Wednesday 30 March 2011

Some thoughts on Veg*nism and identity.

Hello all! In this post I mean to explore some thoughts, by no means "finalised" or complete, on some of the less discussed aspects of our choices to oppose cruelty. I'm oversimplifying and leaving a lot of my thoughts out for the sake of readability, so comments, correspondence or, better yet, face to face discussion is encouraged! Come to a meeting, a pot-luck or email safamru@gmail.com to see about meeting up with one of us! I'll be using the term "compassionate consumerism" as an umbrella for Veganism, Vegetarianism or ethically slanted omnivorism! One last thing, I choose to capitalise Vegan and Vegetarian, but not the different terms I use for omnivorous approaches, not because I'm trying to imply Veg*nism is better, but because of issues regarding their use as a banner, which I hope will become clear in this post. When I capitalise "meat," it is to denote not it's specific incarnations (a steak, a roast chicken) but the social phenomenon that is Meat. For example, meat-eating refers to eating animals' flesh, Meat-consuming refers to the physical act of eating the flesh as well as the mental consumption of ideologies of Meat.

So lately I've been thinking a lot about what keeps me Vegan. Part of this has included thinking about societal perceptions of animal rights advocates and where they stem from. As any compassionate consumer knows, it's extremely complicated, as never is there a central position from which to understand it. We call ourselves Vegan or Vegetarian or ethical eaters, but even as we do so, we are aware that we are just humans making choices. We are humans who see the violence and suffering that is inextricably connected to the meals we watch our fellow humans eat every day. Each of us has a different relationship with "the cause," and is susceptible to a different degree to the pressures of the hegemony (or hegemonies) that enable and enforce the perpetuation of what among some people I call the meat industry, and among others mass murder. All humans, in all endeavours, must negotiate and renegotiate some degree of balance, unique to any given situation, between factors too numerous to notice and consider--whether we recognise it or not. And when we consider that even what we refer to as factors are not the discreet, finite things their handle implies, things get even more complicated.

So what makes me a Vegan? The word is at once a descriptor of an overarching dietary schema, a name for a strict set of "rules" and a political tool, among other things. In some mays, it might be more accurate to say "I am not really a vegan, I am a human who does his best to avoid participating in the practices of Meat production." But Vegan is more than a descriptor. I am a Vegan not simply because I don't like meat (or Meat) but because I want to actively oppose its existence as food: by reminding people there are those who think otherwise; by implicitly stating my kinship with these other like-minded people; and by calling on the knowledge, that I believe most have-- that killing and torture are wrong, that there are accessible and realistic alternatives -- that bobs just under the surface of a great many of my interactions with omnivores.

When I first "went Vegetarian," I insisted on downplaying the political and moral nature of my choice. "It's a personal choice for me," I remember saying on many occasions, and even colluded in the chiding of "self-righteous" Vegetarians. I have since come to see this as a reaction against the defensiveness that Meat-consumers often (and Veg*ns know I mean very often) display in the face of the inevitable moral challenge our choices imply. I was afarid of not being liked, of being called self-righteous, of being too individualistic. I wanted, initially, to distance myself from the perceptions of Vegetarians that I shared with those whose judgement I feared. I was afraid to commit myself to my own deeply held beliefs.

And there lies the understanding I wish to share today: I was afraid of committing my self. The self is important to all of us, as I think it should be to some degree. I think the great majority of our actions and beliefs exist within us both for the pleasure or necessity we perceive as the cause of their existence and for the role they play in defining our individual selves, for ourselves and for others. I have seen underneath and in between the words of friends and strangers that reaching, those clinging attempts to define themselves--as I have seen them reflecting on my own thoughts, words and actions. Compassionate consumption is far from immune to this: perhaps because it is situated as an oppositional identity, Veg*nism is especially vulnerable to definition. A Vegetarian or a Vegan has an awareness of how their choices are perceived, and thus cannot help but struggle to define themselves against a backdrop of pre-existing conceptions of what they are, be that struggle conscious or unconscious.

For some of us, it is easier than it is for others. We all know ex-Vegetarians, or people who are interested in aligning their consumption choices with their morals, but have not. I'm not suggesting that these people "failed," or are failing, but I think what this can help to show us is that there is a certain separation that often exists between our morals (what we want to truly believe in, to different degrees and in different situations, which often come as pre-existing packages) and our values (what we do believe in, what presently governs our reactions and stances to and against things, despite the little differences about us in different settings). I know people who despise oppression, and are sharp enough to spot it hidden under the most elaborate disguises, until you bring up Meat. I know people who will go to great lengths to decrease their "carbon footprint," short of addressing their collusion with the grossly inefficient, deforesting and pollution creating meat industries. I know people who get outraged at the idea of veal, yet can't imagine life without fancy cheeses. From my experience, when you challenge someone's identity (as a person committed to ending oppression, as an environmentalist, as a connoisseur or chef of "fine" foods, as a cynic who won't brook the idea of making positive change) critical thinking often slips out for a break, and unconscious defensiveness fills in the gap.

We can often see how wrong something is, or we can come to the conclusion through logic, or simply believe what we hear, but until we feel what we know, we cannot be our choices in anything but a functional sense. Many of us know Veg*ns who seem much more interested in their image as a Vegetarian or Vegan than the animals their cause is supposedly concerned with. Conversely, we may know people who seem as though their values align them with Veg*nism, but don't want to "put themselves in a box." Both of these situations describe allies, and I don't mean to criticise people, especially on anything like a personal level. But thinking about this lately has led me to believe that there is a very important key to "success" as a long term advocate of animals. If we haven't already--yet we "know" it's the right thing to do--we need to foster a deep-seated, internalised commitment to ending the suffering of animals at the hands of humans, on an individual level with our selves.

I think that the obviousness of this statement is what makes it so difficult to accomplish. Things that we hear often enough, we often don't think about as deeply as the things that we come up with on our own (there's that self again!). Every ex-Vegetarian hurts our collective cause, as does every flaky Vegetarian. I'm not trying to get up in anyone's grill, and I'm trying (and in my opinion, succeeding) to not judge anyone as a whole person, but I think I'm describing some of the necessary background work that is so seldom discussed. So, do our non-human friends a favour, and take a hard look at your own role in their oppression, and how you can negotiate it within yourself. Do it: you can.

Thursday 24 March 2011

Free Food!

Hello all!
We have just come into around 3 dozen packages of Yves fake turkey deli slices! Any members, or anyone living in Calgary want some free mock-turkey?
Email safamru@gmail.com and we'll hook you up!

Peace,
SAFA

Tuesday 22 March 2011

Pickin' on the Veggies, sellin' some shit.

EDIT: After a bit more research, and less hearsay, the remark I make at the bottom about meat building up in the human colon is probably not accurate. Sorry dudes!

Fucking Veg*ns, eh!? (For readers not familiar with Boolean operators, the asterisk can stand for an "a" as is Vegans, or "etaria" as in Vegetarians!). I'd like to apologise in advance to SAFA's meat-eating members for my explicitly Vegan values here, but my goal is to analyse some ads as I perceive them--and to poke a little fun: take my contribution for what you see it being worth.

Let's address some of the messages in some of the ads I've noticed around Calgary recently. First up: Black Sheep Spiced Rum!


Where to begin? How about "what the fuck do butchers and vegetarians have to do with rum?" Well, I imagine the marketing team behind this masterpiece aim to tap into that wonderful ideology of rugged (read: manly) individualism we hold so dear in capitalist democracies. Stay true to your uniqueness! Be a "black sheep!" Maybe it's more accurate to say: stay true to hegemonic masculinity, don't be influenced by those bleeding hearts? I've been either Vegetarian or Vegan for a few years now, and I can say (and without the defensive pride this ad is full of) that Vegetarians are "black sheep" in most situations where their dietary/consumption choices become known! But "You Are a Vegetarian. Here's to You" wouldn't sell much rum.

Meat eaters, referenced in this ad through their collective enablers--butchers (let's face it, whenever you eat meat, an animal was killed for you)--are not "black sheep" in the vast majority of settings here in Canada. I suppose these marketers have experienced their share of the hardships of very occasionally being among people who think differently then the privileged groups they are a part of, and assume most of their audience has too. It must be difficult only having the support of hegemony 99% of the time. After all, besides being for meat-eaters, the ad is clearly intended for a male audience (with its masculine, "bold" font and the implied bread-winning status of the targeted reader. Did you imagine that the mother of the family was the butcher? And maybe it's just me, but this ad doesn't seem geared toward families with Queer parents). I doubt there's even a "butcher" position at most of the slaughterhouses in North America: the job of one butcher is done by hundreds of workers, to increase efficiency. All the same, "butcher" has a nicer ring to it, and implies good, honest, old-fashioned labour, doesn't it? And why the implied resentment towards a family so understanding that they accept your choice to work in an industry that is so contradictory to their own moral priorities? And you know... maybe I just don't get it, but what the fuck does one's preference for a particular brand of drunk-juice have to do with being unique? Here's to you, asshole.

Next up: Full Press Vineyards (Wine)!


Just look at the rugged fellow pressing that wine. Nice, striking typeset on the label, and it goes with meat! Now there's a man's wine. We all know men (real men anyway) don't drink wine, and certainly don't pair it with food. That's just gay.
The connections between meat and masculinity go back to our cavemen days, where men hunted and women gathered food and did some other trivial shit like raise young, take care of everyone's living arrangements, prepare food and make clothing. In my research into anthropology, it seems that our hominid ancestors (what the hell is a caveman, anyway?) actually received the majority of their calories from plant matter, but never-mind that, it was a long time ago.
This ad plays it safe, relying on the time-tested myth of "man like meat." For North Americans, the connections we take as natural between men and the manliness of meat probably have more to do with post-second World War advertising (B-B-Q, anyone?) than pre-historic gender relations, but nevertheless, they're around today. Not only does this ad draw on men obtaining their manliness from meat, but it addresses the concern that wine just isn't manly. Well, it is if you pair it with meat. There is more to be said about the gender stereotypes present in this ad, but we've got one more to go.

Lastly for today: Glaceau vitaminwater.


Ever tried this shit? I'm willing to assume that the alleged non-deliciousness of tofu owes more to subjective preference (and inept preparation) than the foul taste of this crap does. It tastes like Tylenol. It's gross.
Veg*ns have to listen to enough jokes about how bad tofu is from our omnivorous friends, we don't need to hear it from inanimate objects at the mall. I guess the folks behind this one are drawing a comparison between the reputedly healthy soy-product and their new "smartwater" (another very similar product made by Glaceau, a subsidiary of Coca-Cola. Visit http://www.glaceau.com/ to receive a free facefull of total fucking bullshit. Requires Flash player.). Of course, tofu is considered healthy compared to meat (as both are sources of protein and tofu has substantially less fat, no cholesterol and--as a bonus--doesn't build up and fester in your colon!), but the health benefits of this vitaminwater are of a very different sort. "Health" is used by implication, in this ad and many others like it, to play on people's fear of being unhealthy. Health is an extraordinarily complicated and subjective series of measurements we attempt to impose on ourselves, but here it is represented as something you can buy and drink. So drink up! To your health!

Peace, Love and Tofu,
Ben


ps. though not directly related, this facebook screen-shot was too good not to share! Click on it to read the text!


Friday 4 March 2011

Facebook Group

Hey all, we've also created a Facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/home.php?sk=group_207723465908080&ap=1 or search for SAFA). The blog and the Facebook group will more or less mirror each other, but if you're more of a Facebooker, then there you go! Expect a real post next week!

Thursday 3 March 2011

Greetings.

Hello all!
SAFA is a new student club at Mount Royal University, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
SAFA believes in many things. One of the most important of these beliefs is that humans have faculty for complex thought, rational analysis and deep compassion. Stayed tuned as our members post on different topics relating to to the plight of non-human animals in Alberta, North America and the rest of the world.

If you live in Calgary and are ready to evaluate or change your consumption choices (or already have), email us at safamru@gmail.com and see about joining us at a meeting. If you don't live in Calgary but want a decent collection of materials, email us and we'll send you some worth-while resources!