Tender Is the Flesh

Content Warning: The source text includes graphic depictions of cannibalism, sexual assault, mass human suffering, incarceration, misogynistic violence (including reproductive violence), and death by suicide.

Following the appearance of a virus that contaminates animals all over the world, people killed off most animals to minimize the risk of infection. Lacking their usual sources of meat, some turned to cannibalism. Eventually, at the urging of rich investors, cannibalism was legalized and normalized, and new laws restricted how language could be used to describe the new industry. For instance, humans bred for consumption are referred to merely as “head,” “meat,” or “product,” never as humans.

Prior to the Transition, as the normalization of cannibalism is known, middle-aged Marcos Tejo worked at his father’s beef and pork slaughterhouse. Nearing adulthood, he planned to study veterinary science. Now he works at Krieg, a slaughterhouse for humans, where he supervises and trains other employees. Tejo is married but separated from his wife, Cecilia, who went to stay with her mother following the death of their newborn child, Leonardo.

Home alone, Tejo takes a shower, wishing he could forget painful memories. Tejo believes a conspiracy theory suggesting that the virus was made up to allow cannibalism as a way of reducing overpopulation.