Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Cant say I feel very privileged when Im eating some shitty salad wrap at an airport. Also not sure why this article even made a blip on th tiny radar of news info I look at each day, but alas..I live to share with you PPK...or is it PPPK?

http://mylifeasafeminista.tumblr.com/po ... -privilege

That's from last December and nothing that appears on a tumbler should ever, ever be considered news.
ppanda

Whining about privilege on tumblr is not at all privileged. And neither is gourmet cheese, apparently.

This really depends on what you're eating. I didn't feel very privileged when I was only able to afford Ramen noodles, which I could only find the non-vegan seasoning packets, so I ate the noodles with hot water and sriracha for almost two weeks in a row. I think it is kind of privileged to be able to eat healthy but healthy isn't synonymous with veganism.

I could pick apart this entire blog post but it all just comes off as very defensive instead of educational. It doesn't really contain anything to back up their opinion.

I honestly don't understand the point of that. Me thinks the author has just learned about privilege and also doesn't like veganism.

Someone recently reminded me that 'blood of migrant workers' is on my hands due to my being vegan. Everyone knows there are no labor and human rights abuses in slaughterhouses or on farms and ranches. No, none at all.

And, of course, vegans are the only ones who eat produce. Everyone knows that.

Obviously!

And everyone knows that if you can't solve ALL the world's problems with your veganism, you're an overprivileged hypocrite.

"Burgers" are number 3 on the authors list of likes, so you're probably right.

Agreed. This is what I was thinking while reading it.

In response, you should point out that you WASH your hands REGULARLY, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Well, yes, it is. It's also a privilege to have any information about diets and not just eat the same thing every day.
You could say that about any food.
Fresh produce and olive oil are staples, I thought. So are spices (this isn't the middle ages). And it's not like only vegans use oil and spices or eat vegetables, unless I'm mistaken and most omnivores like entirely on preserves. Dairy alternatives are only hard to find if you don't life near any supermarkets or health food shops. Getting good tofu can be tricksome, so Having time and energy to prepare your own food is a privilege, vegan or not. Eejit.
Again, I'd give you this one, if it weren't for the fact that asking if something is suitable for vegans is hardly the most daunting task in the world.
I'm not one of them, so that makes me privileged?
Do you know what privilege means? I suppose it's not a right, but honestly. Most people I know are happy to, say, not put butter on potatoes until after I've taken a few. There's a difference between being privileged and not being surrounded by meanies.
I'm sure there are more rules against eating certain types of meat or dairy, usually to do with taboos or fasting. The only Western religion that I know of that uses animal bits ceremonially is voodoo, and that is not something one finds very often in rural Wiltshire.

Many people are also vegan for the same reason. (Maybe not for anemia, but definitely for the other reasons.) Thanks for the quick summary Gulliver! (Thanks also distracting me from real work. It's bloody quiet on the boards right now; I might've actually accomplished something without this interlude.)

Amen! Speak truth to power, sister.

And can we talk about how privileged civil rights leaders were for a minute? I mean, Reverand Martin Luther King, Jr.? Must be nice. Sorry, not all of us can take time off from work to participate in "marches." Northern civil rights activists were even worse--college students from middle class backgrounds who could spend months at a time vacationing in Mississippi working for social justice.

No, sorry, I've got too many blog essays to write to even consider partaking in the rare joy of cooking for myself. Like the beleaguered people of sub-Saharan Africa, I'll just go to Denny's. Solidarity!

I don't understand what the person is trying to say and what everyone here seems to be arguing against. I think being vegan is the right thing to do and given my circumstances, I can do it, so I should do it. I am vegan because I can be. I don't buy that people can't be vegan due to allergies, but there are lots of things that would impede one's ability to be vegan that have to do with privilege. I think it can be done under more hardship-related circumstances, but it is more difficult.

Like "exploitation", one of the useful qualities of "privilege" is its ambiguity. It can either mean "having some kind of benefit or advantage", or "having some kind of benefit or advantage, you crasshole". This allows people to pretend to be talking about one thing, while very obviously meaning something else--in effect, on the internet, it rarely means much more than "you aren't allowed to have an opinion about this". Take cover when the p-bombs start dropping.

It's true that lots of vegans wallow in privilege, but not especially more than your average feminist blogger--for the most part, vegans are more tuned into these ideas than your typical citizen of the affluent world. What matters here is how you use your privilege, and it's mystifying when people act like doing something good with the gifts you've been given is worse than doing nothing at all. It's just typical meat-eater defensiveness: "If what you're saying is true, then it doesn't reflect particular well on me and my habits. But I'm a good person, therefore you're wrong. Why don't you get off your high horse!"

I once had a conversation with a friend about how soy milk is more expensive and therefore veganism is stupid because it's just for privileged people.

Yes, because the high cost of soy milk invalidates an entire philosophy.

Also, if you go to any asian market, soy milk is pretty forkin cheap.

Soy milk powder is incredibly cheap. I would imagine in many countries soy milk would be cheaper that dairy milk because but I don't know for sure.

The nearest sizeable one for me is about an hour and a half in the car. Luckily, every single supermarket or minimart I've been into in the last five years carries it.

I mourn cheap hemp milk... it's gotten so expensive...

Yeah, I just meant really that in some demographics that are considered not privileged at all, like many high asian density areas, chinatowns etc, well soy milk is pretty frakken cheap. Mostly just think it's ridiculous that people feel so smug and superior when they make the 'discovery' that we vegans are so privileged because we can afford things like 'soy milk'. So damn ignorant. Nevermind the fact that many vegans don't buy or like dairy or meat replacements at all, and get along just fine.

i guess im confused what the point of that weird little rant was???
i mean it's so easily picked apart with anyone with an IQ higher than a goldfish.

the whole thing makes me feel like omnis are out toiling in the factory farms keeping the whole planet alive and come home exhausted and have no energy and no money and no brain power to eat anything besides something off the dollar menu from wendys while vegans are sitting around in their designer clothes sipping tea and eating apparently highly expensive produce coming in spices.

and im not sure the food allergy arguement holds much water. i mean other than soy allergies one would argue having food allergies would be a good reason to become vegan. and even with a soy allergy you can still be vegan.

if they want to eat a burger then go eat a damn burger the vegans dont care!!!

not to mention that meat and dairy is way more expensive than produce.

Duck and cover.

Well, my cousin is allergic to soya, gluten, potatoes (and animal milk!) and used to be allergic to many fruit and vegetables, so being vegan would be much more challenging for him than for someone with no allergies.. But I don't see how that makes it horrible and unethical for other people to be vegan? If it is, the blog author is horrible and priveleged for eating her gourmet cheese.

It is a very strange post and I don't quite see what point she is trying to make.