Melanie Joy facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Melanie Joy
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Melanie Joy on TEDx in 2015
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| Born | September 2, 1966 |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Harvard University (M.Ed.) Saybrook University (Ph.D.) |
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Melanie Joy, born on September 2, 1966, is an American social psychologist and author. She is famous for creating and spreading the idea of carnism. This idea helps explain why people eat some animals but not others.
Dr. Joy started a group called Beyond Carnism. This group helps people understand how we think about eating animals. She also used to be a professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She has written several books, including Strategic Action for Animals, Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows, and Beyond Beliefs.
Contents
Melanie Joy's Journey
Melanie Joy studied at top universities. She earned her master's degree from Harvard Graduate School of Education. Later, she received her Ph.D. in psychology from Saybrook Graduate School.
When she was 23, something important happened. She got very sick from eating a bad hamburger. This experience made her decide to become a vegetarian. She later shared how this choice changed her view on animals.
She realized that she had not wanted to see the truth about how animals were treated. Once she stopped eating meat, she became more open to this information. Learning about meat, egg, and dairy production made her feel upset. She felt lost and confused by what she learned. Even though nothing around her had changed, her way of seeing the world was completely different.
After this, Melanie Joy slowly became a vegan. In an interview from 2013, she explained her research. She first studied why people are mean or unfair to others. But then she started looking at why people eat meat. She noticed that people often thought about eating meat in ways that didn't make sense. This led her to believe that how we feel about eating meat is something we learn from society. This idea became a big part of her work.
What is Carnism?
Melanie Joy first talked about the idea of carnism in an article in 2001. Not many people noticed it at first. But her 2009 book, Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows, brought the idea more attention.
Her ideas helped other researchers study something called the meat paradox. This is when people love some animals, like their pets, but eat other animals, like pigs or cows. This can cause a feeling of cognitive dissonance, which means having two conflicting thoughts at the same time. Many psychologists agree with Dr. Joy's ideas about how eating meat affects our feelings toward animals.
Helping Animals
In 2010, Melanie Joy started a group called Carnism Awareness & Action Network (CAAN). This group later changed its name to Beyond Carnism.
Beyond Carnism works to change how people talk about eating meat. They do this by giving public talks and creating media campaigns. They also make videos and train people who want to help animals. Their work mainly focuses on the United States and Germany.
This group uses new ways to help people understand carnism. They aim to build a strong network of animal rights supporters.
Other Projects
In 2022, Melanie Joy co-hosted a podcast called Just Beings. She hosted it with actress Evanna Lynch.
In 2024, Dr. Joy was featured in a British documentary film. The film was called I Could Never Go Vegan.
Awards and Recognition
In 2013, Melanie Joy received the Ahimsa Award. This award is given for work that promotes nonviolence around the world.
In her speech, she said that changing carnism is not just about changing what we do. It's about changing how we think and feel. She explained that it means moving from not knowing to being aware. It means going from not caring to caring deeply. It means moving from being unkind to being kind. And it means moving from not facing the truth to accepting it. Ultimately, it's about moving from violence to peace.
See also
- List of animal rights advocates
- Animal–industrial complex
- Speciesism
