Going Vegan Without Going Nutty
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How do you go vegan without “getting weird”?
It’s simple, really.
Just stop eating animal products.
That’s all there is to it. Really.
“You can keep your friends, politics, and your patriotism, still watch your favorite TV shows and listen to your favorite music… you have a choice… you can choose to be radically kind, not to intentionally harm another animal for breakfast lunch or dinner ever again. These creatures have never harmed you, violated you, or taken advantage of you in any form. The least you can do is return the favor.”
But not everyone likes a simple answer. Blisstree has an article up right now bout a cute hipster blog called Vegan Housewives. The Blisstree article is titled “The Vegan Housewife Explains How To Go Vegan Without Getting Weird” and instead of actually giving helpful advice to wannabe vegans, the article goes on to chastise hard-core vegans” who “interrogate restaurants.” In the words of Kourtney Campbell “It’s a huge turnoff, not only to carnivores, but for many other vegans as well.” She interprets asking how a restaurant menu item was prepared as criticism and called behaving that way “difficult.”
Mylene at My Face Is On Fire reacted. She laments the piece’s ”unfortunate false dichotomy about vegans.” She half tongue-in-cheek writes:
“According to this piece and according to Kourtney Campbell, the idea of presenting vegans in a positive manner and as existing outside of the ‘tie-dye and dreadlocks’ stereotype–presenting them as coming in all styles–can indeed be done. In fact, the implication is that Vegan Housewives site dodges that stereotype and that in doing so becomes so cool that even those who aren’t vegan still read it. In fact, we’re told that the site’s other co-founder, Katie Charos, isn’t even vegan herself. (That’s one way to dodge vegan stereotypes, I guess!)” [...]
“Given that PETA’s Bruce Friedrich and Vegan Outreach’s Matt Ball have both chastised vegans for asking about animal ingredients in restaurants, it’s no surprise that yet another so-called vegan would follow suit in this shaming others who merely seek to inform themselves so that they can avoid animal products. Stating that restaurants will only cater to vegans if vegans loosen up about consuming animal products, though? Really?”
And while Mylene adopts a version of veganism that is a bit more strict than my own, I agree with her sentiment that the point of veganism is ”to reject animal exploitation and to avoid consuming avoidable animal products.” Mylene, for example, says she always chooses to abstain from eating vegan products that have been prepared on the same BBQ grill as animal flesh whereas there are times when I will compromise for what I consider to be the greater good. For example, I will eat at the Yard House.
See for me, when it comes to shared cookware or oil (used for both vegan and nonvegan foods), I lean towards allowing it in my diet, like Campbell does. But that’s my opinion about my diet. And my opinion has evolved over time due to my particular circumstances. That’s not my opinion about how all vegans should act. Either choice is perfectly acceptable and has plusses and minuses. For those vegans who allowed “trace ingredients” or minor cross-contamination, they can be perceived as flexible vegans who don’t intimidte wait staff or party hosts. For those who don’t allow these things, they can be perceived as logically consistent vegans who live by a firm moral code.
Ultimately, we’re really just wasting time and energy when we try to tell each other how to be vegan. Once we’ve eliminated the obvious animal products from our lives, we’re all vegans and we’re all on the same team. So let’s start acting like it and stop with the infighting!
I couldn’t agree more. It is interesting how much attention is placed on so-called “consistency”, or on the stereotypical humorless vegan, when I doubt anyone cares if your choice is to give up something other than animal products. For that matter, I don’t see much attention placed on the wide variety of Christians out there. Somehow we vegans all become part of the same group, when in fact we are each individuals who have made a choice for ourselves.
Basically, “shut up and eat it?” No way. Ask about what is going in your mouth. Just as much pain is caused by butter just as certainly as it is caused by animal muscle. Butter is also a death sentence to some sentient being.
You only have yourself to answer to. Be perfectly honest to yourself about your commitment. There are many people with religious, dietary, or allergy restrictions on what they can stuff in their face. If asking what is in a dish is “bothersome” to a restaurant, then they should not be in business.
I’m a new vegan (a few months) but a 6 year vegetarian.
Neat blog by the way. I saw a thread on Veggieboards, and came down here to look.
I am a fundamentalist as a vegan in but i think there is also a certain inconsistency with the so called extreme vegan or “consistent” approach. If we vegans make a song a dance in a restaurant over trace elements of animal product we are providing easy material for meaty types to label us as extreme freaks living an impractical lifestyle, or people who are waivering on being veg or vegan a push back toward the “darkside” because most people (and potential vegan people especially) don’t want to be involved in conflicts or even pose uncomfortable questions to an undeserving waiter. In short, when we honestly examine the situation those traces of animal product are probably far outwieghed by the damage potentially done by losing a potential vegan or even vegetarian and the information and lifestyles they might spread thru meaty society. This is after all about trying to minimize suffering not our ethical or physical purity, isn’t it? So we cant be quiet but we need to (appear atleast) to be reasonable people living lives that are possible to emulate with being alienated from others outside the movement, after all a prosperous meme needs converts,
I think an ethical vegetarian or vegan on this primitive planet in 2012 should be loud and clear an make sure the message moves out of their little sphere of purity but not as a gesture of hostility or zealotry. hopefully in our lifetimes we will stop being seen as just some insufferably impractical horde of hippies or radical dieters. hopefully we can emerge from the margins as a way forward, a viable way forward that will get easier as our numbers increase and perhaps our position will strengthen to the point that we will be able to solely eat in “our” vegan restaurants and maybe even drive cars with animal product alternatives lubricating the moving parts and think back on how vulgar and violent human history was.
as for waiter i think depending on location an culture it is best to try and hassle waiters to the degree that gives us the most exposure/leverage there, so for example in much of latin america the middle east, africa, and eastern europe u will generally have to inform ur waiter as to what a vegan is before u eat, generally thats enough, and if u r not difficult sometimes they actually find the idea amusing, amusing enough to pass on perhaps to someone who might not simply laugh at it, in new zealand or australia i would say go the whole way and be consistent coz u nearly always can and people usually respect ur choice and atleast put up with it. india and buddhist countries u will usually get respected for it even if the “extreme” of vegan is unusual so go the whole way and spread the meme unless ofcourse its a “consistent” taoist, jain or buddhist restuarant, just enjoy the hassle free eating.
Pls always be polite for the sake of veganism as a cause, we are all basically a small expeditionary pr movement into the concerntration camp culture of humanity, try to raise above mistakes and even if u get a steak by accident realize we are also implicit, like accidently stepping on ants, it happens. be charming and win them over, the one who won me over was as hilarious and intelligent as he was passionate about this cause and won me over with a few true and calm words and many laughs. a winning formula.
Yeah, there are a lot of legitimate problems that prevent some people from going vegan and they aren’t going to be solved until people stop making excuses and start putting some effort into making changes. Go vegan!
“Ultimately, we’re really just wasting time and energy when we try to tell each other how to be vegan.”
I agree. But what I find interesting is that Mylène has a history of labeling people who self-identify as vegan ‘non-vegan’ or ‘so-called vegan’ (as in her post above) or ‘welfarist’ if they don’t live up to certain standards, but doesn’t seem to consider this a shaming behaviour on her part.
And frankly, Kourtney was more gracious in her response to Mylène than I probably would have been. Just saying.
was there ever any doubt? always re-inventing the wheel when it comes to commoner social situations. *burp* apparently a large portion of the general population does not have a functional brain, or is a die-hard consumerist junkie and/or compassion and respect is a complicated foreign language for some.
i am surprised to see Bruce Friedrich play the unspeakable and phoney “vegans should bee seen and not heard” card, i have seen him speak at a presentation before and he is hardcore about his beliefs.
Matt Ball must be the wild card here. but yeah telling others really how to act in a restaurant is IMHO beyond bogus, even i have to eat at taco bell sometimes and i do the best i can.
“But what I find interesting is that Mylène has a history of labeling people who self-identify as vegan ‘non-vegan’ or ‘so-called vegan’ (as in her post above) or ‘welfarist’ if they don’t live up to certain standards”
Well, if someone who self-identifies as vegan consumes animal products or otherwise exploits, them, would it not be correct to clarify this? This is ordinarily what I am doing when writing about non-vegans who co-opt the term veganism and attempt to stretch it to include animal use. As for Kourtney, she’s admitted to promoting non-vegan items on her commercial site (i.e. to deliberately profiting from animal exploitation) on a site called “Vegan Housewives”. If that doesn’t warrant a “so-called”, I dunno what does. Is it so unreasonable to set as a standard that someone who refers to himself or herself as vegan actually behave like a vegan?
As for Kourtney’s being gracious? She’s actively deceiving people by promoting animal products on a site presented as being about veganism which she runs with a non-vegan. Then in an interview, she wags her finger at vegans who themselves are unequivocal and more cut and dried about where they draw their boundaries in terms of their ethics. Perhaps you think that I had a good verbal whooping coming to me for having had the nerve to call her out on some of this. Frankly, I found her response a little disingenuous and if anything, it just confirmed that she’s completely unapologetic about co-opting the term vegan while endorsing animal exploitation. I’d much rather have been proven wrong, even if she’d done so angrily.