Say the word vegan to someone and 1960’s, bra-burning hippies creep to mind. Followed by images of radical fanatics who are all looking to convert the masses to a world of hairy legs and political demonstrations. People apologize before they tuck into their steak and roll their eyes as they blunder and offer you a meat and cheese tray. You’re have transformed from a human to a circus sideshow attraction. Surviving on a diet of boring, tasteless roots and grasses, completely devoid of protein. We throw red paint on anyone in leather or fur, as we are deluded with ideas of moral superiority. As finicky, picky eaters, as ones who are a nuisance and problematic eaters we refuse to eat around non-vegan items on a plate, to ignore the chicken broth in our vegetable soup or to consume ‘only a little’ dairy or eggs that were accidentally added to a recipe.
Today, I was made to feel ashamed for being vegan, momentary though the feeling was. My whole personality, all of my thoughts and beliefs were summed up in one word. Vegan. And it’s a shame that although vegans have entered the mainstream of society, we’re still being pigeonholed.
Waif-like Gwyneth Paltrow made the macrobiotic diet fashionable along with fad famished Madonna. With beautiful, thin celebrity endorsements the macrobiotic diet became a staple of those seriously conscious of their health and well-being. But look at who we’ve got on our side: https://www.happycow.net/vegtopics/famous?sort=vegans-only. Natalie Portman, Joaquin Phoenix, Barry White, even Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, of Kwik-E-Mart Simpson’s fame, to name a few. And yet we’re continually made to feel like an inconvenience.
The mainstream that is our blessing, for restaurants now cater to us, luxury items are made with us in mind and we no longer have to strive for extremes to live a cruelty-free life. However, it seems that the mainstream is also our cursing, for in the limelight people know to single us out for criticism. Unlike those who follow Jainism a small minority religion in modern India who have remained largely unknown. Jainism practitioners have been known to starve themselves to death to avoid harming any living entity. Jains go out of their way not to hurt small insects or even plants in everyday life. The destruction of plants is only acceptable in so far as is necessary for human survival, with many Jains refusing plants and plant parts that grow under ground, including potatoes, onions and roots because tiny life forms are killed or injured when the plant is pulled from the ground. But without a famous following or a microscope to highlight their strict dietary decisions Jains are blissfully left to enjoy their life and their choices in peace.
Say the word vegan and peoples perceptions drastically change. Why can’t veganism be a part of who we are, rather than the complete definition?
1 Comment
Aloo (4 comments)
February 14, 2008 at 4:02 pm“Why can’t veganism be a part of who we are, rather than the complete definition?
” indeed! Vegans are not of one mould, and I too wish people would realise that. I suppose it a way of people making sense of something different, and possibly confronting to them. Hopefully as we become more in numbers and seen more as mainstream, the community may celebrate us for living our beliefs!
It is a bit like gay people, where sexuality becomes the definition of who they are, and the images of what they should be like are thrust around them.