“After all, since the world began, we’ve been eating each other. If not symbolically, then we’ve been literally gorging on each other. The Transition has enabled us to be less hypocritical.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, Tender Is the Flesh
Tender Is the Flesh is set in a dystopian future where eating human flesh is considered normal. Not only normal, but encouraged, too. Remember kids – they’re not “real humans”; they’re just “products”. So it’s totally fine to eat them. After all, the “products” don’t even have clothes or the ability to speak, unlike real humans!
The story follows a man who works in a human slaughterhouse. Through his eyes, you witness the horrors of
the meat industry. And it doesn’t stop at slaughter, unfortunately. You can buy a human product for
long‑term use – cut off pieces of their living body whenever you need fresh meat. Or use them for hunting.
Such fun.
The plot is more complex, and I don’t want to spoil it. I just want to emphasize that the author shows everything that happens in the real meat industry – she just replaces animals with humans. It’s pure horror.
While reading, you can’t help thinking: I’m human too… what if this happened to me? Well, unless you believe in reincarnation, you’re safe. If you do, then it becomes very likely to experience such horrors even in reality: a similar fate meets more than 35 billion animals every year.
Here are some parallels between the book and our reality that I found interesting:
- false image of animals - presenting animals in a way that makes their slaughter seem morally acceptable
→ Book: cutting the “products’” vocal cords and depriving them of clothes so they appear less human
→ Reality: forcing pigs to live in cramped, filthy spaces, making them seem naturally dirty and stupid, even though they’re clean and more intelligent than dogs. Pigs have the mental capacity of a three‑year‑old child.
- selective breeding
→ Reality: one of the most disturbing examples is broiler chickens, bred to grow so fast their bones often break under their own weight. They suffer painful diseases and spend their six‑week lives sitting in agony, packed tightly among dead chickens. This is the fate of 72 billion chickens every year!
- brainwashing and normalization
→ Book: marketing campaigns convince people that eating humans is natural; the word “human” is replaced with “product”; paid “experts” claim human meat is necessary; authorities spread lies to normalize slaughter
→ Reality: we’re taught that eating meat is necessary for health, even though it has negative impacts; it’s portrayed as something everyone does, so you shouldn’t be the odd one out; people are told animals lack consciousness or emotions, which is both irrational and false; ads prey on insecurities: “eat meat to be a real man” or “a good mother”.
- us VS them
→ the myth that humans are superior and therefore entitled to exploit others. Animals feel pain just as we do. The criteria we use to claim moral superiority are arbitrary, and often wrong. (For more, read Peter Singer.)
- profit over welfare
→ No animal is slaughtered “humanely” (even the concept is contradictory btw). Every farm and slaughterhouse is hell. Animals are beaten, kicked, pissed on, and sometimes thrown into grinders ALIVE! Why? Because it’s cheaper. No matter what ads show you, farm animals are not happy.
- cognitive disonance and desensitivation
→ In both the book and in reality, people experience cognitive dissonance: they know slaughter is violent and immoral, but instead of stopping, they numb themselves to it. They not only become desensitized, but also aggressive in justifying the violence. Because they’re the ones in power, so they have the right… right?
I think it’s not hard to see why it was painful to read. The horrors don’t come from the book. They come from reality, from the meat industry you support. The book just makes the horrors obvious.