic and necessary for Carnicism to understand the consumption of meat, eggs and milk as normal, natural and necessary. These beliefs eventually made it possible to distance oneself from compassion for the animals concerned. The apathy they have learned is further solidified by a series of psychological defense strategies. The most important mechanisms that Joy describes include the process of de-individualizing animals and their abstraction into groups. Animal products would also detract from the violence associated with their manufacture through the way they are presented and marketed. This would make animals - similar to Carol J. Adams - "absent speakers". According to Joy, carnivism keeps "us" from questioning the social norm of eating animals. Carnicism is "completely built on violence" because "without violence, without killing" there would be no meat. Everything revolves around one group of individuals using another group of individuals for their own benefit. Behind this is an attitude of mind "that completely opposes the idea of ​​a just society of equals, for which we actually work."

Joy cites experiences in the context of her dissertation as the background for her karnismus idea . She interviewed people from the meat industry , people who breed and slaughter their own animals, meat consumers and vegetarians and found that “actually all” of the respondents “felt uncomfortable at some level about harming animals”. But there would have been a “psychological separation between this discomfort and their behavior”. To resolve this moral contradiction, they would have used various psychological defense mechanisms.

reception

Helena Pedersen, Professor of Education at Stockholm University , rates Joy's contribution as helpful and relevant, but qualifies this assessment. In the question of the social emergence of animal production, she sees considerable theoretical need for explanation.

Other recipients reacted relatively cautiously. Jason Hribal criticizes that Joy's conception of "meat" as a metaphorical form in which the affected animal was made invisible as a victim of violence, on the one hand, does not take sufficient account of the history of the object and the term, on the other hand, solidifies the reduction of the analysis of meat to that Symbolic, a historical perspective that lowers or completely loses sight of the active role of “ non-human animals ” as workers and their resistance.

In 2011 and 2012, Corey Wrenn criticized the fact that Joy's indecision to put veganism as a political principle at the center of her counter-proposal to “carnivism” encouraged an animal welfare policy. Joy herself mentioned veganism several times as a counter-strategy to carnism.

According to Sandra Mahlke, Joy's Karnismus is a “sub-form of speciesism , in so far as the raising of animals for meat is a special form of speciesist inequality”. Joy herself considers the term speciesism to be “too abstract” and “confusing”. Most people, on the other hand, would understand what karnismus is about.

Proveganic commitment

Joy says she has been eating meat-free since 1989, when she was 23 years old. As a trigger, she cites the consumption of a rotten hamburger , as a result of which she had to be treated in hospital. Since that experience, she has been disgusted with eating meat. At first she became a vegetarian and continued to consume dairy products because she thought "this would not harm the animals". It was only later that she began to be interested in the background of the “ livestock industry ”. What she found out shocked her. She asked herself how she “could have been part of such a terrible system for so long”. Today Joy completely dispenses with animal products in her diet.

Joy is the founder and president of the Carnism Awareness and Action Network (CAAN), which is now also called Beyond carnism . This organization has set itself the goal of raising awareness of so-called Karnismus through public relations ("education and activism ") and to "transform" it with the aim of creating a compassionate and just world, both for human and non- human individuals.

Members believe that eating animals contributes to widespread suffering. Agriculture ( animal production and husbandry ) is responsible for the unnecessary killing of 77 billion land animals worldwide every year from the perspective of the organization members. At the same time, it is a major contributor to environmental degradation , human disease and human rights violations , while the majority of people who eat animals are unaware that they are contributing to such destruction. Carnicism is based on the same mentality that causes all forms of oppression; it is directly related to other oppression, such as gender, race or class.

The organization sees veganism as a suitable system for weakening carnism. According to their own statements, all of their “programs” are designed to either weaken Karnismus or strengthen veganism, or to achieve both at the same time.

Fonts

  • Melanie Joy: Why we love dogs, eat pigs and raise cows: Karnismus - an introduction, translated by Achim Stammberger . Compassion Media, Münster 2013, ISBN 978-3-9814621-7-3 . .
  • Melanie Joy: Strategic action for animals: a handbook on strategic movement building, organizing, and activism for animal liberation . Lantern Books, New York 2008, ISBN 978-1-59056-136-2 . .
  • Humanistic Psychology and Animal Rights: Reconsidering the Boundaries of the Humanistic Ethic . In: Journal of Humanistic Psychology . 45, No. 1, January 1, 2005, ISSN  0022-1678 , pp. 106-130. doi : 10.1177 / 0022167804272628 .
  • Melanie Joy: Toward a Non-Speciesist Psychoethic . In: Society and Animals . 10, No. 4, 2002, pp. 457-458.
  • Melanie Joy: Beyond Beliefs: A Guide to Improving Relationships and Communication for Vegans, Vegetarians, and Meat Eaters. Roundtree Press, Petaluma 2017, ISBN 978-1-944903-30-5

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ (Joy 2010) pp. 30-31
  2. ↑ (Joy 2010) p. 96 ff
  3. ↑ (Joy 2010) p. 118
  4. ↑ a b Karnismus researcher Joy: "Organic meat is a myth" In: Spiegel Online , August 24, 2013.
  5. ↑ a b Why we eat cattle but not dogs , interview with Sebastian Meyer in Süddeutsche , February 21, 2013.
  6. ↑ Helena Pedersen: Critical Carnist Studies . In: Society & Animals . 20, No. 1, January 1, 2012, ISSN  1063-1119 , pp. 111-112. doi : 10.1163 / 156853012X614404 .
  7. ↑ Jason Hribal: Animals are Part of the Working Class Reviewed . In: Borderlands . 11, No. 2, 2012, pp. 1-37.
  8. ^ Corey Wrenn: Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: A critical review . In: The Examiner 2011. Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: A critical review ( Memento of May 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ).
  9. ^ A b Corey Wrenn: Carnism is Confusing. In: The Examiner 2012. ( German translation )
  10. ↑ Melanie Joy: Why we love dogs, eat pigs and raise cows , compassion media 2013, ISBN 978-3-9814621-7-3 ; Pp. 166-167.
  11. ↑ Video: "The Secret Reason We Eat Meat - Dr. Melanie Joy ", minute 16:19 (Youtube)
  12. ↑ a b Beyond Carnism: What we do
  13. ↑ Sandra Mahlke: 2.2.3 Karnismus In: The power relationship between humans and animals in the context of linguistic distancing mechanisms: Anthropocentrism, speciesism and Karnismus in critical discourse analysis , Diplomica Verlag 2014; P. 19. ISBN 978-3-8428-9140-1 .
  14. ↑ a b Beyond Carnism / Carnism Awareness and Action Network (CAAN): About
personal data
SURNAME Joy, Melanie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American social psychologist, publicist and vegan activist
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd September 1966