Marginalization in the Mainstream, Commiseration in the Community

by Stephanie Ernst

category: Activism and Actions

Published November 04, 2009 @ 04:35PM PT

• 9407 Views

There are occasional days when, as an animal rights advocate, all you feel capable of doing is burying your face in the pillow and screaming out your frustrations. And such days are why it's important for vegan animal rights advocates to seek out and maintain supportive community, whether face-to-face or online or both. When too often, it seems like most of our fellow humans are plugging their ears, rolling their eyes, patting us on the head, or altogether dismissing us (and by extension, the animals for whom we speak), it's good and necessary to have compassionate community to reach out to, to know and feel connected to people who get it, people who can commiserate with us and then encourage us and get us back out there.

We still live in a world where no matter how big the news, no matter how important or meaningful the story, no matter how great the injustice, when the news, story, or injustice has to do with nonhuman animals, even comparatively minor human stories take precedence, and the nonhuman stories are flashed and forgotten, if not simply buried from the start. We still live in a world where if you care too much about someone (or some group) who isn't human, and you believe that someone has rights, you're called sentimental, and your intellect and priorities are questioned, even if that same intellect and judgment were respected before you outed yourself as a vegan and animal rights advocate.

We live in a world where all the evidence shows us how astonishingly like us our fellow animals are, in the most important of ways -- in the ways mothers and children bond, youngsters play, and friendships are formed, tested, strengthened, or strained; in the ways problems are contemplated, solutions are devised, and death and suffering are feared and avoided; in the ways joy and happiness are not only expressed but actively sought; in the ways loved ones are fought for, protected, and deeply, audibly, visibly mourned; in the ways love between two beings can lead to comfort and elation as well as the deepest sorrow.

Yet we live in a world where most people still refuse to go beyond an "oh, isn't that interesting" response to that evidence of our alikeness, if they acknowledge it at all -- because real personal change isn't as easy and hip as self-congratulation for paying a couple extra dollars for organic milk and free-range flesh, and it takes no effort at all to forget that those labels are meaningless. We live in a world where our fellow animals aren't even assumed to have the right to exist, where it is constantly implied that their right just to be must be justified by their sentimental human advocates, where the standard belief is that we have the right to kill them, use them, or "allow" them to live according to our whims of the day. We live in a world where a consistent philosophy of nonviolence, of not killing when we don't have to, is considered "extreme."

We live in a world where there are days when we feel cynical like this -- and feel compelled to write cynical posts -- instead of feeling the hopeful emotions and writing the optimistic essays. And that's OK, I've learned. It's natural to feel this sometimes, to feel the hopefulness and positive energy one day and the anger and frustration the next. It's more or less the nature of being deep inside a movement that is still growing and that, too often, is still mocked, misunderstood, and marginalized even by those we consider our allies. And really, we need both the anger and the hopefulness to keep fueling us in this struggle.

But one of the relatively minor things that made me angry on this particular day is also something that brought me a smile. A New York Times food writer made a foolish remark in a piece reviewing cookbooks yesterday, in which she implied that vegetarians don't have a place in the "real American family kitchen" -- because clearly, you're not a real American family unless there's a hunk of dead animal on the table. And if vegetarians aren't real Americans, vegans must not even be human. Compassion and nonviolence are sooo unpatriotic. So where's the part that brought me mild comfort? Vegansaurus's response:

Hear that, you guys? “Real” Americans don’t want universal healthcare, live in major cities, or have domestic arrangements other than marrying someone of the opposite sex and making babies, and they especially aren’t fucking vegetarians.

This is rich coming from the New York goddamn Times, you know?

The feeling I got from reading this is the same feeling I got when I saw friends retweeting the following remark this morning, regarding yesterday's anti-marriage equality voting: "I would like to invite 53% of the State of Maine to kiss 100% of my ass." The original topics are certainly not funny, but the responses of my comrades gave me a kick. Like I said, it's important to know people who get it. On the really bad days, animal advocates, you just have to head to one of the local vegan joints or open up the Google Reader or enter into the worlds of Facebook and Twitter and vegan forums and surround yourself with the people who get it. Be angry if you need to be angry. Bitch about it. Cuss up a goddamn storm about how fucking tired you are of all the crap and demand to know what the HELL! is wrong with people and let your pals commiserate and join in.

And then, after it's all out of your system, take a deep breath, picture the faces of the ones you're fighting for, remember why we're all doing this, remember where we ourselves came from, and go reread some of the optimistic stories and watch the inspiring videos we all know are out there -- the stories of animals saved, of people changed, of sanctuaries built, of hearts opened. Remember that this was just a bad day. And tomorrow, because there is indeed much to be hopeful about, pull all the hopefulness and patience back out -- and begin again.

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Related: Animal Rights Is a Mainstream Movement; On the Disheartening Aspects of Animal Advocacy and Beginning Again; On Being More Than an (Animal Rights) Activist

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