Body Image and Veganism
As many of you know, I don’t believe we should exclude one cause to promote another. That’s why I’ve been getting increasingly frustrated with the vegan/animal rights/animal welfare communities (I had to throw animal welfare in there because I’m going to be talking about PETA who is definitely not either a vegan or animal rights organization regardless of what they say). Not that the feminist movement does much or even really cares about animal rights as a rule. Most feminists are omnis who I’ve found don’t like to hear that veganism and animal rights is a feminist issue. However, since the feminist movement doesn’t directly counter the animal rights movement strictly to further their own cause, I won’t be saying anymore about that side of things.
The topic of animal rights (which has been watered down to become a term for anyone who doesn’t think you should kick a dog) and veganism has been in the news quite a bit recently. We have the PETA ads and stunts that have been going on for years, the Skinny Bitch books, and the new vegan strip club which spawned the recent NY Times article. And I feel as both a vegan and a feminist that it’s an issue that deserves to be examined.
PETA has been objectifying women since the 80’s to try to promote their message. The majority of PETA’s messages include promoting a certain type of body. All of their models tend to be thin, young and fit contemporary society’s definition of beautiful. They have ads blatantly telling women that body hair is unattractive and comparative to wearing animal skins. They have ads making fun of overweight people. Most of the models are white with pale skin. And when they do use women of color, she is usually portrayed as an exotic wild animal.
When confronted on the messages they are putting out about women and body image issues in general, PETA simply writes it off, saying that it’s “for the animals”. First, the fact that PETA does anything for the animals is a joke. Lately it seems anything PETA (as well as many other welfarist organizations) does is for their check books. No group who euthanizes animals instead of using their mass amounts of money to save them gets to use the fact that they’re helping animals as an excuse (not that it would be anyway).
This brings me to the book “Skinny Bitch”, which apparently actually is saving animals by turning people vegan. I’m not against the deception the authors used, marketing it as a weight loss book then hitting people with the animal rights message once they’ve bought the book. In fact, I attribute that tactic to all of the converts it’s had. I think it could have just as effectively accomplished this without playing into people’s insecurities about their bodies.
First there is the tagline of the book, “Stop being a moron and start getting skinny”. This is playing directly into the stereotype that all overweight people are stupid, ignorant and lazy. The hand drawn, “perfect” woman on the cover with a body no real woman could achieve. And the fact that they repeatedly call the reader a “fat cow”, a statement both fattist and speciesist.
Then there’s the cookbook which mainly uses unhealthy and fattening omni-subs rather than fresh fruits and veggies. So they tell people that they need to be skinny instead of fat, stupid and gross like they are now. Push people’s low self esteem and insecurities into an even lower place than before they picked up the book. Then give them a diet to follow that doesn’t work and sit by as they believe that they have failed in some way.
I’m also going to throw a little side note in here that isn’t a topic that’s been in the news. Instead, it’s just an example of the prejudices many vegans have about overweight people. I was reading a zine a while back, actually one of the best zines I’ve read, by a vegan who was voluntarily homeless. He made a comment at one point about the number of body image and fat acceptance zines he had seen and said that he’s sick of these people whining, they should just go vegan and they wouldn’t have a problem. I’m sorry, but that’s bullshit. Veganism is a lifestyle (that’s right, not just a diet but a lifestyle) of compassion, not a guaranteed way to lose weight. There are just as many vegan junk foods as there are omni ones. Hell, high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils are completely vegan. Yes, veganism is generally a healthier way to go, but it’s not a guaranteed way to be healthy and/or thin (the two don’t necessarily go together).
And finally, the vegan strip club that just opened in Portland. Why have meat on the menu when you’re treating your employees like it? I just want to scream “how can you be against the objectification and commodification of animals and directly participate in the objectification and commodification of women?!?!”. A direct quote from Johnny Diablo, the club’s owner is “We put the meat on the pole, not on the plate.”. He doesn’t even try to hide the fact that he’s treating women like pieces of meat. Like PETA he claims his only concern is for the animals (though I’m going with the check book again here) and even calls those who oppose his venture feminazis. I guess for some, compassion can only reach so far.
I think as a group of people who are supposed to be compassionate toward animals, we should remember that humans are animals too and we should be just as concerned with the rights of human animals as we are with non-human animals.
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I’m Angie Bowen, the voice here at Voice of Dissent. I’m an artist/designer living in the mountains of Colorado. I’m very passionate about feminism and abolitionist animal rights so you can expect to hear a lot about those two topics. I’m also just starting to study anarchy and Marxism (and still don’t really know which fits with my own beliefs more yet), so you can expect musings on those topics as well. And obviously, since I’m an artist, you can expect to see quite a bit of artwork as well as articles about other artists.
Great post.
Here is a response to something I wrote, from the College Campaign Coordinator at peta2:
“Sexiness is not the same thing as sexism. PETA uses sexiness in its ads because (as much as we would love for them to) most people don’t want to watch videos of animals being killed. You and I both know that they should, but the fact of the matter is that the vast majority of the population would rather live in blind ignorance than find out what happens in slaughterhouses and other places where animals are abused.
We respond to this by using naked ads (using male and female volunteers) to draw attention to issues that people would otherwise turn a blind eye to. It is a person’s personal choice whether or not to use their body as a political weapon to educate others about issues that they care about. Indeed, it would be a far greater injustice to silence them from speaking out about these topics.”
So basically, as long as they aren’t using physical force to garner participants for the ads, everything is okay. Nothing that is voluntary is sexist… how wonderfully postmodern. In fact, by opposing their ads, we are “silencing” the volunteers. Maybe we are the sexists! Astounding.
Angie’s Reply: This is such an overused and bullshit argument, not just by PETA but by bigots everwhere. Just because a woman isn’t offended by something doesn’t mean it’s not sexist. Just because a person of color isn’t offended by something doesn’t mean it’s not racist. Just because a gay person isn’t offended by something doesn’t mean it isn’t homophobic. Just because a vegan isn’t offended by something doesn’t mean it isn’t speciesist. And you don’t have to be a member of the oppressed group to recognize and point out a particular kind of bigotry.
Thank you! Vegans need to remind the world and ourselves that humans are animals too, and exploiting humans for non-humans is just as wrong at the reverse. You hit 2 things in this post that have troubled me lately but that I hadn’t connected in my head. My omni roommate told me about the strip club, thinking (I suppose) that I would be excited, as anything that calls itself “vegan” must be good, right?
Wrong. Maybe we need to define veganism more clearly. It should be a lifestyle that rejects speciesism entirely. But the quote from the club’s owner illustrates how far from that ideal we actually are: seeing some animals (human women) as meat is okay, as long we don’t look at some other animals (cattle and chickens) that way. (!) To me, “vegan strip club” is an oxymoron. You can’t veganize an industry that’s inherently built on treating some sentient animals like objects, like means to an end, whether that end is a hamburger or a hard-on.
Skinny Bitch has the same problem. I recently read it and while I appreciate the authors for the clear, accessible way they expose agri-business and federal regulation, I kept wishing they’d packaged it all differently. They even end the book with a “confession” about how they don’t really care about being skinny, they actually care more about animal rights and being healthy, and we should all love ourselves as we are and not try to fit some other person’s standard of beauty. Gee, ladies — thanks! That paragraph totally makes up for the 150 pages of emotional abuse you’ve just heaped on your readers. They’d probably argue that the title and the weight-loss angle is necessary to get people to read the book and get to all the great information inside. But I can’t help but feel that ultimately this approach hurts veganism by making it look like vegans are weight-obsessed society girls (unless they’re chauvinist strip club owners) who scorn all who can’t stand up to their rigid standards. You have it right: the check book is really the bottom line here, not all the supposed good this book is doing for the animals and the poor, ill-informed, overweight readers.
Let’s rethink. Just because I’m vegan, I don’t have to be a sexist, or disdain overweight people. Just because someone calls themselves vegan, doesn’t mean they are.
Angie’s Reply: I love your suggestion for a new definition of vegan. It should totally be one who rejects speciesism in any form. This would take care of the “vegan” racists, sexists, homophobes and the welfarists. I wonder how big our group would be then.