Sistah Vegan: Food, Identity, Health, and Society: Black Female Vegans Speak
Book Description
I should also note that while The Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol J. Adams is in many ways considered the book for a feminist approach to nonhuman animal advocacy, it can’t be separated out from the anti-trans hatred and purge that started in the seventies. The roots of The Sexual Politics of Meat come out of Adams’ relationship with Mary Daly, who was her teacher and mentor in the mid-seventies. This relationship, which Adams credits with the genesis of her book and activism, took place at the same time Daly was writing her hateful, anti-trans book Gyn/Ecology. It was also the same time Daly was advising Raymond, another student of hers, on the dissertation that became the book The Transsexual Empire.
So the origins of what currently stands as the primary source for a feminist approach to nonhuman animal advocacy has its origins in a milieu that was the epicenter of anti-trans sentiment in the seventies. In the preface to The Sexual Politics of Meat, Adams begins her book with what she calls a “quiet homage to Mary Daly’s early support of my work as well as her ongoing biophilic vision.” What is unacknowledged is that Daly’s “biophilic vision” called for the elimination of transsexuals, people whom Daly described as “necrophilic” and therefore outside of and counter to the vegetarian-ecofeminist worldview.
Basically, trans people were never meant to be included in ecofeminism. While a new generation of cissexual ecofeminists may simply not think about trans people due to our forced absence, the erasure and invisibility of trans people within ecofeminism cannot be seen as a mere oversight. Most of the prominent figures in vegetarian-ecofeminism have at some point consciously thought about trans people and actively supported our exclusion—this includes those pseudo-allies who might say they’re supportive of trans people in private, yet actively support our erasure when they ignore our oppression while publicly praising the work of their more unapologetically transphobic colleagues.
When challenged on the existing cissexist state of affairs, anti-trans ecofeminists will often insist we agree to disagree and leave it at that. But since the exclusion of trans people has already been well established, agreeing not to press the issue simply keeps trans people invisible and the status quo just the way it is.
It is easy to ignore an oppressed group of people once they have been systematically shut out of and alienated from a movement they rightfully belong in. Had trans people not been forcibly exiled from the women’s movement throughout the seventies and subsequently blocked from returning—at times with state supported exclusion from human right protections—things would be entirely different right now.
The cycle will only be broken when cissexual feminists take responsibility for cissexism and hold themselves and their colleagues accountable. This includes following the lead of trans people on trans issues, specifically trans women when it comes to our exclusion from feminist communities. It’s also important to recognize that not all trans people have been targeted in the same way. Too often women’s events or services claim to be “trans-inclusive” but are restricted to cissexual women, trans men and female-assigned genderqueers only, thus continuing the ongoing legacy of specifically excluding transsexual women.
From over at BitchMedia: The Biotic Woman: Talking About Transphobia and Ecofeminism With Ida Hammer
Ida Hammer created her own website for this problem
My work on The Vegan Ideal has really been my primary outlet for challenging anti-trans ideology and creating a safe space for myself to explore anti-oppression advocacy, particularly as it relates to nonhuman animals. My posts on how cissexism is interwoven into vegetarian-ecofeminism have been part of my own struggle to affirm myself as a woman, a feminist, and an advocate for nonhuman animals. I now refuse to accept any approach to advocacy or anti-oppression work that would have me or anyone else deny a part of who we are and internalize our oppression in order to participate.
And it looks great -addressing other things like classism, abelism, etc. all within the animal rights movement. So if you ever wished someone would clean up PETA’s continuing messes, this site is trying.
Veganism is not a “white” thing but “Indigenous” and “Original People’s” Thing: Hood Health breaks it down
by Sistah Vegan
whoa, this is important.
Fuck yeah. Privileged vegans, take note!
White defensive vegans need to watch this.
guilty as charged. all white hippie/health-conscious/veg*ans need to watch this.
According to Centers for Disease Control, nearly twice as many people die annually from tainted meat than died in the attacks of September 11, 2001. Making a powerful comparison, Kristof points out that “while the terrorist attacks of 2001 led us to transform the way we approach national security, the deaths of almost twice as many people annually have still not generated basic food-safety initiatives.
The New York Times Compares Antibiotic Abuse on Factory Farms to Terrorism
-MFA Blog
(via vegansaurus)
“The Food and Drug Administration reported recently that 80 percent of antibiotics in the United States go to livestock, not humans. And 90 percent of the livestock antibiotics are administered in their food or water, typically to healthy animals to keep them from getting sick when they are confined in squalid and crowded conditions.
The single state of North Carolina uses more antibiotics for livestock than the entire United States uses for humans.” - NYT
At least we’ve found a way to solve our healthcare crisis.
(via bohemianarthouse)
When its awkward being vegan
Who wants to come with us to the zoo!?
What about the aquarium?
I’d really like to go to the circus…
That’s ok. I’ll stay here.
Dave Lieberman at OC Weekly: Five Things You'd Think Would Be Vegan--But Aren't
It’s not easy to be an observant vegan. None of us here at Fork are vegan, but we all know plenty of vegans, we respect vegans for the most part, and we know it’s hard to follow that diet in a meat-centric world. Some foods are obviously not vegan: no tuna salad in the world is vegan, and Thai food is fraught with peril. Some foods are surprisingly vegan: Bac-Os, for example, are completely vegan. But then there are the pitfalls. Some things that should be vegan contain animal products, sometimes in surprising places. Here are five of those products.
Soooo, despite the fact that apparently everyone else knows, somehow I managed to get this far in life without ever actually learning what gelatin is. It never really occurred to me. I’ve always just looked at Jello and thought that it was one of those weird fake “foods” made in a lab entirely out of chemicals, and also lots of sugar. You know, like how I think of cheetos. I figured its production had to be scary. Just not that kind of scary.
But now I know and I cannot unknow and gummy bears have just been ruined for me forever.
You’re not in trouble with general anaesthesia. Everything else on this list can be substituted for other things. Do you need the orange juice with the omega-3 in it vs. the orange juice without? Not necessarily. Do you need dry roasted peanuts with gelatin? No. But anaesthesia when you need to undergo a medical procedure? Yes. This falls in the category of “within reason”. Most medications are tested on animals and many of them do contain animal products which technically make them “not vegan”. But no one is a bad vegan for taking medication or anaesthesia. You can’t very well help animals if you yourself are incapacitated. Take your medication, get that operation, guys. Don’t beat yourself up about this.
(Source: se-smith)
Gluten Free Seitan Recipes
I don’t know how they do this but it looks real and made of magic, everyone who doesn’t want gluten nor meat.
vegansaurus!: Easy Answers to Common Questions on Veganism
We all made the decision to go vegan sometime ago and we probably had good reasons, because all us vegans are the greatest best. However, when someone questions your reasons, it can be hard to remember exactly why! Especially if someone is trying to “get your goat” (lolz) or be dismissive. Here…
That last post really fucking bugged me when the OP talked about the consciousness of fetuses. The angry vegan in me is always bugged when anti-choicers bring this up because you know who else has consciousness? Consciousness I can fucking see not hypothesize when the science says otherwise? Animals. Oh do you care about every living thing’s consciousness? Do you abstain from hurting every living thing as much as you possibly can? Why not? Why does pro-life end at a certain point? I can see the suffering of an animal, I can’t see the suffering of an fetus.
I’m not asking anyone to agree with me and veganism in this post. My big problem is this is my belief. And I’m not shoving it down their throats. I’m not trying to pass laws to restrict their rights to harm the lives I deem worthy and that theres actual factual evidence to support that they feel fucking pain. I just feel like if your big thing is LIFE LIFE LIFE you need to support all fucking life and not pretend like one species is sacred when another who’s crying out with pain is perfectly ok to harm. They feel they have religion on their side so that makes their stance more legitimate in their eyes whereas I have seeing actual living, post-born creatures suffer in pain and somehow my stance is fucking outlandish and too much. I can even find support for my beliefs in the bible too, leave your self righteousness at the door.
why you could never be batman.
I’m being Batman right now.
(Source: sofapizza)
