Reactions to story from The New York Times
The Carrot Some Vegans Deplore
http://www.nytimes.com/ 2008/ 03/ 27/ fashion/ 27vegan.html?ex=1364702400&en=e79c6caa...Reactions / posts that link to this article
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The Carrot Some Vegans Deplore - New York Times
http://happykatie.tumblr.com/post/30814687The Carrot Some Vegans Deplore - New York Times: A vegan strip club gets the smack down from vegan feminazis everywhere. Goooood.
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http://wp.poppolitics.com/archives/2008/03/soy-sex-a-vegan-s...
Soy Sex: A Vegan Strip Club … Well, I Just Can’t Take That Seriously 03.29.08 | by Bernie Heidkamp A vegan Gentleman’s Club is something right out of The Onion — but you can’t make the comments of Casa Diablo owner Johnny Diablo up (unlike his name): Mr. Diablo isn?t concerned with the “feminazis,” as he calls them. As a vegan himself, he says he hasn?t worn or eaten animal products in 24 years and is worried about cruelty to animals. “My sole purpose in this universe is to save every possible creature from pain and suffering,” he said. And I know objectification of women and commodification of a movement are important issues — and I’ve spent a great deal of space here writing about them — but I can’t help but laugh at some of these well-intentioned lines and quotes from New York Times writer Kara Jesella: Casa Diablo is just the latest example of selling veganism with a “Girls Gone Wild” aesthetic […] Isa Chandra Moskowitz, a cookbook author, is among those who believe such images twist the vegan message. “As a feminist, I?m not keen on the idea of using women’s bodies to sell veganism, and I’m not into the idea of using veganism to sell women’s bodies,” she said.[…] The issue of sexism in vegan circles is “extremely polarizing,” said Bob Torres, an author of “Vegan Freak” […] Vegans who use sexuality to promote the cause say it is a good way to convert carnivores — in particular, men […] The article actually does a very good job at getting across the diversity of the vegan community — and the difficulties of tying together progressive agendas and of resisting easy compromises to advance a cause. But, you gotta admit, it’s a pretty silly way to spark the conversation.
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Drop act, not clothes
http://www.theoldschoollunch.com/2008/04/09/drop-act-not-clo...[I wrote this originally as a “test piece” for a blogging job I applied for. It’s been a while and I haven’t heard back so I’m guessing they didn’t like it. Which, with hindsight, shouldn’t be surprising because as I take a lot of shots on a so-called “progressive” cause and their blog is meant to be, in all ways, “progressive.” Anyways, here it is because writing about those 8 teens beating up that one girl is just too much to write right now.] If there are two things that generate mass numbers of page-views and trackbacks on the internet, it’s naked women and, well, naked women using their bodies as a form of protest. A recent New York Times article on a vegan strip club in Oregon suggests that the performers there are indeed protesting against animal cruelty and promoting a vegan (or vegetarian) lifestyle (only vegetarian food is served to the largely male patrons and the performers are asked to abandon their leather chaps and feather scarves). As their owner, Johnny Diablo, told the times, “My sole purpose in this universe is to save every possible creature from pain and suffering.” Except Diablo, shockingly enough, isn’t the one naked and dancing for singles at Casa Diablo’s Gentlemen’s Club which also happens to not be doing so well in business. So instead of just flat out paying to objectify a woman, you can now pay to gawk at a woman while scarfing a meatless snack and knowing that she’s wearing (or not wearing) only 100% pure cotton. But for what the vegan strip club doesn’t attract in business, it pushes the public conversation (or at least the Oregon conversation) yet again to what animal rights groups like PETA have made famous for so long. When it comes to drawing attention to animal abuse or promoting a vegan or vegetarian diet, naked female bodies draw attention and apparently it’s worth the price admission. And by “admission” I mean putting to reality the Penthouse’s idea of women. Take, for instance, some of the most “dugg” Digg.com links regarding anything “PETA.” It should be no shock that pages like “Eva Mendez Nude PETA Campaign ad, WOW!” garner massive hits while a general image search on Google for “PETA” would have you thinking that you accidentally typed in “Playboy.” You could say the way PETA advertises it’s message is “unusual” or even “controversial” but then again, is it? The formula: Strip women naked or nearly naked, have them parade around or sometimes sit in cages (like the animals they say are suffering) to attract attention. Sound familiar? It should. After all, it’s the male-dominated mass marketing of everything from alcohol to TV shows and popular “horror” films that wrote the book on how to use women’s bodies and the image of women in pain or captivity to sell, sell, sell. But wait, don’t PETA’s ads also feature naked men? And don’t they also advertise in other ways? Yes, but if the debacle that is naked sushi taught us anything, it’s that having a few naked men getting spicy tuna rolls plucked off their bodies doesn’t exactly make it less degrading that so called “naked sushi models” are almost exclusively women. In other words, in the context of our culture which objectifies women like one’s salary depends on it, having men involved (sushi), trying to recruit men for the cause (general vegetarianism or veganism) or getting men to notice that the women baring it all are beautiful despite what Hollywood says (Suicide Girls), isn’t enough. And as anyone who has promoted any sort of event on any college campus will tell you, if you’re getting most attention from a bullhorn and loud music at the local square, your handing out of flyers at the southeast wing of the Sciences library doesn’t make the bullhorn (and music) any less irritating. And until animals rights activists drop the act and not their clothes, the conversation will, unfortunately, continue to be largely about how Eva Mendes posed nude (WOW!) and not about how Eva Mendes is speaking out against cruelty to animals.
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http://www.alternet.org/module/email/?storyID=81124&type=blo...
Share and save this post: Got a tip for a post?: Email us | Anonymous form Get Reproductive Justice and Gender in your mailbox! Sexy Hot Vegans Posted by Jill Filipovic, Feministe on April 2, 2008 at 1:07 PM. Shocker: Animal rights activism can be sexist. TWO things that you can find a lot of in Portland, Ore., are vegans and strip clubs. Johnny Diablo decided to open a business to combine both. At his Casa Diablo Gentlemen's Club, soy protein replaces beef in the tacos and chimichangas; the dancers wear pleather, not leather. Many are vegans or vegetarians themselves. But Portland is also home to a lot of young feminists, and some are not happy with Mr. Diablo's venture. Since he opened the strip club last month, their complaints have been "all over the Internet," he said. "One of them came in here once. I could tell she had an attitude right when she came in. She was all hostile." Mr. Diablo isn't concerned with the "feminazis," as he calls them. As a vegan himself, he says he hasn't worn or eaten animal products in 24 years and is worried about cruelty to animals. "My sole purpose in this universe is to save every possible creature from pain and suffering," he said. Except for women, apparently. I am glad, however, to see feminist vegetarians, vegans and animal rights activists speaking out against sexism while still promoting animal liberation theory. I’m happy to see that they don’t buy the line that any means to promote veganism are a-ok. Isa Chandra Moskowitz, a cookbook author, is among those who believe such images twist the vegan message. "As a feminist, I'm not keen on the idea of using women's bodies to sell veganism, and I'm not into the idea of using veganism to sell women's bodies," she said. Ms. Moskowitz is the host of an online forum, Post Punk Kitchen (www.www.theppk.com), some of whose members are debating Mr. Diablo's vegan strip club. (Last week Mr. Diablo put the club up for sale, although not because of the criticism, he said. He may have overestimated the appeal of stripping to vegans, or of vegan cuisine to striptease fans; an earlier vegan restaurant he ran was poorly received.) The issue of sexism in vegan circles is "extremely polarizing," said Bob Torres, an author of "Vegan Freak," a guide to living a vegan lifestyle, which generally means avoiding the use of animals for food, clothing or other purposes. Mr. Torres, like many vegans, disavows the "essential idea at the heart of some animal rights activism that any means justifies the ends," he said. Certain activists, he added, care only about "animal suffering and ignore the suffering of humans," a category into which he would put women who are exploited. Read the rest of the post on the flip side » AlterNet Home » Post Tools:
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V is for Vegansexual III
http://vegoutcollegepotato.wordpress.com/2008/04/08/v-is-for...I’m a little behind so let’s catch up. The New York Times printed a interesting article on veganism and using sexuality to promote it. I think my favorite part was the line: “I don’t want to be a piece of meat. I’m not going to eat a piece of meat.” The article went on to comment on the use of these sexy ads to bring men to veganism and vegetarianism (as I did in my previous V is for Vegansexual blogs). If heart health, sympathy for animals, and environmental facts aren’t enough to get your man off the patty, check this out: A study on The Effect of Meat Consumption On Body Odor Attractiveness was conducted at Charles University, Prague, on 17 male odor donors and rated by 32 female students. The results were that “odors of donors on the nonmeat diet were judged as more pleasant, more attractive, and less intense.” So boys are out there buying extra strength deodorant and expensive colognes and then making themselves stink by turning around and eating a hamburger? That’s just counterproductive. Then, if they should be so lucky as to find a girl with a weak sense of smell who likes him regardless of his meal time choices… By the time they are over 40, one study says, more than half of them will be suffering from erectile dysfunction. According to the Erectile Dysfunction Institute, up to 90 percent of all cases of impotence are physical, not caused by anxiety but by high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, prostate cancers or inflammations, and hormonal imbalances. All of which have been proven to be cured by a low-fat vegan diet. So regardless of half naked herbivores and scantily clad celebrities, if men want to get it on til the break of dawn and into their 40s, break the meat-eating habit. Also, check out this video on vegan aphrodisiacs, if it doesn’t get you excited, it made me laugh.
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soy -: milk `s links for 2008-04-08
http://www.www-milk.com/soy-milk/soy-milk-s-links-for-2008-0...soy -: milk `s links for 2008-04-08 The Carrot Some Vegans Deplore - New York Times Meant to link this up a while ago, but didn’t. In case you haven’t seen it yet… [thanks to college friend K’ai for sending this along] (tags: feminism veganism) You Use It Every Day. But Can You Make It Cook? - New York Times Any veggie that can be steamed can be microwave soy milk d, cooking it both faster and better, according to this NY Times piece. [via Lifehacker] (tags: cooking microwave soy milk ) Technorati Tags: soy
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links for 2008-04-08
http://www.vegblog.org/archive/2008/04/07/links-for-2008-04-...The Carrot Some Vegans Deplore - New York Times Meant to link this up a while ago, but didn’t. In case you haven’t seen it yet… [thanks to college friend K’ai for sending this along] (tags: feminism veganism) You Use It Every Day. But Can You Make It Cook? - New York Times Any veggie that can be steamed can be microwaved, cooking it both faster and better, according to this NY Times piece. [via Lifehacker] (tags: cooking microwave) Don’t just do something | Taste Better Eric takes a look at activism and reminds us that not all activism is equal. (tags: acitivism veganism)
