In 2013, the World Barbecue Contest that is part of Memphis in May was criticized by the Memphis Area Women's Council for its sexist imagery. Here's the poster:
Nothing like a barbecue competition to bring out the sexual politics of meat. Barbecues generally do this in multiple ways: inscribing masculinity in the role of the barbecuer, and inscribing femininity upon the victim of the barbecue.
In The Sexual Politics of Meat Slide Show I examine several examples of this kind, in which the reference is to the consumption of a woman's body. Often a very full-bodied dead female is evoked--someone who in the posing communicates she wants to be consumed. The depictions often encourage the discussion of female body parts.
I think we should start calling this what it really is: hate speech. The fact that this image is "retro" in its reference to poster art from decades ago only proves that the intent was to reproduce a woman's body:
This is something I also see again and again. "Hamtastic" is posed in a position I refer to in The Pornography of Meat as the "rear-entry pose" in pornography.
"Ursula Hamdress" who I show in the second chapter of The Sexual Politics of Meat is posed like a Playboy center fold.
This constant recapitulation of the visually consumable woman layered upon the literally consumable dead pig is a feminist issue. And so is the fetishism of the consumption of (and competition over preparing) a dead body whose defeat is inscribed throughout the event.