Powerarchy: Understanding the Psychology of Oppression for Social Transformation

[Ellipse]

A book which seems interesting.

Harvard-educated psychologist and best-selling author Melanie Joy exposes the psychology that underlies all forms of oppression and abuse and the belief system that gives rise to this psychology - which she calls powerarchy.

Melanie Joy had long been curious as to why people who were opposed to one or more forms of oppression - such as racism, sexism, speciesism, and so forth - often stayed mired in many others. She also wondered why people who were working toward social justice sometimes engaged in interpersonal dynamics that were unjust. Or why people who valued freedom and democracy might nevertheless vote and act against these values. Where was the disconnect?

In this thought-provoking analysis, Joy explains how we’ve all been deeply conditioned by the invisible system of powerarchy to believe in a hierarchy of moral worth - to view some individuals and groups as either more or less worthy of moral consideration - and to treat them accordingly.

Powerarchy conditions us to engage in power dynamics that violate integrity and harm dignity, and it creates unjust power imbalances among social groups and between individuals. Joy describes how powerarchies - both social and interpersonal - perpetuate themselves through cognitive distortions, such as denial and justification; narratives that reinforce the belief in a hierarchy of moral worth; and privileges that are granted to some and not others. She also provides tools for transformation.

By illuminating powerarchy and the psychology it creates, Joy helps us to work more fully toward transformation for ourselves, others, and our world.

 

[whitecoast]

Have you had a chance to read it?

 

[Ellipse]

Have you had a chance to read it?

Not yet, but I have the book.... on the stack for the moment.

 

[miguel angel]

At first sight, the book looks Ok for me. I don't know it I'll be throwing the baby out of the bathwater with this comment but, just in case:

The author, Melanie Joy, has written this other book: Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism

And she is the founder and president of Beyond Carnism, where it's written: "At Beyond Carnism, we believe that meaningful social change requires a two-pronged strategic approach: weakening the oppressive system (carnism) and strengthening the system that challenges it (veganism). For this reason, all our programs are designed to either weaken carnism, strengthen veganism, or do both simultaneously."

At the moment, I am not inclined to read a person who believes my way of eating is an oppressive system. Maybe she could have called it an 3D STS way of living, though.

 

[whitecoast]

Yeah, to be honest the word “speciesism” was a major red flag for me in the introduction. That and “carnism” just telegraph the writer is an ideologically possessed vegan projecting their ideological thinking onto others.

 

[Color]

She's a complete loony! I just saw few tweets referencing her 'studies' to prove how eating meat is connected with right-wing authoritarianism, supporting Trump, racism and sexism!!! I looked more about it online and this are just two older articles explaining and promoting her 'Carnism' theory (which is the term she invented btw, just as she invented the 'Powerarchy'. Oh boy, she really likes to dream up words so that she can then explain them to us, ignorant bunch!)

In her new book, Dr. Melanie Joy links sexism, racism, and—very probably—your diet. Are you a carnist? - Generation Progress

In her new book, Dr. Melanie Joy links sexism, racism, and—very probably—your diet. Are you a carnist? I was 12 years old and with my grandparents on a road trip. All day they’d been hyping up their favorite restaurant, an… Read more ›

genprogress.org

How Eating Meat Is Like Sexism and Racism
By Lisa Gillespie
Articles
April 13, 2010

In her new book, Dr. Melanie Joy links sexism, racism, and—very probably—your diet. Are you a carnist?
I was 12 years old and with my grandparents on a road trip. All day they’d been hyping up their favorite restaurant, an old place in the upper peninsula of Michigan and I was excited—to eat, to share their experience, to feel closer to them and things they liked.
Upon entering the restaurant, however, I was immediately repulsed. There were animal heads on every square inch of the walls—cows, deer, moose, goats, and any other creature you’d serve on a plate. Every entree on the menu had meat in it. I ordered a hamburger, but I couldn’t eat it. The site of the heads in conjunction with my burger patty was too much too handle, and I ended up vomiting in the bathroom.
This memory surfaced while reading Dr. Melanie Joy’s Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism, a psychological exploration of why Americans eat some animals and not others, the language we use to distance ourselves from our food (i.e. beef vs. cow meat), and the ties between violence and meat consumption.
In a phone interview, Joy explains my reaction in the restaurant that night by noting the jarring juxtaposition of taxidermied animals and my browned hunk of ground beef. “Not that long ago, ads used a large red steak. Now, there are no longer those ads,” she says. “It’s a browned steak that is far way from the image of the animal it came from.”
Joy says carnism, the system by which people eat select animals without considering why, is instilled in Americans from birth. We are raised eating Gerber’s lamb and rice baby food and McDonald’s Happy Meals. All the while, few consider the origins of their hamburger. “The people who love us have brought us up to think eating meat is natural,” says Joy. “Are my parents monsters? No, they are—and were—under the influence of carnsim and were not aware it.”
Joy stumbled upon this connection after college. Despite being an active feminist for years, she’d never heard anyone discuss the link between human and animal flesh. “It wasn’t even an issue discussed,” she says. “It is a reflection of how entrenched carnism is: it’s taken two decades to actually name to it.” (Joy coined the term in 2001, while writing her doctorate thesis.) Because it’s something humans are taught, not born knowing, Joy views carnism like sexism or racism, a negative byproduct of a broken system. For instance, as with sexism, Joy sees an adverse relationship between feminism and carnism; the need to dominate permeates both. “When we don’t need them [animals] to survive, but eat them for how they taste, we are saying, ‘We can do what we want with your body,’” she says. “This is the mentality, that might makes right.”

Eating meat apparently makes you more likely to be a snob (and racist, too)

Survey findings were published in the journal Appetite.

www.yahoo.com

Eating meat apparently makes you more likely to be a snob (and racist, too)

As it turns out, people don’t eat meat simply because it tastes good.

According to findings from an international survey on the habits of meat eaters, carnivores justify killing and eating animals as they tend to believe in a hierarchal system — that human beings naturally have a position of dominance over animals.

For the survey, teams from Cornell University, the University of Massachusetts and Johannes Gutenberg University analyzed the view points of nearly 1,000 meat eaters through three surveys. The “Carnism Inventory” basically measured the ideology of eating animals — what pre-conditions some to eat certain animals while treating others as uneatable (i.e. pets).

Participants were questioned about whether meat was better for their health, whether people have the right to kill animals, whether meat production causes animals to suffer and whether people should continue to eat meat simply because they have already been doing so for thousands of years.

“We came to the conclusion that, just as in the case of vegetarianism and veganism, there is an underlying set of beliefs underpinning the eating of meat,” said study author Dr. Tamara Pfeiler.

The study looked at carnistic defence eaters (meat eaters who legitimatize the practice of eating animals) and carnistic domination eaters (meat eaters who support the killing of animals for their meat). Researchers found a correlation between people who believe in their right to eat meat and an attitude that approves of dominance within social structures.

Researchers also found that both carnistic defence eaters and carnistic domination eaters had attitudes that approved of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation, “but only carnistic domination was related to symbolic racism and sexism.”
This could “encourage the development of prejudices towards certain social categories,” said Pfeiler. “However, this does not mean that meat-eating people are automatically more likely to exhibit prejudice towards other groups of people.”

There are correlations, but not enough evidence. More investigations are being planned to establish the precise links between people who believe in their right to eat meat, the consumption of meat, and hierarchical structures.

Survey findings were published in the journal Appetite.

I also tried to watch her video lecture on Powerarchy but I couldn't get passed 4 minutes of it, I would rather have someone to pull out my teeth without an anesthesia then have to sit through that torture. Also, she talks like a 5 yo. No, I take that back, my kid had much more profound set of communication skills developed at that age and her theories also made way more sense.

 

[Ellipse]

Thanks for you input, miguel angel, whitecoast, Color. So we have to be careful with appealing title/cover and... abstract!