Henpecking isn’t vegan.
I think that a vegan diet is awesome and I am thrilled that it is being embraced by many and spreading. It’s very good when going out, as it’s nice and indeed important to be able to have animal friendly options. But the vegan “movement”, not so much. I am an animalist, I care about animals. I don’t micro-manage other people’s lifestyles. I care about animals. I think that we need societal change and I welcome every small step forward.
I am happy whenever someone, anyone, signs a petition, votes for a candidate who will promote better laws for animals, reduces the amount of animal based food they buy, has a friendly conversation about caring for animals, adopts an animal, donates towards animal advocacy, and generally takes into consideration the interests of sentient non-human animals.
No-one needs the narrow-minded judgement of facebook vegan groups who only welcome you if you’re “100% vegan” in their eyes, following the dogma du jour or if you’re intending on getting there and as long as you keep quiet about it on the way.
There are times when it’s good to just look at positive stuff, pages like the Vegan strategist for instance, or what Peter Singer is up to. It’s all pragmatic and friendly.
The following was written by Scott Lawrence over at Friendly and Pragmatic Vegans and Vegetarians:
I’ve stated it many times here, that my decision to become vegan was actually hindered for about 12 months, because I wanted to help animals, but not join the extremist movement of Vegans who feel they are above everyone else. There’s no such thing as a 100% Vegan, and those who think they are 100%’ers, are kidding themselves! We need to welcome anybody who wants to do better for animals, no matter how small it is, provided there isn’t a mixed agenda, or sinister, financially motivated reason behind their actions, and help the others (if they ask) as to what they can do to improve their practices. But not make enemies out of all who refuse to think the same as ‘we’.
Even meat eaters are mostly against cruelty, but have little idea of what happens in this industry. Help them to learn more about this, and more will join our practices, but the most pathetic actions are of the Vegans who then hen peck other Vegans, who they believe aren’t up to scratch. How very unprofessional in the representation / ambassador practices of a movement. Shame on them, for distancing vegans from others, and creating ongoing friction, which clearly results in more animals being consumed, through people not wanting anything to do with such a radicalized movement!
About the title of this piece: I liked the animal part of the term “henpecking” and how it contrasted with the term “vegan”. Since henpecking can be synonymous with bullying, it seemed fitting. I don’t like that “henpecking” is generally used to criticise women and I prefer to avoid using sexist and denigrating terms. Thus, the intent here is not in any way to single out female vegans or to condone any form of sexism. Thank you for reading this.
