Last winter, we were doing a Vegan outreach near Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore. We were speaking about Veganism, and distributing leaflets to the passersby. We are against leafleting because of environmental reasons, and giveaway the leaflets only to the people who looks interested/asks for them. A group of teenagers where passing by. A girl in the group stopped by, and asked us for a leaflet. We gave one to her. After receiving the leaflet she went forward to join her group. One of her male friend snatched the leaflet from her hand, tore it into pieces, and threw the pieces on the road. He said something to her in an angry tone which was inaudible. The girl turned to look at us, she was embarrassed. I was furious at the boy for tearing the leaflet and wasting resources. He could have easily returned the leaflet instead of wasting it.
Little did I know then that it was more concerning than merely the wastage of resources. Yesternight, while reading a study on how womyn are stigmatized for being Vegan, I realized that it was underlying sexism at play. It is a well known fact that Vegans are stigmatized by malzoans for being Vegan, but unfortunately, womyn are more stigmatized than their male counterparts. This is mainly because of the sexist belief that womyn cannot choose for themselves, and that their male counterparts have control over them.
Speciesism is as bad as sexism, because non-humyn animals, the victims of speciesism, are considered as the property of the speciesists, the humyn, just like womyn, the victims of sexism, are considered as the property of the sexists, the men. There is clearly an intersection between both kind of oppression. For more understanding on the issue, one can read "The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory" by Carol J. Adams
The Unknown Poet.
