English title: “The powerful individual whom we call everybody’”: From Carnist Hegemony to a Sustainable Protein Transition

The paper explores the concept of carnism, that is, the belief system which frames the consumption of certain animals as ethical and natural. The author highlights how carnism – rooted in anthropocentrism, speciesism, and anthropocracy – functions as a hegemonic discourse that normalizes the killing and consumption of non-human animals. This system is sustained by the “Three Ns” (normal, natural, necessary) and the “Cognitive Trio” (reification, de-individualization, dichotomization). What emerges is the intersection between carnism and gender issues: meat is associated with power, masculinity, and domination. The carnist discourse permeates advertising, popular culture, and mass communication, reinforcing speciesist and sexist stereotypes while ridiculing vegetarians and vegans. Despite growing environmental awareness, political agendas and religious institutions remain largely silent on the need to reduce meat consumption, even in light of its significant climatic and ecological impact. The author emphasizes the urgency of a protein transition toward sustainable, plant-based diets, supported by a form of carnism literacy – a critical capacity to recognize carnism as a cultural construct and to deconstruct its presumed naturalness – thus fostering ethical, ecological, and social transformation.