Archive for December, 2010

With the new year just a few days away (well, one version of the new year, anyway), I have begun feeling reflective about the year that just passed and what to make of the one looming on the horizon.  I don’t typically make new year’s resolutions — not because I don’t stick to them, but because I’d like to think that I’m improving and growing and resolving with every day that passes, not just all at once on January 1st — but I do like to spend the quiet, usually-snowy morning of New Year’s Day in meditation or in front of a pad of paper, brainstorming about how to make the most out of the 365 days ahead.  I’ve dedicated my life to making a more vegan world, but I think this year will demand some reflection on what the word “vegan” means to me and how it manifests in my life.  Miranda once said it best: veganism, to me, is like a line in the sand, where after conquering one hurdle (giving up animal products, examining my privilege, figuring what kind of activism suits me best) I can feel free to push that line a little bit further, demanding that my veganism encompass more things beyond that initial “good enough” (subsequently giving up products that are harmful to the environment or the people producing them, irrespective of their ingredients lists; devising new forms of activism that don’t look like other offerings and being brave enough to try them out).

Does the term “vegan” actually fit what I am doing anymore, given that the mainstream definition of veganism is a more comfortable label for a package of veggie burgers than it is for all-encompassing, anti-oppression activism?  Has the word “vegan” become too muddied by versions of veganism that, when not explicitly fatphobic, transphobic, ableist, racist, classist, or sexist, aren’t doing much to  challenge these oppressions either?

It’s tough sometimes to know where to go from here.  I’m plagued by anxiety about not doing enough or not doing the right thing, especially when sometimes only the folks in this collective seem to be on the same page as me.  When most other animal welfare corporations are peddling veganism as a weight-loss solution or a springboard for an entirely new capitalist market and customer base, it can feel really lonely out here.  I’ve certainly stumbled a few times along the way, and reflecting on years spent working for organizations that don’t align themselves with my values can be painful and disheartening.  But I think this year my resolution will be two-fold: keep on working, even when it feels sad and lonely, and don’t be afraid of change (including not feeling bad about having to change if something isn’t working anymore).

Steve and I were talking recently about how much we enjoy writing (and, in his case, filmmaking) and how our activism often takes these forms.  While perhaps this isn’t the splashiest or most dramatic way to make a difference, it is, at least for me, incredibly cathartic and productive and often necessary.  One of my favorite writers, Derrick Jensen, often states that to create revolution — and, subsequently, when revolution has occurred — we will need people with all sorts of talents, hopefully including writing (and filmmaking, and nursing, and communication, and cooking, and all those skills that no one necessarily thinks of as “activist,” but which we possess and which are important in their own right).  I worry sometimes that the time I spend writing in this blog, or writing articles for books or websites, is time taken away from “real activism;” but in the new year, I hope to eradicate those thoughts from my brain.

This is just one example, but I hope it encourages people to reflect upon their lives and see that there are myriad ways to make a difference — activism and true anti-oppression veganism are not only “doing,” but “being”.  When the world is falling down around us (see also: non-human animal abuse and exploitation, human animal abuse and exploitation, earthquakes and floods, policing and immigration, WikiLeaks, rape apologism, poverty, food deserts, revocation of welfare and education funding, hate crimes, high-fructose corn syrup, etc! etc! etc!) it’s all I can do sometimes to keep from falling right down with it.

We live in an incredibly imperfect world, and despite all my wishing upon a star, utopia isn’t just going to settle over the current blueprints overnight.  Every little bit helps, whether a particular action is actually making tangible change for animals or is simply helping me to feel like I can go for another day/week/month/year/lifetime.  All roads lead to revolution.

Through the magic of technology, I have my email set up to send me daily alerts when the word “vegan” appears in news or blog headlines.  (I also have one set up for “LGBT” and one set up for “roller derby,” which tells you a lot about me as a person, I think.)  Usually, this results in some great recipes, some funny reviews, a post or two from me over at SuperVegan (which makes me feel important), and finally, the occasional op-ed about how someone could never stop eating animals (sigh).  But recently, this gem popped into my inbox, and I think I had to physically move my laptop out of the way so I could pound my head against the desk.  While it’s no surprise to me that PETA hates women (and people of color, and gender non-conforming people, and, well, animals) I was just flabbergasted that even they would get behind the wedding-industrial complex to encourage women to lose weight, have surgery, and spend a million dollars on their wedding days.  For PETA, even that seems egregious.  But I guess I should learn to not be surprised.

A little background info: After reading “Against Equality” and working with the Alternatives to Marriage Project, I’ve become more disillusioned than ever with the institution of marriage and, of course, the wedding-industrial complex.  On a very basic level, yes, it is an atrocity that the relationships of some people are recognized and validated by the U.S. government, while others (based on gender or gender presentation) are not.  Married people in the United States receive over 1,000 different state and federal benefits that are not available to people federally designated as “single,” including tax breaks, immigration, health care, adoption, and many others.  Understandably, the LGBT community has demanded that those privileges be extended to its members in long-term committed relationships and has poured millions of dollars into campaigning for federal recognition of gay marriage.  But is this the right goal?  While our children are beating bullied and killed, our parents and peers are being denied jobs and health care and housing, and the United Nations is declaring that gay, lesbian, and transgender individuals around the world are not worth protecting by law — we’re worried most about whether or not we can get a ring on our fingers and assimilate into an institution that kind of hates us?

For women, marriage (and “the big day”) has created unnecessary pressure and expectations.  Society portrays relationships and marriage as the ultimate end-goal for women: girls are taught to prepare for their weddings from an early age, single women are ridiculed, and divorcees are considered failures.  There are so few examples of unmarried women (or women not angling for marriage) in the media that a test exists for movies and television shows to determine whether you can expect to see the female characters talking about more than just men and relationships.  We are expected to do just about anything to get a man and raise a family: lose weight, have plastic surgery, downplay our intelligence and opinions, shave our legs, act demure, play hard-to-get, write poems and songs and pine pine pine.  I want a world in which everyone is free to make hir own choices about love and relationships, whether that means you are celibate, single, in a committed relationship with one person, in a committed relationship with many people, or sleeping with the entire state of New York.

So, back to PETA.  PETA recently sponsored a contest in which the woman who lost the most weight before her wedding — by adopting a vegan diet — would receive a $6,000 eco-friendly wedding gown, provided by PETA and designer Linda Loudermilk.  I don’t even know where to begin to parse out this trainwreck.  Weddings are a full-blown industry here in the United States, with people routinely spending thousands of dollars to have the best dresses, flowers, food, entertainment, and venue for their wedding days.  The narrative that this is the most important day of a woman’s life leads her to do things like crash dieting, plastic surgery (there is a TV show called “Bridalplasty,” for fuck’s sake), going into debt, marrying someone for the sake of getting that wedding day before “it’s too late,” etc.  The fact that PETA would play right into the hands of the wedding-industrial complex with a bridal weight loss contest makes me just see red.  In addition, treating veganism as a weight loss method ignores all of the analysis of power and privilege that goes along with choosing an animal-free diet.  It also makes invisible all of those people who are currently eating a vegan diet and who have not experienced drastic weight loss (or who have experienced weight gain) or found veganism to be a panacea for all that ails them.  As someone who celebrates diversity (and not just as a buzzword) and wants to ensure that everyone’s experiences are valued, a contest in which the implicit demand is that everyone be skinny does not jive with my worldview.  My vision of vegan utopia has neither exclusionary politics, like the sort that accompany marriage and weddings, nor crash diets.  Shame on PETA for buying into both.