#veganphobia

[marxismopportunism]

[classically-abby]

Does anyone else have this like visceral feeling of pride and rage whenever they tear into a huge slab of meat like I do? Why was I tethered this way LOL

[shinyasahalo]

Rant about veganphobia.

How is it that there are people who cling to the stereotype that vegans bash people for using plant-based meats and eat mostly fruit, agave syrup, and beans? And all their clothing is pleather and no other clothing item is based on plastic. (Ever heard of polyester?)

It's like they're specifically looking for someone like Freely the Banana Girl to reinforce their stereotypes about vegans, which was wrong in the 2010s, and it's extremely outdated now.

And now there's also a "gotcha" that veganism is not good for the environment because vegans eat fruits and vegetables that has been shipped around the world, as if omnivores don't also eat those same fruits and vegetables, and as if the vast majority of meat and animal feed is not also shipped around the world.

Because of plant-based meats and cheeses I eat burgers, hot dogs, lasagna, etc all the time, not "detox smoothies."

The whole "detox" thing is a marketing gimmick, it's not based on science.

[itsmyblognotyoursokay]

#Veganophobia

Just heard a guest on the Alex Jones show call vegetarians “kooks” and guest host David Knight just laughed.

This bigotry - not just veganophobia but also specism - is paid in part by the meat industry, the dairy industry, the egg industry, the puppy mills, the factory farms, and the rest of the animal abuse industry.

[animalsandtrees]

Link

[animalsandtrees]

Veganphobia - the Irrational Fear and Opposition to Veganism by Doris Lin

A phobia is defined as "an irrational and excessive fear of an object or situation." Today, I am coining the term "veganphobia" to describe the irrational and excessive fear of veganism that I so often see.

Veganphobia?

Veganphobia is, of course, not a medically-recognized phobia, but is an irrational fear and opposition to veganism from those who have not researched or considered the issue.

Veganphobia manifests itself in myriad ways.

When someone tells friends that they have gone vegan, a common response is, "Don't plants have feelings?" The person is not concerned about plants or they would have researched the issue and found that, even if you believe plants have feelings, veganism saves plants. As Carol Adams points out, the sudden presence of a vegan defines others in the room as meat-eaters, and the only way they can deal with that is to try to point out problems with veganism.

While the idea of someone being fearful of vegans may seem comical, the opposition to veganism is a real part of life that vegans have to deal with on a daily basis. For example, an NBC News headline reads, "Vegan couple sentenced to life over baby's death." The baby starved to death due to neglect. This case had nothing to do with veganism. Even the prosecutor said that veganism was "not the issue in this case . . . The child died because he was not fed. Period.” The fact that the parents were vegan was irrelevant, but the headline points it out as if it were relevant.

One would not expect a headline to read, "Christian couple kills baby" or "Tall couple kills baby" unless the couple's religion or height were relevant to the baby's death.

Conversely, we never see a headline that reads, "Meat-Eater dies of heart attack," even though the meat eating probably was relevant to the cause of death. This is an example of privilege. There are many types of privilege, including those based on gender, religion, race, or sexuality. Privilege is about being a member of the group in power and rarely having one's choices or presence questioned. In this case, the meat-eater's privilege means rarely, if ever, having one's dietary choices questioned, while vegans are constantly questioned and berated by friends, family and strangers who know little, if anything, about veganism. They certainly don't know that the American Dietetic Association supports vegan diets, or that the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School say that a diet high in dairy products does not protect against osteoporosis and is actually harmful.

Causes of Veganphobia

The main causes of veganphobia are cultural conditioning, fear of the unknown and denial.

Since most people are raised consuming animal products and learning that we should eat animal products (because USDA recommendations are heavily influenced by corporate lobbyists), our cultural conditioning tells us that eating meat, eggs and dairy are normal and healthy. Fear of the unknown is also a powerful force as well as a medically recognized phobia - cenophobia. People often fear what they don't understand, but when that fear is excessive, it can be dangerous. Denial can also be very powerful, although someone in denial often doesn't know it. They want to protect their world and their perception of the world, because if veganism is healthy or even better for the environment and for people, they will have to rethink their own diets. And most people don't like to change their diets or think about things like animal suffering, cholesterol, desertification or climate change.

No one is suggesting that veganphobia be medically recognized as a type of phobia, nor is anyone suggesting that people who oppose veganism have a psychiatric condition. But many people do have an irrational fear and opposition to veganism that acts as a constant source of stress and conflict for vegans and a barrier to seriously considering veganism as a way to save animals, protect the environment and improve human health.

Source

[animalsandtrees]

Veganphobia

Cole, M. and K. Morgan.  2011.  "Veganphobia:  Derogatory Discourses of Veganism and the Reproduction of Speciesism in UK National Newspapers."  The British Journal of Sociology 62 (1):  134-153.

This paper critically examines discourses of veganism in UK national newspapers in 2007. In setting parameters for what can and cannot easily be discussed, dominant discourses also help frame understanding. Discourses relating to veganism are therefore presented as contravening commonsense, because they fall outside readily understood meat-eating discourses. Newspapers tend to discredit veganism through ridicule, or as being difficult or impossible to maintain in practice.Vegans are variously stereotyped as ascetics, faddists, sentimentalists, or in some cases, hostile extremists. The overall effect is of a derogatory portrayal of vegans and veganism that we interpret as ‘vegaphobia’. We interpret derogatory discourses of veganism in UK national newspapers as evidence of the cultural reproduction of speciesism, through which veganism is dissociated from its connection with debates concerning nonhuman animals’ rights or liberation.This is problematic in three, interrelated, respects. First, it empirically misrepresents the experience of veganism, and thereby marginalizes vegans. Second, it perpetuates a moral injury to omnivorous readers who are not presented with the opportunity to understand veganism and the challenge to speciesism that it contains. Third, and most seriously, it obscures and thereby reproduces exploitative and violent relations between human and nonhuman animals.

So this is nothing, new, right?  Vegans get a bad rap in the news.  But this article is important evidence to how hegemony protects its interests and marginalizes those who pose a threat to that power.  The media is run by elites and reflects elite interests.  Most media CEOs are white, male, and rich.  Most media producers are white, male and rich.  Society's most privileged are creating the media that the rest of us absorb.  The media is a powerful agent of socialization, so elites have a vested interest in making sure that socialization is one that normalizes oppressive conditions. Source

[animalsandtrees]

Queerphobia and veganphobia by Jola Cora

I began working on spreading the word on vegephobia a year and a half ago and the people I reached to mostly reacted with relief, gratitude and deeper understanding of their situation. Because by learning about vegephobia you can see that you were not alone in being harassed, mocked, teased and put pressure on and you can understand that the real target was not you but the animals killed for consumption and that it all comes from our society being deeply speciesist, thus, instead of blaming the vegephobic people themselves you can understand them and blame society.

But, a small number of people (whom I suspect not to have read and/or understood the brochure) expressed concern about the term vegephobia turning vegans and vegetarians into yet another oppressed group and that, instead, we should show how easy and wonderful the world of veganism is… That, unfortunately, is exactly a result of vegephobia, because, let’s face it, the world is, still, much easier for carnists…

And, unfortunately, an even smaller number of people were upset that we dare compare vegephobia to homophobia. We did compare the two because the mechanisms of both are very similar and because they both stem from a phallocratic society. But, after my second talk about vegephobia, in Luxembourg, I was very moved to hear the testimony of a vegan homosexual, thanking us for making the connection and telling us that being vegan and homosexual, he did feel doubly attacked.

A few weeks ago I read Defiant Daughters and I was not really surprised but still amazed that Margaret Perret, one of the writers of that collection of essays, came up in Queering the Dinner Table with the word “veganphobia”, apparently not knowing that the term vegephobia existed since 2001, but, most of all, she compared it to “queerphobia”:

“I have found that comments about my queerness and veganism reflect queerphobia and veganphobia in patriarchal culture, respectively.  Adams presents several theoretical insights into why verbal attacks against LGBTQQIA people and vegans are structurally determined in a similar way in a patriarchal society. Perhaps most striking is the observation that both fail to take seriously the ethical, political, and personal dimensions of a vegan or queer lifestyle.

Trivializing and delegitimating, verbal attacks against LGBTQQIA people and vegans are attempts to disempower the reformer and uphold Western, patriarchal hierarchies.

It is clear that responses to my veganism are not earnest efforts to understand the theoretical and moral basis for my lifestyle choice, but rather teasing manipulations, as indicated by ludicrous questions about the sentience of plants, the legitimacy of carnivorous animals, or the stringency of my dietary commitments. By diverting the conversation from a serious analysis of food ethics, the speaker avoids a thoughtful reexamination of the contents of her or his dinner plate and reinforces the dominant discourse that excludes vegan voices.

Queerness also threatens patriarchal hierarchies by presenting an alternative to the traditional heterosexual model.

As vegans struggle to make their meanings understood within a culture fiercely committed to meat-eating, LGBTQQIA people struggle to make their meanings understood within a culture that only accepts the legitimacy of heterosexual relations.

What is of moral, personal, political, and existential importance to vegans, LGBTQQIA people, and other marginalized people often becomes entertainment for those who wish to discuss, but not seriously engage with what it means to be vegan, queer, or otherwise marginalized. I found this to be very much true to the process of coming out as a vegan and a queer person.

While I have found so much acceptance and love among my friend groups and Bay Area communities, only a few members of my family know that I am vegan, and even fewer know that I am queer. I have largely kept silent about my dietary choices and sexuality because I know that my family ascribes to the Western cultural values that hold queer-vegan perspectives to be illegitimate, illogical, and inferior. When I first told my mom about my sexuality, she advised, “You are just going to have to play up the parts of yourself that you want other people to know about.” Still recovering from the stress of coming out, I just nodded. […] And later, when I told my mom about my veganism, she responded, “I just think you’re being really extreme”.

Source