Are legit communities even possible?
We may have different views on pornography or assimilationists but we are working for the greater goal right?
In a classroom, sure we are! When you start putting things into action, that's when things get problematic. I can understand this from personal experience as a member of the animal rights and vegan "communities". That's correct that they are not one in the same. Before I go on let me break it down to you.
Vegan Community - Consists mostly of health vegans and ethical vegans. Some health vegans are also ethical vegans, while some are not. Some ethical vegans are health vegans, while some are not. Some health vegans do it to be healthy, some do it because they are already dying and heard that a vegan diet can save them. Some ethical vegans do it for animals, some for environment. And many other random combinations occur, some more rare. The one thing they can all agree on is that they want to live off of a plant based diet. This community is totally divided right in half. With health vegans on one side and ethical vegans on the other.
Vegetarian Community - Take everything I said about vegans and replace the word vegan with vegetarian.
Animal Rights Community - This group is focused on animal welfare. Some eat animals and their products and use them for entertainment while at the same time fighting for animal rights. This can be problematic for vegan members of this group.
Ok there is a short version, kind of describing three communities that I am involved with.
Overall (excluding the pure health vegans for the following example), we all just want a better world for people and animals. We should be able to unite and work on that basis alone. I personally strive for it and reach out as much as I can to non vegans. But when conversation and action begins, that's when things get problematic and it gets hard.
I am the founder and president of a local group that tries to include vegans, vegetarians, and anyone even curious or interested. It ends up being a mostly vegan group. Why? We want the same thing right?
A lot of vegetarians get scared off when people start revealing the truth about dairy and eggs. We make a point not to preach to someone, "Oh my god?! You are just a vegetarian? Do you not know that cows......" You get it. We don't do that. However, I am not going to put limits on people's speech. If a certain conversation comes up, I don't see why we should have to lie for the sake of the vegetarians.
"Did you hear about that investigation they did at that Ohio DAIRY farm?"
"Yeah man, that shit is FUCKED UP that they do to those cows....."
This is enough to divide ethical vegans and vegetarians. I can't help but feel like it stems from some kind of guilt.
Now here is where things get REALLY problematic.When you bring in all the non vegan animal rights folks.
"I want to save dolphins, you want to save dolphins.....But wait you are eating products that kill dolphins, you are eating the dolphins food source....wait a minute.... Why do you care so much about dolphins but you have no problem eating pigs? Pigs are smarter than dogs, but you actually spend money to support their torture and murder!? HYPOCRITE SPECIEIST!"
You get it? This is the general thought pattern in this situation, even if never spoken aloud, that causes community to fail. Instead of pointing the figure, I should be thinking, "Well....we don't see eye to eye, but we both want to save dolphins lives and that's a good thing."
As the "leader" of Tri-City Veg, even I make this mistake. It's so hard not to. When I hear that a vegan ate went back to vegetarian, sometimes all I can think is, "Oh my god, how? What happened to that person? What were they thinking? Maybe they don't even care? I would never do that!". (Policing)
When I should be thinking, "No one is perfect and I know this person cares, they are doing more than most people".
Communities.... Tough stuff here. Are they truly possible, truly able to work for the group and self? I believe so. Even though Sullivan doesn't actually say this, I feel that being able to read all this about the queer community and have it all pointed out. It challenges us to find a way.
It's also interesting to realize that what divides us is what we believe, our ideals, and politics. Not race, religion, gender, sex, or ethnicity.
(It's interesting to me how I can often see the similarities of the "queer community" and the "ethical vegan community". Ever since I took gender and comm I have been drawing similarities. Is anyone else able to do this with groups that you are a part of?)
Question:
It seems to me that in most communities, there lies a practice of patriarchal ways, saying "This is the way how we are suppose to look, this is how we will be seen."
How do we truly get away from that? Because so far I don't think any "community" as a whole has done so.
No comments:
Post a Comment