The Anti-Anthropocentric Capacity of Mainstream Vegan Discourse

Corey Wrenn, PhDLeave a comment

 

By Louis Arthur Gough

 

Introduction

Anthropocentrism – the normative (in Westernised societies, at least) notion that the human animal is in fact transcendent of animality and superior to the rest of existence, specifically the professed ‘archetypal’ human subject (white, cis-male, heterosexual, neuro-typical, able-bodied, property-owning, etcetera) – constitutes a foundational delusion undergirding interconnected human to nonhuman animal, intra-human, and environmental oppressions and exploitations. Thus, as worded by Crist and Kopnina (2014), ‘[q]uestioning anthropocentrism… is a fertile way of shifting the focus of attention away from the problem symptoms of our time… to the investigation of root causes’ (pp. 387-388).

This questioning – or better yet, repudiating – of anthropocentrism is, I believe, veganism’s most crucial capacity. It goes without saying, however, that not all manifestations of veganism exhibit this capacity. In a recent study (Gough, 2023) published in Relations. Beyond Anthropocentrism, I conducted a critical discourse analysis of three leading (for better or worse) vegan advocacy organisations with the aim of appraising their anti-anthropocentric vigour. Given the inextricability of nonhuman and intra-human oppressions, and the requisite need to decentre the ‘archetypal’ human, the intersectional aptitude of said discourse was also scrutinised. As expected, the results – a selection of which I outline below – were mixed.

 

Anti-Anthropocentric Discourse

Much of the organisations’ output challenged the anthropocentric status quo. ‘Human narcissism’ – defined by Calarco (2014) as an ‘incessant attention to and rotation around exclusively human existence’ (p. 416) – was undermined by endorsements of veganism that centred nonhuman animals, nonhuman individuality, nonhuman interests, (potentially) beyond-human relationships, and nonhuman self-ownership in defiance of the egomaniacal fantasy that other animals’ bodies and secretions exist for human benefit.

The illusory human/animal dichotomy was also subverted. On occasion, the organisations refused the speciesist conventions of the English language, extended typically human-centric indefinite pronouns to include, for example, our nonhuman ‘neighbors’; whilst anthropocentrism’s moral hierarchy was undercut, most obviously, by a direct contrasting of the human pleasure and nonhuman suffering resulting from the production of so-called ‘animal products’. This latter effort, I argue, both foregrounds the ‘absent referent’ (Adams, 2015) and discredits human interest in the exploitation of nonhumans.

 

Anthropocentric Discourse

The reinforcement of these same expressions of anthropocentrism was, frustratingly, evident too. Whether through a health, human-oriented environmental, or self-absorbed ethical lens, the notion that we ought to stop exploiting other animals primarily for our own benefit sustained the narcissistic centring of human interests. As did the overshadowing of the direct victims of ‘animal products’ in favour of more ‘attractive’ – from a human perspective, of course – species impacted indirectly by mass nonhuman animal (ab)use. Also of note was the organisations’ deification of ‘compassionate’ vegan practitioners, out ‘saving’ the lives of myriad ‘voiceless’ nonhuman beings, which perpetuates what Lilia Trenkova (qtd. in Brueck & McNeill, 2020) calls a ‘toxic human savior complex’ (p. 315); and an emphasis on the apparent ‘human-likeness’ of victimised nonhuman animals, which plays into the very criteria underpinning much historic and ongoing oppression (human and nonhuman) in the first place.

Moreover, regular references to ‘humans’ and ‘animals’ amounted to missed opportunities to reject the insidious human/animal dichotomy, whilst the associated moral inequalities of anthropocentrism were left unchallenged by the organisations’ human-directed scales of moral urgency between cases of exploitation – whether based on the conditions of said exploitation, such as factory versus ‘family’ farming, or the perceived ‘intelligence’ of the oppressed nonhuman beings in question.

 

Intersectional Awareness & Incompetence

As with above, intersectional aptitude was inconsistent. Oftentimes, the organisations exhibited intersectional awareness by presenting nonhuman animal rights as a component – rather than the final component – of social justice. In this connection, attention was drawn to overlaps between human and nonhuman injustices, such as the ransacking of ecosystems and indigenous communities to support Western demand for ‘animal products’, and egregious worker exploitation within slaughterhouses.

On the other hand, uncritical representations of veganism as ‘easy’ overlooked the experiences of the economically and locationally restricted, whilst celebrations of ‘vegan cappuccinos’ exalted frivolous consumerism and in turn dampened veganism’s radical propensity. Intersectional potential was further blunted by the discriminatory and colonial character of specific demonisations of non-Western practices and – perhaps most frustratingly given the amount of criticism this strategy has received – comparisons between nonhuman and human oppressions which, by exploiting the latter in an attempt to underscore the former, do little to challenge either of them.

 

Conclusion

Persuaded by the Foucauldian position that discourse dictates the perceived respectability – and even intelligibility – of ideas and behaviours, this study treats discourse as inherently ideological, playing a fundamental role in the formation and perpetuation of social conventions. This includes the exploitation and consumption of nonhuman life. ‘Changing culture is centrally a matter of changing language’, Fairclough once stated (2000, p. 122), thus our fight against the interconnected oppressions of anthropocentric culture must – in significant part, at least – take place on the level of language. As Nguyen (2019) persuasively contends, ‘we cannot eradicate speciesism if we continue to tolerate it in the very words we speak’ (p. 121). An offshoot of a much larger analysis I am conducting as part of my PhD, this study endeavours to contribute to the rejection of anthropocentrism contained in rhetoric concerning a practice that is indispensable to our moving beyond the arrogant and delusion destruction of human supremacy: veganism.

 

Read the full article here in Relations: Beyond Anthropocentrism.

 

References

Adams, C. J., 2010. The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory. Twentieth Anniversary ed. New York: Continuum.

Brueck, J. F. & McNeill, Z., 2020. Queer and Trans Voices: Achieving Liberation Through Consistent Anti-Oppression. [s.l.]: Sanctuary Publishers.

Calarco, M., 2014. Being Toward Meat: Anthropocentrism, Indistinction, and Veganism. Dialectical Anthropology, 38(4), pp. 415-429.

Crist, E. & Kopnina, H., 2014. Unsettling Anthropocentrism. Dialectical Anthropology, 38(4), pp. 387-396.

Fairclough, N., 2000. New Labour, New Language?. London: Routledge.

Gough, L. A., 2023. Veganism’s Anti-Anthropocentric Capacity: A Critical Analysis of the Advocacy Discourse of Three Prominent Vegan Organisations. Relations. Beyond Anthropocentrism, 11(1), pp. 9-28.

Nguyen, H., 2019. Tongue Tied: Breaking the Language Barrier to Animal Liberation. New York: Lantern Books

Review of “A Traitor to His Species: Henry Bergh and the Birth of the Animal Rights Movement”

Corey Wrenn, PhDLeave a comment

Source: ASPCA

By Affiliate Member, Bouchara Bejaoui

A Traitor to His Species: Henry Bergh and the Birth of the Animal Rights Movement is one of the few historical books that describes the conditions and position of animals in the post-Civil War period in the United States (1861-1865). This book by Freeberg, a historian at the University of Tennessee, is a biography of Henry Bergh, founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) in New York in 1866, during the Gilded Age of America. What makes this book so special is that it immerses us in the daily lives of both humans and animals during this period, detailing decades of animal abuse, suffering, and neglect. Freeberg also explains why and how the first animal rights organization came into being.

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Total liberation: The case for vegan sociology.

Corey Wrenn, PhDLeave a comment

 

Sociology colloquium Thursday 01 June 2023

Dear colleagues,

We are delighted to invite you to a colloquium centred on vegan sociology. Organised by two Essex doctoral researchers, Kerry Preston and Norman Riley, the day will feature talks from academics at the forefront of veganizing sociology. A free vegan lunch will be provided!

Our consumption of animal ‘products’ is predicated on violence, immiseration, exploitation, and oppression. Scholars working in the field of vegan sociology argue for a sociology that incorporates the lives of those beings imprisoned, brutalised, and destroyed for us to eat, drink, and wear. Vegan sociology contends that only by including Nonhuman Animals can we build a truly consistent pro-liberation sociology. The talks presented during this colloquium will challenge sociologists to take the study of veganism seriously.

 

When:              Thursday 01 June 2023 from 1100 to 1630

Where:             CTC 1.02 and online

 

Speakers are:

1100-1200: Dr Corey Lee Wrenn, a sociologist and scholar of social movements and human-nonhuman relations based at the University of Kent, will present her talk What is Vegan Sociology?

1200–1300: Dr Matthew Cole is a Lecturer in Criminology at the Open University. Dr Cole will discuss his contribution to Human-Animal relationships in times of pandemic and climate crises: multispecies sociology for the new normal, edited by Josephine Sutton and Zoei Sutton, and due to be published by Routledge later this year.

1400-1500: Norman Riley will present Choose life: The liberatory potential of political veganism

1500-1600: Dr Kate Stewart, Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of East Anglia, will present her talk Vegan Sociology and the endangered emancipatory purposes of the University.

1600: Open discussion

 

Speaker abstracts are attached to this email

Please do join us for what will be a day of informative discussion and debate on this nascent and exciting field of study.

Register here or see the flyer

We look forward to seeing you on June 1st.

 

Vegans: PC-Ravaged Clowns or Plant-Powered Pioneers?

Corey Wrenn, PhDLeave a comment

Source: Daily Mirror

By Affiliate Member, Norm Riley

The former, according to the UK TV presenter, journalist, ‘real meat’ loving millionaire man of the people and leader of the vegan resistance, Piers Morgan.

Morgan, permanently engaged in a personal battle with cancel culture, was so infuriated by a vegan sausage roll in 2019 that he labelled vegans ‘PC-ravaged clowns.’ Quorn filling wrapped in puff pastry was for this free speech champion a lethal weapon in arsenal of the army of ‘ultra-sensitive, permanently offended woke snowflakes.’

Rather than malice towards Piers for this spectacular take, I will be forever grateful to him because it inspired me to revisit Karen Morgan’s and Matthew Cole’s seminal 2011 article, Vegaphobia: derogatory discourses of veganism and the reproduction of speciesism in UK national newspapers. Their analysis of UK newspapers from 2007 argued vegans were overwhelmingly portrayed negatively. Writers presented them as hostile, weirdos, killjoys, and figures of ridicule. Subsequent studies in Australia and the USA aligned with such findings.

I wondered whether such portrayals were still the norm bearing in mind the over 300 per cent increase in people identifying as vegan in the UK between 2007 and 2020. Surely an (assumed) increase in public awareness of the detrimental environmental impacts of animal agriculture and the health benefits of a balanced plant-based diet, as well as the visibility of ‘celebrity’ vegans, would mean veganism was no longer denigrated in such ways?

I undertook a content analysis of UK newspapers from 2020, the results of which were recently published in the Journal for Critical Animal Studies. I categorised 11.2 per cent of articles as positive which, while double that of Cole and Morgan, suggested that positive portrayals remained rare. I found 27 per cent of articles portrayed veganism negatively and 61.7 per cent as neutral. This compares favourably with Cole’s and Morgan’s results of 74.3 per cent negative and 20.2 per cent as neutral. Such differences suggest, perhaps, that while pro-vegan sentiment in UK newspapers has barely grown since 2007, anti-vegan sentiment appears to have considerably decreased. 

 

Violent Vegans?

However, the negative portrayals I found were deeply disconcerting. A particularly depressing and perhaps distressing finding is the presentation of vegans in a handful of articles as sufficiently hostile to the extent they are willing to inflict physical and psychological harm on non-vegans. I found articles positioning vegans as militant[i], blaming them for inflicting mental health harms on farmers, and describing activism as akin to terrorism[ii] and extremism. Such portrayals, while rare, can impresses upon the reader an image of a dangerous other willing to enact violence and destroy livelihoods to achieve their aims.

 

Animal Absence

Furthermore, articles discussing veganism which also included reference to Nonhuman Animals were rare. Nonhuman Animals were referred to in only thirty-seven (3.5 per cent) of articles. Such a finding invokes Carol Adams’s concept of the ‘absent referent’ – the choice of making absent the life of the sentient being who is killed for human benefit. A handful of these articles provided explicit descriptions reflecting the reality of the practices of animal agriculture.

Speciesism, however, was still evident even in those articles mentioning the violence inflicted on commodified Nonhuman Animals. Our violent treatment of them can be justified because, for example, they taste ‘good’. Such a position resonates with Piazza et al’s addition of the fourth ‘n’ of nice to Joy’s 3 ‘ns’ (normal, natural, and necessary) of Carnism, the ideology underpinning and rationalising our subjugation and commodification of Nonhuman Animals.

Moreover, in a rare article informing readers about the motivations for ethical veganism, the speciesist lens through which the writer views the human animal/Nonhuman Animal relationship is obvious. The writer suggests that while it may be admirable to want to stop cows being ‘artificially inseminated’ and ‘traumatized’ and bulls to no longer have semen ‘mechanically drawn’ from them, vegans’ refusal to consume dairy is hitting humans hard by impacting them financially.

Such language dilutes the actual violence inflicted on Nonhuman Animals and frames the financial implications of decreased profits as violence towards those humans employed in and profiting from their oppression. By highlighting the ‘negative’ impacts of veganism on humans and couching the horrors inflicted on Nonhuman Animals in the language of science, the public is kept ‘comfortably detached from the unpleasant reality of modern farming’.

 

Neutrality as Dangerous?

I also argue that neutral articles, those offering non-evaluative content such as ‘vegan’ recipes or consumer products, while not generating anti-vegan sentiment, are perhaps not as harmless as their banal content suggests. Baltzer’s argument on the dangers of neutrality helps us understand that such articles, while not portraying veganism negatively, may contribute to maintaining carnism and, therefore, the killing of Nonhuman Animals. By asking whom our neutrality benefits, it is revealed to us that the notion of such a position is a myth. Put simply, remaining supposedly neutral in an unjust system perpetuates injustice and reinforces existing power (im)balances.

 

In conclusion, newspapers (print and online) have the power and authority to construct meanings, are influential in informing readers’ opinions, and are critical platforms for educating the public. Mainstream news media is inclined to promote the practices of the hegemonic culture while simultaneously perpetuating the marginalisation of minority group practices through denigration or ignorance. The persistence of negative portrayals of vegans, the intentional absenting of the Nonhuman Animal from discussions on veganism, and the misinformation around the impacts of vegan activism remind us that we must continue to challenge those journalists and writers whose words contribute to the perpetuation of the immiseration, oppression and slaughter of billions of sentient beings.

[i] Thomson, A. (2020) Britain needs farmers more than ever. The Times. 04 March 2020.

[ii] James, E. (2020) Butchers: Vegans are just terrorists. The Sun. 22 February 2020

The World is On Fire – Vasile Stănescu

Corey Wrenn, PhDLeave a comment

On March 25th, IAVS affiliate Dr Vasile Stănescu from Mercer University spoke to the University of Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research. He gave an impassioned talk to an audience of 80 on the politics of climate change, the silence on animal agriculture’s contribution to the environmental crisis, and major tactical failings of the animal rights movement.

Watch here >>

Abstract below.

The World is on Fire: Animal Agriculture, Climate Change, and the Path Forward

In 2006, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), issued a report titled “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” concluding that animal farming presents a “major threat to the environment” with such “deep and wide-ranging” impacts that it should rank as the leading focus for environmental policy. Recently, these stakes were raised again when the UN determined that the world has only fourteen years to act to prevent catastrophic effects due to climate change. The UN Convention on Biological Diversity estimates as high as 150 species go extinct each day; the UN determined animal agriculture represents the single largest cause of habit loss, species extinction, and biodiversity loss. Most importantly, exponentially more animals are killed, in worse conditions, every year: My first publication in critical animal studies, entitled “Green Eggs and Ham: The Myth of Sustainable Meat and The Danger of the Local” was published in 2010; at that time, the world raised and killed approximately 60 billion land animals each year. Today it is 80 billion; the UN estimates by 2050, the number will exceed 120 billion. The world is on fire.

The response by many, including both advocates for animal agriculture and animal rights, has been three main strategies:

  • Attempts to move toward local, humane, and free-range animal farming based on, in part, a belief that such moves will positively affect the environment
  • The rise of so-called “in vitro” meat which, like claims about humane meat, will also offset the environmental effects of animal agriculture
  • Market based moves to sell new meat substitutes, such as Burger King’s decision to sell the Impossible Whopper.

However, in reality none of these proposed solutions will work. Indeed, most – if not all – will in reality make the environmental effects of animal agriculture worse. Instead, I argue, we need a social justice based approach to animal advocacy, based on directly confronting speciesism and anthropocentrism, that seeks to build solidarity between animal rights and other social justice movements to affect broad based change. We are running out of time. To paraphrase the famous maxim attributed to Marx: As scholars, we no longer possess the luxury to only understand the world; we have to change it.

How Vegan Sociology Informs Empathetic Peer Review

Corey Wrenn, PhDLeave a comment

On March 8th, 2021, the International Association of Vegan Sociologists collaborated with the Canadian Sociological Association and the British Sociological Association to present a panel on the peer-review process. Panelists included Dr. Corey Wrenn (University of Kent), Dr. Matthew Cole (Open University) and Dr. Rochelle Stevenson (Thompson Rivers University)

Although we originally intended this webinar to train our student editorial board for our Student Journal of Vegan Sociology, we quickly realized that this sort of training is generally lacking for many graduate students and early career sociologists. Vegan sociology is uniquely positioned to unpack the politics of peer-review. Many vegan sociologists are informed by a deep empathy for others and a dedication to compassionate communication. These ethics of care may be lacking in mainstream sociological discourses, perhaps a result of sociology’s empirical, objective, and masculine legacy.

In this webinar, the panelists emphasize that peer-review should be a collaborative effort. It should be seen as an opportunity to develop our growing field in an authentic, and mutually-beneficial way. In fields like vegan sociology, the research has important practical implications for highly oppressed populations. Therefore, it is important to also hold authors up to standard. Research must be sound to be most useful to other animals and to bring credibility to our field.

 

Tips for effective peer-review:

  • Consider your qualifications before committing
  • Commit to a reasonably quick turnaround
  • Recuse yourself if there are conflicts of interest
  • Assess the author’s command over the literature, counterarguments, methodology
  • Do not overwhelm the author with too many demands at once
  • Offer criticisms only when you have read carefully
  • Offer solutions
  • Highlight the strengths of the paper
  • Recap the core argument
  • Check your feelings; make sure you are feeling positive and well-rested
  • Be warm and respectful
  • Be kind, but also be rigorous
  • For every limitation, find a strength
  • Imagine yourself as the recipient
  • Commit between 1-3 hours for review

 

What is Vegan Sociology?

Corey Wrenn, PhDLeave a comment

 

To celebrate our 1 year anniversary and the upcoming 2nd annual meeting of the International Association of Vegan Sociologists, we are compiling a short video montage featuring contributions from you to define and diversify our field.

Where does our field come from? Where is it going? What do you believe it can achieve? 

Please submit a few sentences or a short video clip explaining what vegan sociology means to you. 

Help us shape our discipline!

Submit to:
info@vegansociology.com

Pig-Ignorance: The Peppa Pig Paradox

Corey Wrenn, PhDLeave a comment
Peppa Pig ham salad

Affiliate Member, Lynda Korimboccus, recently investigated attitudinal and behavioural contradictions that result in Peppa Pig fans oblivious to the direct connections between their favourite TV character and a ham salad sandwich.

The ‘Peppa Pig Paradox’ developed from Loughnan et al’s 2010 ‘meat paradox’ – that is, the idea that people say they love animals but also love eating animals. In many cases, people have simply been taught to categorise animals differently: as ‘food’ or as ‘pets’, for example. She aimed to apply this where the same species is considered in two contradictory ways: The Peppa Pig Paradox. She considers whether Peppa Pig simply reflects human society in pig form through anthropomorphism (Mills 2017); whether negative pig metaphors skew our views (Goatly 2006) and our use of the language we learn allows us to distance ourselves (Plous 1993); or whether it simply the application of denialism, or ‘strategic ignorance’ (Onwezen & van der Weele 2016) that has so far failed to make the connection impossible to ignore.

Lynda’s vegan daughter, Maya

The social influences upon us are strong and powerful – from family, peers and education through media, government and business – and we’d be forgiven for not seeing the obvious up until now. However, animal eating is a normalised practice at risk from an increase in plant-based eating and Lynda encourages vegan parents to become familiar with both moral and nutritional arguments for this in preparation for the inevitable challenges. She urges non-vegan parents to face their fear of change and embrace the plant-based revolution – not just for their children’s health, but their future environment as well as the lives of millions of non-human animals worldwide. Hopefully, all Peppa Pig fans will one day be vegan, but meantime, it’s vital to raise awareness of inconsistency and help others make connections to overcome their strategic, or ‘pig’ ignorance.

Full article (including references):
Korimboccus, L.M. (2020). ‘Pig-Ignorant: The Peppa Pig Paradox: Investigating Contradictory Childhood Consumption.’ Journal for Critical Animal Studies 17(5): 3-33.

 

Lynda M. Korimboccus is an affiliate member of the IAVS and serves as Student Editor-in-Chief for the Student Journal of Vegan Sociology.

Announcing Our New Guiding Principles and Student Journal

Corey Wrenn, PhDLeave a comment

 

“Sociology is part of the seeing of other animals and, although still somewhat marginal to sociology, that sociological seeing is changing things in sociology. However, it is not just seeing other animals that should be a central component of sociology; the role of sociology in countering the oppression of other animals is also pertinent.”

– Kay Peggs, Animals and Sociology (Palgrave 2012)

 

Dear colleagues, 

We are so pleased to announce the release of our guiding principles. These were designed collaboratively by vegan sociologists the world over. We expect they will be useful for students, researchers, and regional sociological associations. 

We are also announcing the launch of our annual student journal. We’re currently seeking student (graduate and advanced undergraduate) volunteers for the editorial board as well as submissions by February of next year. We expect this will provide an important opportunity for service work, networking, and professional training. 

Episode 11 – Dr. Corey Wrenn June 29, 2020

Corey Wrenn, PhDLeave a comment

In this epilogue, Dr. Wrenn summarizes the lessons learned from our ten guests with regard to institutional barriers, positive points on which new scholars might capitalize, and some concrete strategies for success. Dr. Wrenn also offers some her own personal experiences as a working-class girl from Appalachia with a passion for social justice. Yes, that’s a cat! Ms. Trudy makes a very vocal appearance. 

Dr. Wrenn is Lecturer of Sociology with the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research (SSPSSR) and Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Social and Political Movements at the University of Kent. She served as council member with the American Sociological Association’s Animals & Society section (2013-2016), was elected Chair in 2018, and co-founded the International Association of Vegan Sociologists in 2020. She serves as Book Review Editor to Society & Animals and is a member of The Vegan Society’s Research Advisory Committee. In July 2013, she founded the Vegan Feminist Network, an academic-activist project engaging intersectional social justice praxis. She is the author of A Rational Approach to Animal Rights: Extensions in Abolitionist Theory (Palgrave MacMillan 2016), Piecemeal Protest: Animal Rights in the Age of Nonprofits (University of Michigan Press 2019), and Animals in Irish Society (SUNY Press 2021).

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