Meatless Days: a Feminist Perspective

“Dadi’s Family” observes what a “traditional” family in Haryana, India is like and the issues / concerns the family faces in “modern” times. In the documentary "Dadi 's family", the film explores the concept of family and the roles that a woman play in life. The roles are daughter, sister, mother, mother-in-law, daughter-in-law, and sister-in-law. These roles are portrayed to us via various members of Dadi 's family. In this family, we have Dada and Dadi (grandmother and grandfather) as the head of the family. We have the two older sons, Meherlal and Mohinder who are married to Darshini and Sita respectively. The youngest son, Rajinder gets married to Kanta in the film. Dadi and Dada also have two daughters Anguri and Saroj who aren’t shown too much in the film but are married in other villages.

Dadi refers to the grandmother, "manager" of an extended family living in the Haryana region of Northern India. When dadi days family, she meant the male lineage with all their wives and children living as one economic unit. With everyone’s income managed by the oldest couple. This film explores the extended family and its problems, particularly through the women of Dadi 's family. The film also addresses the different roles women play in her lifetime, daughters, daughter-in-law, mothers, mother-in-law, sisters, sister-in-law, wives. It also reveals the difficult to fulfil each role. Some important aspect that the film touches on is also patriarchy and the influences of education in changing the status of women.

Satrapi uses her own relationship with her parents as a metaphor for her relationship with the world. The conflict she experiences with her parents is a necessary part of her childhood. Her relationship with her parents is caring, yet full of tension. Her parents love her and seek to provide her with the best education and hope to provide her with a life full of privileges.

When one reads Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s “The Interview”, it is very clear how gender roles are predominate within the family that is portrayed. Using this family as an extension to represent all of India, Jhabvala gives us some insight into the daily lives led over there. The story is told through the eyes of an upper-class man who is completely dependent upon his family, specifically his brother and the women in the house. This essay will examine the male and female roles that are presented in this short story, how they parallel each other, and the deeper meanings hidden within the text.

During this semester, we discussed many interesting topics that touched directly the main direction of locavores. The concept of locavores is relatively new and the food industry and represents the values of local food that are a healthy food for our society. I was interested in an interesting article called “Locavores, Feminism, and the Question of Meat” by Kathy Rudy. This article discusses the relationship of feminism with locavorism and how this feminist approach relates to meat. Opinions about meat are distributed; many believe that meat should not be present in our diet, while others believe that meat satisfies the demand of buyers. That is, opinions about meat are always divided into 2 categories; this is also how to divide people into meat eaters and vegetarians. As I understand, the feminists in turn very much approve and absolutely support local food and especially local meat. Let us return to what is local food for us and how important it is for us. Local food comes from a variety of activities, such as environmental sustainability and nutritional value of taste. Local food pushes people back to start cooking and enjoying labor, as well as participating in home food.

Her unforeseen actions are due to the rest care tradition, which has progressively worsened her mental state and caused her to overlook her role as a caring wife in desperation to escape the imprisonment of the tradition. As witnessed from the two short stories, conflicts arise amidst families due to the events of old traditions, establishing a divide between family members that is difficult to overcome once constructed.

Meat has been a staple food in the diet of mankind since the early ages of civilization. In the article “Is Any Meat Good to Eat?” by Sarah Boesveld, she interviews author Jonathan Safran to share his opinion on eating meat and factory farming. He believes that “...if [people] just ate according to the values they already have, then factory farming would disappear.” Whether or not people realize the sources from which meat in modern day society comes from, they cannot deny the fact that meat is delectable. Sadly, many people who are aware of where their meat comes from will argue that it is unethical to eat meat that is grown purely to satisfy the hunger of people. The ethics of eating meat should not be considered because of the extreme

The narrator is totally crushed by the gender discrimination. She longed to be seen by her mother and her grandma. The narrator is heartbroken that her mother loved her brother more than her and failed to notice her. “When she went into Nonso’s room to say good night, she always came out laughing that laugh. Most times, you pressed your palms to your ears to keep the sound out, and kept your palms pressed to your ears, even when she came into your room to say Good night, darling, sleep well. She never left your room with that laugh” (190). Her agony can be easily seen by the way of her narrating. She does not get the affection that she deserves. She really needs the affection from her own mother, but she is not getting it. She compares the love which her mother shows to his brother and herself. This is gender discrimination can be seen with her grandmother too. She hated her grandma as she would always support her brother and find fault with her. Even though what the brother did, no matter what crime. Her mother and grandmother always supported her brother and never supported or showed interest towards

When I was growing up my sister and I used to always wonder why there are different kind of parents. Throughout, the world every parent has a different kind of attitude towards their children. Despite that father are always seems to be the strict ones with their children because most of the time mothers are the opposite, mothers seem to be the relax one, the one that you can talk about anything without being fear. In Father Knows Best, Mr. Anderson and Mrs. Anderson always knows what is best for their children. Although, the scene was a fairytale, nevertheless in the movie the couples had showed great example as a parent. In Father Knows Best the family have a good relationship with each other which truly define the real meaning of a happy household. Therefore, in this paper I will discuss how gender roles, and class from Father Knows Best conform to my personal family reality,

The book mentions about the mental confusions, insecurities and the effort to understand their spouses. The writer has expressed simple and usual emotions of a womanhood, fidelity and family. A tint of Indian culture is reflected in each chapter indicating how a bridegroom and groom select each other, the nature of an Indian woman and how she takes up challenges in her life, reconciling the roles of a daughter, an ex-wife, a wife and a mother, the strength of the human spirit and their passion to survive and fight for a good life. It also features the distinctive qualities of Indian relatives highlighting their interest in an individual’s marital life and how offensive it is to the society to find a married woman talking to an unknown man. The book also focuses on the pain of a mother to see her unhealthy

Ruth L. Ozeki, in her novel My Year of Meats, utilizes epiphanies in her development of female characters in order to reveal the flaws of a patriarchal society. These epiphanies are employed in order to emphasis that women should take charge over their lives and to not be constrained to keeping secrets as a result of their fear of repercussion. Ozeki presents a vision of a progressive, feminist global community through her characters Akiko and Bunny. While Bunny realizes her need to voice her concerns having “drifted through life… never [having] made a single decision, (p. 294)” Akiko realizes she does not need to depend on a man and that “she would never need him again (p.181)”. In

The scrap paper also represents the future communication for Mr. Kapasi to have relationship affair with Mrs. Das. Effective communication is an important characteristic to build a strong and happy family. However, Mr. Kapasi has lost his ability to communicate with his wife. The narrator indicates that Mr. Kapasi has to spend his evening with enjoying “the evening newspaper and a cup of tea that his wife would serve him in silence” (554). As Mr. Kapasi’s marriage is not a happy marriage, he was thinking that the world is not fair for him as he has to drink his tea in silence and he is in a loveless marriage. Similarly, Mrs. Das also doesn’t want to communicate with her

In other occasions, Satrapi uses several interactions between her family members to illustrate an environment similar ours. In a series of dialogues involving Marji’s uncle Anoosh, he tells her bedtime stories and speaks of his divorce. Bedtime story telling from my perception is more of a westernized cultural norm and so is divorce. Satrapi chooses these scenarios involving Anoosh to present a fitting glance at her family’s acceptance to western culture. Among her family, she creates an atmosphere in relation to any that can easily be found in our society today.

We are a nation of meat eaters. We are socialized from a young age to consume high levels of animal products. This deeply ingrained meat-eating tradition is a big part of the American standard diet. A visit to the local grocery store shows that there is no shortage of animal products. Isle by isle you see a plethora of meats, neatly packed and ready to be cooked, dairy products neatly shelved, and even candies that contain animal by-products. This is an omnivore’s utopia, allowing for a lifestyle that involves the overconsumption of meats and animal by-products. The rampant meat industry has managed to condition people to disassociate the meats in our grocery markets and the animals from which they came. Most people have become unaware omnivores, consuming whatever meats are available to them. This shift of moral degradation is evident in how we process and consume our meats. We have become a selfish society that values our own convenience and affordability of meat rather than the consideration of the animal. This begs the question, is eating meat inherently wrong and should we forbid meat consumption under any and all circumstances? To fully address this issue, we must first define the moral status of animals. So, are animals equal to humans in worth and value and should they receive similar treatment?

Christopher McCandless, a young American who was found dead in summer of 1992 in wild land in Alaska, wrote in his diary about his moral struggle regarding killing a moose for survival. According to Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, Chris had to abandon most of the meat since he lacked the knowledge of how to dismantle and preserve it (166-168). Not only did he have a moral dilemma to kill a moose, but also had a deep regret that a life he had taken was wasted because of his own fault. He then started recognizing what he ate as a precious gift from the nature and called it “Holy Food” (Krakauer 168). Exploring relationships between human beings and other animals arouses many difficult questions: Which animals are humans allowed to eat and