the big issue
W
e live in a world that
is gripped with fear -
fear of terrorism, fear of
death, fear of being hurt,
and fear of being
different. In fact, for
many, the fear of being different is so
intense, that it is a phobia; xenophobia to
be precise. Xenophobia is defined by the
Merriam-Webster dictionary as “fear and
hatred of strangers or foreigners or of
anything that is strange or foreign”. We
usually see xenophobia rear its ugly head as
racism, but if we look a bit deeper, xenophobia
affects many areas of life and many groups
of people. It seems that as a race, humans
fear being different so much, that we openly
discriminate against and ridicule those who
do not conform to our standards of normal.
Vegans are a marginalised, and at times,
despised group in the western world.
Veganism is growing the world over, but
it’s still early days and the xenophobia
surrounding veganism is rampant.
A simple google search using the question,
‘why do people hate vegans?’ yielded
12,100,000 results. At the bottom of the
page, under the heading, ‘searches related
to why people hate vegans’ the following
options are given: ‘how to make a vegan shut
up’; ‘why do people make fun of vegans?’;
‘obnoxious vegans’ and many more. There
would be very few vegans who have not
been ridiculed or harassed for their views.
A hatred for vegans and veganism goes
beyond the norm, and many omnivores
make stereotypes and judgements against
the plant-based population. This can be
bewildering when you consider the reasons
why people actually choose a vegan life-
style. As Hesham Mahdi’s study in the last
issue of The Australian Vegan Magazine
revealed, 80 per cent of people turn vegan
for the animals. Health is the next most
popular reason, and thirdly, to help save the
environment. In and of itself, every one of
those reasons is noble and legitimate.
Considering we live in a world where
we are encouraged to be ourselves and
to be who we want to be, veganism is
still, at times, considered a ridiculous and
unhealthy choice. Admitting you’re vegan
is almost asking to be ridiculed, and it’s
certainly not a lifestyle for those who can’t
handle confrontation. It invites intrusive
questioning about your health, morals, andVeganism: threatening the culture
Vegans are being ridiculed all over social media and discriminated against on a daily
basis. But there’s a deeper reason - veganism is threatening omnis’ culture, and
everything they have ever know. By Annelise Stephenson.
intelligence, and of course, listening to all
those reasons why humans are not meant to
live on plant-based foods.
In his book, Some We Love, Some We
Hate, Some We Eat: Why It’s So Hard To
Think Straight About Animals (2010), Hal
Herzog points out the hypocrisy of society
as a whole in the way we view animals. He
uses the examples of cultures that consume
dog meat, and how this is viewed as
barbaric by western nations who classify
dogs as pets and even family members.
Dogs are now so much a part of our lives
that we can buy clothes and accessories for
them, as well as organic food, dog washes
and beautiful funerals. Herzog writes that in
China, puppy meat is a favourite and people
can even buy and eat dog penises. In the
Congo Basin, Herzog explains that dogs are
beaten to death slowly, in order to tenderise
the meat to make for better eating. Incertain animals.” Dr Joy reveals that
omnivores do not think about why they’ll
eat some animals but not others, nor do
they think about why they eat animals at
all. She says that because carnism is
invisible, people don’t even realise that
eating animals is a choice and part of a
belief system. (Eating animals is not a
necessity to our survival, and many studies
have revealed that the avoidance of animal
products can actually increase the life
span). This is key to understanding why
there is so much fear and hatred aimed at
veganism. Veganism challenges a belief
system that is so ingrained into our western
psyche, that any opposition to it threatens
the core of how we identify ourselves. It
causes us to question what we’ve been told
and how we’ve been raised. The natural
human response is to fight, ridicule and
deny. That way, we can safely retreat back
into our belief system and continue with
what we know. Put simply, veganism
actually threatens people’s culture.
A common complaint against vegans by
‘carnists’ is that we think we are morally
superior and enlightened. The fact is, once
a person becomes vegan and recognises
carnism for what it is - a cultural belief
system - we are able to see how ethically,
morally and nutritionally-detrimental it is
to consume animal products. We do not
need them on a physiological level, and to
continue consuming animals and animal
by-products is simply unsustainable to the
planet. That does not mean we feel
morally superior, instead, we desire to
reveal carnism for what it actually is and to
wake up those who are ignorant to it. We
were once there ourselves and understand
how all-consuming carnism is.
Understanding carnism should help us
in fighting the xenophobia surrounding
veganism. All the ridicule and anger is
attached to a deeply-rooted belief system
that threatens to reshape people’s entire
beings. It challenges their culture, their
comfort and their habits. Becoming a vegan
means reshaping your world-view, and
learning how to live in this newly-constructed
inner world which the majority of the planet
is hostile towards. As the famous French
essayist Michel de Montaigne reiterates,
“Ignorance is the softest pillow on which a
man can rest his head”. Let’s remove that
pillow gently.classical Hinduism, dogs are considered the
“outcasts of the animal world” and never to
be eaten at all. Some go as far as to believe
that a dog could pollute food just by looking
at it. Hindus hold cows in high esteem
and many do not eat them because of this,
but cows are the favoured type of meat in
the western world. All the world over, the
views on which animal flesh is acceptable
changes from country to country. So, is it
reasonable to ask whether dead animal
flesh should be eaten at all?
Dr Melanie Joy is a Harvard-educated
psychologist who coined the term “carnism”
to describe the “invisible belief system, or
ideology, that conditions people to eat“Veganism challenges
a belief system that is
so ingrained into our
western psyche, that
any opposition to it
threatens the core
of how we identify
ourselves”.