Vegifem: Perspectives on Vegan Feminist Ethics

Harry Potter, Veganism, & Good 'Ole Existentialism

2010-02-22T22:24:00.001-05:00

Ginnifer Goodwin, on being vegan, via vegan.com:

When people ask, I always tell them, “I didn’t stop eating animal products because I didn’t like the taste. I loved the taste! But in this life, I want to inflict as little pain as possible.” To everyone who argues that we can treat our fellow earthlings this way and so we should, I like to quote Harry Potter’ s Dumbledore, who said: “It is our choices, Harry, that show us what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

Radio Lab on Animal Minds

2010-01-12T17:56:00.000-05:00

Check it out.

Wake Up Call

2010-01-06T03:06:00.000-05:00

The American Public Health Association, the largest organization of public health professionals in the world, has called for a moratorium on factory farms. In fact the APHA journal, the American Journal of Public Health, published an editorial going beyond just calling for an end to factory farms. It questioned the prudence of raising so many animals in the first place: "It is curious...that changing the way humans treat animals--most basically, ceasing to eat them or, at the very least, radically limiting the quantity of them that are eaten--is largely off the radar as a significant preventive measure. Such a change, if sufficiently adopted or imposed, could still reduce the chances of the much-feared influenza epidemic. It would be even more likely to prevent unknown future diseases that, in the absence of this change, may result from farming animals intensively and from killing them for food. Yet humanity does not consider this option....Those who consume animals not only harm those animals and endanger themselves, but they also threaten the well-being of other humans who currently or will later inhabit the planet....[I]t is time for humans to remove their heads from the sand and recognize the risk to themselves that can arise from their maltreatment of other species."

Via Huffington Post

I just realized...

2010-01-02T02:07:00.003-05:00

after reading everyone else's posts reminiscing about the previous decade that the teens will be my first decade:

1. (fingers crossed!) without a jaw surgery
2. that is entirely vegan!!!

Not bad thoughts to start with.

Mmmm... Tofurkey

2009-12-05T19:05:00.001-05:00

I'm having a feast tonight because I wanted to make this. Without question, my favorite way to cook Tofurkey.

If you read this blog...

2009-12-02T03:10:00.002-05:00

... read this. You might need it. The government thinks you're a terrorist.

Vegan Cupcake Terrorists are Taking Over the World

2009-12-02T00:35:00.002-05:00

Check out this article over at Huffington Post and the blog Green is the New Red.

I'm too busy dissertating right now to get blog posts out, but I wanted to draw more attention to this issue. Based on this law, I am a terrorist (and so are a lot of my friends and probably you too if you're reading this blog).

New Vegan Bakery

2009-11-20T19:16:00.003-05:00

I was so excited to see this post announcing the opening of the first vegan feminist bakery... but then I realized it's in Saudi Arabia! That's still wonderful, but I'm sad that I won't get to try the goodies. Look at those pictures!!!

A Modest Proposal Regarding Companion Species

2009-11-07T12:44:00.002-05:00

I just found this Wall Street Journal piece by Jonathan Safran Foer- a must read.

The "modest proposal" is a reference to Jonathan Swift's essay about eating children.

Responses to the Carnivore's Dilemma

2009-11-03T02:41:00.004-05:00

Mine is in today's NYT letter section. It was hard to keep it under 150 words and they did some editing, but it makes a point that I think is important. What I found frustrating about the article was the attitude "no one will do this, so don't bother trying to get them to."

I promise I'm not procrastinating...

2009-10-20T23:01:00.002-04:00

I wanted to share this link about Pierce and Bekoff's work on morality in non-human animals.

Here's a sample:

While we all recognize rules of right and wrong behavior in our own human societies, we are not accustomed to looking for them among animals. But they're there, as are the "good" prosocial behaviors and emotions that underlie and help maintain those rules. Such behaviors include fairness, empathy, forgiveness, trust, altruism, social tolerance, integrity, and reciprocity—and they are not merely byproducts of conflict but rather extremely important in their own right.

If we associate such behaviors with morality in human beings, why not in animals? Morality, as we define it in our recent book Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals, is a suite of interrelated, other-regarding behaviors that cultivate and regulate social interactions. Those patterns have evolved in many animals, perhaps even in birds.

One of the clearest places to see how specific social rules apply is in animal play. Play has been extensively studied in social canids (members of the dog family) like wolves, coyotes, and domestic dogs, so it is a good example to use to examine the mechanisms of fair play.

Worldwatch Report and Derrida Ramblings

2009-10-20T21:20:00.005-04:00

From a new report: Livestock accounts for more than 50% of global GHG emissions and the solution is to transition away from dairy/meat.

I don't have much more to say on this right now, because I'm working on a paper for a conference this weekend about the connections between ableism and speciesism. I'm using some of Derrida's work on animality for this project. I think his use of "carno-phallologocentrism" to question common approaches to "the Animal" AND "vegetarian" politics is right on. While Derrida ignores significant differences in the animal advocacy movement, he highlights an important point: an animal "rights" approach doesn't do anything to deconstruct conceptions of the subject, but rather redeploys them. (I think the use of vegetarian here is important, though I haven't yet checked the french. While there are technically words for vegan and vegetarian in French, they're usually grouped together.) In any event, I don't think he is telling us "go home and eat meat," as some people have said to me. First of all, he's not one for clear-cut solutions. Second, I take his comments to mean that vegetarianism is probably a good thing, but it's not enough. As he says in an interview with Nancy, abstaining from consuming flesh isn't enough to absolve you from violence against animals (or, l'animot). You can't just stop eating meat and assume you're no longer causing animal suffering. (Been through your closet yet? What do you feed your pets? Are your cosmetics tested on animals? Was your flu shot made out of eggs? Is your TV powered by burning rabbits?)

I find this useful in explaining the difference that I between veganism and vegetarianism. I usually talk mostly about diet, because I think that is the easiest, and for many people (depending on consumption patterns) most significant change they can make in their everyday lives to reduce non-human animal suffering.

The paper I'm working on partly addresses concerns that I have about ableism within animal advocacy and animal rights philosophies, which is one way of questioning how philosophers define the Human.

Speaking of which.... back to work!

Selected Points from NYT Article on Beef Production

2009-10-04T11:29:00.004-04:00

This article is unfortunate in that it contains important information, but relies on the shock value of one woman's story and readers' fear of disability to sell the story. This is not to deny that what happened to Ms. Smith is a great injustice, but to point out the way in which the article exploits her suffering. For example, the title on the front webpage reads "Woman's Shattered Life Shows Ground Beef Inspection Flaws," but the title for the article itself is "Trail of E. Coli Shows Flaws in Inspection of Ground Beef." It plays upon stereotypes of the value of life with disability, but never tells us anything meaningful about Ms. Smith other than the events that lead us to pity her.

The article obviously also makes invisible the suffering of the cows, who are reduced to ingredients and "recalled product." I'm sure other bloggers will point to that issue, so for now I want to discuss what is contained in the story itself.

The middle content of the article is worth reading. Here are some of the major points:

1. The system is designed to prevent the recall of contaminated meat.

Unwritten agreements between some companies appear to stand in the way of ingredient testing. Many big slaughterhouses will sell only to grinders who agree not to test their shipments for E. coli, according to officials at two large grinding companies. Slaughterhouses fear that one grinder’s discovery of E. coli will set off a recall of ingredients they sold to others.

2. The expectation that consumers must protect themselves through proper kitchen sanitation sets them up to fail, locating the "responsibility" for sickness with the individual, rather than the source.

Food scientists have registered increasing concern about the virulence of this pathogen since only a few stray cells can make someone sick, and they warn that federal guidance to cook meat thoroughly and to wash up afterward is not sufficient. A test by The Times found that the safe handling instructions are not enough to prevent the bacteria from spreading in the kitchen.

But the pathogen is so powerful that her illness could have started with just a few cells left on a counter. “In a warm kitchen, E. coli cells will double every 45 minutes,” said Dr. Mansour Samadpour, a microbiologist who runs IEH Laboratories in Seattle, one of the meat industry’s largest testing firms.

3. Even the minimal federal regulations are not enforced and function to cover over food safety problems as "trade secrets."

While the Department of Agriculture has inspectors posted in plants and has access to production records, it also guards those secrets. Federal records released by the department through the Freedom of Information Act blacked out details of Cargill’s grinding operation that could be learned only through copies of the documents obtained from other sources. Those documents illustrate the restrained approach to enforcement by a department whose missions include ensuring meat safety and promoting agriculture markets.

In the weeks before Ms. Smith’s patty was made, federal inspectors had repeatedly found that Cargill was violating its own safety procedures in handling ground beef, but they imposed no fines or sanctions, records show. After the outbreak, the department threatened to withhold the seal of approval that declares “U.S. Inspected and Passed by the Department of Agriculture.”

The food safety officer at American Foodservice, which grinds 365 million pounds of hamburger a year, said it stopped testing trimmings a decade ago because of resistance from slaughterhouses. “They would not sell to us,” said Timothy P. Biela, the officer. “If I test and it’s positive, I put them in a regulatory situation. One, I have to tell the government, and two, the government will trace it back to them. So we don’t do that.”

In examining Cargill, investigators discovered that their own inspectors had lodged complaints about unsanitary conditions at the plant in the weeks before the outbreak, but that they had failed to set off any alarms within the department. Inspectors had found “large amounts of patties on the floor,” grinders that were gnarly with old bits of meat, and a worker who routinely dumped inedible meat on the floor close to a production line, records show.

4. Farm animal abuse endangers consumers, not just the animals themselves.

As with other slaughterhouses, the potential for contamination is present every step of the way, according to workers and federal inspectors. The cattle often arrive with smears of feedlot feces that harbor the E. coli pathogen, and the hide must be removed carefully to keep it off the meat.

5. There are other prices we pay for cheap meat (including risking the safety of our children).

With seven million pounds produced each week, the company’s product is widely used in hamburger meat sold by grocers and fast-food restaurants and served in the federal school lunch program. Ten percent of Ms. Smith’s burger came from Beef Products, which charged Cargill about $1.20 per pound, or 20 cents less than the lean trimmings in the burger, billing records show.

FMF Update

2009-10-02T15:09:00.001-04:00

Yorkin's opinions are her own, and the Feminist Majority Foundation does not condone rape.

"Take Action" Against Feminist Majority Foundation

2009-10-02T01:10:00.003-04:00

Text of email I sent, with subject "I don't support rape"

And I assume the FMF does not either, which is why I'm expecting a press release responding to and condemning this:

"My personal thoughts are let the guy go," said Peg Yorkin, founder of the Feminist Majority Foundation. "It's bad a person was raped. But that was so many years ago. The guy has been through so much in his life. It's crazy to arrest him now. Let it go. The government could spend its money on other things."

Until FMF makes it clear that it does not condone rape, I will not support this organization. I might even use this as an example of misogyny within the women's movement next time I teach "Introduction to Women's Studies."

Autism Speaks says Autism is Hunting Down Your Child and is Worse than AIDS

2009-09-30T02:40:00.001-04:00

After reading this story, I never even imagined the video would be this bad.

“Autism Speaks believes that its bottom line will be helped by portraying autistic people as less than human,” says Ari Ne’eman, president of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network. “This is really damaging if you’re trying to get your child included in school or if you’re an autistic person trying to find a job or get included in society more broadly.”

PSA: Virtual Zoo

2009-09-30T02:19:00.005-04:00

The BBC now has the best website ever: a virtual alternative to zoos!

After surfing through this site, I've decided that Farm Sanctuary, in addition to animal profiles, needs to add sound. Something about that feature makes the experience more real.

The Black Box of Meat Production

2009-09-26T16:01:00.005-04:00

Jack Lahne over at The Ethicurean has posted an interesting narrative of his experience as a Food Science graduate student in a class on butchering. I recommend you go read it. The post raises interesting questions about empathy: Who is worthy of it? Who warrants a response? What barriers are there to empathy? In what ways is it subject to manipulation (for better or worse)? These are questions that often take place within the realm of feminist care ethics (vegan or not) because the answers determine who is available for moral consideration.

Lahne is a proponent of SOLE food (sustainable, organic, local, and ethical) and has done considerably more research into the origins of his meat than the average person. His description of what would be considered humane slaughter shows just how crucial the "black box" of the meat industry is to its existence.

Animals do not want to die. They can feel pain and fear, and, just like us, will struggle to breathe for even one single more second. If you’re about to run 250 volts through a pig, do not look it in the eyes. It is not going to absolve you. The smell of burning hair from the electrodes may mix with the smell of the frightened animals’ defecation and urination in an unpleasant way. The meat will be warm, which is a truly unsettling sensory experience. Don’t even ask me about “bunging” the animal.
It would be a lie if I were to say that the tactile knowledge of what goes into transforming a pig into bacon has made me happier.

Lahne and I obviously disagree about the ethics of eating animals, as he ultimately concludes that animals need to be eaten. As long as the process of meat production is hidden, omnis do not have to "look [their] bacon in the eye." The difference between people that choose to be vegan and those who don't may have to do with the degree to which vegans emphasize with animals. Lahne explains how people "forget" that their meat comes from a living being:

Naturally, most consumers become uncomfortable when confronted with the living predecessors of their food, especially when they are forced to acknowledge that, inevitably, suffering and death are an integral part of the product. It’s in the best interests of the industry to help people forget that meat was ever on the hoof. The consolidation of animal farming and processing, in hiding the business from the public eye, has increased this healthy discomfort and thoughtfulness into revulsion and a rejection of responsibility, while simultaneously encouraging irresponsible and thoughtless meat consumption.

This is why I think the most effective vegan advocacy work is taking place at the level of education, through places like the Farm Sanctuary. A hands on encounter with the animal other helps to expand an individual's experience of empathy. Lahne's post raises the question of the role of recordings and images of animal suffering.

...while it’s perfectly acceptable socially to be concerned with animal welfare or the quality of the meat afterward, interest in the transitional process — slaughter — seems disturbingly atavistic. Which is why most of us have only encountered animal slaughter through PETA video exposes, Sarah Palin’s turkey slaughtering video faux pas, or by reading “The Jungle,” “Fast Food Nation,” or (in a more positive vein) “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.” If you don’t eat meat, of course, it’s easy to shrug and dismiss the whole system as barbaric; although I believe there are good arguments for continuing to responsibly raise animals for food, not least because of their deliciousness.

Should animal activists reconsider their strategies? Lahne's reason for the necessity of meat eating is a simpler version of Donna Haraway's "exterminism" argument, which I think does not reflect the views of many animal advocates.

Check Out My Throbbing... Kitten?

2009-09-25T16:09:00.006-04:00

Animal Blawg posted this image from a recent Stranger cover. Animal Blawg rightly notes that this picture "flips" PETA's usual tactic of exploiting women to promote animal rights. I do, however, disagree with Crawford's conclusion that "That's not OK, either."

I think context is central to considering the effectiveness and implications of media. I find this cover to be an interesting- and funny- play on stereotypes of (white/hetero) masculinity. In The Male Body, Susan Bordo discusses how men in our culture are identified with their penises, which are expected to be hard, powerful, and machine-like. The Stranger presents us with an attractive man standing in a "look at my package" pose that replaces a kitten for a penis. Kittens are soft, cuddly, cute, playful, vulnerable, unpredictable, and often associated with feminine characteristics. A kitten just might be the opposite of penis! (How emasculating is it for the woman to want to play with the kitten instead of the penis!?) Objectification needs to be understood in context rather than universally condemned.

Thoughts?

Thanks to Animal Blawg for pointing out this photo! (I nearly sprayed my computer with the coffee I was drinking!)

On “Pain-Free” Meat (Or Why Do Vegetarians Hate Animals?)

2009-09-23T21:37:00.011-04:00

Neuroethics recently published an article by Adam Shriver entitled “Knock Out Pain in Livestock,”which has been use to argue that the possibility of genetically modifying farm animals to not feel pain may undermine animal advocate’s opposition to meat consumption.

I decided to ignore the issue on Vegifem because I don’t find the “what if” game some people play to identify the hypothetical point where veganism becomes non-sensical particularly interesting. Shriver’s scenario is about as ethically interesting to me as the cow that asked to be eaten in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe, just less entertaining. I have read some excellent posts about “knock out” meat on other vegan blogs. I especially recommend Jean Kazez' series on knock out meat.

Today a friend pointed me to a blog post “Why do animal lovers want animals to feel pain?” Wanting to discover why I hate animals, I made the mistake of following the link. What I found was an uninformed response to a fabricated scarecrow “vegetarian” argument.

I say uninformed, because the author, Katja Grace, only has a superficial understanding of animal advocacy and appears to have misread the study she cites. After “glancing” at comments on other websites posts about knock out meat, she concludes that vegetarians are the ones against “pain free” meat. Her example of this vegetarian position is a “suggestion” from blogger Robert Wiblin who may or may not be a vegetarian. (A search on his blog returned no results for “vegan” or “vegetarian.”) Additionally, Grace does not make basic distinctions between terms like vegetarian/vegan and welfare/abolition, so I’m not inclined to trust her assessment of the “vegetarian position.”

The author lists about a dozen reasons why vegetarians oppose knock out meat and provides the following reasons for the lack of consensus in those arguments:

1. Vegetarians care more about animals in general, so care about lots of related concerns.

2. Once you have an opinion, you collect a multitude of reasons to have it. When I was a vegetarian I thought meat eating was bad for the environment, bad for people who need food, bad for me, maybe even bad for animals. This means when a group of people lose one reason to hold a shared belief they all have other reasons to put forward, but not necessarily the same ones.

3. There’s some single reason vegetarians are especially motivated to oppose pain-free meat, so they each look for a reason to oppose it, and come across different ones, as there are many.

Grace is interested in #3. What is the single reason vegetarians are motivated to oppose “pain-free” meat? [Drum roll] Personal sacrifice! Vegetarians, according to Grace, are so wrapped up in their personal sacrifice as a visible indicator of their moral superiority, that they would take measures that actively harm the very animals that they claim to support. Being a vegetarian then, is not about animal advocacy, ethics, or environmental protection, but rather about creating a facade of virtue. Don’t bother arguing otherwise, because any arguments that vegetarians present opposing knock out meat are just a “multitude of reasons” attempting to justify their asceticism.

All this argument does is refuse to engage in the debate about whether or not it is ethical to genetically modify animals for food by psychoanalyzing the position of a scarecrow vegetarian. You might as well say, “Don’t bother talking to the vegetarians. They’re so narcissistic that they’ll never critically evaluate their irrational, radical dogma.” Part of her evidence for this argument is that vegetarians don’t agree about the reasons for opposing knock out meat. Since when have social advocates been held to standards of universal consensus? When I teach Introduction to Women’s Studies, one of the first lessons I teach my students is that there is no “feminism,” only feminisms. Well, there’s no one vegetarianism... just like there is no single omnivorism. Vegans and vegetarians are individuals who have diverse reasons informing their product choices. This is why I find the author’s blanket use of the term “vegetarian” to be telling of her presentation of what vegetarians AND vegans actually think. Moreover, given that vegetarians’ opinions are so diverse (as Grace herself notes), how can she make generalizations about the secret “single reason” they don’t support knock out meat? I could just as easily construct an argument that her post is a "multitude of reasons" to justify her meat eating. Attempting to uncover the origins of someone's argument is not a helpful approach to judging ethical decisions, especially when that an analysis is a generalization of your personal experience. (See point #2 which contains Grace's description of what vegetarianism was for her.)

So why am I spending so much time responding to this post? Because in addition to being representative of the “vegans are crazy” method of ignoring animal advocates, Grace’s post highlights what I think is an important conflation in the debates that I’ve seen about knock out meat. Replacing pain-feeling animals with hypothetical non-pain-feeling animals is one thing, but the actual process of creating “pain-free” animals in the real world- even with 100% success- will be anything but pain free. Years of experimentation will subject pain-feeling animals to scientific testing before “pain-free” animals hit the commercial market. If you’re skeptical, remember this isn’t any old animal testing. It’s “Do you feel pain?” testing. What kind of experiments are done to determine if the animals can feel pain or not? (Here’s a hint: one version involves electrocuting rats.) “Pain-free” meat will only be pain-free insofar as the exploitation required for its development is erased. And that’s assuming it actually works. (See this post for a critical examination of what pain-free might mean.) If real, live pain-free animals magically appeared, we would be dealing with a different ethical question. (Oh wait... that’s lab meat!) But the reality is that “pain-free” meat will be no less painful than “cage-free” eggs are cage-less or “free-range” meat is free.

One final note: with all the fuss about what “vegetarians” believe, Grace would have benefited from reading the study she cited at the opening of her post instead of “glancing” at blog comments for a survey of their beliefs. According to Gardern and Goldberg’s 2007 study, vegetarian respondents were more likely than other respondents to believe that if pain-free animals were available, that scientists would be obligated to use them instead of experimenting on pain-feeling animals. However, vegetarians were more likely than scientists (the study doesn’t appear to account for scientists who are vegetarian) to reject the creation of pain-free animals. What this tells me is that the self-identified vegetarians surveyed identified the ethical problems with “pain-free” animals to be the scientific process required to create them and not the actual implementation of a welfare improvement. (Keep in mind the researchers found their vegetarians by surveying PETA and the Humane Society, so it makes sense that the welfarist position is reflected in their results.) Unfortunately for Grace, the researchers did not include a question in the survey about the affect such a policy would have on respondents’ egos.

Image credit.

Justice for Dunkin

2009-09-21T19:19:00.001-04:00

This is both an animal and disability rights issue. Please visit and spread the link.

SCA is back!

2009-09-21T01:10:00.000-04:00

Check out the latest edition of Stinky Catbutt Adventures.

Must Read from HuffPo

2009-09-19T14:42:00.001-04:00

Add this to your "if you care about the environment, stop eating animals" pile.

Protecting Our Ground Water: Vegifeminist Reasons to be Vegan #2

2009-09-18T00:32:00.005-04:00

In addition to wasting water resources, reliance on animals for food is poisoning our ground water with nitrates, hormones, and anti-biotics.

Watch this video from the NYT.

Image Credit

Francione on Activism

2009-09-16T17:39:00.004-04:00

Gary Francione of The Abolitionist Approach has a good post up about misogyny in the animal rights movement. It's a response to a Dutch ad that circulated around the internet a while ago, but if you haven't seen it, it's worth checking out (trigger warning!).

I generally like Francione's blog. While he's on the subject of criticizing the use of sexism to promote veganism, maybe he'll reconsider his incessant reliance on ableism to describe omni behavior.

PSA: Go Buy Dr. Cow Nut Cheese!

2009-09-16T14:31:00.005-04:00

Dr. Cow cheese came out a while ago and received rave reviews. I didn't believe the hype. Other vegan cheeses have been praised before and I never really liked them that much. Follow Your Heart Mozzarella has been the only vegan cheese I've purchased for years, so that I could make the occasional pizza.

Yesterday, my Dr. Cow cheese sampler arrived, thanks to a present from my mom! There are not words to describe how amazing this cheese is. My partner, who used to be a dairy cheese snob and has never met a vegan cheese that he likes, was impressed and said it holds up in comparison to fancy dairy cheese. What I like about Dr. Cow nut cheese is that it's not designed to taste like dairy cheese. Each flavor has that tangy cheese taste, but is also its own cheese. Cashew cheese tastes like cashew cheese. So far we tried the macadamia, cashew, and cashew/brazil nut. There are a few other flavors in the fridge to try.

In short: BELIEVE the hype. Go buy this stuff now.

Politics, Interrupted

2009-09-16T01:27:00.011-04:00

Public interruption is the latest fashion for "protests". At the VMA awards, Kayne West earned himself the honor of the president calling him a jackass by interrupting Taylor Swift during her acceptance speech. Joe Wilson, now Republican hero, blurted “you lie” during Obama’s health care speech. And (to bring this back to a subject that you might expect on this blog) a PETA activist disrupted the conferral of a Pyramid of Success award on a McDonalds executive by directing the audience to visit Mccruelty.com. These examples don't even begin to touch the townhall foolishness.

Each interruption seemed to be an attempt to speak truth to a perceived power. In West’s case, he felt compelled to make it known that Beyonce was ripped off. Wilson couldn’t stand by and watch the president disseminate “false” information about who would qualify for a public health plan. The animal advocate sought to uncover the cruelty on which McDonald’s business is based.

Each “interrupter” has been judged harshly by public opinion. Beyonce herself was horrified by West’s actions and the artist has been apologizing ever since. Wilson was forced to publicly apologize, catalyzed a resolution condemning his behavior, and has been mocked incessantly on the internet. While the PETA protest has not received mainstream press attention (I found the link on PETA’s blog), the young woman was booed and forcibly removed from the stage.

This kind of in-your-face “protest” is just a way of patting one's own back. For the most part, it’s an ineffective way of changing opinions. Business executives did not go home and serve tofu for dinner after surfing Mccruelty.com. Democrats didn’t suddenly “realize” that Obama is trying to pull one over on us by hiding loopholes in health care legislation. Calling out the VMA judges for dissing Beyonce didn’t overturn the already determined results (which, BTW, included a Music Video of the Year trophy for Beyonce!).

Get ready for an empirical claim that I do not have the evidence to support: I'm convinced that this kind of “activist interruption” is counterproductive. Before seeing the debates about the VMA awards in my Google RSS feed, I really had no opinion about Kayne West. Now I think he’s a narcissistic jerk. I also didn’t have any uniquely bad feelings towards Joe Wilson (Republicanism aside). Now he’s not only on the radar of people like me, but also that of the democratic strategists capable of directing more resources towards defeating him in his next election campaign.

I don’t think this recent PETA intervention will have much effect, because it’s indicative of the organization's usual shock tactics and attention seeking. I have found PETA damaging to my own vegifeminist advocacy. (“Oh, you’re one of thooooooooose.”) If I’m turned off by PETA’s campaigns, I can only image the response of card carrying carnivores. Publicity for publicity’s sake will only “convert” individuals already on the fence about our society’s treatment of animals and it will turn off the rest of the population. This shuts down meaningful dialogue and causes "bacon backlash."

Interrupting a public figure may be an effective tool for rallying one’s base. Joe Wilson has been praised by some Republicans as the truth teller calling out the emperor with no clothes. PETA has some news to blog about. Kayne West? I don’t particularly care and I’m not willing to pretend that disrupting the VMAs is political activism anymore.

Vegans should not be the main target of animal advocacy. You’ve already convinced me. Go talk to someone else. One of the most important “arguments” of vegan activism is being a living example of vegan ideals. Someone that grew up on a Southern BBQ diet doesn’t know what life looks like without meat. The power lifter at your gym doesn’t believe it’s possible to gain muscle without a post-work out smoothie loaded with 50 grams of whey protein. Your vegetarian friend that “can’t live without cheese,” is more likely to give it up cold Tofurky if you provide tasty alternatives for a dairy addiction. This is a difficult line to walk, because animal advocates speak for those that cannot represent themselves politically (obviously). Shifts in cultural opinion are incremental and slow, which can be particularly trying on individuals aware of the suffering that continues in the mean time. I do think, however, that animal advocates are positioned in such a way that they need to avoid coming across as radical,“can’t be reasoned with,” protein deficient wackos.

This post is addressing the vegan community more than omni feminist readers. My views on this issue, however, are heavily influenced by my role as an instructor in Introduction to Women's Studies courses. I've spent a lot of time thinking about how to teach feminist theory to students who think all feminists are "radical, men-hating, lesbian communists" (as if all of these are bad things!). Finding ways to help them relate to material that students find alienating and weird is, in my experience, a better pedagogical tool than shock.

This post is not intended to be a “how to guide.” I’m interested in how interrupting a public event can pass as political activism (or at least the kind that gets picked up by the media. This is, of course, not a new strategy. But in the past couple of weeks I’ve had more youtube links of acts like these forwarded to me than ever before.

Bonus track: Listen to the end of the "jackass" clip to hear Obama's comment about PETA.

Prevent the Terribleness

2009-09-11T14:52:00.004-04:00

...that is PETA advertising.

Vote in this poll for the next campaign.

Vegifeminist Role Model: Jane Goodall on Empathy

2009-09-11T14:30:00.004-04:00

My favorites quotations from the TIME's 10 Questions interview with Jane Goodall include:

We are all part of the animal kingdom. The kind of empathy that I feel for people is the kind of empathy I feel for chimpanzees. Do they have a dark, brutal side to their nature? Yes. So do people.

I like some chimpanzees much better than some humans and some humans much better than some chimpanzees.

I appreciate Goodall's refusal to draw a clear division between human and non-human primates, even when baited with questions like "Who do you like better? Humans or chimps?" She is incredibly skilled at overturning our assumptions about animals, science, and caring. For example, when asked how she avoids becoming "overly attached" to her animal subjects, she questions the idea that a scientist's role is to be neutral and unattached.

Goodall argues for an empathetic approach to caring for our environment, saying that we need to reconnect our brains and hearts. Protecting the environment is a vegifeminist issue.

You can also watch the video, which I highly recommend.

Dogs and Justice

2009-09-07T15:34:00.001-04:00

Dogs have an intuitive sense of fairness, according to NPR.

Not much news to us, but I'm glad to hear this on NPR.

A New Fall, A New Season of Blogging

2009-09-04T15:29:00.002-04:00

Well, a new Fall semester, that is.

I recently moved with my partner to the NJ/NYC area. He's starting a new PhD program and I'm writing my dissertation. It's been a very busy summer: mono, teaching, vegan commitment ceremony, and MOVING.

Because my life has been in such a flux, I've been neglecting the blog. There were some interesting debates about veganism/feminism that erupted on the feminist blogs that I read, but choose not to comment. It seems like this is a conflict that happens cyclically on these blogs. One (frustrated) note: it seems that nearly everyone conflates animal advocacy with PETA. I'm currently working on a paper on animal and disability for a feminist philosophy conference, so there will be more on these issues in the future.

We're in the process of unpacking and I don't have my computer set up yet. Expect more once that is taken care of.

NYT on Vick

2009-08-19T14:23:00.001-04:00

I think this is a fair discussion of the Vick case. One of the few times I'm in line with Peter Singer. Here's a sample:

What he did was horrible. The dogs weren’t only put in a ring to fight; the ones that failed were brutally killed. I’m not clear how much of this he did himself, but he knew what was going on, bet on the games and observed a lot of the sadism. The whole dog-fight spectacle is meant to brutalize the people who watch it, just as it did Vick, who said he began going to fights like that when he was 8.

However, all animals feel pain. But we seem willing to overlook grisly deaths and extreme suffering when the being in question isn’t particularly adorable. If we agree that it’s immoral — and illegal — for a dog to be made to suffer unnecessarily, shouldn’t that rule be applied across the board?

I was struck when Daniel Rubin, a columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer asked Peter Singer, the bioethicist and author of “Animal Liberation” about the Vick case. Singer said he thought people might have “rushed to judgment because he did something awful to dogs.” He pointed out that pigs suffer in the conditions where they’re being kept as they’re raised and then killed for food. But nobody cares much even though “there’s every reason to believe that pigs are as sensitive and intelligent as dogs.”

Quick Updates

2009-08-16T15:33:00.002-04:00

I've been away from blogging longer than I like. This has been a crazy summer of teaching, illness (mono), moving, and even a vegan commitment celebration!

I'm moving at the end of the week and once I get settled, I'll be up and online again.

But some important news: Cassidy came home!

Onion Video on PETA's "Abuse" of Women

2009-08-16T15:26:00.003-04:00

If you're interested in issues discussed on this blog, make sure to check out this Onion video:

Advocacy Group Decries PETA's Inhumane Treatment Of Women

I think this video is very clever. It's clearly mocking PETA and the organization's objectification of women, but I also get the impression that the creators are using the woman-as-animal images to also mock critics of animal advocates. For example, the newscaster asks why we would care that women are being abused because they aren't rational or self-aware enough to care. Rationality/self-consciousness are frequently used as at the dividing line or difference between non-human animals and humans that determines who is worthy of moral concern.

What do you think?

Now taking orders for bake sale to benefit CCWRC!

2009-08-15T16:26:00.001-04:00

Bake Sale to Benefit Centre Country Women’s Resource Centre

Featuring vegan, raw, & gluten-free options
Examples of orders include:
Super Fudgy Brownies with Walnuts
Blueberry Chocolate Cake Brownies
Low-Fat Brownies with Ganache
Crispy Almond Cookies
Coconut Carrot Macaroons
Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies with Jam
Chewy Chocolate Raspberry Cookies
Coconut Lemon Pound Cake
Cupcakes of any flavor, made to order

All proceeds will benefit the CCWRC.
Suggested donation: $15 per full recipe of cookies/brownies/cupcakes
Please contact Stephanie at vegifem@gmail.com to place an order or to receive more information.

Animal Art from Sociological Images

2009-06-29T16:05:00.001-04:00

Check this out.

Bake sale postponed due to weather- details TBA

2009-06-17T22:26:00.001-04:00

Hi Everyone,

After looking at the weather and discovering that it is supposed to thunderstorm all weekend, I've decided that it would be best to postpone the bake sale. I'm going to have to work with Webster's to reschedule, so I'll let you know the details as soon as I know. (My goal is in two weeks, because next weekend is already scheduled for health insurance party.) I think there will be a much better turn out if it is sunny, which will offset the confusion about the date. If you know anyone that was planning on participating, please pass the word.

Thanks for your help,
Stephanie

Cassidy Flyer, please circulate

2009-06-17T14:56:00.000-04:00

Can you host an abandoned cat temporarily?

2009-06-17T14:48:00.002-04:00

Unrelated request for help:
There's a bit of a cat fiasco going on at my house. My cat Cassidy got loose and has been missing since Saturday. The problem is that there is a stray cat chasing him off the property, so he can't get home. PAWS is lending me a humane trap. The goal is to get Cassidy, but most likely it will be the stray first. If that happens, I'd like to place him somewhere for a couple of days so that Cassidy can have a chance to come home. After that, we can release him back here. Or, if you like him and WANT to keep him, you can. The poor cat was abandoned by his owners who have been in Europe over a year now and they just left him outside. He's on the waiting list to get into PAWS.

Please let me know if you can host an abandoned cat for a couple days (assuming you live somewhere near State College, PA).

This is an off-topic post, but not completely irrelevant. I've heard a couple stories about violence against friends' cats recently. One friend's roommate threatened to kill her cat and another's cat was "hunted" and thrown in a garbage bin by neighbors.

Cassidy was feral when I got him and he's been loose before, so I know he can take care of himself. He definitely won't approach people he doesn't know and he's a gifted "hider." The chances of something like this happening to him are low. I just want him to come home.

Please help if you can!

Preserving Global Water Sources: Vegifeminist Reason to be Vegan #1

2009-06-12T17:52:00.002-04:00

I usually try to avoid pictures of PETA protests because they only raise my awesomely low vegan blood pressure through the roof. But a recent protest in Orlando piqued my interest. (No, it's not because it involves naked women!)

Two women showered on Orange Avenue in downtown Orlando on Wednesday. They were not naked, but wore flesh-colored undergarments and held signs that read, "Clean your Conscience: Go Vegetarian! 1lb. of Meat=6 Months of Showers!" One of the women told reporters, "It's impossible to 'go green' without going vegetarian. Just by changing their diets, concerned people can help protect the Earth, their own health, and countless animals."

I like this protest. I think it is "shocking" and "attention-getting" in a productive way. It doesn't needlessly objectify the women and it doesn't force slaughter house pictures on onlookers who are turned off by comparisons of meat consumption to genocide. The women also helped to raise awareness about the relationship between veganism and protecting the environment. I only hope that they had some literature nearby to outline the facts on this issue.

More than half the water consumed in the United States is used to irrigate the land on which livestock feed is grown. It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat. (That's as much water as a statistically typical family uses in a month.)

Professor David Pimentel and others argue in Water Resources: Agricultural and Environmental Issues that "The production of animal protein requires significantly more water than the production of plant protein" (913). calculated the amount of water (in liters) to produce a pound of a variety of crops and livestocks:

Millet 272
Potatoes 630
Corn 650
Wheat 900
Alfalfa 1100
Rice 130
Soybeans 2000
Broiler Chicken 3500
Pig 6000
Beef Cattle 43,000
Sheep 51,000

The authors continue, considering how increasing populations and livestock production will affect the global water supply:

Agricultural production in the United States is projected to expand to meet the increased food needs of the US population, which is expected to meet the increased food needs of the US population, which is expected to double in the next 70 years. Developing countries are expected to feel the impacts of this food crisis to a greater extent as demands approach those of developed countries and populations continue to rice. Increasing crop yields necessitate a parallel increase in the use of fresh water to in agriculture. Therefore, increased crop and livestock production during the next 5 to 7 decades will significantly increase the demand on all water resources, especially in the western, southern, and central United States and in many regions of the world with low rainfall (913).

According to John Robbins, it takes less water to produce a year of food for a vegan than it does to produce a month of food for a meat-eater.

The excessive water consumption fueled by the animal agriculture industry in this country has widespread effects. How should California solve it's budget crisis? Well for starters, the government could stop providing water subsidies to livestock producers. Farmers in the U.S. pays 1-5 cents per 1000 liters for irrigation, while the public pays 30-80 cents per 1000 liters.

Globally, areas of water stress (or when water use surpasses water resources) are appearing across the plant. The World Water Council presents a graph that clearly indicates the parts of the world under the most stress.

Water.org has an updated map showing global water coverage.

USAID describes the state of the world's water resources as "an unprecedented crisis":

The world faces an unprecedented crisis in water resources management, with profound implications for global food security, protection of human health, and maintenance of aquatic ecosystems. Water shortages threaten to reduce global food supply, while the world’s population grows by 80 million people each year. With current trends, by 2025, one-third of all humans will face severe and chronic water shortages. Industrialization, irrigated agriculture, massive urbanization, rising standards of living, and, of course, more people are pushing the demand for freshwater to new heights, undermining already fragile water security for many nations.

Water access and preservation is a vegifeminist issue, because human and non-human animals alike will suffer without access to clean, fresh water. Water shortages cause the destruction of ecosystems, devastate human health, endanger the world's food supply, and catalyze regional wars over water access. According to Water.org:

-3.575 million people die each year from water-related disease. (84% of those deaths are children younger than 14.)
- 98% of water-related deaths occur in the developing world.
- 884 million people (or 1 in 8) do not have access to safe water resources
- The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.

The burdens of war, inadequate resources, and poverty fall disproportionately on women. In rural areas, women and children are often the water collectors, forcing them to sacrifice their educations and risk sexual violence in order to provide their families with water. According to the UN's 2006 Human Development Report:

Everyday millions of women and young girls collect water for their families- a ritual that reinforces gender inequalities in employment and education. Meanwhile, the ill health associated with deficits in water and sanitation undermines productivity and economic growth, reinforcing the deep inequalities that characterize current patterns of globalization and trapping vulnerable households in cycles of poverty.

Confronting the global water crisis will require an overhaul of modern food production and agriculture. For now, the greatest impact that you can make as an individual is to go vegan. Go eat some kale!

Environmental Considerations

2009-06-08T23:39:00.002-04:00

Or things to read until I get my brain back from mono.

From Sociological Images:

The article presents data that systematically compares the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions associated with food production against long-distance distribution, aka “food-miles,” finding that the production cycle accounts for the majority of emissions. In other words, changing the type of food you eat (e.g., less red meat) does more good for the environment than buying local.

And a new movie, HOME, available for free on YouTube until June 14th. (H/T Gary Francione's Animal Rights blog)

Mono Blues & an Interview

2009-06-07T21:26:00.004-04:00

I'm still here... just home sleeping and catching up on TV, because my brain is incapacitated by a bout of mono. I'll be up and posting again this week, but for now, here's an interview with Pattrice Jones.

Cross Blog Promotion (You can smell the catbutt stench from here!)

2009-05-31T22:45:00.004-04:00

The next season of my comic, Stinky Catbutt Adventures is online, featuring my two cats, Charlie and Cassidy, and my partner, Evan. Cassidy and Charlie were feral cats rescued in Atlanta. They're brothers and were named after Grateful Dead songs.

You can learn more about programs for feral cats over at Change.org's Animal Rights blog.

Is Being Vegan Just About Animal Rights?

2009-05-31T02:38:00.012-04:00

My next post will begin the series "Vegifeminist Reasons to Be Vegan." Not all of these posts will be focused on "animal rights" arguments. For a variety of reasons, some people will never change their eating habits to prevent non-human animal suffering. If they are to become vegans, these people will need to be convinced that it is in their best interest to be vegan or that veganism benefits a portion of the human population that falls in the area of their moral concern. The same is true for feminism. Some people will never become feminists in pursuit of equality, because patriarchy suits them or they do not recognize inequality as a problem. Vegan activism and feminist activism are not synonymous, but the point is that different strategies may be required for expanding others' moral compasses.

I was originally going to title this series "Anthropocentric Reasons to be Vegan," but I decided I did not want to limit my focus that narrowly. I do want to emphasize that it's important to not ignore human-focused reasons to be vegan. First, as Bob Torres of Vegan Freak likes to say, any reason to go vegan is a good one. (Both Bob and I think this point is a bit more complicated, but it is true that the simple act of going vegan, even for what we might call "bad" reasons still reduces the amount of suffering in the world.) Second, vegifeminists are concerned about the suffering of sentient living beings, which of course includes humans.

In a post about moving the vegan movement beyond environmental veganism, Bob Torres recently wrote:

If the environment gets people thinking about veganism and moving towards veganism, that’s wonderful, but ultimately, those of us who are vegan to respect the inherent personhood of animals have to take an active role in moving envirovegans beyond their mere environmentalism and into getting them to see veganism for what it is really about: the rights of non-humans...Veganism is about animal rights.

I disagree and, perhaps, that's why I like to call myself a vegifeminist instead of just a vegan. Veganism is about preventing animal suffering, but that's not the complete story. One of the purposes of this blog is to question the opposition between animal rights and human suffering. For example, it doesn't make sense to see animal rights motivations for veganism as distinct from environmental concerns. Non-human animals are affected by global warming and pollution too!

In any event, in "Vegifeminist Reasons to Be Vegan," I will explore vegifeminist justifications for veganism, particularly by considering the effects of food choices on vulnerable populations, which will include both human and non-human animals. While the act of going vegan is a crucial step, it's not enough. Many of these "reasons" will also point to the need for global restructuring of agricultural systems and economies.

Going vegan is a good first step. The less animal products consumed, the more economic pressure there will be to change how our world produces food.

EYK!

Another Reason to Love the Onion

2009-05-29T18:50:00.002-04:00

KFC is no longer permitted to use the word "eat" in advertising.

Animal Compassion: Dog Risks Life to Save Another

2009-05-27T20:14:00.002-04:00

This video came out a while ago, but I wanted to include it in my animal compassion index. This dog is amazing.

The Tofu Revolution: Changing the World, One Cookie at a Time

2009-05-26T16:58:00.009-04:00

Today I delivered seven plates of vegan treats around town. One of them went to my friend L., who devoured the brownies. She said, these must be LOADED with fat. I explained that the recipe calls for tofu, which reduces the fat in the recipe. Her response? "This shit is subversive." That's right. We're all feeding yummy vegan goodies to the unsuspecting masses!

Don't believe me? Vegan Soapbox reminds us what one chef can do.

I just wish there was a magic feminist recruiting cookie! (Maybe we need a man-run WWVBS. "Surprise! It's vegan! And it was made by a man!"

While we're at it, check out some feminist cookie action over on flickr. Too bad they probably aren't vegan.

EYK!

Help! I'm drowning in brownies!

2009-05-25T20:11:00.006-04:00

Last night my friends did not hold their own. I'm still swamped with baked goods. E. and I don't want to eat all the leftovers ourselves. We'd be on sugar-highs for at least a year. So I started calling some friends to "push" the goodies. Then, I had an idea.

****I can use the left over treats to advertise the bake sale!****

So I made up the above flyer and arranged to drop the samples off. I'm bringing some into the Philosophy and Women's Studies departments at PSU, arranging a plate for my bioethics class tomorrow, sending some off to WPSU, saving a few goodies for a couple friends that couldn't come last night, and putting together a tray for the CCWRC.

I'm hoping to entice some customers and volunteers for the event!

The Brownie Duel: Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale Update

2009-05-24T23:40:00.016-04:00

I've been working on putting together the menu for the bake sale and in the process discovered that I didn't know which brownie recipe to use, if I liked vegan pound cake, or which chocolate cookie was my favorite. How does one solve such a problem? Bake EVERYTHING and invite your friends over to taste test! All my guests were non-vegans, so they should be representative of my customers in June.

I made Fudgy Wudgy Blueberry Brownies from Veganomicon, Death By Chocolate Brownies from Sinfully Vegan, and the brownies in the PPK recipe index.

The PPK brownies are my favorite, because I love the goey-ness of the batter. It's made by heating silken tofu on a stove until it thickens:

Next to the tofu, you'll see macaroons waiting to go in the oven.

The brownies I usually make are from Sinfully Vegan. I think the recipe is too cakey, but whenever I make it, everyone always asks me for the recipe and is astounded that the recipe doesn't call for added oil. I think the reason why these brownies are so popular is because of the chocolate chips that are mixed into the batter:

Don't forget they're also covered in a ganache!

The blueberry brownies had a very interesting flavor. No one thought they tasted like blueberries, but these were a huge hit! The final verdict: I guess I'm making three different kinds of brownies for the bake sale!

I've never made the macaroons from the Candle Cafe cookbook, but I tried them today because I want to have some gluten-free offerings. I really liked them, but my friends thought they needed more coconut and less flour. Behind the macaroons in this photo you'll see some chocolate thumbprint cookies from VWAV.

My kitchen is tiny and I had to be creative to make enough space. You can see the dishes starting to pile up.

This was only part of the mess I had to clean up. I completely destroyed the kitchen today. My partner was wonderful and helped me clean up before our guests arrived.

Luckily, I won't have to use my own kitchen for the bake sale. I have to call the Pennsylvania health department to work out what the bake sale regulations are. In April several church bake sales were cited for code violations. I don't want that to happen to me!

Also on the list for tonight were Terry's Favorite Almond Cookies and Chewy Chocolate Raspberry cookies from Veganomicon. I also made a Coconut Lemon Pound Cake, which I based off the pound cake recipe in Veganomicon. The pound cake was my favorite of the night.

Overall, it was a great night, but now I'm off to eat some salad. I need nutrients, not more sugar! For more information on Vegifem at the WWVBS, see this post.

EYK.

Change.org on Not-So Feminist Heros

2009-05-23T17:33:00.004-04:00

Stephanie over at Change.org has a post about women breaking into male dominated forms of animal cruelty and argues that they should not be presented as feminist heroes. In a post in March, she responded to Feministing's praise of a woman bull fighter by stating:

Um, no. If someone wants to claim Cintrón as her personal hero as a result of Cintrón's killing career, have at it, but she's not automatically "a hero for any of us forging our own identity . . . in male-dominated spaces." There are some male-dominated spaces in which I'm perfectly OK never seeing women make breakthroughs. Just as I wouldn't celebrate a "skilled" female rapist for breaking into that male-dominated area or celebrate a woman presiding over genocide or war, I also won't celebrate a woman's breakthrough into the vicious practice of killing bulls for fun and money.

I'm a frequent reader of Feministing, but I missed the referenced post. I do agree with Stephanie (great name, btw) that the fact of breaking into a male dominated space is not the only requirement for a feminist hero.

Here's her recent post about elephant hunting.

Vegifem at the Worldwide Vegan Bakesale!

2009-05-22T21:00:00.013-04:00

I'm nailing down the details for my part of the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale. The bake sale will be held outside of Webster's Bookstore & Cafe at 128 S. Allen St., State College, PA from 11:30am-5:30pm (or until we sell out!) on June 20th-21st. Webster's is a fantastic local business that sells salads, sandwiches, and soups for lunch, boasts the best coffee in Happy Valley, and runs a book business in the store and online. They offer great vegan selections and always clearly mark items that are not vegan. Webster's owner Elaine is kind enough to allow me to use the storefront to host the bake sale.

Because this will be a vegifeminist event, there will be literature available about veganism and feminism and the proceeds will be donated to the Centre County Women's Resource Center. The CCWRC strives to eliminate domestic and sexual violence, increase awareness about political issues that concern women, and to provide a positive, supportive environment for victims of violence. Their services include crisis intervention, emergency services, education, and advocacy.

In supporting the CCWRC through a vegan bake sale, I hope to educate customers about the importance of a cruelty-free lifestyle, opportunities for eradicating violence, and connections between feminist ideals and vegan ethics. I will have the vegan recipes available to share with the public.

I'm currently working on a menu for this event. On the 20th, there will be a wide variety of baked goods and I will be taking orders for whole cakes and batches of select goodies, which will be able to be picked up on the 21st. A smaller selection of goods will be available on the 21st.

Vegan goodies that will definitely be prepared and sold include:
- Raw "brownies"
- Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Ball candies
- Brownies
- Banana Bread Loaves
- Ginger Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Cherry Almond Muffins
- Blueberry Muffins
- Coconut Creme Cupcakes
- Chocolate Cupcakes
- Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream "Cheese" Frosting
- Mini Chocolate Raspberry Mousse Pies

Pending the approval of my taste-testers (a.k.a. friends that I will invite over and force-feed) and the finding of sufficient volunteers, I may offer:
-Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies
- Blueberry Coffee Cakes
- Mini "Cheese" Cakes with Fruit Topping
- Lemon Pound Cake Mini-Loaves
- Almond Spice Cookies

If you are interested in volunteering to bake or work at the bake sale table, please contact me at vegifem@gmail.com. You can also support the final contribution to the CCWRC through the Vegifem Tipjoy link in the upper-right corner of this blog.

Taking a Break at Farm Sanctuary

2009-05-21T14:55:00.011-04:00

I haven't posted in about a week because I took a mini-vacation at the Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, NY. The sanctuary is on a beautiful 175 acre farm. They provide a bed and breakfast, public tours, educational information, space for private events, and a home for hundreds of rescued farm animals. (It also happens to be the home of my adopted pig, Portia!) I was lucky enough to stay in the B&B for two nights, meet some wonderful vegans that live in my home town, spend some time with the knowledgeable, compassionate staff, and, of course, meet the sanctuary residents. I was accompanied by two of my friends from my graduate program, a family from Happy Valley, and a group from SKILLS, an organization in Centre County that provides support and services to individuals with mental disabilities.

The animals at the sanctuary are ambassadors for their species and they are very effective at demonstrating non-human animals' potential for emotion, personality, and caring.

This is Jack, jumping on barn manager Susie Coston.

Jack also tried out my Matt & Nat purse for breakfast:

Here is a video of one of the cows helping us to herd the others into a different pasture.

The non-human animals at the sanctuary loved to use people as jungle gyms. Here is Clarabell on my belly:

The Farm Sanctuary is a vegifeminist organization because it is committed to a cruelty-free lifestyle and bettering the lives of all living beings. Susie the barn manager has an MA in special education and worked with children with disabilities. This influence is seen in the farm itself. Individuals and groups with disabilities visit the farm and the sanctuary cares for special needs animals that otherwise would be euthanized. One of the B&B cabins and the "People Barn" is wheel-chair accessible.

I can't wait for my next visit to the Farm Sanctuary!

Eat Your Kale,
Stephanie

OK, that's it. I want an iPhone

2009-05-14T18:50:00.004-04:00

There are two new applications for the iPhone: Be Nice to Bunnies and Leaping Bunny.

Don't forget the Vegan Yum Yum app!

But Veg Out closes the deal. I was just saying that someone should make this application. And it already exists!

Should Vegans Be Skinny Bitches?

2009-05-14T03:44:00.003-04:00

Adam over at HEALTH has a great post questioning whether vegan activists should push the Skinny Bitch agenda.

Thanks Adam!

Not Just Happy Meat

2009-05-12T18:45:00.003-04:00

Any one that has spent any time with an animal companion already knows this. I guess it takes a study for animal happiness to be newsworthy...

From MSNBC:

"The capacity for pleasure means that an animal's life has intrinsic value, that is, value to the individual independent of his or her value to anyone else, including humans," Balcombe, a senior research scientist for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, explained to Discovery News. He determined animals experience happiness for happiness' sake related to play, food, touch and sex. Observations of herring gulls in Virginia, for example, found these birds play "drop-catch," tossing clams and other small, hard objects as though they were baseballs, just for pure enjoyment.

Non-human animals are much more like people than many would like to admit.

Who Says?

2009-05-11T17:11:00.000-04:00

Check out this post over at Dharma in the Dishes.

Feeding Non-Vegans

2009-05-11T03:11:00.004-04:00

I attended a family event this weekend in New England. My trip North passed by the heavenly Vegan Treats bakery, so I couldn't resist stopping and picking up a few goodies. I got a whole White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake, a sticky bun, a cinnamon bun, a slice of carrot cake, and a peanut butter chocolate bomb. Mmmmmmmmmmmm!

I fed the cheesecake to a bunch of people at a graduate party for my cousin. My original plan was to not tell anyone that it was vegan until after they ate it. This is my usual approach to feeding non-vegans, because some people will look for a "weird" taste. My mom foiled this plan because she told some people before I got there that I was stopping at a vegan bakery. BUT they still loved it! Never doubt the powers of the Vegan Treats to woo non-believers.

I'm eating the leftovers now....

EYK and Vegan Treats goodies!

Veganizing My Childhood Kitchen: Mac & Cheese

2009-05-11T03:02:00.006-04:00

Mother's Day is today (a couple hours late... I was visiting my mom!) and all of us that grew up with our moms have many things to thank them for. My mom is an amazing, caring, and strong woman. She's recently completely revised her eating habits and has been asking me to share my vegan recipe with her. What better way to honor an important woman in my life and veganism than by veganizing my favorite childhood recipes! (I'm still trying to make this one soy-free for her.)

I have been searching forever for a vegan cheddar cheese that is up to the task of making my mom's baked mac and cheese. I've never been able to find a vegan recipe that hits the spot, because the mac and cheese that I remember from my childhood was based on a white sauce and was nothing like the Velveeta-like versions in most vegan cookbooks. I've read great reviews of Shreese online, but until recently, I never had tried it. Last weekend I picked up a block of Strong Cheddar Shreese from Nude Food in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Shreese has a great cheddar taste, but I don't like it alone because it has a chalky texture and aftertaste.

The Shreese was a bit pricey, so I didn't want to throw it out. After some thought, I decided to see if it would melt into a white sauce. I suspected that I might be able to use my mom's old recipe, some Shreese, and a little imagination to create my own vegan version of the creamy, gooey goodness that I remember so vividly.

I started by following the original recipe for my mom's white sauce. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Shreese makes a fantastic white sauce. The flavor, unfortunately, was a bit off. I could still detect the "chalkiness" and the cheddar wasn't quite strong enough. So I added some additional flavoring, and the result is remarkably close to the original sauce!

Before I give you the recipe, I have a couple caveats. While this recipe is exactly what I want, I will make no promises that you will enjoy the finished product. Vegans are very particular about their mac and cheese and everyone seems to have their favorite recipe. You can find some fabulous vegan mac and cheese recipes out there. If you like the "velveeta" style, I recommend trying the recipes from Vegan Dad and Veganomicon. I also will not make any claims that this recipe is healthy. In fact, this is straight up vegan junk food. It's without question better than the original that is full of milk and butter, but this mac and cheese still has plenty of fat, white flour, and processing in it. (Otherwise, it wouldn't be mac and cheese!)

Veganized Mom's Baked Macaroni and Shreese
Ingredients:
1 pound rotini or your favorite pasta, cooked
1 whole block Strong Chreese Cheddar Shreese, chopped into cubes
3 Tbs. Earth Balance, divided
2 Tbs. flour
3 cups unsweetened plain soymilk
3/4 tsp. onion powder
3 Tbs. nutritional yeast
dash paprika
a few twists of ground black pepper, to taste
6 Tbs. italian breadcrumbs

Directions:
1. Preheat over to 350 degrees. While oven is heating, cook pasta. When done, drain and move to a large bowl.
2. Melt 2 Tb. of Earth Balance in large sauce pan over medium heat. Whisk in flour, stirring for two minutes.
3. Gradually add soymilk, whisking until smooth.
4. Add Shreese blocks, mixing until Shreese is melted and sauce is smooth. Stir in onion powder, nutritional yeast, paprika, and pepper.
5. Melt remaining tablespoon of Earth Balance in a two quart-deep baking dish. Pour half Shreese sauce into dish and top with cooked pasta. Cover with remaining sauce and stir so that the pasta is covered with Shreese.
6. Top casserole with breadcrumbs.
7. Bake for 30 minutes or until breadcrumbs begin to brown. Let stand for 5-10 minutes before serving.

This recipe also can be used to make convenient individual-sized portions in muffin tins. Reduce the cooking time in half, but watch carefully because cooking time will vary based on the size of your pan.

Here's the nutritional information, but don't say I didn't warn you.

Nutritional Facts (1/8th of recipe)
Calories: 375
Total Fat: 15.2g (Saturated 6.5g)
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium 97mg
Carbohydrates: 45.2g (Fiber 7.9g, Sugars 1.5g)
Protein: 15.3g

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! Don't forget to Eat Your Kale!

Celebrate a Cruelty Free Mother's Day

2009-05-11T02:59:00.005-04:00

Picture Source

This past Christmas, I became the proud adoptive mother of Portia, a piglet at the Farm Sanctuary's New York shelter, thanks to a very thoughtful gift from my partner. She was rescued on June 27, 2008. Her mother gave birth to the litter on a levee, while seeking safety during the 2008 Midwest floods. The mother and piglets were rescued and taken to the sanctuary.

Portia and her siblings were lucky to be saved and kept with their mother. Animals born in factory farms are separated from their parents and lead tortured lives before their deaths. Calves are separated after birth. Female calves are raised to become dairy calves, while male calves are sold to veal and beef producing businesses.

Baby chicks don't even get to see their mothers. Hens are not permitted to sit on their eggs until they hatch. Male chicks are literally treated like trash.

Piglets, after being born to mothers held in gestation crates, are permitted a couple weeks with their mother, before starting on the road to slaughter.

Want to take action? See the Farm Sanctuary's action alert.

EYK!

Founder of Save the Chimps Passes

2009-05-08T14:39:00.004-04:00

Dr. Carole C. Noon, a primatologist who founded Save the Chimps, died this past week of pancreatic cancer. Here is the NYT article.

The Arcus Foundation is matching gifts to Save the Chimps through April 20, 2010.

H/T Grumpy Vegan

It's a Nice Day for a.... Bear Wedding?!

2009-05-08T01:39:00.004-04:00

Something tells me that this bear did not consent to being used to promote heterosexual marriage.

Check out additional pictures at the Daily Mail. These images are adorable. However, whenever I see pictures like this of domesticated wild animals, I'm concerned about their effects. My first response (despite my knowledge of animal rights literature, experience with animals, and "common sense"), my emotional first response is "OMG I WANT A PET BEAR!" And I'm sure that is the response of every child under 10 that sees these pictures too. It's important to teach people that wild animals should be left in their natural environment and that they can be dangerous. The best way to respect wild animals is to leave them alone.

H/T The Colbert Report

SuperWeed on Intersecting Oppressions

2009-05-07T02:59:00.005-04:00

Pattrice Jones has an interesting post on the intersection of racism and speciesism on her blog SuperWeed. She writes:

Sweep that [racist-speciesist and homophobic imagery] away, and we could look, perhaps productively, at how the exploitation of animals always turns back to bite us. We could look not only at zoonoses (animal-based diseases) but also at how the construction of the category “animal” as an inferior creature without rights creates the circumstances that allow us to “dehumanize” people in order to exploit them. We could look, perhaps productively, at the poverty and environmental despoliation that lead people to go into the bush looking for chimps to butcher for meat.

To solve big problems, we have to be able to look dispassionately at all of the facts. But intersecting oppressions makes it difficult to look at some connections.

I like this post because it discusses the role of racism in the coverage of swine flu and how that interacts with the treatment of animals in factory farms. Her treatment of this topic is unique for two reasons:

1) It does not further the sensationalism and fear mongering that has been prominent in coverage of the swine flu virus, even on vegan blogs.

2) It treats different forms of oppression as intersecting, not as equivalent. Speciesism, sexism, homophobia, racism, ableism, and other forms of oppression are related, but they are not the same, and not necessarily analogous.

I'll return to this second point later, but for now, I want to send you over to SuperWeed to read the words of another vegan-feminist.

EYK!

Ellen & Cover Girl: Understanding Mistakes and Raising the Bar for Celebrity Activists

2009-05-07T01:47:00.013-04:00

I'm a bit behind on this story, but Jaclyn Simon at Huffington Post just wrote an interesting piece on what she calls Ellen DeGeneres' "hypocrisy."

Ellen and her partner, Portia de Rossi, passionately advocated for Prop 2. They hosted the event "Making History Under the Stars" before the November elections to raise money to support Prop 2, a fundraiser that "literally" made history according to the Humane Society of the United States, because it raised over $1 million. The money was used to fund Prop 2 campaign ads. Ellen also hosted HSUS President Wayne Pacelle on her talk show, in addition to speaking out about the campaign in a variety of media outlets. DeGeneres and de Rossi received the Wyler Award at this year's Genesis Awards.

This is Ellen speaking at the Prop 2 gala:

She is concerned that Americans do not know where their food comes from, stating "if we were aware of the process, we would be heart broken and would do something about it." The same argument is true about the horrors of cosmetics testing on animals. Each year, millions of animals are needlessly killed and tortured in the testing of cosmetic products. The FDA does not mandate this testing and alternative non-animal testing methods are available to guarantee the safety of cosmetics. (You can find a list of cruelty free products at Leaping Bunny and Skin Deep.)

Yet, despite Ellen's commitment to veganism, she is now the new face of Covergirl, a company which continues to test on animals. Proctor and Gamble, Cover Girl's parent company, claims to be committed to ending the use of animals in non-food product research. However, as their statement indicates, the company has only eliminated animal testing for 80% of their products. (They are still listed on PETA's web site as testing on animals.)

Ellen's role as a Cover Girl is confusing, probably hypocritical, and, at worst, dangerous. Her public support of Cover Girl is confusing, because many vegans look to her as a public role model and, as any google search will demonstrate, individuals that choose to purchase cruelty-free products are now unsure as to whether Cover Girl still tests on animals. Ellen's actions are hypocritical, absent a satisfactory explanation for her actions. Moreover, her endorsement of Cover Girl may result in further harm to animals, if consumers take Ellen's advertisements as indication that they are vegan and choose to purchase Cover Girl items over products that are, in fact, cruelty-free.

Simon's considers a few explanations for Ellen's "hypocrisy":

I can only speculate on the reasons for her contradictory behavior that A. she is in it for the money, B. she is ignorant of the damage she is doing by promoting this ecologically and ethically ambiguous brand, or C. she believes the gains the LBGT community will gain through her exposure outweighs the exploitative business practices and lax ethics of the company she has chosen to promote.

I don't think these are the only explanations for Ellen's actions. It's possible that she considers Proctor and Gamble's steps to reduce, and eventually eliminate, animal testing as a step in the right direction. Maybe she wants to reward the company for these reforms and believes, as Simon suggests, that her role as a lesbian spokeswoman for a major corporation will create positive exposure for the LGBTQ community. Perhaps she hopes to use her relationship with the company to exert pressure on Cover Girl to eliminate the animal testing used on the remaining 20% of its products. Ellen could hold a more nuanced perspective on this issue, but unfortunately, we have no public explanation.

It's also possible she just doesn't know about Cover Girl's animal testing. Ellen is new to being vegan. Anyone that has made the transition knows there is a huge learning curve. I've been vegan for going on six years now and I know that if the "vegan police" came through my house, I would be guilty of having non-vegan items (leftovers from before the transition or possibly non-vegan products that I've purchased unknowingly). I don't think it is helpful for experienced vegans to take a hard line with new vegans. If people think the bar is too high, or that being vegan is impossible, then no one will choose to try. We should strive to educate people about their choices, provide them with facts and guidance, and offer understanding and encouragement when they make mistakes (as opposed to publicly mocking them). Just like any other ethically motivated activism, being vegan is a lifelong learning process.

That being said, the difference between Ellen and myself is that, let's face it, I'm not a Cover Girl! If I take pictures of myself wearing animal-tested make-up, people won't go out and buy those products because they associate them with my name. Ellen has this power and I think she has a responsibility to research the products that she chooses to endorse. I would like to see her do two things:

1. Make a public statement about her rationale for becoming a Cover Girl. (I have yet to find one, please let me know if you have.)
2. Use her public image to pressure Proctor and Gamble to fulfill their commitments to eradicating the use of animal testing on their products. (And to let consumers know which of their products are in the remaining 20% during the transition.)

As a side note, Ellen and Portia are the most trusted celebrity parents!

EYK and buy cruelty-free cosmetics! (I use Aubrey Organics, MyChelle, and some Aveda.

A Reason Why I Can't Wait to Live Near NYC

2009-05-05T04:50:00.002-04:00

If I lived in NYC, I could attend events like this.

There's nothing like decolonist activism over a vegan dinner!

Thanks Em and Lo...

2009-05-04T20:02:00.005-04:00

... for promoting vegan Glyde condoms on your blog!

Don't forget the new Fusion!

Carol Adam's Vegan-Feminist Manifesto

2009-05-04T02:56:00.012-04:00

Picture Source

In a 2006 special edition of Parallax, Tom Tyler interviewed vegan feminist Carol Adams. If you're reading this blog and you're not familiar with Adams' work, you need to be! She is the author of several feminist and vegan books, including The Sexual Politics of Meat (which is so popular that it even has a song!) and Neither Man Nor Beast: Feminism and the Defense of Animals.

Adams seeks a revision feminist theory and activism that does not depend on the division between humans and animals. Her veganism and her feminism start from her position as a female animal. As the interview explains, she is a vegan because she is an animal, but also a vegan because she is a feminist. In part, her experience as a woman who has lactated helps her sympathize with the female pigs, cows, and chickens that make up the "animal industrial complex." Adams and Josie Donovan articulate a view of feminism that recognizes humans as animals. In the interview, Adams states:

Josie Donovan and I articulated what we saw as the radical insight of feminism in our introduction to Animals and Women: ‘We believe that feminism is a transformative philosophy that embraces the amelioration of life on earth for all life-forms, for all natural entities. We believe that all oppressions are interconnected: no one creature will be free until all are free – from abuse, degradation, exploitation, pollution, and commercialization.’

The force of this definition is that it re-situates the human in the animal world and highlights the ways in which varied forms of oppression intersect and mutually reinforce one another.

There are four points in Adams' vegan-feminist "manifesto." You can read the full-text in the interview. Since it is long, I will summarize here. According to Adams, a vegan-feminist believes that:

1. Within the "debate" about animal rights, there are three parties: the vegan activist, the opponent, and the animal who is absent from the conversation as a result of his/her death.

2. Feminism seeks to improve the lives of all females, not just human females.

3. Thinking should not stop at the fork; an animal does not become dead to academic theory or inquiry once it dies.

4. As one animal among many other animals, an individual should not impose a hierarchy of consumption on his/her "peers."

In addition to these points, I think that a vegifeminist perspective needs to address the cost that female humans pay as a result of animal cruelty. There is an intimate connection between animal abuse and domestic abuse. Between 25-40% women who are targets of domestic violence have difficulty leaving dangerous situations because of violence or threats against pets. Factory farm workers are routinely injured and their communities and social networks are decimated by industrial agriculture. I will explore these and other examples in the future.

Another important tenant of vegifeminism that Adams does not explicitly address here, but which I think is implicit in her position is the interaction of speciesism and sexism. Her slideshow points to how women are oppressed and disrespected by indiviuals who treat human females as non-human animals and how non-human animals are devalued through femininization.

I found it interesting to read Adam's description of her experience writing "The Sexual Politics of Meat," because she explains how she had to make an effort to "hide the anger." She was concerned that if her tone was not calm, that she would scare away potential readers/listeners. This is a problem that many feminist teachers and activists encounter regularly. (When I teach feminist texts, some students dismiss authors as "angry bitches.") While animal welfare activists are not strangers to the "anger" characterization, I am often concerned about the "shock" techniques used within the movement. Adams seems to share the fear that this method is ineffective.

Check out Adam's interview and other works. She's a vegifeminist leader.

Additional interviews with Adams can be found here.

Martha Nussbaum Honored with 2009 Henry M. Phillips Prize

2009-05-03T00:59:00.004-04:00

Picture Source

Via University of Chicago Press Release:

Nussbaum, only the 22nd winner in the Prize's 121-year history, was selected "in recognition of her intellectual leadership in philosophy, law and religion, including in particular her development and application of a 'capabilities approach' to justice in a variety of contexts." Those include women's rights in developing countries and worldwide, of the disabled and the impaired, and animal species.

Visualizing Animals Art Exhibit, Part 2

2009-05-03T00:19:00.013-04:00

I promised you it wasn't all bad.

Cara Judea Alhadeff's "From the Gestation Project" was my favorite piece in the Visualizing Animals exhibit.

This image is a photograph taken at the San Francisco Zoo's Lion House. The women portrayed in this picture appear as caged animals. I find their nakedness respectful as opposed to objectifying, but the enclosing of their bodies in this space highlights the intense scrutiny of pregnant women and their behavior in our culture. The women and lioness exchange a gaze as if they are bonded through a common experience and embodied knowledge.

I also enjoyed the pieces that I think are Steven Rubin's "Agape" and "Anamesis."

Here Rubin blurs the distinction between human and non-human primates. The man in the picture is becoming the ape (or the ape is becoming the man) and they remain separated and recognizable because of the glass between them.

This photography raises similar questions, because it is difficult to tell who is enclosed by the glass. Is the human or the animal contained in this zoo cage?

The above three photographs trouble the division between human and non-human animals. The apes and lions resemble or are bonded with humans in the images. The interconnection of and affinity between Earth's species is the starting place for a vegifeminist ethics.

I will leave you with two works that I appreciated, but that have no clear connection to vegifeminism or the exhibit in general.

I think that Gerald Lang's "Horse Carousel" is beautiful. I will save my complicated thoughts on equestrian sports for a later post.

Finally, I'll close with Keith Shapiro's Panthagoon, because my cats are stinky.

Do you think the cat is there willingly?

EYK.

Bea Arthur as a Vegifeminist Role Model

2009-05-02T23:10:00.010-04:00

Picture Source

Bea Arthur, the actress, comedian, and activist known for her roles in the sitcoms "Maude" and "Golden Girls" died this past week. I've been reading about her life on feminist blogs for a while now. The Washington Post sees Arthur as a symbol of the feminist movement. Jezebel has put together a roundup of Arthur and feminism.

In this interview, Arthur discusses her role in "Maude," explaining that her character was the "opposite of Archie Bunker" and appeared at "the height of the women's movement." In both "Maude" and "Golden Girls," the actress tackled feminist issues such as race, birth control, abortion, gay rights, and aging.

I haven't seen as much coverage of her animal rights activism. I don't know if she saw her views on the women's and animal rights movements as connected, but she demonstrates the compassion and devotion to a cruelty-free lifestyle that vegifeminism stands for.

Arthur was a long time supporter of PETA and animals, having joined PETA in 1987 after a "Golden Girls" episode on the use of fur. Her Wikipedia describes her activism:

Arthur wrote letters, made personal appearances and placed ads against the use of furs, foie gras, and farm animal cruelty by KFC suppliers. She appeared on Judge Judy as a witness for an animal rights activist, and, along with Pamela Anderson insisted on a donation to PETA in exchange for appearing on Comedy Central.

Here is a clip of her PSA against the use of Premarin, which is made from horse urine.

The use of Premarin is an important vegifeminist issue, because it makes explicit the intersections of gender and species oppression. Pregnant mares are enslaved in order to regulate the bodies of women. Proponents of animal welfare have criticized the treatment of "Premarin mares" for years. They are confined to tiny stalls, dehydrated, repeatedly impregnated, isolated from their young, and attached to mechanical tubing. The foals of Premarin mares are shipped to slaughterhouses. (Spring Hill Rescue is a horse sanctuary that rescues Premarin foals.)

Arthur also publicly spoke out against KFC's abuse of chickens. The protection of chickens is another vegifeminist issue, as hens' reproductive systems are exploited to produce eggs and more egg-producers. Male chicks, because they don't produce eggs or more chickens, are often literally "trashed" at birth.

Thank you, Bea.

EYK.

Why am I not surprised...

2009-05-02T22:53:00.002-04:00

... that Hot or Not has a PETA category?

Interspecies Compassion

2009-05-02T22:38:00.004-04:00

Via The Stranger

BADD

2009-05-01T15:53:00.003-04:00

Today is Blogging Against Disabilism Day over at Diary of a Goldfish.

Check it out!

Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale has its own webpage

2009-05-01T15:22:00.006-04:00

VWAV Carrot Cake!

The event sponsored by Compassion for Animals will be held June 20-28th at bake sales across the globe. The two rules are:

1. Goods sold must be vegan. For baking, most importantly this means no dairy or eggs.

2. Don't sell or distribute anything during the bake sale (books, brochures, etc.) that contributes to the intentional harming of animals.

They also provide suggestions for running a successful bake sale and recipes for those without their personal favorites.

Via Change.org Animal Rights Blog

This is far enough in advance that I'm considering participating. I need to work out the logistics, but I would like to raise money for the local Centre County Women's Resource Center. I bet I can round up some friends from my Women's Studies department to help... I just have to sell them on the vegan thing!

I'll make vegifeminist cookies!

EYK.

New Vegan Condom!

2009-05-01T14:42:00.004-04:00

Because vegans must practice safer sex too.

The condom is made by Fusion and is registered with the Vegan Society. It's also designed to be friendly to the environment, because it's in a cardboard container.

Eat Your Kale and Use Vegan Condoms!

Via Desi Hits.

Buy Some Jewelry...

2009-05-01T03:57:00.003-04:00

... and support Vegan Outreach and the HRC's campaign for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender equal rights! (And support the work of LGBT vegans!)

Hold the Cultural Imperialism with My Sexism, Please.

2009-05-01T03:30:00.003-04:00

Picture from Business Mirror.

Apparently objectifying women isn't shocking enough for PETA, so they've decided to add some cultural imperialism into the mix.

Four "sexy" women preferred wearing their bikinis outside the Manilla Zoo in the Philippines this week, in protest of the zoo's cruelty to animals. They carried heart-shaped signs that stated, "Have a Heart, Boycott the Zoo."

The four women are all PETA members, but it appears that none of them were citizens of the country. The women will likely be deported because the country's immigration laws prohibit foreigners from participating in protests.

My problem is not that foreigners were protesting in this country. I agree with the PETA protesters that zoos can be inhumane. What I object to is the lack of thought that went into this protest and its lack of attention to Filipino culture. Anyone who knows anything about the Philippines could probably guess that the population of a country that is predominantly Roman Catholic and that has a significant Muslim population would likely not be amused by a group of women showing off their bodies outside a zoo. This is NOT to say that women should hide or be ashamed of their bodies for religious reasons. What I do think is that animal rights activists would be much more effective if they worked with indigenous groups and created protests specific to the areas in which they're protesting. Otherwise, all we end up with is a failed protest turned global PETA publicity stunt.

EYK!

Animal Art Exhibit Paradoxically Silent on Cruelty, Part 1

2009-05-01T01:40:00.003-04:00

Warning: This is a long post. You can always just scroll down and look at the pictures!

This evening I attended the opening of an art exhibit at Zoller Gallery accompanying the Visualizing Animals conference. I was ecstatic about the idea of the exhibit, but in the end, was disappointed. I have friends and colleagues that were involved in the creation of this exhibit, so I have no doubt that an incredible amount of effort was put into its development. I told my friend that attended the event with me that I wished there had been an explanation of the exhibit's theme, because I might have been able to get more out of the exhibit if I had known about its purpose. Unfortunately, without this, I left feeling like the art pieces had no connection to one another and upset about the lack of reflection concerning cruelty towards animals. Most importantly, there was no ethical reflection about the animals involved in the production of the included art pieces, the origins of photographed animal body parts, or the physical presence of dead animals in the food that was served at the event.

In my description of the event that follows, I'm going to include some photographs that I took. Before I used my camera, I double checked to see if there was a photography policy. I also saw several other people taking pictures, so I decided that it was okay. The pieces were labeled by number, so I will include references as best I can. (I was unable to find the numbers on some of the art works.) Because I elected to not use my flash in the gallery, the pictures are not the best quality, so please forgive me!

The most important ethical themes in this exhibit were invisible and unthematized. The deaths of the animals portrayed in the art and our culture's reliance on the political economy of animal slaughter were viscerally present, but at the same time, the artists were paradoxically silent about such violence towards animals. Two photographs, in my perspective, best demonstrate this absence:

This is "Animal Episode 2" by Eunjung Jung. The picture is of a dead pig, sprawled on a couch. At first glance, I did not realize that the pig was dead.

This is "Animal Episode 1" by the same artist. This photograph is of a lamb's head on grass with flowers. My first thought was that the lamb's head was photoshopped onto the background. However, after discussing this with several other gallery-goers, I decided that this is an actual lamb's head.

Both of Jung's photographs are ambiguous, insofar as I can imagine a few different ideas behind the works that are reflective about our treatment of animals. (Specifically, this could be a statement about the sanitizing of animal slaughter and the dissemination of "happy meat" messages by the meat industry.) My concern, however, is with the methods the artist used to obtain the animal parts and how the pictures were taken. A couple of onlookers suggested to me that the lamb and pig were "probably not killed" for the photographs. *Probably* not, but I have no reason to believe that they weren't. (Other than my hope that the artist is a compassionate person.) There wasn't a single statement at the exhibit indicating that animals were not harmed in the production of the included artworks. This is a significant detail when you're looking at a pig spread out on a couch, that is preserved so well that a close second look is required to realize that the animal is dead. (After all, the parts must have been pretty fresh to look so life-like.)

The only piece that directly addressed the theme of death was Jean Sander's "Preparation for Death." This was a series of images of dog fighting, introduced with the sentence, "You are going to die, and when you die, you will take nothing with you but your state of mind." I'm unclear as to whether this statement was directed to the dogs in the pictures, the viewer, or anyone in particular. I'm not really sure what it would mean to tell a dog mauled to death for entertainment that s/he still has his/her "state of mind."

Sorry about the glare here, there was a light directly behind me.

The following images, Mark Dion's "L'Ours Blanc" and "Polar Bear," look like live bears, but the descriptions indicate they're from natural history museums.

Since the exhibit opened tonight, there was a reception next door with real dead animals and no vegan options. (And based on what I know about PSU events, the meat was not free range, organic, or insert other-label-that-makes-omnis-more-comfortable- with-their-meat- eating.)

And don't be tricked by the apparent veggie option....

... it's full of cheese and pesto mayo!

I thought this spread went along well with the artificial animal guts in the center of the exhibit floor. (This piece was not clearly labeled, but I think it is Bonnie Collura's "Rebel Angel.")

Finally, I was concerned about the treatment of the live animals in the exhibit. Here are two videos from the show:

This is Joao Onofre's untitled piece:

This is Gonzalo Lebrija's "Asterión":

Both of these animals are confused and distressed in such foreign environments. Bull riding is a notoriously cruel sport and there is no indication of how that ever so destructive vulture was transported to the office.

Overall, I'm left with the feeling that I don't know the purpose of the exhibit or the included pieces and I'm generally frustrated by the lack of reflection about the treatment of the animal subjects/dinner.

(Don't worry, it wasn't all bad! There will be a separate post on the pieces that I found interesting.)

EYK!

Surprise!

2009-04-30T02:36:00.001-04:00

PETA is at it again!

I have incredibly mixed feelings about the use of nudity and objectification in the promotion of veganism. So much so, in fact, that this is a post I have been getting ready to write.

PETA, however, beat me to the point, and held a related protest before I was ready. So for now, you just get the news!

EYK!

Academic Superstars and Animal Studies

2009-04-30T02:08:00.000-04:00

This is where I am going to be for the next two days. I think that I am the most excited about the art exhibit, but I am looking forward to the talks and hearing Donna Haraway.

I am curious about the noted absence of ethical topics. There is only one panel that is explicitly concerned with animal ethics and, as far as I can tell, there isn't much of a vegan/vegetarian presence. I'll let you know how it goes!

EYK!

Vegifeminist Symbols: Fun with Flickr!

2009-04-30T01:58:00.000-04:00

In my search to find other vegifeminists, I came across this image on flickr.

This is brilliant. It is, of course, a vegifeminist take on the traditional women's power symbol.

If I were ever to get a tattoo, I would put this on my shoulder! (I would, of course, visit a vegan tattoo parlor, to make sure that the glycerin in my tattoo's dye is not of animal origin.)

EYK!

Welcome to Vegifem

2009-04-29T22:00:00.001-04:00

This blog is the result of my reflections on the relationships between the veganism in my personal life and the feminism in my activist and academic life. I cared about respecting animals and women long before I became a vegan or a feminist. I discovered feminism through the work of Simone de Beauvoir in college and veganism in the writings of John Robbins. While for many people, these two thinkers and issues may seem worlds apart, my veganism was feminist and even disability focused from the very beginning; I became a vegan the year that I had my mouth wired shut while recovering from jaw surgery. Unable to verbally communicate with others, I had a lot of time to think about what I was putting into my body and why, as well as what it was like to be a being in this world incapable of speaking up for myself and those in need around me.

I believe that to be a vegan creates ethical requirements to also be a feminist, and vice versa. The purpose of this blog is to work through this argument and to convince you of it too.

I've toyed with the idea of starting a vegan feminist blog for years. I've always had reasons for putting the project off. Today I decided it was time, as there is never a perfect beginning. This blog will change and develop as I refine my ideas.

What does it mean to be a vegan? A feminist? I will cover these topics in future posts. A vegifem, for now, is a feminist that is vegan (or a vegan that is a feminist) who sees these ethical perspectives as inseparable and mutually informative. I will warn you that I have very broad interpretations of both these terms, but that will come out later.

EYK (Eat Your Kale),
Stephanie