WE ARE
WHAT WE MEAT
What's the deal?
This - we are what we meat - can be hard to grasp for many people who have grown up consuming meat and dairy products. "Eating meat is natural, it's easy, it's American!" they'll say. This type of sentiment is somewhat true, with readily available meat products at all times waiting patiently to be picked up. However what many people don't think about is how we come to believe that we want to eat meat.
We are bombarded with texts (images, videos, advertisements, etc.) every day, multiple times a day which formulate our opinions - even if we don't realize it.
So. What does "we are what we meat" mean?
It really is astounding when you think about how much of our lives are directed by anthropomorphized animals. When children are small we provide them films and television shows and books in which the main characters are all happy little animals who speak our language and emote like we do. When we get a little older advertisers target us with friendly animals trying to convince us to buy whatever they are selling. And then as adults our palettes have developed a bit more to the point where seeing talking animals is absolutely "natural" and part of our daily routine. These symbols become household names, their jingles and catch phrases etched in our brains waiting until our defenses are down and then becoming stuck in our heads on repeat when we least expect it.
These trade characters, as they are officially called, become a part of our collective sociocultural identity and allow us to interact with animals daily in an indirect way.
