Vegan cookies are distributed at a Prop 8 rally in Riverside, CA, circa 2008.
CC image via Flickr user lierne.

For this edition of Intersectionality ‘Round the Interwebs, let’s start with some shiny happy news for a change, shall we? Namely, cross-movement bridge-building with vegan nomz and bowl-a-thons!

(Take note, carnists and defensive omnivores: vegans are not, in point o’ facts, all single-minded activists who prioritize nonhuman over human animals. Also: we are quite capable of multitasking, thankyouverymuch.)

Vegan Protest Fuel: Feeding the protesters in Madison, WI

Vegan Protest Fuel is the first of two projects I’d like to share with y’all (and, if you happen to have a little extra scratch laying around, encourage you to contribute to). Started just last week in response to the ongoing protests in Wisconsin, the good folks at Vegan Protest Fuel deliver vegan food to peaceful protesters defending their rights – because “Everyone Needs to Eat.” Naturally, their first campaign is feeding “the tenacious heroes in Madison, WI, who are fighting to preserve their precious collective bargaining rights and for economic justice in their state against a radical conservative governor and assembly.” Over time, they hope to expand their program throughout the United States and, possibly, the world.

Powered by tofu: it’s not just a slogan on a tee, yo.

See also: Food Not Bombs, Food for Life Global, HIPPO, A Well-Fed World and Ample Harvest.

Team Vegan Vixens: Bowling for abortions in the National Abortion Access Bowl-a-Thon!

Team Vegan Vixens needs your support in the National Abortion Access Bowl-a-Thon! Held throughout the month of April,

The Bowl-a-Thon is a nationwide series of local events that allow community members (you!) to captain your own bowling team, participate in a kickass national event – and raise money to help women and girls pay for abortions they couldn’t otherwise afford.

Abortion Funds are local, grassroots groups that work tirelessly to help low-income and disadvantaged women who want an abortion and do not have enough money to pay for it. Abortion Funds help women pay for their abortions, help them buy bus or plane tickets, and even offer women a place to stay when they have to travel for an abortion. Abortion Funds make a difference in women’s lives…and you can join them!

With $236 raised so far, Team Vegan Vixens is currently the top fundraiser for the Chicago Abortion Fund, which ranks #8 overall. Help Team Vegan (Vixens!) represent by pledging your support. Or sign up to participate your own bad self!

Fuck yeah, pro-choice vegans.

Katrina Fox @ The Scavenger: Racism versus speciesism: A moral battleground?

In the course of attending a feminist conference in Sydney in April 2010 – and subsequently planning for the next conference in 2011 – the subject of vegan catering became a point of contention between vegan and non-vegan attendees. Vegan feminist Katrina Fox writes of the debate that ensued in online forums; whereas some non-vegan women of color took the position that an all-vegan menu would be racist and colonialist in its imposition of western values on indigenous Australians, vegans argued that defending the exploitation of nonhumans on purely cultural grounds is speciesist. (Incidentally, I’m one of the white vegans quoted in the article.)

While I come down firmly in the former camp (meat and animal byproducts, I asserted, hold great cultural significance in Western societies as well; Thanksgiving Day corpses and attendant family dramas, anyone?), I hope that all vegans and animal advocates will read this piece with an open mind. On Facebook and elsewhere, I spotted a disheartening number of class- and race-privileged comments along the lines of “what’s race got to do with it?,” “why must people be so divisive?,” and (my personal least favorite) “omg special interests!”

Though I disagree that animal exploitation can be justified by “tradition,” I’m also in disagreement that we’ve entered some new “post-racial” era, where race and class privilege (etc.) are suddenly rendered moot. In industrialized nations, for example, people of color, urban dwellers, and those living in poverty face a number of barriers to obtaining fresh, healthy foods – not to mention, health care, a good education, employment and the like – than those with privilege. Recognizing and addressing these issues can only make us stronger as a social justice movement.

On Nonhuman Slavery: Speciesism, Racism and Sexism Intertwined: Presentation by Nekeisha Alexis-Baker

Along these lines, Fox also cites this presentation by Nekeisha Alexis-Baker. A self-described black woman vegan, Alexis-Baker links the oppression of nonhuman animals to that of marginalized humans, including women and people of color.

“The same ideology that supports speciesism is present in ideologies that encourage and justify sexism and racism…As a black woman who is vegan, I am particularly sensitive to the ways in which forms of exploitation are intertwined… So rather than being concerned with animal liberation or women’s liberation or black and other people of color’s liberation, I think we need to understand how they are all tied together and to know that we can’t free one group if we allow the same kinds of oppressive ideologies to enslave another group. Liberation has to come for all.”

The presentation was part of Wake Up Weekend 2009, “a two day celebration of animal-friendly food, art, education, and advocacy,” held in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Clocking in at 36 minutes, the video is a bit lengthy – but well worth a watch. (If anyone knows of an online transcript, please share? I was unable to find one.)

vegansaurus!: HOT GIRL-ON-VEGETABLE ACTION! Great move, Peta!;

Time: Cracking Down on the Super Bowl Sex Trade; and

Reuters: Super Bowl a magnet for under-age sex trade

Although I briefly addressed PETA’s 2011 Super Bowl ad last week (see: “PETA is about as feminist as it gets.”), the links bear repeating. In addition to everything that meave said, over on her FB page, Carol Adams observed that sex trafficking – including that of underage girls – was expected to increase in Texas during the Super Bowl:

Because the hoopla surrounding the Super Bowl has expanded beyond Game Day to an entire week of parties and other festivities, large numbers of pimps and their workers flood into the host city each year. In Miami last year, police estimated that as many as 10,000 prostitutes from outside the area arrived for Super Bowl week.

The numbers alone have provided a challenge for law enforcement. But only in the past few years has it become clear that child prostitution is a feature of Super Bowl revelry as well. Two men were arrested last year for an ad on Craigslist’s Miami board advertising sex with a 14-year-old girl as a “Super Bowl Special.” And in 2009, Florida’s Department of Children and Families reported 24 children — most of whom were runaways — as victims of sex trafficking for the Super Bowl.

In light of such fears, PETA’s softcore pseudo-porn – complete with sleazy, uncomfortable casting session clips – is especially troubling. Also: decidedly un-feminist.

(fwiw, I refuse to link to the website or embed the video, but you can view a few screenshots here.)

Grist: Male-dominated Big Ag woos women with paternalistic marketing blitz

Grist reports on Big Ag’s new, $30 million campaign to convince the public that women are farmers, too – and since women are apparently so delicate and flower-like, you should go easy on ‘em already! (Certainly don’t strip them of their federal subsidies!) In reality, women operate a scant 14% of U.S. farms, with greater representation in eco-friendly (friendlier) farms, such as small and organic operations. Unfortunately, there’s no breakdown given for animal ag.; much of the focus is on corn, soybean, wheat, cotton, and rice – i.e., “the five crops that together collect 90 percent of federal farm subsidies.” (Even so, subsidies for feed crops help to prop up animal agriculture and keep the price of meat, eggs and milk artificially low.) This new coupling of green-washing with pink-washing (woman-washing? gender-washing? does there exist such a term for this?) is enough to make any vegan feminist gag.

Lauren Denitzio @ I Live Sweat…: “You know what makes me feel unsafe?” Lauren Denitzio of The Measure [SA] on her experiences of sexism in the punk scene

Let’s play a game! Replace the word “punk” with “vegan” (“concert” with “potluck,” etc.) in this kickass article by musician Lauren Denitzio, and see what happens:

No one is perfect, and I don’t expect that. What I do expect, however, is the ability to be held accountable for your actions, to apologize and hear everyone’s experience as valid. If you’re doing something that makes me feel unsafe at a [conference], I don’t care how long you’ve known me, or your history interacting with women, or how much you love [Natalie Portman]. If you can’t be held accountable and apologize, then none of those other things really make a difference to me. This applies to anything from jokes in poor taste to sexual assault. Just because we’ve all known someone for years at [demos] doesn’t change them calling me a cunt, or assaulting their partner. Once people stop making the excuse of “we’re all on the same page” and start being honest with each other, we start creating real, physical, safer spaces for everyone, not just women.

Word.

Non-vegan readers (if you exist!): substitute in your own social movement of choice. It doesn’t matter which; any will do. Like sexism, this analysis transcends borders. Play and learn.

Journal for Critical Animal Studies: Volume VIII Issue 3 2010 (Special Issue – Women of Color in Critical Animal Studies)

The final issue of ICAS’s Journal for Critical Animal Studies in 2010 is a special collection, dedicated to “Women of Color in Critical Animal Studies.” Contributors include A. Breeze Harper, Maneesha Deckha, Claudia Serrato, Laura Shields and Anastasia Yarbrough. You can download an issue (for free!) in either pdf or doc formats.

George Carlin: Pro Life, Abortion, And The Sanctity Of Life

An oldie but a goodie, and one that I’ve been holding onto ever since it made the rounds on Facebook oh, say, eight months ago? Just overlook the pap about chicken eggs being abortions (not unless they’re fertile) and the equation of gang affiliation with moral failings (one word: poverty), mkay?

Here’s another question I have: How come, when it’s us, it’s an abortion, and when it’s a chicken, it’s an omelet? Are we so much better than chickens all of a sudden? When did this happen, that we passed chickens in goodness? Name six ways we’re better than chickens. … See, nobody can do it! You know why? Because chickens are decent people. You don’t see chickens hanging around in drug gangs, do you? Nah. You don’t see a chicken strapping some guy to a chair and hooking up his nuts to a car battery, do you? When’s the last chicken you heard about that came home from work and beat the shit out of his hen, huh?

RIP, George.

I really haven’t been keeping pace with my Google Reader in the last few months – I could blame it on work, but that’d be a lie; in reality, the headlines have just been so damn depressing lately – so please, drop your own links or suggested reading in the comments!

Unlike the other cards, I feel as though PWV Bingo requires more of an introduction – but every time I sit down and put fingers to keys, the words that appear on my computer screen seem trite, inadequate and lacking in eloquence. So rather than keep struggling along, instead I invite you to read this FAQ by Tim Wise, as well as “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack,” by Peggy McIntosh – the first few paragraphs of which I’ve excerpted below:

Through the work to bring materials from Women’s Studies into the rest of the curriculum, I have often noticed men’s unwillingness to grant that they are over-privileged, even though they may grant that women are disadvantaged. They may say they will work to improve women’s status, in the society, the university, or the curriculum, but they can’t or won’t support the idea of lessening men’s. Denials which amount to taboos surround the subject of advantages which men gain from women’s disadvantages. These denials protect male privilege from being fully acknowledged, lessened or ended.

Thinking through unacknowledged male privilege as a phenomenon, I realized that since hierarchies in our society are interlocking, there was most likely a phenomenon of white privilege which was similarly denied and protected. As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something which puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage.

I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege. So I have begun in an untutored way to ask what it is like to have white privilege. I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was ‘meant’ to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless backpack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks.

For me, filling in the 24 squares of the PWV Bingo card was an exercise similar to that performed by McIntosh – that is, recognizing the many ways in which my racial and ethnic makeup help me navigate the world of veganism and animal advocacy, unhindered and unmolested. Whereas – as a woman lacking in gender privilege – I was able to complete the two feminist-themed cards with relative ease, it took me – as a vegan benefiting from race and class privilege – months to finish the PWV Bingo card. In short, it’s much easier for me to identify sexism, misogyny and anti-feminism, since I’m marginalized by them; harder still to identify racism and classism (particularly less overt examples of each), since I’ve been taught to take white privilege for granted – to see right through it, as though it doesn’t even exist. An eye-opening task, and one I highly recommend – no matter the privilege in question: race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, gender identity, nationality, dis/ability…species, even. No, not even – especially.

Additionally, I should note that while I use the terms “racism” and “classism” in conjunction, this isn’t to suggest that they’re interchangeable. Related, yes – inasmuch as people of color are disproportionately represented among the poor and working-class, and a number of variables, structural and otherwise, work to perpetuate the status quo – but not the same. However, rather than make a card each for racism and classism, I decided to combine the two in one for simplicity’s sake. All forms of oppression are intertwined, and sometimes it can be next-to-impossible to separate all the tangled threads.

Also, I almost named this card “Cluelessly Privileged White Vegetarian Bingo” – since recognizing one’s privilege doesn’t automagically dispense with it – but decided against it, seeing as “Privileged White Vegetarian Bingo” is already quite the mouthful. I specifically chose not to call it “Racist Vegetarian Bingo,” as labeling one a “racist” tends to shut down civil, productive discourse in a way that “speciesist” (and even, to some extent, “sexist”) does not. Plus, racism isn’t an either/or proposition; as Wise explains, we’re all socialized and/or programmed to be racist – to think in terms of in group/out group membership – to some degree. The challenge, whether you choose to accept it, lies in using our oversized primate brains to overcome these outdated, retrogressive, lazy ways of thinking.

As with the previous cards, I’ve included a plain-text version of PWV Bingo after the jump. At the time of this writing, most of the squares contain links to refutations and debunkings; for those that don’t, I plan on either finding an appropriate response or writing my own in the (hopefully near) future – so check back often!*

In addition to the articles by Wise and McIntosh, I also highly recommend that you check out the resources linked to in the plain-text version of the card. Vegans of Color, The Vegan Ideal, The Food Empowerment Project, The Sistah Vegan Project, L.O.V.E. – all have been instrumental in challenging and shaping my views on race and class privilege (etc.), particularly in relation to the animal advocacy movement. Many of the squares were directly inspired by things read and seen on the pages of these blogs and websites.

Of course, PWV Bingo is equally applicable to vegans as well as vegetarians. Sad but true, people. Sad but true.

 
 
* For those keeping score, the last update to the plain-text card was made on 2/22/11.

Joel Burns tells gay teens “it gets better”;

Stephanie @ Animal Rights & AntiOppression: “You Coming Out or What?”; and

The Bullies Suck T-shirt

In the wake of a spate of suicides, committed by gay teenagers who were each the target of homophobic bullying, the LGBTQ community and its allies celebrated National Coming Out Day on October 11. Together, these events have focused attention on movements to prevent bullying – particularly those aimed at LGBTQ (or perceived LGBTQ) youths – including the It Gets Better Project and The Trevor Project. The former invites members and allies of the LGBTQ community to upload encouraging videos to its website, the message being that “it gets better”; the latter operates a hotline for LGBTQ youths and young adults in crisis, and also provides resources to parents and educators.

As part of this anti- anti-gay backlash, a number of celebrities and public figures have shared their own experiences publicly – including Fort Worth City Councilman Joel Burns, whose heartbreaking speech went viral and was aired in full on various media outlets, including CNN (where I first saw it). I’ve embedded the video above; even though it’s rather long, clocking in at almost 13 minutes, I urge you to watch the whole thing. It will bring you to tears.

And, while you’re already a sobby, snotty mess, head on over to AR&AO, where Stephanie shares her own “coming out” story. These issues – homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and the like – are relevant to animal rights activism simply because so many activists belong to marginalized groups; nonhumans are not the only animals exploited and mistreated en masse, for no reason other than the simple fact of their birth. All oppression is bad oppression, and all forms of oppression harm individual activists, as well as social movements and the beings for whom we advocate. These are not “special interests,” to be addressed only after the “important” work is done; these are our interests, to be tackled in concert with other “isms.”

To this end, Ari Solomon of A Scent of Scandal, Josh Hooten of The Herbivore Clothing Company and Jennifer Martin of Ink Brigade created a line of t-shirts to show solidarity with the victims of anti-LGBTQ bullying. Called “Bullies Suck,” the tees are available for purchase through Herbivore (just $20, with kids’ sizes, to boot!); all proceeds will be donated to The Trevor Project.

vegansaurus!: Hello, Friends! It’s WTF Wednesday!

KFC has been struggling as of late (apparently they lost 7 percent of revenue in the last year?) and it turns out that their target audience can’t even recognize the Colonel anymore. So instead of thinking “Dude, our problem is that our food is super-gross and also unfit for consumption, so maybe we should get rid of that monstrosity we introduced last year and rethink our horrible horrible menu as well as our choice to be known as chicken murderers,” they decided that their best course of action was to rent ad space on the behinds of college women.

“Keep quiet for the cause”: on sexual abuse in progressive movements

The insistence that women’s liberation is anti-revolutionary, or insignificant, or just so much liberal navel-gazing, allows rape culture to thrive in far too many radical political and ethnic organizations. And brave young women like Dinah get raped and tossed aside.

Vegan Feminist Agitator: Lady Gaga’s Meat Dress Statement, zzzzz….

In the end, this woman who presents herself as an iconoclast and an artist is just like anyone else in line at the drive-thru, consuming animals for her reasons, basking in a set of privileges she is not challenging. A blasé sense of elite entitlement is every bit as ordinary and unoriginal and stupefyingly normal as someone in line trying to decide between a cheeseburger and a Big Mac.

Vegan Feminist Agitator: There is no Y.O.U. in Unity

People may claim that disagreements within the movement creates disharmony and is a waste of our resources: we should be unified, we are so small in number anyway, we don’t need to fragmentize further. I don’t “harmonize” with misogyny, though, just as I don’t with other forms of exploitation. I tend to think of this as a good thing. Those of us who speak out are often told that we hurt the movement. You know what really hurts the movement? When people use shaming, idiotic and mean-spirited tactics and the rest of us remain mute, bullied into silence, taking it on faith that there’s some amorphous benefit in maintaining the illusion of unity. What helps the movement? A diversity of views and voices and talents and people. Creative, truly progressive, smart advocacy.

Charlotte’s Website: The Egg Recall: Exposing the Problems with Reform

This is the reality of a capitalist economy: control of wealth and resources is concentrated in the few hands of an elite owning class. Choices then, for the majority of people, are indeed limited. If you don’t like what’s on the menu, you may be free, in theory, to choose none of it. But if the next closest restaurant is across town, and you can’t afford both subway fare and the price of the meal, what will you do? There are only so many times you can walk away before you starve. If there is no other way to meet your basic needs for enough food, good-tasting food, and varied food, you will eat what you can get.

Philosophía and Animal Liberation: Exploiting Femaleness and Violating Consent: Intersectional Abuse Across Species

Female animals are exploited both because they are not human and because of their femaleness.

Female humans are no strangers to this sort of exploitation. Women’s bodies have been being sold and exploited for centuries and there are always new ways that it is occurring. Even today, things like human trafficking, forced prostitution, and arranged marriages follow this suit. One of the more problematic industries that has been exposed in recent years is the “outsourcing of pregnancies” to India (Associated Press). [...]

The concern for consent is absent in most of humans’ dealings with other animals. The dairy industry is one of many examples of how both the nonhuman nature of the cow and the femaleness of the cow are exploited and how other animals’ differing communication styles- lacking our verbal language- are used as an excuse to ignore their (lack of) consent.

Courtney Desiree Morris @ make/shift: Why Misogynists Make Great Informants: How Gender Violence on the Left Enables State Violence in Radical Movements and

Stephanie @ Animal Rights & AntiOppression: Power Dynamics, Abuse, and Violence, Inside Relationships and Inside Our Movements

The entire make/shift piece is worth a read, but here’s a taste:

To save our movements, we need to come to terms with the connections between gender violence, male privilege, and the strategies that informants (and people who just act like them) use to destabilize radical movements. Time and again heterosexual men in radical movements have been allowed to assert their privilege and subordinate others. Despite all that we say to the contrary, the fact is that radical social movements and organizations in the United States have refused to seriously address gender violence as a threat to the survival of our struggles. We’ve treated misogyny, homophobia, and heterosexism as lesser evils—secondary issues—that will eventually take care of themselves or fade into the background once the ‘real’ issues—racism, the police, class inequality, U.S. wars of aggression—are resolved. There are serious consequences for choosing ignorance. Misogyny and homophobia are central to the reproduction of violence in radical activist communities. Scratch a misogynist and you’ll find a homophobe. Scratch a little deeper and you might find the makings of a future informant (or someone who just destabilizes movements like informants do).

Using this as a jumping-off point, Stephanie offers her own thoughts on sexual harassment, abuse, misogyny and bullying in social movements. The comment section very quickly veers toward events that took place at AR2010, with some disturbing examples of…well, just go read it. There are 69 comments at last count, so consider this set leisurely weekend read, yes?

Food Empowerment Project: F.E.P.’s Food Availability Study, “Shining a Light on the Valley of Heart’s Delight: Taking a Look at Access to Healthy Foods in Santa Clara County’s Communities of Color and Low-Income Communities”;

lauren @ Appetite for Justice: Further Insights on Our Report; and

Marji @ Animal Rights & AntiOppression: Food is Power

The Food Empowerment Project recently published the results of a year(+)-long study in which volunteers canvassed grocery stores in Santa Clara County, CA, in order to assess the available of healthy foods – defined here as “fresh, canned, and frozen fruits and vegetables as well as alternatives to meat and dairy” – in both low- and high-income areas. The 20-page report is available as a free .pdf download (click through the first link), with addition discussion and commentary on the FEP’s blog, Appetite for Justice (link #2). Marji also does a nice job of summarizing the findings for AR&AO readers (link #3). If you’d like to help fund the FEP’s invaluable work, please do!

Feminism & Psychology: Volume 20, Issue 3 (August 2010): Feminism, Psychology and Nonhuman Animals

The academic journal Feminism & Psychology recently devoted an entire issue to the topic of nonhuman animals. Featuring pieces by pattrice jones, Carol J. Adams, Donna Hathaway and Lynda Birke, the ten articles examine a wide range of subjects, such as gender differences as they relate to vegetarianism, anti-/speciesism in ecofeminist psychology, and what the gendering of nonhuman animals says about human society. While none of the articles are currently available for free, you can either purchase short-term access for $25 – or sweet-talk a college-attending friend or family member into downloading a copy for you. Unless you have access through a university your own self. In which case, shouldn’t you be studying or grading papers or something?

Marji @ Animal Rights & AntiOppression: Cow Shot At State Fair Was Not A Nutcase

Every year at county and state fairs, farmers drag heavily pregnant mothers, stick them in small cages in full view of the public and wait for them to give birth.

Yesterday in California, at the site of the state fair, a pregnant Holstein cow became frightened and bolted. The fair was not open to the public at the time.

Instead of backing off and letting the obviously stressed animal calm down, police decided to hop in a large SUV and drive after her. When that brilliant technique failed, it was decided the cow should be killed.

Ultimately, both mother and fetus died; “experts” – including a veterinary – swiftly commenced a shameless round of victim-blaming that was both ableist and misogynist in nature. For trying to escape her captors, a pregnant cow was labeled “crazy”; “a nutcase.” Meanwhile, the enslavement of billions of sentient nonhumans for human want and convenience – resulting in untold environmental degradation and no small threat to human safety and health – continues unchallenged. Who’s “crazy” again?

Vegans Against PETA: Thanks PETA, now I just spit all over everything.

PETA, on Janet Jackson’s decision to model for “luxury fur” company BlackGlama:

“It’s amazing what celebrities will do when their careers are on a downslide, but we didn’t think that Janet was this desperate. Surely, she knows enough about suffering and unjustified death to recognize that both occur in the production of a fur coat. We are asking her to think again and to donate these stolen skins to be used as bedding for animals orphaned by other human-caused disasters, such as loss of habitat,” PETA spokeswoman Amanda Schinke said in a statement.

Click on through to deconstruct this press release with The Venerable Vegan Empress.

Suicide Food: Sexy Hot Dog Tattoo

In which some shitbag actually shells out money to have the image of a sexy, busty, makeup-wearing, climaxing hot dog/lady hybrid tattooed onto his person. The upside? Vegan feminists the world over will know to steer clear of this loser. It’s like a Scarlet Letter, but in reverse.

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Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare patriarchy intersections parallel oppressions animals and women sexism misogyny gender feminism race racism violence stereotyping exploitation sex intersectionality kyriarchy megatheocorporatocracy pop culture speciesism flickr photos news in the news quick links link roundup link dump Intersectionality ‘Round the Interwebs

Check it: “The World Becomes What You Teach”: An Interview With Humane Educator Zoe Weil

Based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (psych101 students, represent!), Ellyn Satter developed a corresponding hierarchy of food needs, arguing that one cannot “choose” to consume healthy products unless one’s more basic needs – such as having enough food to eat, having acceptable food, and having reliable, ongoing access to food – are already met.

Satter’s Hierarchy of Food Needs:
Bottom to top, the six needs are as follows: Enough food; Acceptable food; Reliable, ongoing access to food; Good-tasting food; Novel food; and Instrumental food.

The choice to consume vegan food (vs. the necessity of consuming vegan food) seems to rest at the apex of Satter’s hierarchy, and as such, can only be made “when all underlying needs are consistently satisfied”: “The person functioning at the apex of Satter’s Hierarchy of Food Needs reliably gets enough to eat of rewarding food and has food acceptance skills that are good enough to allow him or her to eat a variety of food. That person is thus in a position to consider choosing food for instrumental reasons: to achieve a desired physical, cognitive, or spiritual outcome. This description is analogous to Maslow’s concept of self actualization.”
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While this hierarchy is primarily being discussed in relation to our consumption (or lack thereof) of nutritious, healthy food, i.e.:

The graphic suggests that getting enough food to eat is the most important thing to people. Having food be acceptable (e.g., not rotten, something you are not allergic to) comes second. Once those two things are in place, people hope for reliable access to food and only then do they begin to worry about taste. If people have enough, acceptable, reliable, good-tasting food, then they seek out novel food experiences and begin to make choices as to what to eat for instrumental purposes (e.g., number of calories, nutritional balance).

As Michelle at The Fat Nutritionist writes, sometimes when a person chooses to eat nutritionally deficient or fattening foods, it is not because they are “stupid, ignorant, lazy, or just a bad, bad person who loves bad, bad food.” Sometimes, it’s “because other needs come first.” (Source: Sociological Images)

it’s equally applicable to veganism and vegan foods: obstacles such as hunger, poverty, food insecurity, lack of access to food, etc., severely constrict people’s ability to choose a vegan diet, on multiple levels (e.g., individual, community, population). As long as we’re serious about creating a vegan world, we must address these human inequities as well. (That, and it’s the right thing to do.)

Check out the Food Empowerment Project for more.

Let’s end this post on a shiny, happy note, shall we? Cue: all those supercute, fluffyfun doggie photos I took last month!

Rennie, distracting me from my summer reading.

Peedee, chillin’ under the lawn chair…

which is currently set up in the porch, so hot has it been this past month. In fact, I think I was able to use it just once before the heat wave hit. Yuck.

Ralphie, lawn dancing and proudly flashing his penis for the camera (men!).

Ralphie’s shameless display of red hot manhood worked; Rennie totally wants a piece of that! He’s not having it, though.

Kaylee shows off her crazy teefies!

Once more, for good measure.

Another round of lawn dancing…

…and we’re done. As per usual, Jayne chose not to make an appearance, instead hanging out on the other side of the yard. Such a loner, that one.

]]> http://www.easyvegan.info/2010/08/15/more-randomness/feed/ 1 http://www.easyvegan.info/2010/08/05/randomness/ http://www.easyvegan.info/2010/08/05/randomness/#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 04:07:22 +0000 Kelly Garbato http://www.easyvegan.info/?p=14643

www.schlongs4seals.com is now open and ready for business!

Currently, only the blog – where I’ve already logged more posts in August than I managed to write for this here blog in the entire month of July – is fully functional. I’m still working on the promised interactive photo gallery and discussion features, but hope to have these done soon. (To this end, WP-compatible software recommendations would be most appreciated!)

That said, the template and static/informational pages are all finished and look, if I might say so myself, kickass. I found a template that mimics Facebook almost to a M (for misogyny, natch), so it’s almost like we never left. (And by “left” I mean “were kicked off.”)

Additionally, I created a temporary set of photo pages to house all the “man meat” I’ve “processed” thus far: VAPETA PSAs, promotional materials, junk shots, celebrity cock shots, South Park avatars, brother campaigns, etc. Browse, bookmark and check back often, because there’s more in the pipes.

If you’re still out there and, um, excited to participate (excited! get it!?), send me your package at schlongs4seals [at] gmail.com and I’ll be equally excited (tee hee) to feature it on the appropriate page.

Also, if you visit the front page, you’ll see a little Facebook “like” button in the left-hand sidebar (right under the hot white torso wearing the hot red boxer briefs). Click it, won’t you? We need friends! And sharing! On Facebook!

I’ve been a connoisseur of men’s briefs since early childhood.
Behold the rapturous glee on my chubby chipmunk cheeks!
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SeaL Shepherd may have succeeded in removing our page from Facebook, but he can hardly prevent us from sharing content in the form of links.

Can’t stop the schlong, yo.

(A note for the newbies and occasional readers: if all this cock talk has you flummoxed, go here for some background.)

Tofurky Pizza with Daiya Cheese has finally made its way to Kansas City!:

The Whole Foods in Overland Park, to be more specific. And now it’s in my freezer. Nom nom nom.

As if this isn’t already more awesomeness than the KC metro area can handle, Kansas City is now home to a brand-spanking-new vegan bakery. Gluten-free, to boot. And, if you live in the KC area, they deliver!

Shane ordered a box of Golden Girls – the vegan feminist version of “real” Twinkies, if you will – for delivery to his office Monday.

They are super-yummy – a little denser than Twinkies (according to Shane; I’ve never partaken), with a sponge- or angel food cake-like consistency. The creamy filling is the bestest, though methinks the cakes could use more. I say the same of Ronald’s Donuts and Newman’s O’s, so grain of salt.

Egads. In all my excitement, I almost forgot to name drop. Brody’s Bakery is the name of the biz – hit ‘em up on Facebook, and if you’re ever in the KC area, shop team vegan, mkay? Jasmin of Our Hen House also did a nice writeup on Brody’s this week; see Brody’s Bakery Bakes Up Compassion. (Color me jealous, btw.)

Homemade Vegan Lemonade Ice Cream!

Holy shit!, is all I can say about this delicious frozen concoction.

The recipe is from The Blooming Platter and based on Wheeler del Torro’s basic formula. (A review of The Vegan Scoop is forthcoming! In one word: must buy. Okay, them’s two words, but you get my drift.)

The collective geniuses at the PETA think tank wonder, “How will China Destroy the World?”

Their answer?: “It will adopt the eating habits of Americans—specifically, our pork-eating habits.”

So, to summarize: CHINA will ultimately be responsible for destroying the world, as opposed to the UNITED STATES, which for decades has pushed its unsustainable and unhealthy dietary practices on the rest of the world through globalization and cultural colonialism. Another epic, privileged FAIL, PETA. Oy.

Finally, many thanks to Columbia University Press, which sent me a copy of J. M. Coetzee and Ethics: Philosophical Perspectives on Literature (Anton Leist and Peter Singer, eds. June 2010) for review:

I’d never heard of Coetzee prior to receiving this book, but after reading the book’s description:

In 2003, South African writer J. M. Coetzee was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his riveting portrayals of racial repression, sexual politics, the guises of reason, and the hypocrisy of human beings toward animals and nature. Coetzee was credited with being “a scrupulous doubter, ruthless in his criticism of the cruel rationalism and cosmetic morality of western civilization.” The film of his novel Disgrace, starring John Malkovich, brought his challenging ideas to a new audience.

Anton Leist and Peter Singer have assembled an outstanding group of contributors who probe deeply into Coetzee’s extensive and extraordinary corpus. They explore his approach to ethical theory and philosophy and pay particular attention to his representation of the human-animal relationship. They also confront Coetzee’s depiction of the elementary conditions of life, the origins of morality, the recognition of value in others, the sexual dynamics between men and women, the normality of suppression, and the possibility of equality in postcolonial society. With its wide-ranging consideration of philosophical issues, especially in relation to fiction, this volume stands alone in its extraordinary exchange of ethical and literary inquiry.

my interest? Consider it piqued.

Updated to add:

Also: If you ever visit Vegas, a stop by Ronald’s Donuts is a must. I’ve raved about them before, so I won’t try to convince you (and if you require convincing, you’re not deserving of Ronald’s sweet, chewy, chocolaty vegan goodness anyhow). I will, however, offer this tip for traveling with Ronald’s donuts – or any freshly baked donuts, for that matter – which only come to go in a big, pink cardboard donut box (totally unsuitable for traveling, at least on planes and trains).

Plan ahead. Know how many donuts you’ll be transporting, and take with you the appropriate number of (empty, duh!) Tofutti Sour Cream containers (or reused containers of a similar size), as well as a cooler that will accommodate them and an ice pack or two.

When in Vegas, purchase the donuts at least 24 hours prior to your departure. Pack them one to a container (again, like duh) and freeze them if possible. When you’re ready to leave, fill your cooler with the donuts and ice packs, so that stuff doesn’t move around too much.

Once you arrive at your destination, unpack your donuts first thing, putting them in the fridge (or freezer, if you don’t plan on eating them right away). They keep well frozen for a month or two, and then freezer burn starts to set in. Freezer burnt donuts are still edible – and vegans living in veg-unfriendly places will tolerate all sorts of food horrors, such that old donuts seem like a slice Sticky Fingers cake – but are best avoided. I like to let mine defrost on the counter for an hour or two prior to eating, so that it reaches room temp without getting overheated, like it might in a microwave or oven.

In years past, we’ve flown with frozen donuts packed in the floppy cardboard pastry boxes, with mixed success. If they start to defrost while in flight, lift off and descent can smush them into pancakes. While there was a little “bubbling” on the chocolate icing in this batch, they arrived looking almost as fresh as just-baked – even though they rode in cargo with the rest of the luggage. (Shane was planning on putting them under his seat, but the box was a tick too big.) Howdya like them donuts?

“lol batman – get that dood-elle!” – Running through the streets of Gotham, a cheesy, live-action, retro ’60s Batman and Robin try desperately to apprehend a certain sexist blogger before he can unleash any further douchebaggery upon the women of Blogville. “HOLY FUCKING PATRONIZING SEXISM,” goes the refrain of this lol batman.
TV still via the internets; quote via Stephanie; and photoshopping via moi.
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Though I haven’t been posting much ’round these parts lately

[and have all but abandoned ship over at AR&AO, for which I apologize to Stephanie & Co. profusely, and pledge to do better once things calm down here at Casa del Garbato-Brady, otherwise known as the Garden of Vegan, a title which I swear I will one day have posted at our driveway's front gate, threats of TP and eggs be damned]

rest assured that I’ve been busy, busy, busy, namely: working on several projects – including developing a website for my fledgling business

[Remember my - by which I mean Shane's - pizza press idea of last October? We are totally doing it! Slowly but surely, anyway. Our website isn't quite ready yet, so if you'd like to follow our progress, like us on Facebook, mkay?];

revamping another

[POP! goes The Vegan., whose database of vegan reviews should really be on the front page, with the blog in an ancillary position, seeing as the database is the main f'in attraction. What I was thinking by reversing their positions, I know not.];

and launching yet another brand-spankin’ new website

[Schlong4Seals! OMG, just reflecting on all the man-sausages and dick jokes waiting in the wings is enough to bring a smile to my normally frowny face. (I almost always look annoyed, even when I'm not; it's must be the humorless feminist in me, I guess.) I was a little incensed when the Fraternal Order of Facebook killed my SCHLONGS4SEALS group, but in retrospect, I think they did me a solid. A solid I shall return by plastering FB with links to all my super-awesome crotch shots and "seven ways to save the seals using only your cock" posts! Oh, I cannot wait. *Channeling the spirit of Will Ferrell*]

- the height of insanity, since clearly I already have more blogs than I can keep track of. Silly, silly rabbit.

Oh, and the zazzle store! A few designs for which I still need to create. Yeah, let’s save that for later, shall we?

Anyhow, on to issue #23 of “Intersectionality ‘Round the Interwebs.” On accounta me being in a mad hurry tonight, I’ve forgone most of my normal commentary in lieu of excerpts. That’s okay, though; I’ve got a great batch of links to share with y’all, so best to let the individual bloggers speak for themselves.

Browse, share, enjoy – and then blame and smash. Go!

“lol-psycat – narcissus” – Apropos of the dood-elle mentioned above, “narcissistic cat is his own screensavr.” (For those who can’t view the image, a black cat lounges atop a computer monitor, which currently displays a photo of…a black cat!) Not super-relevant to the rest of the post, but I felt like I needed a break between my semi-coherent ramblings above and the über-awesome link roundup below. Anal, who me?
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INCITE! Blog: Why Misogynists Make Great Informants: How Gender Violence on the Left Enables State Violence in Radical Movements

To save our movements, we need to come to terms with the connections between gender violence, male privilege, and the strategies that informants (and people who just act like them) use to destabilize radical movements. Time and again heterosexual men in radical movements have been allowed to assert their privilege and subordinate others. Despite all that we say to the contrary, the fact is that radical social movements and organizations in the United States have refused to seriously address gender violence as a threat to the survival of our struggles. We’ve treated misogyny, homophobia, and heterosexism as lesser evils—secondary issues—that will eventually take care of themselves or fade into the background once the “real” issues—racism, the police, class inequality, U.S. wars of aggression—are resolved.

(Hat tip, Jenna at L.O.V.E.)

Vegan Feminist Agitator: Exploitation + Objectification = Conklin Farms. (In other words, business as usual.)

The process through which we make peace with the inherent injustice of how we treat non-humans occurs because of objectification, the largely unconscious fragmentation system through which sentient beings are turned into objects. It is easier for the mind to integrate the misuse of objects than the abuse of living beings. Through this process, individuation collapses: all cows, all hens become a single entity to be turned into product. Those who are in power have their interests interpreted as a natural right rather a personal desire. When our interests require the subjugation of another, objectification makes the acquiring of what we want that much easier.

Digging Through the Dirt: Promotion of Veal on Columbus Day Adds to Insult

Because we think of ourselves as exceptional, we view “the other” as inferior. Descendents of native peoples and of African slaves are still regarded as inferior in this country, in general. And animals are treated as such, too. They exist for our purposes; they have no value except that which we bestow upon them, usually in the form of dollars. It’s all about what we can get from them — their flesh, their milk, their eggs — just as it was for Columbus. What could he get from the native peoples?

Stephanie @ Animal Rights & AntiOppression: Skinny Bitch, PETA, and Our Fear of Dissent

It’s not just about hurt feelings [in response to "I'm willing to deal with a little hurt feelings if that means the movement gains the patronage of an entire new demographic"]. It’s about perpetuating sexist, hurtful notions that have real consequences for real women. It’s about real women’s struggles, some of them quite serious. . . . The animal rights movement doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and for as long as we pretend that it does, there will be entire new demographics we *can’t* reach because they see us as so hurtful, oblivious, and single-track. The animal rights movement I want to be a part of embraces all battles for social justice, opposes all oppression, and doesn’t feel that it’s OK to cut down and dismiss one group to help another.

and also:

HOLY FUCKING PATRONIZING SEXISM.

(That quote needs to be immortalized on a tee, methinks.)

Lisa @ Sociological Images: Buns for Puns: CodePink Protests BP

On a “nearly naked” protest of BP by the feminist group Code Pink:

The PETA strategy is like a virus, spreading grossly from one social movement to another. Angry Green Girl, for example, Animals Awake, and the Alliance for Animal Rights have essentially copied PETA’s tactics.

It’s striking that this particular one is overtly feminist. It’s also striking that both Suburban Guerrilla and Feministe failed to remark about the ludicrousness of using (nearly) naked women to protest something entirely unrelated to nudity. The only reason it makes sense to use women’s naked bodies in a protest is because women’s naked bodies (in Western culture) are things to be used.

There’s so much more to say re: Code Pink vs. PETA’s use of female nudity, but since I’m running short on time, I’ll just pause to point out one key (IMHO) difference between the two groups: CP is a largely grassroots, non-hierarchical organization that’s comprised of – and welcoming to – women of all shapes on sizes. In contrast, PETA is more corporatist, what with its hierarchical, top-down, march-in-lockstep structure, and primarily seems interested in displaying the bodies of female celebrities and would-be models. Given these differences, which group do you think more likely to value and respect the opinions, feedback, and wishes of its volunteers – and to engage in naked/semi-naked protests only when all participants are comfortable in so doing?

That said, I still agree with Lisa’s implication that omni feminists are quick to criticize the use of female nudity in defense of nonhuman animals as inherently objectifying to women – but are, collectively, a tad more forgiving when the females getting naked are doing so for human rights causes. Speciesist much?

Carmen Dell’ Aversano @ The Scavenger: Queering the human-animal bond

Historically, queer’s primary aim has been to draw attention to incoherencies in the allegedly stable relations between chromosomal sex, gender and sexual desire, and to question the dominant model of heterosexuality, demonstrating the impossibility of any “natural” sexuality, and calling into question even such apparently unproblematic terms as “man” and “woman”.

Theoretically, though, it is vital to note that queer is about sex only incidentally: the real topic of its polymorphously transgressive reflections is identity; the fundamental – and most productive – idea in queer is that identity is not an essence but a performance, exacted through a pervasive matrix of assumptions and expectations, and that subjects themselves only come into being as products of performances. [...]

In the case of animal queer, the dominant normative model to be questioned is of course the assumption of a “natural divide between species”. Just as heteronormativity grotesquely maintains that any member of the “opposite sex” is more appropriate, suitable and attractive as a sexual partner than any member of one’s own, humanormativity maintains that all members of one species (homo sapiens) have more in common with one another than any of them can have with any member of any other species.

Animal Place: Dairy Farmers Waste Milk

On July 4th, participating dairy farmers plan on wasting a day’s worth of milk to make a point. They aren’t getting paid enough to maintain their dairy farms. So their solution for losing money is to squander a day’s worth of milk.

This isn’t anything new. Last year, European dairy farmers did the same thing. They dumped a whopping 6.6 million gallons of milk on their fields. Probably not the best way to feed your plants. Belgian dairy farmers alone dumped more than 750,000 gallons of milk.

Of course it is unfair to not be paid an appropriate price for the work you do.

But who is doing the work?

Amy Benfer @ Broadsheet: The rise of the digital wet nurse

Yes, breast milk is awesome stuff. But isn’t asking another woman to lactate for your child kind of … weird?

No “weirder” than imprisoning a female, subjecting her to repeated cycles of forced pregnancy and birth, and then kidnapping her baby (to either similarly imprison her or slaughter him) and stealing the milk meant for that disappeared child. Oh, and then killing that same female once she’s deemed “spent.”

Besides, modern breast milk banks are volunteer operations – mothers are not paid for their milk, thus negating the incentive for impoverished or marginalized women to sell milk that would otherwise go to their own children. The author eventually reaches this conclusion, making the points raised at the beginning of the piece non-issues. And yet, the suffering of dairy cows doesn’t merit a mention.

To find out more about breast milk banks, check out the “Breast is Best” section in the blogroll. (And if you have any suggested resources, please share! It’s a pretty skimpy section at the moment.)

Holly Kretschmar @ Salon: On tonight’s menu: Placenta

Before getting pregnant, the idea of eating my placenta had never occurred to me. My hippie aunt had buried hers under a tree. That sounded nice. But a month before my son was born, my doula (a birth assistant I hired to coach me during labor) asked, “Do you know what you want to do with your placenta? I have a great recipe.”

Again, while most people will cringe at the above excerpt, eating one’s own placenta is objectively no weirder than consuming the flesh of an anemic baby. In fact, the latter makes the former look downright sane. Shiny. Brimming with puppies and rainbows and unicorns. Totally fucking awesome.

At least, that’s how I see it.

Riddhi Shah @ Salon: Men eat meat, women eat chocolate: How food gets gendered; How food gets assigned a gender and

Vegan Burnout: Food plus gender? Sign me up!

Salon has an interesting piece today: “Men eat meat, women eat chocolate: How food gets gendered.” I encourage you to read it, then bring your love back here and talk about it with me. We already know what the headline points out: Certain foods are considered masculine (mmmmm, animal carcass), while others are feminine (gimme that candy bar, I’m PMSing). Of course, the heavy hand of marketing is everywhere we look, but what really captured my interest was this little factoid: In other countries, food is rarely gendered this way.

Skepchick: The Skeptic Next Door: Carrie Poppy

We have discussed briefly that it seems logical that a rational person would become a vegetarian or a vegan could you talk a bit about that and explain why?

There are a couple of reasons. For one, secularists are used to bucking the trend and ‘thinking outside the box.’ We’re disillusioned with tradition and cultural norm. We know that horrible things have been justified in the name of religion, power, status quo. We’re good at questioning things. So it makes sense that a critical thinker questions whether we should mistreat animals over something as unimportant as liking the taste of their flesh or having an affinity for milkshakes.

The second thing is, we’re good at researching and we like to learn. A lot of people think cows just go on producing milk all the time (even though every other species just does that when they’re pregnant or just gave birth), or that animals are usually slaughtered humanely, or that chickens wander around in tall grasses and lay eggs once a week. But secularists often know the truth about factory farming– that animals are crammed into tiny cages, their kids are torn away at birth, they have their throats slit and bleed to death. We know animals are treated in horrible ways to get those products because we’ve read, we’ve been educated. And once you know, you have to ask yourself if you support it. A lot of people refuse to pay for animal cruelty once they know.

And finally, we’re done with religion telling us we’re special. We realize we’re not the center of the universe, that no God put this earth here for us. We need to realize the same is true of the animals. I think the Judeo-Christian world view really still has a grip on a lot of us when it comes to animal rights. The Bible teaches us that animals are ours to treat as we want because they are lesser than us. But science has shown us that animals are as capable of feeling pain as I am. As secularists, we should be moving past treating animals as commodities, and seeing them as fellow sentient organisms that weren’t created for us. We’re not the center of the universe, but we’re not the center of the web of life either– we’re just the species with the most power. That means we also have the greatest capacity for mercy.

ecorazzi: Leona Lewis’ Meat Free Tour Causing Cranky Staff To Bear Their Teeth

Brace yourselves, peoples. I’m about to give some rare props to ecorazzi for outing some sexist bullshit (!):

When Paul McCartney declared his Up and Coming concert tour a meat-free zone by furnishing 480 daily 100% veggie based meals to his staff and crew, everyone seemed to applaud his efforts with a huge high-five. Now that fellow Brit rocker Leona Lewis has followed suit with her Labyrinth tour by banning all animal products (and even sporting a $262,500 self-funded, ethically produced wardrobe that meets “the highest animal welfare standards”), crew members are working themselves into a tizzy, complaining that she’s a demanding bee-yotch. Heyyy…wait just a second. What gives? Is there a double-standard at play?

I would say that hell hath frozen over, but the heat index in my neck of the woods topped off at 108F today, so…not so much.

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Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare patriarchy intersections parallel oppressions animals and women sexism misogyny gender feminism race racism violence stereotyping exploitation sex intersectionality kyriarchy megatheocorporatocracy pop culture speciesism flickr photos news in the news quick links link roundup link dump Intersectionality ‘Round the Interwebs

Raising her sword to Grayskull, LOL She-Ra demands, “I Can Haz Equal Rights?” & as long as we’re taking requests, the lady would like a NOMy vegan meal, too. (She’s a Shegan, yo!)
CC image via Brett L. on Flickr.
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The Boston Globe: Men leave their own mark on veganism and

vegansaurus!: He-gan woman-haters club!

Men + vegans = hegans. (Get it!?) Specifically, hegans are “men in their 40s and 50s embracing a restrictive lifestyle to look better, rectify a gluttonous past, or cheat death.” (Or, alternately, hegans are the latest faux-trend created by the newspaper industry in order to 1) hawk their wares and/or 2) avoid reporting on actual news. Be your own decider person.)

Though I prefer the term “hegan” to its predecessor, “femivore” (which, as a word, makes zero sense), it’s still kind of bullshit: in describing this ‘new breed’ of manly vegan men, Pierce is setting up a false dichotomy that portrays ‘regular’ vegan dudes (and women, too) as effeminate, weak and sentimental (‘pussies, queers and commies,’ as hegans might say). Also: paint with a broad brush much? Veganism is a diverse movement, and any attempt to pigeonhole such a large segment of the population is misguided at best. (See above, re: creating news where there is none.)

That said, I have a counter-proposal: shegan. More complex an equation than “women + vegans = shegans,” shegans as I envision them are feminist vegans of all sexes and genders (and/or feminist-allied vegan men, if you prefer) who reject sexism and misogyny as vehemently as they do speciesism. Dog knows we could use a little more sheganism, particularly since this is quickly shaping up to be the summer of the hegan douchebag.

Vegan Feminist Agitator: The PETA Effect

A lovely essay from Marla in which she manages to deconstruct the bulk of PETA’s campaigns in one fell swoop. To wit:

The PETA Effect has come into existence because they have cynically decided to not only accept the terms dictated by the worst aspects of the mainstream world, but to be a part of it. Instead of questioning misogyny, they wallow in it. Instead of thoughtful, insightful analysis, they have women citing statistics while stripping on camera. Instead of rejecting the notion that we all need to be young, slim, and, more often than not, surgically enhanced to be attractive, they embrace it fully, and they also tell us that objectification for the “cause” is a worthy endeavor. They tell a nation already deeply battered by this message that if you are not young, slim and conventionally attractive, you are worthless and disgusting. What does this have to do with compassion to animals? How does this improve a battery chicken’s life? How does this make the skeptical public more receptive to questioning their values? It doesn’t.

Seriously, go read the whole piece. I can wait.

Eastern Shore Sanctuary Blog: No Exploitation is Good Exploitation

Miriam (I think!) at Eastern Shore writes of rescuing 40 hens from a CSA. Run by a relatively “progressive” family, these small/family farm hens were kept in neglectful and abusive conditions, which (unfortunately) pale in comparison to those found in large-scale operations. The moral of the story?:

So, when your intentions are good, your actions will be in accordance and you will provide good care; when they are not, you will not; and either way, in the end, it won’t matter to you because in the beginning, you decided these animals were yours to do with as you wish. Perhaps a twinge of guilt here, a passing regret there — this is all you will have to handle if you treat them poorly.

That’s why no exploitation is good exploitation. Just like dictatorships are all oppressive whether or not they are benevolent. Some paradigms cannot ever be trusted.

This holds true for human as well as nonhuman animals; exploiting the members of one marginalized group on behalf of another does not a victory make.

Stephanie @ Animal Rights & AntiOppression: Classism from Vegans Doesn’t Help Animals, Nonhuman or Human

In what turned out to be a shockingly (to me) controversial post (the second of two), Stephanie examines class privilege in the vegan movement vis-à-vis the expectation that new vegans replace all non-vegan items (leather shoes, wool coats and the like…cars with leather or suede interiors weren’t even touched, I don’t think!) with vegan versions immediately upon becoming vegan – or at least before one can start self-identifying as a vegan. Sticky ethical considerations re: rampant consumerism aside, not all vegans have the money to replace these sometimes-expensive, hopefully-durable items right away – heck, many people cannot afford to replace them even as they wear out naturally! – no matter how pure one’s intentions.

I’m with Mary: “Shaming someone who is already in the process of changing what she can is . . . shameful.”

Stephanie @ Animal Rights & AntiOppression: A Vegan But Not an Activist? Sure. An Animal Lover But Not a Vegan? Nope.

Look. Everyone eats. After the initial learning curve, eating vegan doesn’t take any more time, effort or expense than eating non-vegan. So your reproductive rights activism, your focus on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, or your volunteer work with Big Brother/Big Sister? None of these are valid justifications for your choice to consume nonhuman animals.

You can be a vegan but not an animal rights activist; you cannot, however, claim to love animals whilst eating them. (As always, standard disclaimers re: access to food and disabilities that impact one’s dietary needs apply.)

Janani Balasubramanian @ Racialicious: Sustainable Food and Privilege: Why is Green Always White (and Male and Upper-Class) and

Anna Clark @ Broadsheet: The foodie indictment of feminism; Michael Pollan blames the movement for our fast-food culture. What about untold men who’ve never tied on an apron?

In which Michael Pollan blames the women’s movement for the “death of the family meal” – as opposed to, say, men who failed to do their fair share of housework once their wives, mothers and daughters pursued higher education and entered the work force. Luckily, there’s no shortage of feminist writers willing to take this privileged white male to task for his sexist, retro romanticization of “the good old days,” when healthy, homecooked meals magically appeared on the plates of middle- and upper-class white men, as if from the ass of an invisible pink unicorn. “Bitch, make me a sandwich,” indeed.

Katrina Fox @ The Scavenger: Why animal rights are (still) a feminist issue

This piece made the rounds on Twitter and Facebook upon its publication, and with good reason: by laying out the case that animal rights is most certainly a feminist issue (!), Australian feminist Katrina Fox challenges her sisters’ collective silence on issues of animal exploitation. She had me at the intro: “An egalitarian society will never come about while sections of it are oppressed, whether on the basis of their sex/gender, race, ability, sexual orientation – or species, writes Katrina Fox.”

Again, it’s awesome to see these connections made in a more “mainstream,” social justice venue.

Breeze Harper @ The Scavenger: Veganism’s connection to anti-racist social justice work and

Carol Adams @ The Scavenger: The sexual politics of meat

Subsequent to her vegan-feminist primer, Fox featured lengthy articles penned by Breeze Harper and Carol Adams, both of whom summarized their most recent releases (the newly published anthology Sistah Vegan and the 20th anniversary edition of The Sexual Politics of Meat, respectively) “for the masses,” as it were.

From the introductions to each:

People of color’s health and consumption practices are frequently contradictory to our social justice beliefs in the Black community as well as other communities engaged in antiracist and antipoverty social justice work, writes Breeze Harper.

A process of objectification, fragmentation and consumption connects women and animals in a patriarchal culture, where misogyny and speciesism are rife, writes Carol J Adams.

Read, share, comment.

The Vegan Ideal: The Sexual Politics of Carol J. Adams and

Mirha-Soleil Ross: Carol Adams & Feminists for Animal Rights: a hodgepodge of bad theory, exclusion, prejudice and transphobia *practiced through an eco-feminist lens*

Over at The Vegan Ideal, Ida uses Adams’ guest-post at The Scavenger to address some of the more problematic aspects of Adams’ work, such as her attitudes about sex work, sex workers and the transgendered community. Included at the bottom of the post are several links to additional reading materials (all of which I recommend, some of which I may have already linked to); if you click through them all, eventually you’ll arrive at the second piece by Mirha-Soleil Ross, a transgendered sex worker and activist who describes an unpleasant run-in she had with Adams in 2000. It’s lengthy, but well worth a read. Bookmark it and forgo tomorrow’s daily lunch hour lolcats fix in the name of anti-oppressive solidarity, mkay?

The Biotic Woman: In Praise of Sistah Vegan

In her next-to-last post for Bitch (yes, I have been hoarding these links that long!), Brittany offers a short review of Breeze Harper’s Sistah Vegan. Also of note: Brittany interviews the author/editor/activist in the latest issue of make/shift. If anyone has a spare copy, I have none. (Hint, hint, wink, wink.)

The Biotic Woman: Parting Ways, Moving On

The Biotic Woman’s farewell, complete with a blogroll and a recommended reading list informed by moi.

Suicide Food: Manny’s Has Great Legs;

Suicide Food: Healthy Chicken Skin;

Suicide Food: Turkey Hooker and

Suicide Food: Poll-ette Hostess

Ben at Suicide Food serves up four more examples of sexualized “food” animals for your blaming pleasure. Shegan sister snark, activate! (By the power of potato head?)

Sociological Images: “Nibbles”: Sexualizing Easter Candy

To sells its “Nibbles” candy, Cadbury’s conjured up a super-sexy Easter rabbit. Need I even mention the rabbit’s gender?

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Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare patriarchy intersections parallel oppressions animals and women sexism misogyny gender feminism race racism violence stereotyping exploitation sex intersectionality kyriarchy megatheocorporatocracy pop culture speciesism flickr photos news in the news quick links link roundup link dump Intersectionality ‘Round the Interwebs hegan shegan she-ra meat is for pussies pussy language suicide food sexy meat michael pollan peta breeze harper sistah vegan carol adams the pornography of meat sex work transphobia glbtq

“MTV’s Retro Hit Girl Poster”: In a reimagining of J. Howard Miller’s iconic “We Can Do It!” poster, a purple-wigged Hit Girl flexes her bicep, gun in hand. The purple bubble emanating
from her head reads, “We Can Kick Ass!” Message brought to you by the Women’s Ass-Kicking Committee. (This photo has absolutely zilch to do with today’s post; rather, it just makes me smile. The warm and fuzzies, I sure needed ‘em after wading through not one, but two PETA campaigns. Maybe you will too?)
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Okay, so there’s much, much more FAIL than WIN in this edition of Intersectionality ‘Round the Interwebs, but seeing as I’m all about the power of positive thinking, half-full beer steins, and all that fluffy fun stuff (sike!), I had to lead with WIN. In the title, anyhow. Had you fooled, didn’t I?

The Discerning Brute: Rape of Africa in “A Bid to Save the Earth.”

So this is…interesting. In honor of Earth Day, Christie’s hosted an auction to benefit several environmental organizations. One of the art pieces – David LaChapelle’s “Rape of Africa” – is unsettling, to say the least. Click on over to the Discerning Brute to view the image (which is totally NSFW as it depicts, among other things, Naomi Campbell’s bare breast). Joshua Katcher’s interpretation of the photograph is worth a read as well, particularly as he links the exploitation of farmed animals to that of human women, to wit:

[S]itting beside Naomi Campbell are farm animals, which suggest the failure of programs like Oxfam and Heifer International as well as making the statement that, like domesticated farm animals, Naomi is a chattel.

WIN or FAIL? Well, I dig the piece, though it’s not exactly something I’d hang over the fireplace, if you know what I mean.

Her Authority: Women’s Bodies Are… Pieces of Land?

In this Earth Day-themed ad, the anti-choice group CatholicVote.org links women (particularly mothers, o givers of life!) with the natural world by superimposing an image of the earth over the womb of a heavily pregnant woman. A cute (read: white, blond-haired, appropriately feminine, etc.) little girl rests her head against her mother’s belly; index finger pressed to her lips, she seems to be saying, “Shhh! My little sister is trying to sleep in there!”

With this imagery, CatholicVote.org is romanticizing two “homes,” if you will: that of the developing fetus (baby!), i.e., a womb which belongs to an adult human female; and planet earth, i.e., home to all of humanity (and a trillion other creatures, as well). Women are not individual beings with their own thoughts and desires, but rather pieces of land. And what do we humans do with land, the earth, and the natural world, class? That’s right – we conquer and dominate them! Nice.

Which makes the romanticization of each – women/mothers and the earth/nature – all that much more distasteful and disingenuous. Throw me on the bottom of the shitpile and tell me that I live on a pedestal, why don’t you?

The PETA Files: Pro-Life? Then Let Animals Live

Speaking of abortion (So fun, it is! I never get testy when defending my basic humanity, nosiree!), PETA does it again! Capitalizing on two pieces of anti-choice legislation that were recently signed into law by Nebraska governor Dave Heineman, PETA seized the opportunity to erect the above billboard in Lincoln, Nebraska. Featuring an image of three super-cute, recently-hatched chicks, the tag line reads, “Pro-Life? Go vegan.”

Don’t get me wrong, I love veganism; legislation which strips women of their right to a basic and common medical procedure, not so much. Nor does the message of the billboard (i.e., “pro-life” should mean all life, you fucking hypocrites!) escape me. But appropriating the suffering of women in order to promote veganism – all while refusing to take a stand against the very form of oppression that you are using to advance your own cause – is, well, odious. Condemnable. Exploitative. Wrong.

For example, over at the PETA Files, a blogger dismisses a woman’s reproductive rights thusly:

No matter where you stand on abortion, we hope that you appreciate the billboard that we’ll be erecting in Lincoln, Nebraska, to remind everyone that electing not to take animals’ lives is always a sane choice.

“No matter where you stand on abortion.” As if a woman’s struggle for control over her own body is comparable to the great Crunchy vs. Creamy PB debate. Fuck that noise. And fuck you, PETA.

Also, on a side note: these two anti-choice bills, which were signed into law on the very same day, provide an excellent illustration of a point that came up in the comments of my Blog for Choice Day post. Namely, that the more radical elements of the pro-life movement – you know, the ones writing and passing this legislation – aren’t so much pro-baby as they are anti-woman. That is, the goal is to control women’s bodies – and their lives – using fetuses/babies as a pretense.

This morning, the Nebraska state legislature approved the most extreme state law in recent history. The law (LB 1103) would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. And yesterday, the legislature passed another extreme abortion restriction (LB 594)—the first-of-its-kind— which requires doctors to perform extensive screenings of women for any “risk factors” before providing an abortion. (source)

Let’s break this down, shall we? On the one hand, pro-lifers argue that abortion must be restricted after 20 weeks because that’s when the fetus develops the ability to feel pain – thus making abortions performed after this point especially egregious. On the other hand, they’re actively throwing up additional roadblocks in the paths of women who seek abortions before the 20 week mark – all the while, not-so-secretly hoping (and praying, youbetcha!) that these obstacles will delay women past the point of no return, thus forcing them to carry the pregnancy to term and give birth. See how that works?

(The cost of all this screening – which is both unnecessary and kinda-sorta impossible to carry out as legislated – will presumably be footed by women. Women who may or may not have that kind of extra money lying around. Inevitably, some women will have to delay the procedure until they manage to save or scrape the required funds together. Inevitably, many women will fail. And also: the screening makes what is usually a simple medical procedure much more onerous and time-consuming than it needs to be. Possibly it will mean that women have to take an extra day or two off of work in order to undergo the mandated screening. Again, many women – particularly working- and lower-class women, i.e., the already-disadvantaged and marginalized – cannot easily afford to do this. In this way, anti-choice legislation is racist and classist as well as sexist and misogynist.)

“Twisty the rescued egg-laying hen often preferred cat food kibble to chicken feed because her beak deformity made it difficult for her to pick up small bits of chicken food.” CC image via Ariana Huemer of Oakland, California by way of the HSUS on Flickr.
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The Vancouver Sun: Group chucks chickens into B.C. minister’s office;

Liberation BC: Chickens used as “props” in a media stunt;

Liberation BC: Dogwood Initiative – apologize for throwing live chickens! and

Dogwood Initiative: Executive Director of Dogwood Initiative’s response to the controversy around releasing chickens in Ida Chong’s Office

On March 23, several members of Dogwood Initiative (an environmental organization based in British Columbia), in conjunction with some students from the University of Victoria, staged a protest against Canadian Healthy Living and Sport Minister Ida Chong, reportedly for her “silence over the government’s decision to allow private land to be removed from tree-farm licenses without compensation.” The group of activists stormed into Chong’s office in Victoria during a Dogwood Initiative rally, releasing six hens into the room.

“Releasing” is the euphemism employed by Dogwood & co. in defense of/apology for the stunt; other accounts frame the protesters’ treatment of the hens in much rougher terms. For example, an assistant in Chong’s office described the incident: “[B]oom, they were in and throwing chickens everywhere.” I think Liberation BC’s characterization is apt; to this group of activists, the hens were nothing more than props, items, objects to be (mis)used at whim. Somethings instead of someones.

The stunt immediately caused a backlash from animal welfare and rights activists, and while Dogwood Initiative initially blamed the actions on a few rogue activists, within a few days the group had issued an apology. A halfhearted one, at that. For example, in its March 25th statement Dogwood continued to disassociate itself from the protesters, and also denied that the fiasco caused the hens any harm.

In addition to providing a graphic illustration of the disconnect between mainstream environmentalism and animal advocacy (Hello! The “environment” you purportedly want to “save” includes billions of living, breathing, sentient beings, beings whom you exploit on a daily basis! Buy a clue, will ya?), this unfortunate incident also demonstrates the power of language. Words matter. Consider that the activists’ choice to “use” hens was no coincidence; these animals were designated props because of their linguistic significance: “Protester Sophie Waterman said chickens were appropriate because Chong is ‘chicken’ to talk, and squawks a lot but doesn’t do anything.”

In stereotyping a species or group of animals, reducing them to nothing more than a negative quality, and employing speciesist slurs that reflect this prejudice, we are tacitly promoting this sort of violence. “Bitch,” “cunt,” “spic,” “kyke,” “cow” – when used in a demeaning manner, all of these terms Other both target and referent, thus encouraging others to view the marginalized group as something different or less than. With speciesist (etc.) slurs, we dehumanize, bestialize, objectify. And when one thinks of a beautiful, sentient individual as nothing more than a prop, this is what happens.

(This isn’t to discount the role of generalized speciesism – humans vs. everyone else – in this particular incident. Chong might have just as easily been called a “baby” – in which case the activists certainly would not have (ab)used human babies in a similar manner. Rather, speciesism aimed at chickens converged with that directed at all nonhuman animals in a very ugly and violent way.)

treehugger: Protesting Orangutans Invade Nestle Shareholders’ Meeting

Note to Dogwood: watch and learn. In protesting Nestle’s purchase of products derived from dwindling Southeast Asian rainforests – rainforests which are home to endangered species such as the Bornean and Sumatran Orangutans – Greenpeace manages to employ animal imagery (and antics!) without disrespecting the animals linguistically or abusing them physically and psychologically. In fact, by having activists masquerade as orangutans, Greenpeace places most of the audience’s attention where it belongs – on the plight of the nonhuman animals who will suffer and die (and the species that will become extinct) with the loss of their habitat.

My only criticism? Many of these part-time apes could benefit greatly from the tutelage of Terry Notary. Just look at Tim Roth, who has yet to shed his chimp-like gait!

KFC: Buckets for the Cure;

Feminist Peace Network: Finger Lickin Bad–KFC Pepto Pinkifies Itself To Cure Our Titties (Updated);

Random Curiosity: “You can’t make this stuff up, folks.”;

The Colbert Report, April 29, 2010: Tip/Wag – Scientists & KFC;

Natural News: Susan G. Komen for the Cure sells pink cigarettes for cancer fundraising and

Think Before You Pink: Tell KFC and Komen to stop the pinkwashing!

In which the Susan G. Komen Foundation partners up with Kentucky Fried Chicken in order to raise money for….wait for it…breast cancer research (!). There’s so, so much wrong with this campaign – much of which is covered in detail at the links above – so just the bullet points, kay?

1) Those buckets that Komen wants you to buy, ostensibly to “save (women’s) breasts”? THEY CONTAIN THE DISMEMBERED BREASTS – AND THIGHS AND WINGS AND ASSORTED FLESH – OF OTHER BEINGS, MANY OF WHOM WERE FEMALE. That chicken Komen’s hawking? “It” used to be someone’s mother, daughter, sister and friend (or someone’s father, brother, son and cousin). Speciesist much?

2) The consumption of “meat” is associated with an increased risk of cancer. Essentially, Komen is trying to raise money to cure one form of cancer by selling an item that may cause other types of cancer. (As Natural News so hilariously demonstrates, this is akin to partnering with Virginia Slims and accepting a percentage of every pack sold.) Shortsighted much?

3) Fast food joints such as KFC have a nasty business practice of setting up shop in urban, working-class and impoverished areas – thus disproportionately dumping its artificially cheap “food” (and the attendant health risks) on already-disadvantaged and marginalized populations. These are the same areas, it’s worth noting, that are lacking in grocery stores that sell fresh, nutritious, whole foods; and the same populations that have diminished access to regular and preventative health care. In this context, Komen is funding cancer research on the backs of poor and work-class folks, many of them men and women of color. Classist much?

4) Pink is so infantalizing, yo. (Not specific to the Buckets for the Cure campaign, no; just sayin’.) Sexist much?

5) While I understand why businesses are eager to convince the masses that they can solve all the world’s most pressing problems simply by buying more and more of their crap (see the Stephen Colbert clip above for a brilliant deconstruction of this nonsense), I cannot for the life of me grasp why nonprofit organizations play along – particularly when the business in question works to undermine the NPO’s own mission. Consumerist much?

Dear social justice orgs – fucking stop collaborating with the green-/pink-/rainbow-washing of not-so-just capitalist death dealers already, mkay? Much love, me.

6) DID I MENTION THAT KFC KILLS 1 BILLION ANIMALS – APPROXIMATELY 500 MILLION FEMALES – PER YEAR!?

vegansaurus!: The Geniuses at PETA Strike Again!;

PETA Media Center: Group Wants to Help Franklin County Public Schools Warn Kids That Meat Is Linked to Childhood Obesity and

The PETA Files: PETA Offers Lifeline to Tubby Tots

PETA made the Franklin County (Kentucky) public school system an offer it most certainly could refuse: a boatload of “free” veggie burgers in exchange for advertising space on the school’s playground equipment. (“Free” is in scare quotes because this proposal strikes me as more of a business deal than a charitable donation. A gift is hardly “free” if you require something in exchange.) Instead, the Board of Education – which “doesn’t support direct advertising to students” – countered with another proposal: “PETA could submit fliers or handouts, which parents could pick up in the school office or at open house events.” PETA declined, taking its “free” veggies burgers and going home.*

Normally, this is where I’d launch into an obscenity-laden rant about the fat-shaming nature of PETA’s proposed ad, which is pictured (in action) above. The image depicts a chubby-cheeked white boy of nine or ten, about to tear into a hamburger with obvious glee. The text reads, “Tot teetering on obesity? Go vegan.” In PETA’s promotional photo, the ads – oversized stickers – are placed, oh-so-clever-like, on seesaws (teeter totters, get it!?). But Mumbling Mynah at vegansaurus did such an awesome job, I’ll just refer y’all to her. (Him? I love the gender ambiguity over there!) See also: my comments at The Other Blog, re: PETA’s “Save the Whales” billboard of last August.

Instead, I’d like to add that the so-called “Tubby Tots” ad is especially egregious, as it targets children. In contrast to adults, kids have little control over their diets; most likely, a child’s parents/guardians are in charge of the grocery shopping, menu planning, meal-cooking, etc. To target them for lecture and ridicule – on their own turf, when surrounded by their peers, and in a situation that they cannot opt out of, nonetheless – is misguided as well as cruel.

Doubly so when PETA is, in effect, further punishing Franklin County children for the decisions made by the adults in their lives, i.e., by withholding all those “free” veggie burgers until ad space materializes. If PETA’s goal is to “help” kids combat obesity with a vegan diet – rather than garner publicity for itself – why not donate healthy, vegan food to the school system regardless of whether or not it’s permitted to advertise on school grounds?

I think we all know the answer to this one. Something smells rotten in Kentucky, and it’s not the decomposing animal carcasses.

* To be fair, I should mention here that I asked a PETA rep, via Twitter, whether PETA would “gift” Franklin County the veggie burgers, irregardless of the ad space. She didn’t have an immediate answer for me, but said she’d check into it. I have yet to hear back from her, so I think I’m safe in assuming that the answer is a big, tubby NO.

The Food Empowerment Project: F.E.P. Alert, Our birthday, new section on website & vegan fideo! and

The Food Empowerment Project: F.E.P. Alert, March 18, 2010 – New Website, Blog and Upcoming Events

The Food Empowerment Project has a new(ly revamped) website! With an entire page dedicated to eating vegan on the cheap! And last but not least, a shiny new blog, with an even shiner name! All this and more in the latest newsletters.

From shaming (PETA) to empowerment (FEP) – this is how it’s done, folks.

Lib Now!: CFP: Critical Animal Studies Book Series

European publisher Rodopi Press recently announced the launch of a new academic book series called Critical Animal Studies. Me likey. Learn more at Lib Now!.

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Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare patriarchy intersections parallel oppressions animals and women sexism misogyny gender feminism race racism violence stereotyping exploitation sex intersectionality kyriarchy megatheocorporatocracy pop culture speciesism flickr photos news in the news quick links link roundup link dump Intersectionality ‘Round the Interwebs peta abortion pro-choice tubby tots obesity fat shaming dogwood initiative chickens hens kfc kentucky fried chicken komen susan g. komen pinkwashing buckets for the cure classism rape dominion CatholicVote.org pro-life repro rights reproductive rights women’s rights appropriation nebraska Franklin County kentucky fep food empowerment project win fail

What’s next, a Hartz commercial warning clean-cut, Oscar Newman-clad male dogs against tramping around with loose, low-class bitches, lest they catch fleas? Or perhaps an RNC attack ad, depicting a female puppy mill breeder intentionally popping out litter after litter, all in a self-absorbed attempt to pad her welfare check and buy that shiny pink rhinestone collar she saw on Animal Planet? Dog Almighty.

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In case you can’t view the images, there are three in total, each of which is based on the same concept: a stereotypically “ugly” male dog has “landed” a “hot” female mate who’s way out of his league. (Cue: every tv sitcom ever made.) The male dogs – a portly basset hound, a wrinkly bulldog, and a big, black (bull)mastiff (!) – represent the Peter Griffin to the females’ Lois; each is some combination of overweight, droopy, saggy, sloppy, out of shape, lower-class, and – in the case of the mastiff, who’s shown wooing his woman in a swanky limo – possibly a pimp or “playa.” (Perhaps we should just be thankful they didn’t use a big, black pit bull in this last scenario?)

In contrast, the females – a white Afghan hound, a white poodle, and a shiny-haired King Charles spaniel, respectively – are refined, trim, and well-groomed, with long/clean/styled fur, all of which is meant to signal their superior social standing. In keeping with the product’s name – Frolic biscuits – each pair is shown frolicking in a luxurious locale: poolside at a posh resort; in a plush hotel room, decorated with red velvet furniture; and in a large, leather-trimmed limo stocked with plenty of wine and pink satin pillows. The tag line on each photo reads, “She’s only with him for his biscuits.” (So nice to see you, heterosexism!) These bitches are like the Anna Nicole Smiths of the dog world, yo!

And yes, I had considered the possibility that the advertisers were trying to upend – or at least poke fun at – the “woman-as-gold digger” cliché, especially in light of the many appreciative comments this campaign received at Ads of the World. But. I fail to see how simply projecting a misogynist stereotype onto nonhuman animals – without any sort of social critique or subversive play on said stereotype – does anything to challenge the prejudices reflected therein.** The added racial stereotyping in the “limo” image just makes this campaign all the more distasteful.

Gender and race aside, we’re still left to deal with the breedism; in the above ads, different breeds of dogs are associated with different socioeconomic classes and aesthetics, some more desirable than others (hence the “lesser” males’ need to “buy” the coveted female dogs with biscuits). While this may seem harmless fun, breedism has pernicious real-world implications; see, for example, “pet” overpopulation statistics and breed-specific legislation.

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* Lyrics lifted (and tweaked!) from the Kanye West/Jamie Foxx musical misogyny-fest “Golddigger.” (Please keep in mind, however, that misogyny is not unique to rap music. Far from it.)

** Nor am I inclined to give Mars the benefit of the doubt.

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Tagged: animals animal rights mars mars petfood dog food dog treats advertising dog canine pet companion animal animal companion intersections intersectionality gold digger stereotypes beauty money power bitch bitches golddigger sexism sexist misogyny misogynist flickr photos feminist feminism parallel oppressions race racism racist gender breed breedism species speciesism

As I said before, many of the videos are on the lengthy (10 minutes+) side, so most likely you’ll need several sittings to view each set. (Hint: many are just the right length for a midday snack break!) They’re all well worth a watch, and together provide an excellent supplement to the Sistah Vegan anthology. (Regrettably, I’m not aware of any available transcripts, nor will I be able to provide any, due to the length of the videos.)

In addition to Brief Intro to My Consciousness Formation (view Parts One and Two on YouTube), we have:

[An Introduction to The] Sistah Vegan Project – Here, Sistah Vegan project founder/anthology editor Breeze Harper discusses the genesis and development of Sistah Vegan, touches upon the project’s and book’s areas of interest, and shares some of the reactions her work has generated among vegans and people of color.

(On YouTube: Part One and Part Two.)

Legacies of Racialized Colonialism on Black Female Womb Health – Referencing the work of Queen Afua, as well as her own experiences in dealing with a fibroid tumor, Harper discusses the spiritual, psychological and physical impact of racism and colonialism on black female bodies.

(On YouTube: Part One.)

Sistah Vegan Consciousness and Black Women’s Hair – In what is possibly my favorite video of the bunch, Harper shares her tips for the natural care of “black hair,” presenting these within the larger context of the politics of black hair. If you believe that it’s not just inoffensive, but sensible, to ask fellow animal rights/vegan activists to “mainstream” their physical appearance “for the animals,” then you owe it to yourself, your fellow activists, and the nonhumans on whose behalf you advocate, to watch this video.

(On YouTube: Part One.)

There are two more sets of videos in the series, as well as a few radio interviews, all of which are available at sistahvegan.wordpress.com – but, as I haven’t yet had time to watch them, I think I’d better save them for another day.

If you enjoyed the videos – or alternately, are unable to view them – you might (also) like this full-text written Q&A Breeze Harper did in promotion of the book in late 2009. While only three questions long, the discussion covers much of the same ground as do the introductory videos.

So, are any of you reading – or planning on reading – Sistah Vegan? If so, what do you think? I’m almost done with it myself, so keep your eyes peeled for a review.

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Tagged: animals animal rights vegan veganism sistah vegan sistah vegan project breeze harper intersectionality race racism feminist feminism gender food critical race theory video lantern books books anthology