The camera can be a weapon, shooting, capturing, and cutting off pieces of life. All

 

that is seen through the lens can become “other” while the camera holder becomes a

 

hunter. The editor could be a slaughterer, chopping up what is shot and restructuring the

 

pieces into scenes for the public to consume with their gaze. Those filmed can be turned

 

into meat, manipulated, hunted, and ultimately digested.

 

            In Ruth Ozeki’s novel, My Year of Meats, Jane the documentarian plays into these

 

roles. She films American families for her TV show My American Wife!, centering on wives

 

cooking meat. Seeking to find the most authentic footage to air in Japan, Jane believes truth

 

is hidden. She thinks that truth is covered by layers that should be peeled away. By the end

 

of the novel, she moves her camera’s gaze from meat to women. I compare and contrast

 

Jane to historical writer of, The Pillow Book, Shonagon in terms of their conclusions to

 

capturing life and making it public. Ultimately I show that women become Jane’s new meat.  

 

            I draw on the theories from Carol Adam’s The Sexual Politics of Meat, to discuss how

 

the audience and those who are filmed in My American Wife! are “absent referents.” To

 

further examine the role of the camera, authenticity, and slaughter, I use various essays

 

such as Sister Species, Kelsky’s "Women on the Verge: Japanese Women, Western Dreams",

 

Peterson’s "In Search of Authenticity," and Casper’s "Missing Bodies: The Politics of Visibility"

 

to examine and expand on theories and connections between the camera, meat,

 

authenticity, and women.