# Absent referent > The absent referent is a concept that explains the intersecting oppression of women and animals, introduced by Carol J. Adams in The Sexual Politics of Meat. In 1987, she conceived of it while reading Bearing the Word, published by Margaret Homans in 1986. The absent referent is a concept that explains the intersecting oppression of women and animals, introduced by in [The Sexual Politics of Meat](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/The%20sexual%20politics%20of%20meat.txt). In <1987>, she conceived of it while reading [Bearing the Word](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Bearing%20the%20Word.txt), published by [Margaret Homans](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Margaret%20Homans.txt) in <1986>. ## Explanation Animals are the referent of meat. That is, the word "meat" refers to "animal," and "animal" is the thing referred to by the word "meat." But it is not just a referent; it is an absent referent. Meat was originally a living animal. Yet paradoxically, meat can exist only if the animal is killed, butchered, and thereby made absent. Meat refers to the animal, but the animal, which is the referent, does not exist. That is why the animal is the absent referent of meat. According to Adams, there are three ways humans make animals into absent referents. 1. **Physical**: physically killing and butchering the animal, and eliminating its existence. 2. **Language**: calling the dismembered corpse of an animal "meat." 3. **Metaphor**: using it as a metaphor to express the experience of living humans, as in "I felt like a piece of meat," thereby obscuring the original experience, the animal's death. ## Reference and referent In , a reference is a word or sign that indicates some concept, and a referent is the concept itself that is referred to by the reference. For example, "개미" and "ant" are both references that indicate a certain insect, and the insect indicated by those references is the referent. ## The intersection of the oppression of women and the oppression of animals "Metaphor," one of the mechanisms of the absent referent, is especially important when trying to understand the intersecting oppression of women and animals. The oppression of women and the oppression of animals intersect with each other under the structure of the absent referent. Social images of (and actual sexual violence as well) depend on our knowledge of the slaughter of animals and meat-eating. In "Female Sexual Slavery," mentions a brothel called "slaughterhouse," where every night 6-7 girls "serve" 80-120 customers. Similarly, bondage equipment in pornography—chains, dog collars, ropes, and so on—suggests control over animals. Likewise, in the slaughter of animals, women are the absent referent, and women's experiences are used as metaphors. The image of the seductive pig depends on the non-existent but imaginable "attractive and fresh woman." In the problems of [sexism](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Sexism.txt) and [speciesism](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Speciesism.txt), women and animals each become absent referents and are often used as means to reveal the other's oppression ("the butchering of women," "the rape of animals"). But because the absent referent literally does not exist, it is not easy to recognize this intersecting relationship. [Carnism](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Carnism.txt) and , among other [ideologies of violent domination](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Violent%20ideology.txt), have actively concealed their own existence. The structure of the absent referent is one of the ways ideologies of violent domination operate. ## The danger of metaphor When one subject's experience of oppression is used as a metaphorical means, there is a risk that the experience of the subject used as the means will be obscured. For example, an expression like "I felt like a piece of meat" uses "a piece of meat," the corpse of a dead animal, as a metaphorical means to express the experience of a living human, and in doing so ends up hiding the original experience, the animal's death. Conversely, the expression "the rape of animals," even if rape is indeed an accurate description of the oppression animals actually undergo, risks obscuring the experience of rape that human women suffer in a patriarchal society, along with all sorts of secondary victimization. The same is true when the target of the metaphor is not a living subject but a nation or the environment. For example, the vivid image of violence experienced by women is often used as a metaphorical means for expressing violence against some other target such as a nation, the environment, or animals. Expressions like "the violation of the environment" and "[Korea](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Republic%20of%20Korea.txt) offers its body to the United States" (a commentary by a progressive political party in <2019>) are examples. For reference, according to [a 2019 study](https://faunalytics.org/effective-animal-campaigning-current-knowledge-and-guiding-principles/), comparing [factory farming](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Factory%20farming.txt) to rape or , or using sexualized images of women, is not effective either.