100% Vegan: A Recipe for Identity Made with Real Values, Practices, Gender and Other Social Ingredients
by
Devan Hunter
A Thesis presented to The University of Guelph
In partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts in Sociology
Guelph, Ontario, Canada
© Devan Hunter, May, 2020
ABSTRACT
100% VEGAN: A RECIPE FOR IDENTITY MADE WITH REAL VALUES, PRACTICES, GENDER AND OTHER SOCIAL INGREDIENTS
Devan Hunter Advisor: University of Guelph, 2020 Dr. Mervyn Horgan
Veganism, as a movement, has grown exponentially in Western countries over the past two decades with self-identified women driving the majority of this growth. Sensitive to the gendered nature of consumption, this thesis provides an intimate profile of the everyday lives of vegans within a Canadian context. Drawing on interviews with 21 vegans living within a 65 kilometer radius of Guelph, Ontario, data from this qualitative study yields insights into the motivations, values and lifestyle practices of vegans; the gendered differences in these; and, how the intersection of gender identity and vegan identity is navigated both internally and within social contexts. Employing a feminist-Bourdieuisan framework, along with second phase theories of practice in this analysis, findings from this study detail a thorough outline of the vegan habitus and the ways gender mediates this.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Firstly, to my participants. This research would simply not be without your involvement. You truly are the substance of this work. Thank you for taking the time to walk me through your everyday lives. I hold dear the time we shared.
Dr. Mervyn Horgan, as my advisor, I am immensely grateful for the guidance, support and insightful feedback you provided throughout this project. I especially appreciate your commitment to carving out space for creativity and curiousity in the research process. And, as always, thank you for your patience.
Dr. Jeji Varghese, thank you for being my second reader. I appreciate the thoughtful feedback you provided on my work over the past couple years and your commitment to sound qualitative research.
Dr. Erin Nelson, thank you for acting as my external examiner during these unprecedented circumstances. Your engaging questions contributed to an enjoyable defense process.
Shelagh, SOAN’s Gradmother, thank you so much for all that you do. Your warm and inviting demeanour makes the 6th floor feel like an especially welcoming place. It’s always a treat running into you there.
To my friends at U of G, I’m so grateful for each and every one of you. I feel your support and care throughout the pages of this thesis. More importantly though, I attribute so much of my own personal growth over my master’s to the friendships I’ve made in grad school. I wish I could give you all the biggest hugs, but we’ll save that for post-COVID.
Matt and Kim, your enduring friendships ground me in innumerable ways. I love you both.
And lastly, Mom and Dad, I couldn’t have done this without you. Words aren’t enough to describe my love for you both.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………ii
Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………………iii
Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………………....iv
List of Appendices……………………………………………………………………………....viii
1 Chapter 1 – Introduction ...... 1
1.1 Framing the Issue ...... 1
1.2 Thesis Outline ...... 3
2 Chapter 2 – Literature Review ...... 5
2.1 Conceptualizing and Outlining Vegan Consumption Practices ...... 5
2.1.1 Defining Veganism ...... 5
2.1.2 Boundary Fluidity in Veganism ...... 8
2.2 Patterned Motivations and Values in Vegan Populations ...... 10
2.2.1 Animal Rights and Welfare Discourses ...... 10
2.2.2 Environmental Discourses ...... 14
2.2.3 Health Discourses ...... 15
2.2.4 Ethical and Virtuous Discourses ...... 16
2.3 Gendering Consumption and its Role in Veganism ...... 17
2.2.1 Masculine Consumption ...... 19
2.2.2 Feminine Consumption ...... 22
2.2.3 Queering Consumption ...... 24
2.4 Vegan Sociality and Commensality ...... 26
2.5 Theoretical Grounding ...... 29
2.5.1 Habitus ...... 29 v
2.5.2 The Importance of Capital ...... 32
2.5.3 The Field as a Context for Veganism ...... 33
2.5.4 Centering Gender in a Bourdieusian Framework ...... 34
2.5.5 Nuancing Habitus through Theories of Practice ...... 36
3 Chapter 3 – Methods ...... 39
3.1 Situating Myself as the Researcher ...... 39
3.2 Parameters of the Sample ...... 43
3.3 Participant Recruitment ...... 46
3.4 Ethics Protocol ...... 49
3.5 Developing the Interview Guide ...... 50
3.6 Data Collection ...... 53
3.7 Analysis and Coding ...... 55
4 Chapter 4 – Developing and Practicing a Vegan Identity ...... 57
4.1 The Process of Becoming Vegan ...... 57
4.1.1 Core Pathways ...... 58
4.1.2 Peripheral Pathways ...... 63
4.1.3 Stable and Shifting Vegan Values ...... 67
4.2 Lifestyle Practices ...... 74
4.2.1 Vegan Food Practices...... 74
4.2.2 Broader Consumption Practices ...... 83
4.2.3 Beyond Consumption Practices ...... 90
4.3 Identity Interpretations: The Interaction between Veganism and Gender ...... 94
4.3.1 Vegan-Woman Identity Interpretation ...... 95
4.3.2 Vegan-Genderqueer Identity Interpretation ...... 98
4.3.3 Vegan-Man Identity Interpretation ...... 101 vi
5 Chapter 5 – Transgressing Boundaries and Vegan Sociality ...... 106
5.1 Contexts of Transgressing Boundaries...... 106
5.1.1 Lack of Knowledge ...... 106
5.1.2 Travelling and Eating Out ...... 107
5.1.3 Western Health Practices ...... 109
5.1.4 Social and Familial Spaces ...... 111
5.1.5 Managing Conflict at the Thrift Store ...... 112
5.2 Navigating Veganism in Social Contexts ...... 113
5.2.1 Engagement with Vegans in Commensal Situations ...... 114
5.2.2 Engagement with Non-Vegans in Commensal Situations ...... 116
5.2.3 Conversion Practices ...... 122
6 Chapter 6 – Discussion ...... 128
6.1 Vegan Values and Pathways ...... 128
6.1.1 Field of Ethical Consumption ...... 128
6.1.2 Pathways into the Field of Ethical Consumption ...... 129
6.1.3 Peripheral Pathways ...... 132
6.1.4 Stable and Shifting Value Systems ...... 133
6.2 Lifestyle Practices ...... 134
6.2.1 Food Practices...... 134
6.2.2 Broader Consumption Practices ...... 137
6.2.3 Beyond Consumption Practices ...... 139
6.3 Transgressing Vegan Boundaries ...... 143
6.3.1 Contexts of Transgressing Boundaries ...... 143
6.4 Perceptions of Identity Interpretation and Management ...... 145
6.4.1 Interpretation of Vegan Women Identities ...... 145 vii
6.4.3 Interpretation of Vegan Genderqueer Identities ...... 147
6.4.3 Interpretation of Vegan Men Identities ...... 148
6.5 Vegan Sociality ...... 150
6.5.1 Vegan Commensality ...... 150
6.5.2 Non-Vegan Commensality ...... 152
6.5.3 Conversion Practices ...... 154
7 Chapter 7 – Conclusion ...... 157
7.1 Main Takeaways ...... 157
7.2 Limitations ...... 161
7.3 Directions for Future Research ...... 162
7.4 Concluding Remarks ...... 163
References ...... 166
Appendices ...... 173
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LIST OF APPENDICES
APPENDIX A…………………………………………………………………………………..173
APPENDIX B…………………………………………………………………………………..174
APPENDIX C………………………………………………………………………………...... 176
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1 Chapter 1 – Introduction
1.1 Framing the Issue
The adoption and maintenance of a vegan lifestyle is complex. Recent scholarship on diet and consumption patterns highlight the importance of structural and cultural factors in constraining and orienting individuals towards specific lifestyle practices (Bordo 2003; Bourdieu
1984; Nestle 2013; Warde 1997; Warde 2016). Substantial growth in the vegan movement over the past two decades has resulted in self-identified vegans – those who abstain from meat- and animal-derived products (Vegan Society 2019) – now accounting for one to five percent of
Western populations (Le and Sabate 2014; Martinelli and Berkmaniene 2018; Radnitz, Beehold and DiMatteo 2015). Women appear to be driving the rise of veganism, comprising 63 to 75 percent of vegan populations in Western countries (Dyett et al. 2013; Martinelli and
Berkmaniene 2018; Radnitz, Beezhold and DiMatteo; Thomson 2018).
Despite this growth, attempts to understand the rise of veganism are limited in scope as vegans and vegetarians have historically been bundled together (Greenebaum 2012; Janssen et al. 2016). While sharing common underlying sustainability and harm reduction philosophies, veganism and vegetarianism are not identical. Vegetarianism may be understood as a tempered form of veganism. Vegetarianism is first and foremost a dietary practice which denounces consumption of meat, whereas vegan dietary practices denounce consumption of any animal- derived product. Furthermore, the specificity of vegan practices extends from dietary to consumption more generally – thus entailing more restrictive practices. As such, this necessitates research which studies veganism independently from vegetarianism based on its much broader scope of practice. Although vegetarianism and veganism have grown exponentially in tandem with one another – up to a 500 percent global increase as of 2017 (Martinelli and Berkmaniene 2
2018) – evidence of the distinct rise in veganism may be drawn from the proliferation of products carrying a specifically vegan label. For example, Western countries such as Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom have witnessed up to an 18 percent increase in vegan meat replacements, and Australia leads the way with a 92 percent increase in food products carrying a vegan label (Martinelli and Bermaniene 2018, 508). Thus, with growing demand for vegan products in Western countries, this calls for insight into veganism as a unique scope of practice within a specific context.
In delineating the rapid growth of veganism in Western countries, firstly, I want to draw attention to the parameters of the population to be studied. In this study I hone in on a
Westernized form of veganism – that which comprises the bulk of growing vegan populations in
Western countries (Martinelli and Bermaniene 2018), where these lifestyle practices continue to be classified as alternative in relation to mainstream practices of consumption. In opposition to this, a vegan practice which is primarily rooted in identification with a specific religion – e.g.
Buddhism, Hinduism or Jainism – thus falls beyond the parameters of this study as a veganism borne out of this ethos is a mainstreamed lifestyle within the spheres of these religions. Thus, adoption of veganism within such contexts will likely influence development of values, motivations and lifestyle practices of these vegans in different ways than individuals who adopt veganism while remaining more closely tethered to hegemonic Western value systems. This distinction is an important point to draw in the Canadian context, as much of the country is settled by non-Indigenous populations; thus pooling ethnically, racially and culturally diverse groups of individuals together within a single country. Therefore, veganism in this study involves a Canadian context intimately linked to Western values and systems of consumption.
This provides nuanced insights into the trajectory of veganism in Canada, since, as Sylvain 3
Charlebois notes, veganism in Canada has yet to receive the same scholarly attention as veganism in other Western countries (Thompson 2018). Furthermore, within Canada, exploration of the intersection of veganism and gender has yet to occur.
As a movement which shares in many of the same values and consumptive practices as those mandated by Western femininity (Greenebaum and Dexter 2017), discussed below, it is important to consider the intersection of gender identity and veganism. As the vegan lifestyle has only recently gained distinct scholarly attention (Adams 2010; Brady and Ventresca 2014; Cole
2008; Greenebaum 2012), the growth of scholarly work on gendered consumption may provide insight into how gender identity is navigated in this burgeoning movement. In this study I fill this gap in scholarly research by answering the following questions: (I) What are the motives, values and lifestyle practices of vegans within a Canadian context? (II) Are there gendered differences in the development of Canadian vegans’ motives, values and lifestyle practices?, and (III) How is the intersection of gender and veganism navigated internally and in social contexts?
1.2 Thesis Outline
To address the aforementioned research questions, in this thesis, I begin with a literature review in Chapter 2 addressing scholarly research outlining what veganism is, the motivations and values embedded in vegan populations in Western cultures, and vegan sociality.
Additionally, my literature review also explores the gendered nature of consumption and the implications this has in practicing veganism. In the second part of Chapter 2, I detail Pierre
Bourdieu’s concept of the habitus and, more broadly, the applicability of employing a
Bourdieusian framework to better make sense of vegan culture, values and practices in Canada.
In Chapter 3 I articulate my relationship to the study and my positionality as a researcher in relation to this work. Additionally, I provide a comprehensive outline of my methodology in 4 relation to qualitative methods and semi-structured in-depth interviewing. In Chapters 4 and 5 I report on the results from my interviews with vegans in Guelph and the surrounding areas.
Chapter 4 focuses on becoming vegan, lifestyle practices, and identity development. Chapter 5 focuses on vegans’ experiences transgressing vegan boundaries and dynamics of vegan sociality.
In Chapter 6 I discuss the major patterns and themes which emerged from these findings. Finally, in my concluding chapter I highlight the major takeaways from this study, the limitations of this research and directions for future research with respect to veganism in Western cultures.
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2 Chapter 2 – Literature Review
In this literature review I begin by examining research that conceptualizes and outlines vegan consumption practices. Secondly, I explore the core pathways into veganism: animal rights and welfare, environmentalism, social justice, health, and virtuous consumption.
Additionally, I outline the relationship between gender practices and consumption. Building upon this, I then move into elements of vegan sociality, particularly related to commensal situations with vegans and non-vegans. Lastly, I present the theoretical grounding of my study; namely Pierre Bourdieu’s (1977) concept of the habitus and extension of a Bourdieusian framework through drawing upon elements of the second phase (Reckwitz 2002; Schatzki 1997) of Practice Theory.
2.1 Conceptualizing and Outlining Vegan Consumption Practices
In this section I outline what veganism is and the many ways individuals may lead a vegan lifestyle and provide a detailed definition of vegan practice. Following this, I discuss how this ambiguity in defining veganism informs aspects of boundary fluidity in vegan communities.
2.1.1 Defining Veganism
Definitions of veganism are hotly contested (Cherry 2006; Greenebaum 2012; Key,
Appleby and Rosell, 2006). This tension is rooted in the scope of what is or ought to be considered vegan practice. In Western countries, the pervasiveness of consumption and new product development means that vegans are continually faced opportunities to assert and reassert their vegan identity through their everyday practices, often in unique ways and circumstances.
With this comes the need to navigate new boundaries and what it means to be vegan. Dually rooted in personal intent and practices, the boundaries of veganism have been historically fluid
(Martinelli and Berkmaniene 2018) based on both motivation and action. Despite this 6 contestation in defining veganism, I will employ The Vegan Society’s (2019) understanding of veganism which is “a way of living which seeks to exclude…all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment” (The Vegan Society 2019). This definition conceptualizes veganism as a practice which shapes total consumption.
This definition addresses an entire lifestyle, permeating many aspects of an individual’s consumption including but not limited to: food, clothing and footwear, accessories, cosmetics, bath products and housewares. Therefore, when conflating veganism with a stricter form of vegetarianism (Cole 2008), food restrictions become the central focus of this lifestyle. In doing so, broader harm-reduction philosophies which underpin other areas of consumption specific to veganism – e.g. clothing, footwear, hygiene and cleaning products, and housewares – are not recognized. As such, I now turn to exploring the broad definition of what is largely entailed in living a vegan life with respect to diet and extended consumption.
In looking specifically at food consumption within veganism, the vegan diet generally encompasses eating patterns which seek to eliminate any animal-derived products (The Vegan
Society 2019). Opting for a plant-based diet, these individuals typically consume vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, grains, beans and lentils; while avoiding animal flesh and meats, along with other animal-based foods such as eggs, milk, butter, yogurt and gelatin (Greenebaum 2012, 129).
Essentially, avoiding any food which involves both exploitative and non-exploitative animal animal labour in its production. In spite of the restrictive nature of vegan diets, certain foods have historically fallen into gray areas with respect to permissibility of consumption by the 7 vegan community, such as honey and oysters (Greenebaum 2012, 138). The boundaries of veganism, though, extend beyond food to consumption more generally.
When conceptualizing veganism within a broader framework of overall consumption, this may include purchasing or using goods which have not involved exploitative or harmful practices towards animals in the production process (Vegan Society 2019). Some of the most common goods vegans avoid include those which are most obviously linked to this exploitation.
Examples of these products are: leather, fur, wool and any product (e.g. cosmetic, bath or cleaner) that has been tested on animals. Additionally, as complete tracing of a commodity chain is unachievable by an individual consumer (Barndt 2002), many national and international privatized certification boards have arisen to address the increasing demand for the eco-labelling of products and goods as “100% vegan” (Woolverton and Dimitri 2010, 95). This is to provide interested consumers information on a product’s content and cruelty-free status (Scales 2014;
Woolverton and Dimitri 2010). Examples of international certifying boards include The Vegan
Society, Vegan Action and PETA – each with their own specific guidelines for what qualifies a product as vegan. At the national level, within the Canadian context, although the government- regulated Canadian Food Inspection Agency (2018) does provide oversight on composition claims on vegetarian products, it does not extend this oversight to products labelled as vegan.
Therefore, companies within Canada have also developed their own vegan designations or certifications for their products in an effort to appease consumers. This is ultimately in an effort to aid consumers in making vegan choices; however, how they choose to engage with this knowledge provides further opportunity for permeability and fluidity in vegan boundaries.
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2.1.2 Boundary Fluidity in Veganism
Although national and international proliferation in labelling reveals a growing consumer interest in veganism, the lack of standardization in certification processes and the use of different guidelines for veganism by various certifications boards is indicative of a more generalized ambiguity around the boundaries of vegan practices. Obvious products such as meat, milk or leather are never considered vegan; however, certain food additives (in the EU, e-numbers)
(Vegan Easy 2018) and products such as palm oil (Vegan Society 2019) are more controversial due to possible links to animal exploitation. The lack of transparency in Western food systems further confounds this. As a result of this, there is ambiguity in what is considered vegan. Indeed, in Mary Douglas’ (2003) apt comparison between bodily boundaries, and cultural and social boundaries, she notes that “all margins are dangerous…[a]ny structure of ideas is vulnerable at its margins” (p.56). In connecting Douglas’ conception of boundary permeability with veganism, it is evident that as products are distanced from explicit links to animal exploitation, ability to confidently define a product as vegan decreases. Therefore, the process of defining and conceptualizing veganism is resonant with Douglas’ perception of ideas, identity and the porousness of the marginal boundaries which encompass them. Furthermore, this understanding of fluidity in veganism has surfaced in a limited number of studies conducted on vegan and vegetarian populations.
It is highly unlikely that any individual living in Western society can guarantee all consumption and lifestyle practices perfectly eliminate harm. In light of this, the Vegan Society’s
(2019) lifestyle guidelines account for a harm reduction ethos to veganism rather than absolutism. As Jessica Greenebaum (2012) notes in her study of authenticity in practices by vegan individuals in Portland, Oregon, there is “an acceptable gray area” (p.138) of vegan 9 practice. This is designated by factions of vegan peers and individuals themselves as they afford one another a degree of leniency without compromising identification with the vegan movement.
In Greenebaum’s (2012) study this did not pertain to obvious animal-based products (e.g. meat), but rather to more nuanced cases such as honey, vaccines, and Western medicine, which all rely on a subtler degree of animal exploitation. In these instances, individuals who identify as vegan exercise some preference in lifestyle practices and consumption without threatening the maintenance of their vegan identity. Furthermore, evidence of boundary fluidity in consumption practices extended to a number of studies on vegetarian diets (Barr and Chapman 2002; Jabs,
Sobal and Devine 2005). Consequently, everyday life is much more complex than that which is captured in simplified definitions of veganism propagated by organizations and institutions such as The Vegan Society (2019).
As noted, a degree of flexibility is inherent in vegan lifestyle practices (Cherry 2006;
Greenebaum 2012; Key, Appleby and Rosell 2006). Although a strict and regimented lifestyle, there is still opportunity to exercise discretion based on the ever-changing circumstances vegan actors find themselves in. As vegan populations rise, it is important to discern how individuals who identify with this growing community actually engage in consumption and bodily practices on a day-to-day level. Therefore, I specifically address boundaries of vegan consumption and bodily practices in a Canadian context in this study to provide sociological insight into the rapidly growing vegan movement. In doing so, I explore daily life practices and navigation of boundary fluidity in Canadian vegan actors. Thus, I aim to shed light on how these abstract definitions of veganism are operationalized at the individual level and how they are managed in social interactions. Additionally, an important aspect of setting boundaries for one’s own practice of veganism stems from the motivation to adopt and maintain a vegan lifestyle. The following 10 section presents current research on motivations for becoming vegan and maintaining a vegan lifestyle.
2.2 Patterned Motivations and Values in Vegan Populations
The trajectory of adopting and maintaining a vegan lifestyle inevitably differs from individual to individual, yet there are patterned pathways into the veganism. Below I survey relevant literature and identify five motivations to adopt veganism centrally covered in vegan scholarship: (1) elimination of animal suffering (and sometimes more broadly, oppression of sentient beings), (2) health and wellness promotion, (3) concern for the environment (Dyett et al.
2013; Janssen et al. 2016), (4) social justice, and (5) overall ethical consumption. Thus, in this section I delve into research pathways into, and motivations for adoption of, a vegan diet.
Beyond this, how these pathways all fall under the broader scope of ethical and/or virtuous consumption championed within the current Western neo-liberal framework will be addressed.
This is in an effort to bolster the small but growing body of research on motivations to drastically reform hegemonic consumption practices.
2.2.1 Animal Rights and Welfare Discourses
Of the most common understandings of why an individual becomes vegan is that of concern for animal exploitation, and more largely, concern for systemic oppression of vulnerable non-human animals. Indeed, the seminal text in Western philosophy which presents this standpoint is Peter Singer’s (1975) Animal Liberation, which advocates for stopping discrimination against animals due to their sentience and capacity to suffer. Furthermore, Singer
(1975) notes that one of the most tangible for preventing discrimination against animals and promoting animal rights is through adoption of vegetarianism, and more effectively, veganism.
Other works which have received critical acclaim in the animal rights movement include James 11
Rachels’ Do Animals Have a Right to Liberty? (1976) and Created from Animals: The Moral
Implications of Darwinism (1990). Furthermore, widely popular and more recent pieces such as
Michael Pollan’s An Animal’s Place (2003) and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals (2009) have popularized animal rights advocacy. Interestingly, both of these best-selling books see a place for consumption of animal-derived products, but argue that within the current industrialized food system such consumption is increasingly unethical. Thus, these texts serve as a call to action for the seemingly enlightened Western consumer. As I discuss below, studies delving into pathways into vegetarianism and veganism also yield these results.
Although I will focus solely upon veganism in this study, research that explicates motivations and pathways into vegetarianism remains relevant. In addressing motives for adopting vegetarianism, concern for animal ethics – both welfare and rights – is cited as a central driver behind this dietary pattern (Beagan, Ristovski-Slijepcevic and Chapman 2010; Fox and
Ward 2008; Hamilton 2006; Houwer and Bruyker 2007; Jabs, Sobal and Devine 2000; Maurer
2002; Salonen and Helne 2016). Some studies delve into motivations for becoming vegan, with both quantitative and qualitative studies in the United States showing that concern for animal welfare remains an important motive behind consuming a vegan diet (Dyett et al. 2013;
Greenebaum 2012) and, more broadly, living a vegan lifestyle (Greenebaum 2012; Greenebaum and Dexter 2017; McDonald 2000). In Germany, Meike Janssen et al’s (2016) survey of vegans found that animal-related motives were present in almost 90 percent of respondents. Ultimately, both philosophical and empirical works attest to the fact that concern for animals remains a central driver behind why individuals in Western countries become vegan. In the next section I turn to another pathway which mirrors some of these ethical elements; that of social justice.
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2.2.2 Social Justice Discourses
As the animal-focused texts above gained traction in Western societies, this opened up both conceptual and physical space for the viability of veganism as a lifestyle. With the burgeoning of the animal ethics and welfare discourse through the 20th and 21st century, pathways into alternative lifestyle practices have been more artfully and efficiently paved. With this, arguments against the exploitation of animals have also been connected to the hegemonic patriarchal values which have oppressed other vulnerable groups, such as women, Indigenous peoples and people of colour. Justifications for adopting veganism have also connected to rejections of heteronormative, exploitative and oppressive values that underpin capitalist production systems.
Recognizing the values inherent in hegemonic Western consumption practices,
Carol J. Adams’ (1990) The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory – subsequently amended to Why Feminist-Vegan Now? (2010) – employed an ecofeminist lens to analyze the oppression that all vulnerable groups (both human and animal) in Western societies experience through engaging in consumption practices that appeal to a Western patriarchal value system. The proliferation of texts championing animal rights (Singer 1975), feminist values
(Adams 1990, 2010), intersectional eco-feminist values (Adams and Gruen 2014) and eco- feminist queer values (Gaard 1997), mean that veganism is increasingly recognized as valuable in combatting a multiplicity of oppressive structures in Western societies.
Interestingly, this discourse has been further advanced by scholars focusing on the intersections between queer and non-heteronormative value systems and vegan ones (Gaard
1997; Loadenthal 2012; Parry 2012; Simonsen 2012). With oppression in food and production systems being differentially bore by animals – female animals in particular – and marginalized 13 groups such as people of colour, lower income populations, and women (Adams 2010; Adams and Gruen 2014), veganism represents one avenue of practice to enact social justice within food systems. Additionally, Potts and Parry’s (2010) thematic analysis explores the phenomena of
“vegansexuality” and “vegansexuals”. This is a dispositional sexual orientation adopted by some vegans who refuse to have physical or intimate relationships with non-vegans (p.54-55). It is characterized as “an embodied ethical form of sexuality” (Potts and Parry 2010, 55) which seeks to embrace veganism and cruelty-free lifestyle practices into the realm of physical intimacy.
Thus, alternative consumption practices are increasingly viewed as tangible ways to champion social justice for all species (Adams 1990, 2010; Adams and Gruen 2014; Kremmerer 2011).
Beyond the gender oppression and speciesism associated with the consumption of animal-based products in Western culture, the championing of a vegan diet is further substantiated by socio-ecological models of justice. Various scholars have produced work which highlights the importance of reducing consumption of animal-based goods in addressing concerns related to achieving food security amongst a burgeoning global population in the coming decades (Billen, Lassaletta and Garnier 2015; Erb et al. 2016). Employing a largely utilitarian approach in this endeavour, socio-ecological models of justice center the interconnectedness of humans, animals and the environment when considering pathways towards a more sustainable and equitable future. In their assessment of cropping systems, livestock breeding and human diet in 12 macro-regions of the world, Billen, Lassaletta and Garnier (2015) note that a fundamental piece in feeding the global population by 2050 calls for drastic reductions in the consumption of animal proteins, especially amongst developed countries which typically center diets heavy in animal-based products. Additionally, in their hypothetical modelling of the feasibility of 500 scenarios related to increased agricultural production 14 grounded in zero-deforestation practices, Erb et al. (2016) note the overwhelming effectiveness of a vegan diet in achieving future food security on a macro-level. Studies such as those presented thus feed into social justice-based discourses which advocate for the current relevance and importance of a vegan diet in ensuring enough food is produced to feed a rapidly growing global population in the future. Ultimately, this is evidenced in the discourse on social justice in consumption, but building upon this, many individuals who identify as vegan also cite environmental concerns as another fundamental motive behind this lifestyle change.
2.2.3 Environmental Discourses
Through intensive industrialization, current capitalist production systems require ever- increasing inputs, irreversibly degrading the environment and contributing to global warming
(Veeramani, Dias and Kirkpatrick 2017). Indeed, processes such as confined-animal-feeding- operations (CAFOs), factory farming, and industrial agriculture are all linked with higher carbon footprints and increased green-house gas emissions (Veeramani, Dias and Kirkpatrick 2017;
Nestle 2013; Winson 2013). In an effort to decrease the demand capitalist production systems place on the environment, many individuals in Western countries elect to follow a vegan lifestyle due to its smaller carbon footprint and reduced negative impact on the environment (Dyett et al.
2013; Greenebaum 2012; Janssen et al. 2016). Indeed, these sentiments are also reiterated in the more expansive body of scholarly work assessing motivations for following a vegetarian diet
(Beagan, Ristovski-Slijepcevic and Chapman 2010; Fox and Ward 2008; Hamilton 2006;
Houwer and Bruyker 2007; Jabs, Sobal and Devine 2000; Maurer 2002; Salonen and Helne
2016). In doing so, climate vegans (Greenebaum 2012), as they are popularly termed, aim to reduce rapid environmental degradation through diet and consumption practices. While climate 15 change operates as a central driver behind the growth in veganism over the past decade, health reasons continue to be a primary pathway into this lifestyle.
2.2.4 Health Discourses
As the rates of individuals suffering from non-communicable diseases and concern over weight management rises in Western countries, attention has turned to how to combat preventable declines in health. One broad response to this is to embrace a largely plant-based, vegan diet. When comparing non-vegan and vegan populations, individuals who consume meat and animal-based products show higher risks of overweight and obesity and developing non- communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, type II diabetes and cancer
(Davey et al. 2003; Key, Appleby and Rosell 2006; Newby, Tucker and Wolk 2005; Spencer
2003). As a result, veganism is increasingly recognized as a way to improve health, with research showing that health is among the primary motivations for people becoming vegan (Dyett et al.
2013; Greenebaum 2012; Greenebaum and Dexter 2017; Janssen et al. 2016). Research on those who become vegan for health reasons has only emerged within the last decade.
Termed by Jessica Greenebaum (2012) as “health vegans” or “hegans”, these individuals’ impetus for adopting veganism is captured only in their diet, as vegan products beyond food are generally not of concern to these vegans. In Greenebaum’s (2012) study, a further thought- provoking finding is that “hegans” are viewed by individuals who adopt veganism for reasons regarding animal welfare and environmental sustainability as more selfish and less vegan.
Consequently, this addresses preliminary research on how vegans hierarchically organize themselves with respect to purity of practices, further nuancing the boundaries of identity within veganism. While research has just begun to hone in on the motivations behind the surge in health 16 veganism, we must also explore how all the various vegan pathways relate to each other in a broader virtue-based discourse within a neoliberal context – a task I will now undertake.
2.2.4 Ethical and Virtuous Discourses
Ethical or virtuous consumption broadly denotes consumption with altruistic intent for betterment of human, animal or environmental relations (Adams and Raisborough 2010). It is as broadly defined as the practices that it encapsulates (Johnston, Rodney and Szabo 2012). Indeed, ethical consumption focuses more on an approach to consumption rather than a specified set of practices. In spite of this wide-ranging definition, many vegans identify as ethical consumers
(Greenebaum 2012) due to the ethics of care which underlie their approach to consumption.
Arguably, even individuals who opt to lead a vegan lifestyle for health reasons may interpret themselves as ethical, and be viewed as such, due to what they perceive as morally superior approaches to eating – beneficial to them as well as the healthcare systems they find themselves in. It is important though to consider the rise of the ethical consumer and how this has intersected with the growth of veganism in Canada.
With a widespread embrace of the neoliberal state in Western countries such as Canada, there has been pervasive growth in the “theory of political economic practices that proposes that human well-being can best be advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterized by strong private property rights, free markets, and free trade” (Harvey 2005, 2). Indeed, Julie Guthman (2008) notes that a pillar of neoliberalism is that consumption has become a primary marker of identity and political ideology. In this framework food choices represent an opportunity to “vote with your dollar”
(p.1176). What you consume serves as a direct reflection of individuals’ moral values and the worlds they strive to cultivate. This is corroborated in various contemporary studies that delve 17 into the pervasiveness of ethical consumerism pertaining to mothering (Cairns and Johnston
2018), neighbourhood dynamics (Johnston, Rodney and Szabo 2012), ethnocultural heritage
(Beagan, Ristovski-Slijepcevic and Chapman 2010), gender performance (Cairns and Johnston
2018; Starr 2009) and socioeconomic status (Starr 2009). In paralleling the growth of neoliberalism in tandem with that of veganism, it is clear that individual consumers have increasingly found themselves situated in a political economic framework which places the brunt of responsibility for positive social change on their shoulders. Positive social change is framed as an individual responsibility. This individual responsibility in ethical consumption is gendered and now I review research on how gender identity impacts the adoption, maintenance and practice of veganism. This has yet to be examined in a Canadian context.
2.3 Gendering Consumption and its Role in Veganism
Recent decades have seen a host of scholars dispense with solely agentic understandings of consumption, highlighting the nuanced ways in which consumption practices—and in particular, eating—must be interpreted within appropriate socioeconomic, political, cultural and gendered contexts (Bourdieu 1984; Nestle 2013; Warde 2016; Winson 2013). As Candace West and Don Zimmerman (1987) outline, gender operates as a “routine, methodical, and recurring accomplishment…activities that cast particular pursuits as expressions of masculine and feminine ‘nature’” (p.126). Furthermore, in their summation of Harold Garfinkel (1967), it is noted that antiquated Western historical roots predicate interpretation of daily activities on the culturally defined dichotomy of man and woman. Masculine versus feminine. Therefore, the performance and embodiment of gender is daily and ongoing, and as such, cannot be divorced from the practices of daily life. 18
The gendering of Western eating patterns are well understood, with researchers examining, conceptions of health (Bradbury and Nicolaou 2012; Saltonstall 1993;), foodie culture (Cairns, Johnston and Baumann 2010), socioeconomic status (Bourdieu 1984; Warde
1997), and meat consumption (Bourdieu 1984; Buerkle 2009; Calvert 2014; Greenebaum 2012;
Greenebaum and Dexter 2017; Rothgerber 2013; Sobal 2005). The relationship between gender and consumption is mutually constituting, with consumption constituting what is feminine and masculine, and simultaneously, femininity and masculinity constituting practices of consumption.
In extension of the performative elements of gender beyond the realm of food, aspects of clothing and dress, product-usage, and overall dispositions towards consumption have also been further recognized as gendered. Indeed, Raewyn Connell (2002) notes that “gender is a way in which social practice is ordered...[gender] comes into existence as people act" (p. 44). The gendered practice of consumption has been evident in groups such as body builders (Bridges
2009), soccer players and boxers (Mennesson 2012), health-oriented consumers (Saltonstall
1993), and most recently, vegans (Greenebaum and Dexter 2017). Therefore, it is evident that gender identity both knowingly and unknowingly serves as a point of anchorage by which individuals in Western societies may measure their behaviour against that of socially prescribed gender norms.
To unpack the relationship between gender and consumption, I first outline a body of scholarly work that assesses the parallels between gender and consumption. In doing so, I delineate traditional masculine consumption practices in Western societies so as to explore how it contrasts with the ethos of altruism and health which typically underpins veganism. Following this, I outline research on traditionally feminine consumption practices in Western societies that 19 shows compatibility between veganism and femininity. Finally, I address the process of queering consumption and how this aligns with elements of vegan practice. The aim of this section is to provide insight into how women, men and genderqueer individuals in Western societies interpret a vegan lifestyle within the confines of their gendered identity.
2.2.1 Masculine Consumption
Although more complex than can be explored here, traditional Western masculinity has been linked with dominance, competition, activity (Badinter 1995), toughness, strength, and athleticism (Rothgerber 2013). Succinctly put, the ideal Western man may be understood as one who embodies traditional masculinity through doing. In connecting this to eating, traditional
Western notions of performative masculinity are displayed through consumption of animal flesh
(Sobal 2005), or those foods historically acquired by the “hunter” (Buerkle 2009, 78).
While rooted in historical conceptions of ‘the hunter’ (Buerkle 2009, 78) contemporary
Western masculinity continues to perpetuate the notion of the masculine man as a meat consumer. An unwavering connection between manliness enacted through eating meat (Bourdieu
1984; Buerkle 2009; Sobal 2005). Indeed, in a study of undergraduate students in Louisville,
Kentucky, Hank Rothgerber (2013) found direct correlation between masculinity and inclusion of beef, chicken, and pork in male students’ diets, and a negative correlation between masculinity and vegetarian meals. Additionally, Jeffrey Sobal (2005) found that in heterosexual marriages, masculine preferences for meat at family meals takes precedence over female counterparts’ objections. Lastly, Wesley C. Buerkle (2009) notes that even with the increased
Western acceptance of metrosexual masculinity – man’s increased attention to personal physical aesthetics – consumption of red meat remains the pinnacle of masculinity performed in eating practices. Evidently, consumption of animal products, and more specifically meat, is the 20 enduring practice of masculinity manifested in eating. Indeed, it may then be argued that a diet lacking in this serves as an affront to traditional Western masculinity (Sobal 2005), with veganism, through its abstention of all animal-derived products, as the strongest violation of masculine eating practices. That said, class and socioeconomic status further complicate the enactment of masculine consumption.
As Bourdieu (1984) notes, class plays a central role in shaping preferences and consumption patterns. What he terms “taste”, is “a class culture turned into nature, that is, embodied” (190). Researching French eating patterns, he shows that as income and class position rise, tastes shift from denser and more fattening foods such as potatoes, pork, bacon and pasta to more refined, lighter and leaner foods such as lamb, veal and fresh produce (177). Although not directly addressing veganism in Distinction (1984), Bourdieu’s exploration of how class shapes diet is relevant to this study. This is evidenced by Roos, Prattala and Koski’s (2001) study of the dietary patterns of Finnish male engineers and carpenters. Results showed that men of lower class and socioeconomic status (carpenters) more readily embraced eating practices which aligned with hegemonic masculinity: the favouring of meat and a rejection of seemingly feminine foods. In opposition to this, the engineers in this study opted for health-oriented approach to eating and viewed seemingly feminine foods, such as vegetables, much more positively. These studies show that more research is required at that the intersection of veganism, socioeconomic status and gender, particularly as the number of vegans rises. Beyond dietary composition, masculine consumption is further characterized by quantity and approach which will subsequently be explored.
Inherent to the coupling of masculinity and activity (Badinter 1995) is an approach to consumption predicated on pursuit. This manifests as a more unencumbered and hedonistic 21 approach to both eating (Bordo 2003; Buerkle 2009) and more general consumption (Weller
2017) compared to feminine counterparts. Additionally, men have, at times, shown less interest in engaging in sustainable consumption – that which minimizes the ecological and social burden of the capitalist production system (MacGregor 2017). This is confirmed by Weller’s (2017) content analysis of European studies tracking the relationship between gender and ethical consumption. Weller’s (2017) results yielded that men are less likely than women to use eco- labels and reform their daily consumption to combat climate change and environmental degradation at an individual level. Ultimately, what is considered traditional masculine consumption in Western countries has implications for the cultural accessibility of the vegan lifestyle for men living in Canada.
With a central focus on abstinence from animal-derived products, vegan values may be seen as contradictory to the values expected of the ideal masculine consumer. As Jessica
Greenebaum (2012) notes, vegan values contrast with normative conceptions of the ideal
Western man. Fundamentally, this desire to exhibit masculinity correctly constrains Western men from exercising complete agency in how they live their lives. In spite of this, men comprise approximately a quarter of vegan populations in Western contexts (Dyett et al. 2013; Radnitz,
Beezhold and DiMatteo; Thomson 2018). Therefore, research has examined how male vegans engage with and manage the maintenance of both vegan and masculine identities. For example,
Jessica Greenebaum and Brandon Dexter (2017) explore “hybrid masculinity” in their small- scale qualitative study of vegan men living in the United States. Yet, no study to date has explored this in a Canadian context or contrasted gender identity management differences across vegan populations. My study bolsters the limited research on how vegans navigate gender 22 identity and how alternative consumption movements in Western society are stratified by gender identity. Having discussed masculine consumption I now turn to feminine consumption.
2.2.2 Feminine Consumption
The conceptualization of feminine consumption according to Western tradition has taken form over the last four decades (Bordo 2003). Although consumption practices are nuanced, the hallmark of the Western woman’s correct consumption patterns may be characterized as ascetic, restrained and calculated (Bordo 2003; Bourdieu 1984; Lupton 1996). In connecting feminine eating practices to the aforementioned hunter-gatherer dichotomy, perception of feminine foods endures as those which can be gathered (Buerkle 2009). Not only does this denote the types of foods associated with femininity, but also a particular disposition towards consumption: one of calculated passivity (Muzaffar 2011). Essentially, historical gendered food labouring practices – the woman as the gatherer – are simply discursively produced which continue to influence contemporary consumption patterns in Western societies to date.
When assessing how the feminine consumer is conceptualized in current Western contexts, clear patterns emerge. Indeed, Pierre Bourdieu’s Distinction (1984) highlights that women of all classes in French society are more likely to consume salad, fruit, chocolate, and minimal portions of animal proteins. Furthermore, evidence of Western feminine practices has been addresses by contemporary scholars assessing eating patterns, noting that vegetables and fruits are differentially considered feminine foods (Roos, Prattala and Koski 2001; Sobal 2005).
Therefore, such foods which predominate the feminine Western diet compose much of what also characterizes a vegan diet – a firm emphasis upon plant-based, grown foods. Consequently,
Western ideals of femininity dictate what the ideal woman should eat, but building upon this gender construction, it also stipulates how a woman should approach consumption more broadly. 23
As initially noted, a prominent aspect of the feminine disposition towards food includes that of restraint, control, and limitation (Bordo 2003). Correct feminine food conduct entails decreasing and minimizing consumption, the whittling away of the feminine appetite. Indeed, even in Western food cultures which have increasingly embraced a feminine practice that makes some room for a more desirous female appetite, women are still expected to display greater restraint than their male counterparts. Indeed, Cairns, Johnston, and Baumann (2010) found that even women in ‘foodie’ cultures (pleasure-oriented eating), must continue to exhibit control in food consumption in an effort to balance their feminine identity with that of their ‘foodie’ identity. Therefore, just as women in Western contexts successfully display femininity through dietary limitation (Bordo 2003), vegans are also identified through their efforts to minimize or eliminate consumption of specific foods (The Vegan Society 2019). Additionally, femininity has historically been linked to greater preoccupation with bodily health through restriction and the glamorization of the slender female frame (Bordo 2003; Roos, Pratalla and Koski 2001; Sobal
2005). With a central focus on whole foods with health-supportive properties and an ethic of restraint (Dyett et al. 2013; The Vegan Society 2019), it is clear that women may draw upon vegan practice to bolster their own performance and embodiment of femininity.
In connection to wider patterns of lifestyle practices, issues of sustainable and environmentally-conscious consumption have also oft been feminized (Weller 2017). As Weller
(2017) notes, a number of European consumer studies show that women display greater attention to aspects of ethical consumption, eco-labels, and the impact that their own daily consumption has on issues of environmental sustainability and social justice compared to their male counterparts. Consequently, when assessing the embodied and performative nature of gender, vegan lifestyle practices more readily align with femininity within a Western context. 24
When unearthing the similarities between traditional feminine consumption with that of veganism, this prompts broader questions of how women’s gender identity may be bolstered through the process of adopting and maintaining a vegan lifestyle. In this study, I will explore whether the symbiotic nature of both feminine and vegan values may open up social spaces for greater permissibility and accessibility of leading a vegan lifestyle.
2.2.3 Queering Consumption
As previously noted, gender is enacted through routinized, daily practices (Garfinkel
1967; West and Zimmerman 1987). Building upon this legacy, Judith Butler (2007) fleshes out and problematizes the concept of gender performativity with greater fluidity. While Butler
(2007) agrees that gender is established and re-established through everyday acts, she critiques the restrictiveness of the necessary subscription to a system which only recognizes practices that adhere to heteronormative standards. As Butler (2007) explains, this limited conception of gendered practice acts as a “naturalized knowledge…[which] operates as a pre-emptive and violent circumscription of reality” (p.189). Therefore, Butler (2007) articulates that while gender is performative, a wider array of gendered acts and practices must be recognized and legitimized in mainstream Western society. It is thus their aim to carve out space for bodies and gendered practices that fall beyond the cisgender binary; essentially, this is a legitimation of queer performativity.
To practice queerness is to move beyond hegemonic structures of practice. In relation to gender, it is to forgo the rigidity of identifying with heteronormative systems. As Eve Sedgwick
(1993) aptly explains in their text Tendencies, queering is
the open mesh of possibilities, gaps, overlaps, dissonances and resonances, lapses and excesses of meaning when the constituent elements of anyone's gender, of anyone's sexuality aren't made (or can't be made) to signify monolithically…“Queer" seems to hinge much more radically and explicitly on 25
a person's undertaking particular, performative acts of experimental self- perception and filiation (p.8-9)
This definition is broad but that, after all, is the point. To ‘queer’ is to reject socially sanctioned boundaries and norms, and in relation to gender, cast-off identification with the gender binary.
To be genderqueer then is a self-identification with a gender identity outside of the man-woman binary. To identify as genderqueer can, but does not necessarily have to, entail identifying as
“both male and female, as neither male nor female or as fluctuating between two binary gender expressions…as one of many possible combinations of masculine and feminine…[or] as existing outside of strictly binary categories” (Corwin 2017, p.256). This space for gender identification is then limitless and it may or may not entail engaging with masculinities and/or femininities.
Therefore, to be genderqueer is to obfuscate the taken-for-granted gendered practices in Western societies and, in theory at least, to embrace a performativity outside the binary.
As a practice, consumption is an optimal site for the exploration and expression of identity. When queering consumption then, an actor may push beyond adoption of heteronormative scripts that socially sanction appropriate behaviour according to the masculine- man and feminine-woman (Butler 2007). This queering is with aims towards an unbound futurity
– a futurity where genderqueer individuals’ consumption aligns more closely with personal desire over heteronormative prescription. Indeed, in a study of 15 genderqueer individuals in the
United States, Anna I. Corwin (2017) found that clothing, hairstyles and accessories served as important semiotic spaces to creatively contest gender binaries. It is through consumption and performance these participants could tangibly articulate their rejection.
In connecting a rejection of gender norms to veganism, scholars have drawn comparisons between genderqueer individuals’ and vegan individuals’ embrace of alternative value and identity systems (Gaard 1997; Loadenthal 2012; Parry 2012; Simonsen 2012). Although 26 practices differ in the adoption of a vegan identity versus a genderqueer identity, there is some congruence in the labour entailed in coming up against Western norms in various spheres of identity practice. It is important to note that management of genderqueer identity and vegan identity are not identical (Simonsen 2012). Nonetheless scripts, tools and practices oriented towards questioning mainstream Western culture underpin both camps of identity. In slightly different capacities, both veganism and genderqueerness actively work against heteronormative systems and, in some instances, may mutually reinforce one another as they strive to reconceptualise a futurity unburdened by current oppressive patriarchal values which dominate most Western societies (Gaard 1997; Simonsen 2012). In this study I explore the relationship between gender identity and vegan identity. While this identity management occurs internally, it is also exercised in social contexts such as commensal situations between vegans and non- vegans. Therefore, I will now delve into commensality as a context of identity management and more broadly, vegan sociality.
2.4 Vegan Sociality and Commensality
Analyzing a meal provides insights into everyday food practices – what an individual eats, when and who with. As Mary Douglas (1972) states in Deciphering a Meal, “we can fairly say that the ordered system which is a meal represents all the ordered systems associated with it”
(p.80). Digging deeper, the kitchen table then acts as a lens into individuals’ relationships to complex social, political, cultural, and economic systems. When sharing tablespace with others, a meal is further complicated as this is where the intersection of multiple actors’ relationships to the world occurs. This complex practice of eating with others is termed commensality (Mars,
1997; Morrison, 1996; Sobal, 2000). 27
Sobal (2000) understands commensality in terms of “commensal units” and “commensal circles”. A commensal unit represents a group of people sharing a meal at a particular time while a commensal circle covers the potential networks of people that make up specific commensal units (Sobal, 2003). In Sobal’s (2003) study on commensality in the United States, he found that commensal relationship structures were largely driven by functionality and convenience over companionship and similarity in interests. This generally resulted in individuals being more likely to eat with co-workers or family members rather than individuals with shared values and practices. Additionally, Claude Fischler’s (2011) study on six different countries’ commensality patterns yielded that individuals in the United States were more likely to differ in eating practices from individuals they ate with; thus, fostering heterogeneity in eating practices at the site of the table. Interestingly, diversity in diets and food practices were much more common amongst
American commensal units in contrast to European commensal units which typically contained more homogeneity in dietary practices (Fischler 2011). With Canada sharing both geographic and cultural practices with Americans, it is safe to assume some of these patterns around
Americans’ commensal patterns may be extrapolated to Canadians’ meal practices. Therefore, when considering these two studies in tandem, it is clear that a meal is often not just a meal – it provides insights into how individuals understand and organize their social worlds.
Specifically, in relation to veganism, Richard Twine (2014) conducted an in-depth qualitative study on 40 vegans in the United Kingdom, exploring how they navigate commensality. Drawing on the connection between Sara Ahmed’s concept of the “feminist killjoy”, he structures his study around what he terms the “vegan killjoy”, as “vegans introduce a sense of embodied questioning, a discomfort to the habitual normativity of meat culture” (p.632).
While the majority of vegans in Twine’s (2014) study perceived their presence at meals with 28 non-vegans as inciting defensiveness and fostering an overall awkward atmosphere, some participants highlighted how their non-vegan friends and family eventually began to intermittently support and engage in vegan practice. Twine (2014) defines these individuals as
“non-vegan vegan advocates…as they inadvertently promote the practice” (p.636). With a diversity in affective responses around vegan-non-vegan commensal relationships, considering how this plays out in relation to vegan-vegan commensal situations is important as well.
Unsurprisingly, Twine (2014) notes that commensality with other vegans is typically viewed positively. He likens this to “the joy felt at feminist and/or queer gatherings” (p.637).
With shared food practices and some similarity in values, vegan commensality is often perceived as a delightful engagement. While a favourable perspective on vegan commensality is common amongst vegans, scholars have pointed to the importance of divergent value systems within the vegan community as areas where conflict and tensions may arise amongst vegans. Therefore, while vegan commensality is often joyous, tensions within vegan commensal circles may localize around elements of racism, sexism and settler colonialism connected to aspects of North
American vegan culture. This is evidenced by fractions of the vegan community have called each other out for issues around the whiteness of veganism (Harper 2010; Greenebaum 2018), use of sexist and oppressive vegan promotional campaigns (Wrenn 2016), and colonialist arguments to justify veganism (Harper 2010; Belcourt 2014). With a small body of scholarship addressing vegan commensality, it is thus important to further substantiate the nuanced ways that commensality plays out amongst vegans in Canada. To analyze this, I ground my theoretical analysis in Bourdieu’s (1977) concept of the habitus while also drawing on a feminist-
Bourdieusian framework informed with elements of second phase Practice Theory.
29
2.5 Theoretical Grounding
As a means of gaining rich empirical insight into the gendered motivations, values and lifestyle practices of vegans, I employ a feminist-Bourdieusian framework, with specific emphasis on the habitus. Firstly, I will outline the appropriateness of employing this theoretical tradition through detailing relevance of Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, capital and field to veganism. Although an undoubtedly comprehensive framework, various feminist responses to
Bourdieu’s work argue for situating gender more centrally when delineating the impact of structural influences in a given field. Due to the importance of gender identity within my study, I then detail important feminist critiques of Bourdieu’s framework. Finally, I explore how theoretical grounding in second phase and emergent theories of practice may further facilitate tapping into Bourdieu’s concept of habitus within the context of veganism. Ultimately, this will provide insight into how a feminist-Bourdieusian framework may be both employed and extended to accurately capture the importance of gender identity in its intersection with veganism in Canada.
2.5.1 Habitus
I ground this research in Bourdieu’s (1977) concept of the habitus, therefore, this research is aligned with a cultural sociological lens. This concept speaks to the largely unconscious, but concentrated, acquisition of dispositions, practices, norms, attitudes and skills attributed to identification with a particular group of people (Bourdieu 1977). In this capacity then, the habitus, as a way being, is connected to group identification, which transcends simply mental or physical dispositions, but rather, stretches into an all-encompassing, embodied approach to moving through the world. In doing so, to embody the habitus of particular group identity indicates a “durably installed generative principle of regulated improvisations” 30
(Bourdieu 1977, p.78) – a blueprint for improvisational movement through daily life with some level of predictability and reproducibility of expected outcomes.
In development of the habitus, both structure and agency act as iterative processes which are localized and embodied within the individual actor when engaging in everyday life (Bourdieu
1977). More specifically, the habitus speaks to the predominantly unconscious role of primary and secondary principles in shaping the physical embodiment, dispositions, values and practices of a group. Primary principles of the habitus include class and socioeconomic status whereas secondary principles include gender, race, age and geographic location (McCall 1992).
Therefore, according to a Bourdieusian framework, group habitus is largely organized around capital-based principles (McCall 1992). As such, grounding in this theoretical framework provides the opportunity for developing an understanding of the social world which transcends the subjectivist-objectivist dichotomy accounting for both structure and agency (Webb, Danater and Schirato 2002) when assessing patterns of individual embodiment along classed and cultural lines.
As Bourdieu (1977) notes, “the homogeneity of habitus is what…causes practices and works to be immediately intelligible and foreseeable, and hence taken for granted” (p.80).
Therefore, theoretical grounding in this tradition is most applicable to unearthing development and maintenance of common dispositions, values and practices across an identified collective of people (Costa and Murphy, 2015; Webb, Danater and Schirato 2002), such as vegan populations.
As such, the habitus serves as both a theoretical and empirical tool for understanding the social world (Costa and Murphy 2018). Furthermore, effectiveness of a Bourdieusian framework is evidenced by various scholars who have drawn upon this as a means to deconstruct the habits and behaviours of identified groups across a variety of social contexts (Costa and Murphy 2015). 31
Its suitability, as a conceptual framework, to assess a range of diverse and varied social groups is thus evidence of its flexibility and malleability as a theoretical tradition (Silva 2016). This is further substantiated through the ways in which habitus may be applied.
As I noted at the outset of this section, the hallmark of habitus is that there is consistency, or homogeneity, in values, practices, dispositions and physical embodiments across a specified group of actors. This is not to state that deviations or exceptions do not exist within a group’s habitus, but rather, a common denominator of normative identification within the group does exist. Indeed, “communication of consciousness presupposes community of ‘unconsciouses’ (i.e. of linguistic and cultural competences)” (Bourdieu 1977, 80). In specific application to this study, although vegans in Canada cannot be excessively homogenized, likeness in dispositions or behaviours warrants designation as a community of actors – the vegan community in Canada. In doing so, this entrenches the importance of utilizing a theoretical concept which addresses the groupness that is formed out of similarities in lifestyle practices. Furthermore, application of habitus to veganism in Canada is suitable due to the conceptual openness provided by this framework, as in Bourdieu’s cleft habitus.
Bourdieu first nuanced his concept of habitus through theorizing the notion of a cleft habitus. He argued that this cleft stemmed from drastic upward or downward socioeconomic mobility resulting in a habitus divided between two social classes (Bourdieu 2000, 64).
Furthermore, he posited that the balancing of two seemingly incongruent habituses embodied within one single actor resulted in a great psychological toll on this individual (Bourdieu 2000,
160). The maintenance of a habitus divided was understood as emotionally taxing. In spite of this, iterations of both how and why the habitus divides, as well as the affective experience of this, has developed in research in recent decades due to the flexibility of the concept of habitus 32
(Silva 2016). Ultimately, this is an important point when considering how a theoretical framework creates space to capture increasingly nuanced details of experiences in the social world. Essentially, this ongoing sophistication of habitus by Bourdieu and subsequent scholars serves as a justification for the versatility of this concept and overall framework; a theoretical tradition which will minimize constraint and suffocation of the data collected. Although it is empirical evidence which establishes the relevance of iterations of the original concept of habitus, one such factor which shapes aspects of habitus development includes gender.
When aiming to delineate whether gendered differences exist in motivations for adopting veganism, the values of vegans and their lifestyle practices in Canada, use of habitus affords the opportunity to research how development may occur along gendered lines. As noted, various iterations of habitus have been presented in other scholars’ research (Costa and Murphy 2015).
Essentially, habitus serves as a structural foundation by which to begin assessing the social world, but it changes with the phenomena should the data collected dictate it. Thus, this makes
Bourdieu’s framework appropriate for this study. Additionally, as Bourdieu’s (1977) concept of the habitus is intimately linked with his concept of capital, this will serve as another important area of consideration in researching the context of the vegan habitus.
2.5.2 The Importance of Capital
At the most general level, for Bourdieu (1986) capital represents accumulated labour embodied in the individual or amassed by other agents within a given society. This may take the form of economic capital, social capital, and cultural capital (Bourdieu 1977; Bourdieu 1986). Of particular focus for this study is the ways in which access to various types of capital in Western societies – more specifically in a Canadian context – provides the impetus for adoption of a vegan lifestyle. In this study, I focus on how degrees of accessibility of these capitals reshapes 33 adoption and development of a vegan lifestyle. Although the flow of capital appears as an objective framework facilitated by the rules of the game being generationally and socially inculcated in the actor, this process is shaped by the field of action (Bourdieu 1986): a vegan field (discussed in more detail below). Indeed, division of and access to capital presents tangible insights into the arbitrary ways in which society is organized (Bourdieu 1986). Furthermore, accessibility of capital within a field provides a lens into the ways in which social structures and cultural climates facilitate access to – or create barriers from – enacting specific consumption practices (Larimore 2018). Essentially, how culture enduringly shapes our practices even in the face of greater economic accessibility. In doing so, this further fosters emphasis upon the importance of capital in determining position within a field.
2.5.3 The Field as a Context for Veganism
A concept iteratively related to habitus, the field, as Bourdieu explains, serves as the structural site within which actors carry out their everyday lives; shaping how actors carry out their everyday lives. Acting within this conceptual space sets the tone for practice through producing seemingly objective hierarchical power relations which establish rules, cultural and social conventions, rituals, titles, and positions of power (Webb, Danater, Schirato 2002). In application to this study, delineation of veganism entails the unearthing of the role of the field in shaping spaces of consumption in relation to gendered contexts, an important theoretical point when critiquing a Bourdieusian framework.
Assessment of how capital determines status within the field is of increasing relevance to this study of veganism in Canada. The distribution, accessibility and flow of capital in the
Western world, in relation to vegan actors, provides the opportunity to discern how veganism has grown in Western contexts over the past three decades (Le and Sabate 2014; Radnitz, Beehold 34 and DiMatteo 2015) and how capital work is entailed in formation of a vegan habitus.
Furthermore, what is deemed capital is given context through the conceptual space of what
Bourdieu terms the field. In the next section I examine gendered critiques of the Bourdieusian framework.
2.5.4 Centering Gender in a Bourdieusian Framework
As I previously covered, Bourdieu presents an important theoretical and empirical framework for analyzing everyday practices of consumption; however, many scholars in recent decades have critiqued his work for inadequately addressing gender in his theory of practice
(1977) and capital (1986). Although Bourdieu does include gender in his theoretical framework, he only situates it as a secondary structuring principle alongside race, age and location (McCall
1992). In critique of Bourdieu’s framework, Leslie McCall (1992) notes that “gender as a principle of division is secondary because it is hidden and it is hidden because it appears to be universal and natural. Gender as such, a form of capital, figures significantly in the analysis of social space, escaping the superstructural status assigned to it” (p.844). Therefore, scholars such as McCall have posited that a reconsideration of gender as a primary organizing within a
Bourdieusian model of understanding lifestyle and consumption is necessary to capture a more accurate understanding of the workings of the social world. Furthermore, various scholars have fervently reiterated this critique through manipulating Bourdieu’s framework to capture the more nuanced ways in which gender shapes habitus (McCall 1992; McNay 1999; Mennesson 2012;
Reay 2015) and capital (Bridges 2009; Huppatz 2009; Skeggs 1997; Reay 2005). Ultimately, such work advocates for elimination of gender biases within this theoretical tradition. Thus, I take heed of this established critique in Bourdieu’s framework through centrally exploring the role of gender in influencing consumption practices, beliefs, motives and values of vegans in 35
Canada. More specifically, whether gender shapes the development and maintenance of a vegan habitus in Canada.
Bourdieu rooted the cleft habitus in navigating different socioeconomic positions; however, based on previous critiques of his work, it is plausible that fragmentation of the habitus may develop from other points of intersectional analyses beyond the scope of what Bourdieu initially explored. For example, Reay (2015) calls for a more intricate employment of habitus through a much needed focus on the gendered nature of this concept. Following the lead of sociologists concerned with habitus development, in this study I foster openness to explore how gender may affect the development and/or fragmentation of the vegan habitus in Canada. Thus, I aim to broaden the theoretical space open to exploring the degree of importance gender may play in affecting development of a vegan habitus in Canada.
Previous scholars who have employed a Bourdieusian framework have uncovered unique trajectories of habitus development. Iterations of the cleft habitus include: blended (Paulson
2018), tugged (Ingram 2011), chameleon (Reay 2015), reconciled (Abrahams and Ingram 2013) and strategic (Emmison 2003). With respect to this, fragmentation of the habitus may entail a psychological turmoil as Bourdieu (1999) speculated; however, further application of Bourdieu’s concept has also yielded insights into how a habitus divided in some capacity may serve as a defensive or strategic tool when agentically occupying different social spaces (Reay 2015).
Exploring the differences of motives, values and lifestyle practices of vegans in Canada will provide necessary insight into the role of gender in habitus (potentially divided), and more broadly to degrees of accessibility of consumption and lifestyle practices alongside consideration of gender identification. Thus, employing a feminist-Bourdieusian framework allows for gender to be more appropriately attended to within this theoretical traditional when studying the 36 intersection of veganism and gender. Furthermore, although Bourdieu’s (1977) work contributed to the bedrock of theories of practice1 (Twine 2017), second phase practice theorists argue for a more nuanced uptake in the study of practices than that put forward in Bourdieu’s work.
Therefore, in the following section I address how accommodating second phase and emergent theories of practice within a feminist-Bourdieusian framework provides a deeper understanding of motivations, values and lifestyle practices of vegans within the context of habitus.
2.5.5 Nuancing Habitus through Theories of Practice
Bourdieu’s Outline of a Theory of Practice (1977) and subsequent works have been attributed with igniting a field of practice theories, alongside other social and philosophical thinkers including Anthony Giddens, Michel Foucault (Warde 2005; Warde 2014; Reckwitz
2002), Harold Garfinkel, Judith Butler, Charles Taylor and Ludwig Wittgenstein (Schatzki
1997). These theorists are known as the fundamental pillars of the first phase of theories of practice. This somewhat disjointed theoretical tradition holds that “it is in practices that meaning is established in human life…[That practices] qualify as the basic social phenomenon because the understanding/intelligibility articulated within them (perhaps supplemented with normativity) is the basic ordering medium in social life” (Schatzki 1997, 284). Although disparate in the nuanced complexities of their conceptualization of practices, these theorists examine the organization and routinization of everyday behaviours to provide insight into the inner workings of the social world. Furthermore, theorists such as Bourdieu contributed extensive bodies of
1 There is variation in social theory literature pertaining to how best to address the burgeoning discourse on practices. This body of literature has addressed the study or practices singularly as Practice Theory or more broadly as theories of practice. Although both are employed, in an effort to highlight the disjointed nature of theories pertaining to practice, I will follow the lead of Alan Warde (2014) – a contemporary scholar who applies a practice framework to food consumption – by addressing this discourse as theories of practice in my proposal.
37 work which laid the foundation for ushering in ‘The Practice Turn’ in contemporary social theory (Reckwitz 2002; Warde 2014); a second phase in theories of practice in the early 1990s.
Taking note of this turn, second phase theories of practice, rooted in a “philosophy of action”, oriented towards post-structuralist, post-functionalist and post-humanist discourses
(Warde 2014, 285). The appeal of the second phase in theories of practice to such discourses has largely been derived from its centering of practices as the locus of the individual or identity.
Thus, a cornerstone of the second phase is the recognition of practices as the first and smallest unit of sociality; this is in contrast to other social theories which center the mind, discourse, symbols, interactions and language as initial sites of the social (Reckwitz 2002). Therefore, in this theoretical tradition individuals are recognized as “carriers” of a multiplicity of practices. As these performative practices converge and are embodied within the actor, the carrier becomes recognized as an intelligible being (Schatzki 1997). Consequently, practices substantiate the individual in this second phase as “the individual is the unique crossing point of practices [and] of bodily-mental routines” (Reckwitz 1997, 256).
Moving beyond the second phase of practice theories, Alan Warde (2014) notes that the
Emergent Phase has more pointedly focused on the application of second phase theories to specific behaviours, processes and phenomena. In doing so, this phase assumes a position wherein theory is applied to different behavioural spheres such as driving (Shove, Pantzar and
Watson 2012), sustainable consumption and climate change (Shove, Pantzar and Watson 2012;
Twine 2018), alcohol consumption and health (Meier, Warde and Holmes 2018), eating (Warde
2016) and most intriguingly for this study, vegan lifestyles (Twine 2017; Twine 2018).
Twine’s (2017; 2018) draws on the triad practice framework of materials, competences and meanings (Shove, Pantzar and Watson 2012) as a methodological tool for examining the 38 process of transitioning from an omnivorous or vegetarian food practitioner to a vegan food practitioner within UK society. Thus, Twine’s work serves as evidence of the appropriateness of grounding research into the social aspects of veganism in a practice framework. Although effective in unearthing themes of creativity, exploration, taste transition and material substitution in vegan food transitions, due to the variability of different practice frameworks (Warde 2014), and Twine’s focus on processes of vegan food transition, sustainability and environmental sociology, further application of a practice framework to the vegan lifestyle is necessary.
To address the above, this study couples elements of second phase theories of practice with a feminist-Bourdieusian framework. This facilitates a deeper understanding of the intersection between veganism and gender within values, motivations and lifestyle practices of vegans in Canada, as well the navigation of internal identity management and that which is done in social contexts. In doing so, I gain insight into not only transitions into the vegan diet but also sustained vegan lifestyle practices and its intersection with gendered practices converging in the individual carrier or habitus. With a theoretical grounding of my proposed study established, I will now turn to outlining the methodological section of this this study.
39
3 Chapter 3 – Methods
Attempts to understand the rise of veganism have been limited in scope as vegans and vegetarians have historically been studied homogeneously (Greenebaum and Dexter 2017;
Janssen et al. 2016). With a burgeoning Western vegan population (Martinelli and Berkmaniene
2018), over the last decade qualitative scholarship has shifted focus to specifically explore values and lifestyles of vegans (Brady and Ventresca 2014; Greenebaum 2012; Twine 2018).
Nonetheless, the body of qualitative scholarship on Western veganism remains small and there has yet to be a study conducted within a Canadian context; a gap this study addresses.
The intent of this chapter is to comprehensively outline my methods and methodology in developing and conducting this study. In this section, I begin by situating myself and contextualizing my relationship to the research. I then explain the parameters of the vegan population from which I recruited research participants and what the process of recruitment entailed. Following this, I disclose ethical protocols I abided by throughout the study. I then discuss my justifications for employing semi-structured in-depth interviews in this study and how I developed my interview guide. Lastly, I disclose my data collection process, with descriptions of analysis and coding covered shortly after.
3.1 Situating Myself as the Researcher
It is my aim, in accordance with a feminist epistemology (Harding 1991; Haraway 1991) to situate, embody and embed myself, as the researcher, in relation to this study. In this section I detail what knowingly piqued my interest in conducting this research and how my positionality, as a non-vegan woman, shaped my exploration of the intersection of vegan identity and gender identity in a Canadian context. Firstly, I draw on personal, academic and professional experiences which contextualize my standpoint as a researcher in relation to this study. 40
Following this, I elaborate on the unique nature of approaching this study as a non-vegan researcher.
I am a white, middle class, able-bodied, non-vegan woman, born and raised in
Southwestern Ontario. I grew up in a two-parent household where both my mother and father held deep-rooted relationships with diet, nutrition, physical exercise, and routinized health practices. It continues to permeate both their personal and professional lives to this day. As a child and teenager, I was constantly immersed in discourses and practices that revolved around standards of Western health and bodily aesthetics. Physically, I was surrounded by a space littered with diet magazines, nutrition supplements, exercise equipment and fitness videos.
Conversationally, my parents’ daily dialogue largely focused on best practices in diet and exercise to achieve “optimal health”. Health, in so many ways, felt like my family’s religion.
Well-intentioned but overzealously fixated on.
Growing up in an intensely health-focused home hammered into me an intimate and lived knowledge of the connection between dogmatic aesthetic bodily practices and morality in North
American culture. As a woman who often feels that complex desires for individual and social change rest on the fork, I reflexively feel the ebb and flow in how my consumption practices impact my sense of self and understanding of the world around me. Reflecting upon it now, it is evident that the space I was immersed in as a child and teenager was one which forged in me an insatiable curiosity to understand how we connect our identity, morality and sense of self to our everyday physical practices. Therefore, although, I am not vegan, my personal experiences have primed me to research questions of ethical practice, consumption and gender in everyday life in a nuanced and sensitive capacity. 41
Building upon personal experiences, my completion of a Certificate in Food Security at
Ryerson University ignited my academic interests in exploring topics related to public health, environmental degradation and climate change, food insecurity, and animal and human rights discourses related to food. Indeed, many of these topics intimately intersect with elements of vegan values and practices. Additionally, while completing this certificate, I also managed a partly-vegan restaurant in Toronto, Ontario which deeply influenced my interest in conducting this study.
From a professional standpoint, interest in this research, stems from the two years I spent managing a health-focused restaurant in Toronto. This restaurant specialized in accommodating a number of different popularized diets including vegan, vegetarian, paleo, gluten-free and ketogenic, with a firm emphasis on using whole food ingredients. Hosting a menu which appealed to so many different diets under one roof resulted in a highly dynamic and lively restaurant. Here there was a vibrant and diverse collection of seemingly incompatible food identities coalescing in one space. It was an interesting site to behold and this is where I witnessed the concentrated performativity of identities through consumption embodied and played out by the everyday people that frequented this space. These experiences brought life to academic works that stipulate that gender identity is performed (Butler 1993; West and
Zimmerman 1987); consumption practice is pivotal in gender identity-formation (Bisogni et al.
2002; Buerkle 2009; Jabs, Sobal and Devine 2000); and, that gender and vegan identities intersect through consumption practices (Greenebaum 2012; Greenebaum and Dexter 2017).
Thus, literature became actualized as I witnessed scholarly understandings of the social world enacted in the everyday actions of my daily customers. 42
From a practical standpoint, spending two years immersed in a partly-vegan space provided me with a wealth of knowledge with respect to diet, consumption and lifestyle practices of vegans. Although not a vegan myself, I regularly engaged in elements of vegan lifestyle. I became acclimated to and comfortable with vegan food practices and terminology, but also the value systems and ideologies that underpin this lifestyle. Therefore, it is in this space that I largely developed my linguistic and ideological competencies in preparation for research on
Canadian vegans. Therefore, having developed an intimate familiarity with vegan lifestyles through my wage labour, I became adequately positioned to conduct research on Canadian vegan populations in a competent, rigorous and open-minded manner, despite my non-vegan status; although, my non-vegan status was often curiously questioned in conducting this study.
Throughout this study, I identify as non-vegan. In so many ways, this has been a shock to individuals who hear of the research I conduct. It never ceases to amaze me how surprised colleagues, participants and acquaintances are when they find out that I, a non-vegan, engage in research on Canadian vegans. This shock, I expect is born of the fact that the co-existence of vegan and non-vegan practice is seemingly incompatible. As Wright (2015) notes, non-vegans are expected to display abhorrence towards vegan populations as presence of veganism is perceived as a threat to the viability and legitimacy of non-veganism. Furthermore, concepts such as “veganphobia” (Cole and Morgan 2011) and “vegan stigma” (Markowski and Roxburgh
2019) capture the stigmatized nature of the veganism as non-vegan groups often aim to increase
“social distancing” (Markowski and Roxburgh 2019) between themselves and vegan individuals.
Interestingly, popular assumptions that vegans research vegans is mirrored practices as those who currently conduct social science research on vegans typically identify with this population. Many current vegan scholars including Jessica Greenebaum, Corey Lee Wrenn, 43
Matthew Cole, Karen Morgan, Kelly Markowski and Richard Twine are also practicing vegans.
These individuals thus operate as “insider” researchers (Merton 1972) as they identify with the group they are studying. This ultimately lends itself to a specific standpoint and “a monopoly on the certain kinds of knowledge” (Merton 1972, 30) available to them. In doing so, it is likely that their own veganism and vegan practice colours their scholarly work on veganism.
Although an insider positionality undoubtedly has its merits, a strong case can be made for the benefits of a knowledgeable and empathic “outsider” exploring daily vegan practices and values. Indeed, in arguing for a multiplicity in standpoints, Boulton (2000) notes that as an insider researcher, “those ordinary, routine, everyday things which are essential to an understanding of the world being researched would remain unnoticed” (p. 90-91). It is not my intention here to undermine the work of vegan scholars, but rather, to argue that a more robust understanding of gendered vegan practice is achieved through the addition of complementary non-vegan positionalities joining the burgeoning scholarship on vegan practice and its intersection with gender. Thus, my positionality is but one of the ways by which I aim to fill a gap in social science scholarship on veganism.
3.2 Parameters of the Sample
As this research focuses upon the intersection of vegan identity and gender identity in
Western contexts, I set a number of population parameters to identify the population of interest from which to generate my sample. Here I will detail the sample parameters I set for this study and justifications for why I developed the study in this way. The following parameters I address include: length of veganism, religious affiliation, gender identity, age and city of residence.
A primary stipulation for involvement in the study includes at least six months of sustained vegan practice to ensure sufficient time has passed for individuals to develop habitual 44 lifestyle and consumption practices. This parameter is commonly employed in vegan studies
(Wrenn 2017) where endurance of a vegan identity is central to the research. Therefore, a six- month time parameter safeguards against individuals participating in the study who have yet to meaningfully develop a vegan identity due to the precariousness of transitioning and the often hybridized position occupied when shifting from vegetarian to vegan practice.
Additionally, as I explore the development of a vegan habitus largely independent of religious pathways, individuals who adopt veganism for religious reasons were excluded from the study. In this study I hone in on a Westernized form of veganism – that which comprises the bulk of growing vegan populations in Western countries (Martinelli and Berkmaniene 2018).
Vegan practice primarily rooted in identification with a specific religion – e.g. Buddhism,
Hinduism, Rastafarianism or Jainism – thus falls beyond the parameters of this study as it is a mainstreamed lifestyle within the spheres of these religious communities. Thus, adoption of veganism within a context which mainstreams this lifestyle influences development of values, motivations and lifestyle practices of these vegans in a capacity distinct from individuals who adopt veganism while remaining more closely tethered to hegemonic Western value systems.
Therefore, addressing veganism in this study occurs in a Canadian context which remains intimately linked to Western values and systems of consumption.
With respect to socio-demographic characteristics, all individuals included in this study are at least 18 years old. This age restriction is employed for a number of reasons. Firstly, adult populations can more readily provide informed and autonomous consent, thus streamlining the research process. Secondly, focusing singularly on an adult vegan population allows for greater comparability between interviews. And lastly, typical to Western culture and norms, individuals in their late-teens and adulthood exercise greater autonomy in their lifestyle practices and 45 identities compared to youth (Hertzler and Bruce 2002) often due to increased financial independence and/or moving away from parental homes. Within the life course then, early adulthood (18 years old) is an ideal minimum age to explore the relationship between consumption practices and identities.
In relation to location, with over 150 000 residents, a median age of 39 years old and a population largely rooted in European ethnic origins (over 110 000 residents) (Statistics Canada
2018), the city of Guelph is an appropriate site to explore the growth of veganism within Canada.
While Guelph is not representative of Canada as a whole, this city is an ideal place to center research on veganism due to the fact its population composition mirrors aspects of vegan populations. Furthermore, with its eco-conscious reputation and a popular yearly vegan food festival entitled Vegfest Guelph, the city and surrounding cities (within 65 kilometres) boast prominent vegan populations with historical and cultural ties to Western value systems.
While Guelph is my central site of focus from which to recruit participants from, flexibility exists in my study’s parameters to accommodate vegans who are socially, culturally, educationally and/or economically tied to Guelph while not actually living in this city. Tangibly, this allows for non-Guelph vegans who shop, study, socialize and frequent establishments and events in Guelph to be part of this study as they are still intimately connected the cultural fabric of vegan networks in Guelph. Therefore, by situating my study in Guelph and surrounding cities adjacently connected to Guelph culture, I more efficiently explored lifestyle practices, values and motivations of vegan Canadians operating within Western social spheres.
Lastly, although I did not put strict parameters on what genders could be included in this study, I sought a diverse spread of both self-identified vegan women, genderqueers and men.
This is in an effort to conduct not only robust, but also, inclusive research. In doing so, I strived 46 towards flexibility, inclusivity and comparability in my sample. To target vegans who fell within this scope, I used the specific approaches to recruitment outlined below.
3.3 Participant Recruitment
As vegans account for approximately one to five percent of populations in Western countries (Le and Sabate 2014; Martinelli and Berkmaniene 2018; Radnitz, Beehold and
DiMatteo 2015), I drew on a small vegan population in the Guelph community and surrounding areas (within 65 kilometers) for interviews. In this section I outline the three sampling methods I relied upon – convenience, purposive and snowball – while detailing the three main avenues by which I engaged in these sampling methods – online vegan Facebook groups, physical poster-ing of public spaces throughout Guelph, and participant connections.
The first method of recruitment I relied upon was online through Guelph-specific vegan
Facebook groups. Following obtaining permission from Administrators of these groups in
February 2019, I posted recruitment flyers in the following Facebook groups: ‘The Guelph
Vegan Society’ and ‘Vegetarians and Vegans in Guelph, Ontario, Canada’. Beyond personal posting of my recruitment flyer on these groups’ walls, it is important to note that news of the study built fervor and excitement amongst some of the vegans in these online groups. Thus, it later came to my attention – during the course of recruitment and interviewing – that my recruitment posts were shared to other neighbouring media platforms such as the ‘KW Vegan
Society’ Facebook group and the Instagram page of local Guelph vegan restaurant, Cadence, by group members interested in the study. All such methods of online recruitment, including both personal posts that I made and vegan-sharing of my personal posts yielded interviewees included in my sample. 47
I intentionally began with online recruitment methods for a number of reasons. Firstly, as veganism is recognized as an alternative lifestyle practice and one that, in some capacities, rejects hegemonic forms of consumption, I targeted virtual spaces where vegan practices and value-sharing occurs outside money exchange. Indeed, in Greenebaum and Dexter’s (2017) recruitment of vegan men in the United States, accessing this population through Facebook yielded successful results. Therefore, in opting to begin with online recruitment, I minimized the exclusion of vegans who engage in consumption practices outside of traditional capitalist processes of economically purchasing goods. Beyond this, I also recruited through physical signage to ensure that I was employing a highly robust methodology.
The second method of recruitment I utilized was through posting recruitment signage on community boards in central food and consumption sites throughout Guelph. Businesses I posted recruitment flyers at included: farmer’s markets (Guelph Farmer’s Market); vegan restaurants
(Cadence, Boon Burger); grocers with a high volume of vegan friendly products (Goodness Me,
Stone Store, Market Fresh); and cafes with vegan-friendly options (Planet Bean Coffee, Red
Brick Café, Balzacs). I chose these sites first and foremost due to their popular provision of vegan products. Additionally, I posted recruitment flyers at all six of Guelph’s Public Libraries.
As previously outlined, although many vegans engage in Western capitalist practices, a common sentiment amongst a large proponent of Western vegans is a continual striving towards an abstention from problematic social and economic practices connected to capitalism (Adams
2010; Cherry 2006). Thus, I included recruitment efforts in public libraries to reach a wider vegan population of varied socioeconomic statuses and practices.
Thirdly, I relied upon snowball sampling as a supplementary recruitment strategy to round out my sample and include a more diverse range of voices – particularly with respect to 48 race, age and gender. This recruitment method has been cited as a beneficial recruitment strategy for researchers looking to access “hard-to-reach populations” or niche groups (Handcock and
Gile 2011, 369). Indeed, this is a common recruitment strategy amongst contemporary researchers conducting work on populations within the boundaries of lifestyle and consumption patterns (Bisogni et al. 2002; Cairns, Johnston and Bauman 2010; Jabs, Sobal and Devine 2000;
Musolino et al. 2015; Paulson 2018).
In practical terms, although a number of my participants readily offered to aid me in recruitment without any prompting on my end (something akin to the aforementioned fervor and excitement expressed by vegan individuals who initially shared my online recruitment posts without my knowledge), I actively snowball sampled through only one of my participants. This method effectively yielded three participants whose inclusion brought greater diversity to my sample. In my proposal, I expressed hesitation in relying too heavily on snowball sampling due to the fact that social connectedness of respondents may bias my sample when uncovering motivations, values and practices of vegans in Guelph. In spite of these concerns, I chose to snowball sample through only one particular respondent due to their high degree of embeddedness in personal and professional vegan networks in Guelph. Their robust understanding of research processes, personal connections to the vegan community, and organizational networks both university- and community-related, thus made them an ideal candidate for snowball sampling with minimal bias in practices, values or ideology. Furthermore, beyond active snowball sampling, one of my interviewees noted that their decision to participate in the study was born of a friend’s positive experience participating in the study just weeks before. Although this was not active snowball sampling on my end, the vegan community in
Guelph and surrounding areas is closely connected, so it did provide evidence of both known and 49 unknown social networks that may exist within my sample.
Screening of vegans who expressed interest in being included in this study occurred through email communication. Through the first two months of recruitment, screening questions focused on age, length of veganism, gender identity, and city of residence. Once my sample began to take form, certain voices saturated and at that time, I identified gaps in the representativeness of my sample. As a result of this, I expanded and refined my screening questions partway through recruitment to further include education level and ethnicity. 67 individuals in total emailed expressing interest in being included in the study. Through effective screening and attrition of interest, I eventually interviewed 21 of these individuals. Thus, a robust screening strategy became integral to my research process as I aimed to be as inclusive, as pragmatically possible, in who could participate in this study.
3.4 Ethics Protocol
This study was approved by the University of Guelph’s Research Ethics Board in
December 2018 in accordance with Federal Tri-Council protocols for ethical research. It was my aim, as a researcher, to provide participants with multiple points to review consent processes to ensure they had a robust understanding of what their involvement in the study entailed. Firstly, during initial contact, when email screening interested participants for suitability for the study, I provided a letter of information and consent form. These documents detailed the aim of the research, study parameters, interview processes, topics of confidentiality and anonymity, and guidelines to withdraw from the study. Secondly, at the outset of each interview I verbally reviewed the letter of information and consent form with participants, outlining the purpose of the study, what their involvement entailed, any potential risks associated with participating in the study and matters of confidentiality. 50
There was limited risk associated with involvement in the study as my questions largely focused upon lifestyle practices, gender identity and vegan identity. Interview participants were welcomed to ask any questions prior to signing the consent form but were also encouraged to ask any questions throughout the interview as they arose. Following completion of the interview, participants were welcomed to reach out to to me directly via email if they had any questions, comments or concerns. This was stressed to participants at the close of the interview to ensure their awareness of an open line of communication between myself, as the researcher, and them, as the participant.
Confidentiality was maintained throughout the process as consent forms were secured in a private office space in my home. Furthermore, digital recordings and transcripts were encrypted on my password protected computer. Each participant was given a pseudonym and any indirectly identifying information was used sparingly to avoid any breaches of confidentiality.
3.5 Developing the Interview Guide
To shed light on my methodological design and instruments, I will firstly provide a justification for why semi-structured in-depth interviews are methodologically appropriate to tap into a feminist-Bourdieuisian framework and why this framework is theoretically appropriate to explore lifestyle practices and identities. Following this, I then review the effectiveness of employing semi-structured in-depth interviews to further develop more nuanced understandings of consumption and identity. Lastly, I will detail a brief process and timeline pertaining to when and how I developed my interview guide.
I settled upon semi-structured in-depth interview as my primary mode of data collection as it allows for a strong degree of researcher-respondent reflexivity when engaging in an empirical study of the habitus (Costa and Murphy 2015; MacArthur et al. 2017; Riach 2009). 51
This is evidenced in Cristina Costa and Mark Murphy’s (2015) edited text Bourdieu, Habitus and Social Research: The Art of Application, where qualitative methodologies, and interviews in particular, are among the most favoured means of data collection to understand habitus. This is due to the flexibility, opportunity for rich narration, and exploratory nature of the process (Costa and Murphy 2018).
Additionally, Bourdieu championed a reflexive sociology which opens space for relational thinking; an iterative and continuous dialogue between theory and methodology with space to reflect upon the researcher’s role in the process of the study (Bourdieu and Wacquant
1992). Although Bourdieu favoured ethnographic research (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992), arguably the openness of topical discussion afforded in the semi-structured interview fulfills many of the components of Bourdieu’s reflexive sociology. Thus, this provides justification for coupling a qualitative methodology – interviewing in particular – with the concept of habitus.
Furthermore, connections between a Bourdieuisan framework and lifestyle practices can readily be drawn.
The coupling of consumption and lifestyle practices with Bourdieu’s (1977) habitus has shown a high degree of compatibility. This has been proven through his own highly detailed analysis of food, goods and cultural consumption in French society in Distinction (Bourdieu
1984). Extending this framework beyond this context though, a host of scholars have also relied upon use of habitus to tap into consumption and practices in some of the following populations: fast food workers (Woodhall-Melnik and Matheson 2017), mothers in Brazil (de Morais Sato et al. 2014), youth alcohol consumers (MacArthur et al. 2017), and ethical consumers (Johnston,
Szabo and Rodney 2012), amongst many others. Consequently, this rich legacy of applying
Bourdieu’s framework to patterns of consumption, values and dispositions of different groups 52 establishes its applicability when researching such subject matter in vegan populations in a
Canada.
As a cornerstone of qualitative methodologies, use of the semi-structured interview also provides opportunity for comparability of data across a number of interviews while still providing some flexibility and openness to explore unforeseen content (Costa and Murphy
2018). Semi-structured interviews have yield detailed insight into the consumption practices, identities, and values of vegetarians (Barr and Chapman 2002; Hamilton 2006; Jabs, Sobal and
Devine 2005), vegans (Greenebaum 2012; Greenebaum and Dexter 2017; McDonald 2000), ethical consumers (Beagan, Ristovski and Chapman 2010; Cairns, Johnston and Bauman 2010;
Johnston, Szabo and Rodney 2011), disordered eaters (Musolino et al. 2015), and other lifestyle- based populations (Backett and Davison 1995; Bridges 2009; Saltonstall 1993; Roos et al. 2001).
Furthermore, semi-structured interviews have been utilized when tapping into veganism within a
Practice Theory framework (Twine 2017; Twine 2018). Therefore, widespread use of the qualitative semi-structured interview to access values, motives and practices in specific consumer and lifestyle populations serves as evidence of its applicability in this study.
In creating my interview guide, I focused on developing a structured reference point for interviewing that also provided participants the verbal and emotional space to critically engage with their own personalized vegan practices and boundaries. Thus, the intent of my interview guide was to flexibly orient interviewees through an in-depth telling of their motivations, values and practices as a gendered vegan in Canada. Generation of this guide occurred throughout the
Fall 2018 semester, culminating with a final draft in February 2019. Many iterations of the guide developed over the fall and winter months. My process began independently, as I brainstormed questions and probes based on my understanding of veganism, vegan scholarly literature and my 53 own gendered and consumptive life. Once content with an initial draft, I reached out to one vegan key informant, whom I know personally, for testing and feedback on my compilation of questions. Heeding their feedback, I then met with my advisor to engage in a dialogue on ways I could further refine my scripted questions for a more effective interview. This collaborative effort thus resulted in a finalized semi structured interview guide (attached in Appendix C) which
I followed for all 21 interviews conducted.
3.6 Data Collection
Between March 2019 and June 2019 I conducted 21 semi-structured in-depth interviews with vegans. The composition of vegans in my sample included 11 self-identified vegan women,
3 self-identified non-binary/genderqueer vegans, and 7 self-identified vegan men. A comparative gendered analysis is central to my study; therefore, I strove to have a diverse range of gendered voices included in my sample.
Women typically comprise a high proportion of Western vegan populations in general at
63 to 75 percent while men comprise a majority of the remaining percentage (Martinelli and
Berkmaniene 2018). Pragmatically, more vegan women than men were available to be interviewed in Guelph; thus, I included higher proportion of vegan women in my sample.
Furthermore, no statistics on the proportion of non-binary and genderqueer vegans in Western countries exist to my knowledge. Statistics Canada and many other Western census bodies have yet to even include inclusive questions that acknowledge genderqueer identities on census survey instruments. Therefore, an exact percentage of genderqueer individuals in Western countries, let alone genderqueer vegans, is unknown. It is reasonable though, to assume that non-binary, genderqueer individuals make up a minimal percentage of the population. Thus, the small 54 proportion of non-binary, genderqueer vegans in my sample can, in large part, be attributed to the relative rarity of non-binary, genderqueer vegans in Guelph.
Interviewees’ ages ranged from 20 to 63 years old; with two participants refraining from disclosing their age. The duration of veganism in my sample spans eight months to 33 years, with a median length of four years. 19 interviewees presented as white while 2 participants presented as people of colour. This is reflective of the fact that I focused on a Western form of veganism, and thus individuals who adhered to veganism for primarily religious reasons were not included in the sample. With respect to education, a majority of individuals included in the sample had or were completing post-secondary education. This mirrors social science research which stipulates that vegan populations are generally of higher socioeconomic status and are more educated than carnist groups (Martinelli and Berkmaniene 2018).
The average duration of an interview I conducted was approximately 120 minutes; however, there was a high degree of variability in interview length with the shortest lasting 84 minutes and the longest lasting upwards of 210 minutes. Interview locations included both private and public options to ensure I accommodated the needs and preferences of my interviewees. Options for private locations I offered were on campus at the University of Guelph.
3 interviews were conducted in a reserved study room in McLaughlin Library and 2 interviews were conducted in a reserved graduate teaching assistant office space in the Department of
Sociology and Anthropology. I also conducted public interviews at a number of cafes and restaurants throughout Guelph including Planet Bean, The Cornerstone, Boon Burger, Red Brick
Café, Starbucks and William’s Fresh Café, and 1 interview at Democracy* - a café in Hamilton,
Ontario. 55
The wide range in interview duration can be attributed to the flexible and conversational nature by which I chose to approach the interview process. With a central focus on utilizing a semi-structured in-depth interview to authentically hone in on participants’ experiences, perceptions and views of the world (van den Hoonaard 2015), I aimed to balance flexibility and structure in my approach to interviewing. I strove to cultivate a relationship of respect, trust and openness with interviewees when discussing values, practices and identities deeply personal to their vegan and gender identity. Practically, I encouraged rich story-telling and narration by my participants while they verbally explored the nooks and crannies of their own lives. Important to note is that while being vegan was something all my interviewees were deeply passionate about and proud of, due to the oft stigmatized nature of identifying as a vegan (Markowski and
Roxburg 2019), many interviewees expressed enacting a high degree of restraint and control in discussing their veganism during daily life. In an effort to push through any socially calcified boundaries of restraint around discussing veganism, I opted to flexibly follow the stories and experiences of my interviewees with a rigorous and intentioned curiosity as they arose. This allowed for greater rapport and comfort amongst interviewees as we explored their veganism and gender identity through a structure largely dictated by them, ultimately, yielding rich and relevant data.
3.7 Analysis and Coding
With a central emphasis on vegan values, practices, perceptions of identities, and experiences in sociality, I sought an approach to analysis that would facilitate a deeper understanding of my participants’ experiences without stifling or suffocating the data. In light of this, I employed Grounded Theory based off of Glaser and Strauss’ (1967) work and informed by
Corbin and Strauss (1998). As an analytical tool, I gravitated towards this approach as it attends 56 to the richness of raw data, offers meaningful and alternative insights to existing phenomena, is conceptually grounded in data and fosters an approach to analysis which is systematic, rigorous and highly creative (Corbin and Strauss 1998). Overall, this approach to analysis felt largely compatible with attending to the sensitivity and meaning-centered nature of exploring personal perceptions and experiences around identity.
Following a verbatim transcription of all interviews and the removal of any identifying information, I coded each transcript according to a flexible grounded theory approach. Taking heed of Strauss and Corbin’s (1998) description of coding, I employed a multi-tiered process whereby I completed, open, axial and closed coding. Firstly, in an effort to immerse myself in the data, I printed hard copies of my transcripts and completed line-by-line open coding of all 21 interviews recording each new code on a post-it note. This process of open coding yielded approximately 260 open codes – many of which were similar or relationally connected.
Following this, I proceeded to employ axial coding by exploring the relationships between the codes yielded from my initial open coding process. I intentionally chose to conduct axial coding on post-it notes so as to provide me with the opportunity to tactically and physically interact with the data. For approximately a week, post-it notes were scattered about my living space in different configurations as I explored the relationships between various codes, grouping and regrouping them in different capacities until I settled on a list of closed codes. Eventually, I settled on a list of 50 closed codes grouped under 12 central themes. Armed with finalized codes,
I revisited my digital transcripts in Microsoft Word and used the comments feature to engage in paragraph-based closed coding.
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4 Chapter 4 – Developing and Practicing a Vegan Identity
The goal of my study is threefold: to understand the motives, values and lifestyle practices of Canadian vegans; to assess whether gendered differences exist in vegan values and practices; and, lastly, to explore how gender identity and vegan identity intersect in individual actors and how this plays out in social contexts. My findings section is broken into two parts, the first of which I cover here. In part one, I outline my participants’ (1) processes of becoming vegan; (2) their overall lifestyle practices; and, (3) identity interpretations, in particular, relating to veganism and gender. Each section in this chapter speaks to each of my research questions.
4.1 The Process of Becoming Vegan
Transitioning into a vegan lifestyle is wrought with complexity. Participants offered lengthy narratives about their pathways into veganism. In analyzing these narratives, I discerned participants’ core pathways – health, environmentalism, and animal ethics – into veganism and peripheral pathways – the Netflix phenomena, relational connections, and moving out – that further guided them into this lifestyle. Furthermore, given the variety of justifications for becoming vegan and different value systems associated with each pathway, I also asked participants their feelings about the legitimacy of different vegan pathways and value systems.
Thus, shedding light on how vegans perceive themselves in relation to others within the vegan community. Consequently, in this section I begin by outlining my participants core pathways. I then turn to peripheral pathways, which may otherwise be understood as factors and experiences integral to my participants’ transition into veganism beyond the scope of their core pathways.
Finally, I explore how vegans prioritize different value systems associated with vegan practices.
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4.1.1 Core Pathways
I began all interviews by asking participants to outline their main reason for becoming vegan. In most instances, this question prompted a long meaningful narrative about a transitional stage in the participant’s life. This starting point allowed them to use a general story-telling approach to narrow in on what sparked the onset of their veganism. While each narrative is unique, capturing the intimate minutiae of their process in “finding veganism” (Olive), the narratives outlined by my participants relate to the three mainstream vegan pathways outlined in the literature: health, environmentalism, and animal ethics (Greenebaum 2012; Greenebaum and
Dexter 2017; Janssen et al. 2016).
I. Health Pathways
Of the men, both Ang and Daniel entered into veganism largely for health reasons, albeit from different perspectives. Daniel began his vegan practice strictly from a preventative health lens. His keen interest in fitness and body building largely oriented him towards a vegan lifestyle. Ang, on the other hand, initially adopted veganism because he developed kidney stones a number of years ago. In outlining this, he stressed “The trigger point was pain. I had a bout of kidney stones...the last time I had to go to the hospital…I thought I have to make some changes.
So I made the change. It was like from that day on because the pain was so intense”. While both
Ang and Daniel initiated vegan practice for health purposes, their experiences leading up to that point differed: one curative, the other preventive. Thus nuancing how health reasons bring individuals into veganism.
Of the eleven women I interviewed, seven discuss how their initial pathway into veganism centers around health (Olive; Avery; Lynn; Sasha; Aubrey; Patty; Carmen). While over half the women cite health as their primary motivator for adopting veganism, what they 59 reference in relation to health is more nuanced. Olive, Patty and Carmen all acknowledge that concerns around weight loss and aesthetics were what drove them to first consider veganism.
When discussing intimate details around how veganism can start from persistent desires for thinness, Patty opened up by saying,
I obsess about my weight all the time. If I would have been completely honest, I would’ve said that the third time I went vegan was because I was desperate for weight loss after having my first and only biological child and it opened up a whole new world of possibilities and then my health – like I was a whole new woman in 6 weeks.
While a focus on weight loss and maintenance was initially important to Olive, Patty and
Carmen, Lynn shared that her focus on health was firstly rooted in preventative practices. Lynn’s curiousity with veganism began when she was training for a marathon. At the behest of her son, she delved further and further into veganism in an effort to push her physical capability and prevent the onset of non-communicable diseases as she aged. Additionally, Aubrey also touched upon preventative health practices for her reason in first adopting veganism. This was largely borne out of a looming anxiety over “antibiotics and by-products” in non-vegan foods.
Therefore, while these women all highlight aspects of health connected to veganism, their actual entry points vary greatly across aesthetics, physical capability, and physiological concerns.
In opposition to more mainstream conceptions of health outlined above, Avery and Sasha presented a more “spiritual” and “energy-focused” reasoning behind their first considerations of veganism. Each of these women, while discussing dietary concerns, also said they gravitated towards veganism due to “negative energy transfers” from consuming products of animals that had been exploited, tortured and killed. When sharing this, Avery’s initial concerns were around bringing into her body the “abuse and stress” the animals experience. Additionally, as one of her professions, Sasha practices healing energy work – akin to Reiki. She knew she needed to be as 60 healthy as possible to deliver her services effectively. For her, this means “having a high vibration…and not ingesting creatures” that carry low vibrations. Therefore, although Avery and
Sasha both adopted veganism for health-related reasons, their entrance points deviate from a more traditional conception of health within a Western framework. Thus, how my participants conceptualize the connection between veganism and health evidences a wide disparity in what it means to become vegan for health reasons.
II. Animal Ethics
Only one of the women, Leona, attributes her pathway into veganism to animal ethics.
This concern for animal ethics initially developed when getting her first family dog in high school. In digging deeper, she said “it really changed my view of what animals are just because I completely fell in love with him [my dog] and do everything for him and watching those documentaries especially connected that. It looks like his face on all the pigs in the faces”.
Consequently, her impetus for adopting veganism was borne out of her emotional-visceral reaction to animals. With her newfound love for her dog, she recalibrated her relationship to animals in general, thus creating space for a drastic shift towards embracing veganism.
While Leona was the only woman initially concerned about animal ethics, over half the men I interviewed connect their transition into veganism to animal ethics (Corey; Jack; Rory;
Spencer). Similar to Leona, Rory details an emotional connection to a pet as the catalyst behind his veganism:
The spark was an ethical dilemma. It revolved around my cat. So I’m making chicken in Toronto one night. I cook a lot. And I’m looking at my cat and I come to an understanding that I love this cat. I love this cat as much as my future children. I love this cat to the end of the world and I couldn’t come up with a reason why it was okay to love this cat and eat this chicken. And it was literally like a lightning bolt at that moment. I said this doesn’t feel comfortable for me anymore. I hadn’t read anything. I didn’t have any vegetarian friends. It was strictly an ethical-existential question. I did eat that chicken that night and it was 61
probably delicious but within 6 months I had become vegan.
While this clearly represents an affective-emotional relationship to animal ethics, Corey, Jack and Spencer found that exposure to documentaries, books and other ethical vegan discourse was pivotal to their piqued interest in veganism. Additionally, while Aaron was born into a plant- based family, he highlighted how his decision to first identify as vegan, outside of his familial upbringing, was ethically-rooted despite his parents’ continued focus on health veganism.
Although he was born into veganism, once connected to the lifestyle, he chose to maintain it for ethical reasoning.
Two genderqueer vegans, Riley and Quinn, also emphasized the importance of animal ethics in their initial attraction to veganism. With an ethical standpoint at the fore of their veganism, Quinn stressed “reconciling [their] ethical inconsistencies” in consumption, while
Riley stated they could no longer “separate out the suffering of the death” (P1) of animal from their own food practices. In doing so, they structured their initial vegan narrative around a concern for ethical practice. Overall, in many ways, my participants’ pathways into veganism are rooted in discourses in personal autonomy, rationality and philosophical arguments, but also experiential encounters with animals that elicit emotional-visceral reactions.
III. Environmental Pathways
Overall, only three individuals in my sample – all women – said their interest in veganism began with environmental concerns. Sydney, Frances and Alexis all stressed how fears over the degradation of the planet first introduced them to the benefits of a vegan lifestyle. For
Frances, this began with witnessing forest fires in British Columbia. As someone who previously lived on the west coast a number of years prior, she was awestruck by the devastation of climate change and this is what actually encouraged her to shift from being a vegetarian of 25 years to 62 being vegan. For Sydney and Alexis, their connections to environmentalism occurred through learning about the impacts of non-vegan diets on the planet and relationships with environmentally-oriented friends and family members. While not largely disparate in their pathways into veganism, these women all vegan in an effort to extend greater care and compassion towards longevity of the planet.
IV. Blended Pathways
One genderqueer vegan, Morgan, drew on all three of the main vegan pathways – health, animal ethics, and environmental - in discussing how they came to be vegan. In most interviews, as discussed above, I discerned one central driving force behind my participants’ entrance into a vegan lifestyle. Generally, one particular pathway was illuminated fairly quickly; however, this did not occur with Morgan. In discussing why they first became vegan, Morgan articulated,
I initially started learning about veganism through studies related to a plant-based diet and I just started reading these studies about the benefits of a whole foods plant based diet and from there it snowballed into all these things veganism can give you. Like the environmental effects of switching from a carnist diet to a plant-based diet. What got me to actually go vegan was…a documentary called Earthlings. I had a really strong emotional reaction to that so I went vegan that night and I’ve been vegan since.
This quote demonstrates the centrality of the three main pathways in Morgan’s decision to adopt veganism. I probed further in an effort to see if one took precedence over the others in their decision to become vegan; however, they continually focused on the amalgam of different pathways as their reasoning. Therefore, they displayed an overtly hybridized start to their veganism wherein the three main pathways, collectively weaved together, served as a sum great enough to prompt this participant to become vegan.
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4.1.2 Peripheral Pathways
Peripheral pathways include elements of participants’ narratives that fall outside of the main pathways associated with veganism. These are commonalities in experiences expressed by those I interviewed when narrating their entrance into veganism. While these are not the primary pathways I covered above, they are nonetheless informative and integral to the development of my participants’ interest in and adoption of veganism.
I. The Netflix Phenomena
Netflix boasts a number of vegan-focused documentaries including those previously mentioned as well as Forks Over Knives, Earthlings, Food Choices, Vegucated, Fat, Sick and
Nearly Dead 1 & 2, Food Inc., and In Defense of Food. Increased availability and access to vegan content on a major streaming platform allows for binge-watching and consumption of pro- vegan film like never before in the Western world. This was exemplified by participants in my sample, as many women, men and genderqueer individuals specifically addressed access to
Netflix documentaries as pivotal in their initial vegan education and eventual transition.
Five women expressed that an unfettered access to Netflix documentaries spouting the positives of a vegan lifestyle was vital to their transition process. Avery, Lynn, Sydney, Leona and Aubrey all referenced vegan documentaries from Netflix as important to their process of learning about veganism. In exploring the importance of vegan documentaries to her transition,
Sydney stated
I think it just fell into place cause I watched Cowspiracy and there was a line in that film where the guy said, ‘oh you can’t call yourself an environmentalist and not be vegan’. And I was like damn I think he’s right. Yeah so that documentary got to me and I kind of just made that decisions.
Additionally, this was echoed by Morgan who explained that another vegan documentary -
Earthlings – fundamentally influenced them to shift from a vegetarian to vegan lifestyle. They 64 admonished that the documentary and their “strong emotional reaction” to it sparked their embrace of veganism, virtually overnight (Brett).
Three men – Rory, Spencer and Daniel – also shared that watching vegan Netflix documentaries played an important role in guiding them towards veganism. Daniel explains,
“This will sound really simplistic … what happened with my wife and I, was essentially watching the documentary Cowspiracy on Netflix. I would say I owe everything to that”.
Spencer also casually noted that he was simply perusing movie options on Netflix and he
“stumbled across those movies [What the Health? and Cowspiracy]…and it just kind of spiralled from there”. Heightened access to pro-vegan content clearly “planted the seed” (Rory) then, for these men’s steady and immediate immersion into vegan content. Consequently, across genders, underlying value systems correlated with veganism likely did exist within my participants pre- viewing; however, Netflix documentaries, in many ways, facilitated a deeper connection with these value systems and a practical way to enact them in their daily lives. Ultimately, Netflix documentaries acted as an important conduit in the spread of vegan ideology in an accessible and relatable manner.
II. Relational Connections to Veganism
Outside of access to vegan knowledge via technology, six of the women I interviewed highlighted how mentorship by vegan friends and family was a formative aspect of their integration into veganism (Avery; Lynn; Sasha; Sydney; Carmen). Lynn and Carmen both found that their introduction to the practice of veganism came through their offspring that are vegan.
For example, Lynn’s adult son assisted her through transition by “purging [her] cupboards” of non-vegan foods and providing her with vegan reading material, such as Rich Roll’s ‘Finding
Ultra’. Beyond familial relationships, Avery, Sasha and Sydney discussed the importance of their 65 friends’ mentorship through the transition process. Sydney explicitly shared that living with a vegan friend pre- transition had a large impact on her lifestyle as she found she naturally absorbed many of the practices of her vegan friend. Additionally, Avery and Sasha said they were both justifications for adopting a vegan diet, and Sasha in particular, received a meal plan from her friend. Therefore, although these conceptions of support take different forms, the common denominator in these experiences is that these women had seasoned vegan mentors aiding and supporting them through shifting lifestyle practices.
With respect to genderqueer individuals, Riley is the only individual who received vegan mentorship through a social connection. Their cousin who had been vegan for a number of years provided them with both tangible goods, such as vegan cookbooks and recipe tips, and emotional support as they transitioned.
Lastly, Aaron, Corey, Jack and Daniel all had previous familial connections to vegetarian and veganism. As previously noted, Aaron was born into a plant-based family, whereas Daniel’s romantic partner was vegan for seven years prior to his adoption of veganism. Beyond this,
Corey did acknowledge that his “mom’s been vegetarian for most of her life” and Jack’s older sister went vegetarian in her early teens so he feels “so the seed of it was always kind of there”
(P15). While, over half of the men in my sample have long-standing familial connections with vegetarians and vegans, which would suggest the potential for the role of familial mentorship into veganism, outside of Aaron, none of these men referenced mentorship or support from other vegans through their transition. These relationships were unearthed through casual conversation rather than integral components of the transition process. Thus, this hints towards the different ways mentorship may come into play when different genders transition.
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III. Moving Out
For Sydney and Alexis “moving out” of their parents’ places and going away to university, where they live independently, was vital for their embrace and development of veganism. In moving away from home for the first time, these women capitalized on their more agentic living environments, as they began to exercise greater control over what and how they consumed. In exploring the importance of her move, Alexis shares, “I didn’t really consider it
[veganism] as an option for myself until I could see myself moving out. Like I can finally do this now and make my own choices”. This point exemplifies the fact that as individual shift into and environments beyond the daily strictures of parental control, agency and responsibility over consumption practices cultivate more fruitful contexts for adoption of alternative lifestyles to those of parents and guardians.
This importance of autonomy and space from guardians was echoed by all the genderqueer individuals I interviewed. Riley, Quinn and Morgan all described how this new- found autonomy meant they could more meaningfully question and reject the place of a traditional Western diet in their lives. For Riley and Morgan, this occurred within their first year of living away from home. Riley details, “being able to cook for myself really allowed me to figure out how I was going to eat fully without animals in my diet”. By the close of their first year of university, both participants were fully vegan. Quinn, who began experimenting with vegetarianism in their second year of university, feels that moving away from home created an environment ripe for alternative food practices in their life:
My first week of second year I had to buy myself meat and I had to cook it and I just kept looking at it as like it was actually part of an animal and I was like I can’t eat this. So I just didn’t eat it and phoned my dad. He was outraged. It just stuck with me though…I feel like if I had been more self-sufficient in cooking it would have happened two years earlier. First year of university it didn’t really matter 67
much cause I was on residence and on a meal plan.
Although Quinn did not fully transition into veganism until a number of years later – in the first year of their master’s program – they perceive the independence that comes from moving out on their own and taking charge of their own sustenance was vital in their orienting towards alternative lifestyle practices. Ultimately, this importance of moving out and gaining greater autonomy over lifestyle practices is thus present among a select few women and genderqueer individuals I interviewed. While these peripheral pathways into veganism are important insight into the transition process of my participants, as vegans practices deepen, hierarchies of vegan values tend to shift.
4.1.3 Stable and Shifting Vegan Values
I. Embracing Multiple Value Systems
All participants discussed adoption of a plurality of value systems as they progressed in vegan practice. In all the interviews I conducted, individuals acknowledged that as they progressed in their vegan practice, they increasingly identified with more and more reasons to become vegan. Daniel aptly describes this experience of shifting values, when touching on how his perception of veganism has changed over the past three years,
It’s accelerated the longer I’m vegan. I think my animal cruelty side is going through the roof now. That was never a reason why I went vegan….Pre-vegan I would’ve been the type of person who could probably watched a bit of Earthlings or something and go ‘meh I don’t want to watch that’…that was not a reason we [him and his wife] went vegan. However, the way I feel about that now compared to then ….I’ll say there are three big reasons [health, environment and ethics]. That third reason. The trinity. The animal reason has been the last one but now it’s coming in for me very strong. I would say in the last year and a half.
His experiences of embracing a greater repertoire of vegan values is mirrored by all vegans I interviewed; as vegans continue in practice, they are more likely to draw on a wide variety of 68 discourses and justifications to back up their vegans. Overall, this could be read as part of steady immersion into vegan culture.
Although my participants overwhelmingly identified with a main pathway, prolonged practice facilitated the embrace of other pathways to further bolster their identification with veganism and further entrench this lifestyle in my participants everyday practice. Interestingly, what initially drew my participants into veganism is not always what they currently prioritize in their hierarchical ordering of vegan values. Therefore, the following subsections will explore my participants’ hierarchical organization of vegan values and the primary reasons they continued to live as vegan.
II. Animal Ethics
Total Vegans in Sample: 8 Ethical Vegans (4 Women [Olive; Leona; Alexis; Patty] and 4
Men [Aaron; Corey; Jack; Rory])
Four of the eleven women currently view animal ethics as the primary reason they maintain a vegan lifestyle (Olive; Leona; Alexis; Patty). Leona is the only woman who began her practice due to animal ethics – a value system she prioritizes to date. In contrast to this, Olive and Patty, both adopted veganism due to a desire to lose weight; however, they both center animal ethics as the primary motivator for continuing a vegan lifestyle now. This shifting in values was echoed by Alexis, albeit from a different starting point. She originally adopted veganism for environmentalist concerns; however, she now feels “the number one now is animal ethical reasons. Before I was vegan and vegetarian, I wasn’t open minded to what happens to the animals or how unethical consuming animal products is. And I knew it was wrong but I just didn’t even want to hear about it or know about it”. For Alexis, she believes she was not ready to embrace an animal ethics value system until her practices more readily aligned with those beliefs 69
– a subconscious dance between ideology and practice. Overall though, these participants exemplify the fact that sustained veganism generally opens up opportunities for a shifting and re- centering of different value systems through an evolution of practice.
The majority of vegan men I questioned prioritized animal ethics as the primary motivating factor for consumers to adopt veganism (Aaron; Corey; Jack; Rory). These men initially embraced veganism for ethical reasons, and to this day, are steadfast in prioritizing ethical value systems above all others. Interestingly, some of these men discuss a highly nuanced understanding of ethical pathways. These men unanimously advocate for an “animal rights” over
“animal welfare” approach to ethical veganism. Centering on the inalienable rights of creatures, abolitionist vegans promote a more extremist approach to animal liberation with the total elimination of animal exploitation (Charleton and Francione 2015). In discussing a hierarchy of vegan values, this became an important point of distinction for Corey, who explains
I’m vegan for animal-rights reasons rather than animal welfare reasons. I don’t know what kind of stuff you read about in animal rights stuff, but I’m more of an abolitionist than other kinds of ethical backgrounds…I believe animals have certain rights, generally based on sentience…I think if you pass a certain threshold of certain sentience your rights deserve protection no matter what.
Although not explicitly stated by other ethical vegan men in my sample, their “radical politics…[engagement in] animal liberation, protests, stunts” (Rory) and overall activism practices (Aaron and Jack), situate these men as abolitionists. An important point to note is that this same distinction between rights versus welfare did not arise in my discussions with the aforementioned women who now champion animal ethics.
III. Environmental
Total Vegans in Sample: 4 Climate Vegans (3 Women [Lynn; Sydney; Aubrey] and 1 Man
[Spencer]) 70
Three women I interviewed discussed how their current impetus for maintaining their veganism centered first and foremost on environmentalism (Lynn; Sydney; Aubrey). Sydney was the only woman who initially adopted veganism for climate reasons and she maintains her veganism for that same reason to date. Outside of this, Aubrey and Lynn both started their veganism for health reasons but now prioritize a climate focus to their practice. Lynn explains her beliefs around vegan value systems when she outlines,
The planet is first. So if you become vegan for that reason, everything else falls into line. You know? Animal welfare would fall into line cause it wouldn’t be used anymore for consumption. Personal health would fall into line because you wouldn’t be consuming those animals. Nobody would go hungry because the crops we grow now to feed livestock would go to feed people. So I think that particular reason should be enough.
Ultimately, although these women display varying relationships to different vegan values, these three women prioritize the merits of climate values over other justifications for veganism now, replicating the shift from selfish to more altruistic vegan values that Jessica Greenebaum and
Brandon Dexter (2017) present in their study on vegan value systems.
One outlier is Spencer, who began his veganism for animal ethics purposes but has since begun prioritizing a climate-focus. He describes this shift as a result of listening to vegan podcasts:
So do you know Earthling Ed? He’s a vegan commentator and he said that the treatment of animals isn’t important if the Earth as we know it isn’t liveable anymore…same with health. If the climate deteriorates to such a degree that it might, then there will be a lot of unethical stuff going on.
His beliefs around different vegan values assumes a more macro-lens, similar to that of Lynn’s.
Therefore, environmentalism became a burgeoning value system for him as he began to view this as the catchall reason for being vegan. Thus, his perspective highlights a further way in which 71 perceptions of value systems and vegan practices iteratively interact to shape and transform an actor’s viewpoint.
IV. Health
Total Vegans in Sample: 5 Health Vegans (3 Women [Avery; Sasha; Carmen] and 2 Men
[Ang; Daniel)
Seven women I interviewed expressed that health-related reasoning was their primary motivator to adopt veganism (Olive; Avery; Lynn; Sasha; Aubrey; Patty; Carmen). Now, only
Avery, Sasha and Carmen sustain health as their primary reason for being vegan. Yet, even these women who prioritize health as the primary driver for their vegan practice, discuss the importance of altruistic values in their veganism now. This is evidenced by Carmen who shares that while health is her priority, “respect for every living being” further reinforces her decision to remain vegan. Although health remains the pinnacle of their value system when living as a vegan, each of these women currently embrace elements of all three pathways as important in the bolstering of their veganism.
Interestingly, Ang and Daniel who transitioned into veganism for health reasons continue to view health as the number one reason to be vegan. As they further embed vegan practice in their lives though, they both have outline a deepening embrace of animal ethics and environmentalism in their veganism. This also replicates Greenebaum and Dexter’s (2017) findings that vegans increasingly embrace altruistic value systems through sustained vegan practice. Interesting to note, is that Ang’s pathway into veganism is intimately linked with excruciating kidney stone pain. Following his foray into veganism, he commented that instances of animal suffering and exploitation started to “touch him” in ways that he had not been previously affected. Although Ang’s primary reason for remaining vegan is health, he goes on to 72 state that “in my case it would be impossible for me to have something dead here [points to coffee table] and enjoy it, you know?”. Here, Ang’s comments evidence a burgeoning embrace of value systems he formerly felt distanced from. Therefore, even when there is rigidity in value structures, as exhibited by Ang and Daniel, there is still growth, development and evolution in how these participants understand their practices and the value systems which underpin them.
V. Social Justice
Total Vegans in Sample: 3 Social Justice Vegans (2 Genderqueer [Riley; Quinn] and 1
Woman [Frances])
While Riley and Quinn entered into veganism due to animal ethics, both interviewees developed a more holistic sense of their values through vegan practice. Their connection to and understanding of social justice emerged, to some degree, through their engagement in veganism.
In articulating how they view veganism now, animal ethics remains a priority with environmentalism and health following after; however, both interviewees currently stress a more
“intersectional” (Riley) understanding of veganism as they problematize certain elements of the practice. To them, this means centering considerations of race, gender, class, culture, ability and species in how they understand Western veganism and their own role in it. Riley demonstrates this through their explicit critique of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA):
I feel like there’s a lot of that sort of PETA angle. I hate PETA. I think that they’re a flaming garbage pile of shit... For so many reasons but in particular this promotion of like being vegan will make you slim and more attractive and better at sex...they will argue that they’re trying to appeal to people for whom those things are important but end of up reinforcing the idea that to be vegan is to be slim, white, attractive and virile. And it’s garbage…if you’re promoting veganism as this health trend that’s all its ever going to be. But I think that veganism as some kind of like personal purity or something to benefit yourself misses the point entirely. And I think that’s the case about any social justice movement. If you’re just doing it, for like it benefits yourself, you’ve missed the point because it’s not about you.
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Consequently, through their critique of PETA, Riley sheds light on the complex ways they problematize elements of vegan practices, and which values they more readily align with.
Centering social justice in vegan practice is further elaborated on in both Riley and
Quinn’s discussions on the limits of the viability of veganism. Riley articulates this specifically, in relation to their concern for cultural-sensitivity around Indigenous values and practices, when they exclaim
I think that when you separate people from like a history or story that they can use to understand their identity, that undermines health of communities and individuals and stuff. So I’m not going to argue with someone for whom something’s an important part of that especially when they’re already being attacked. Like I am specifically referring to Indigenous communities and hunting practices. I’m not going to begrudge them hunting and stuff cause I feel like colonialism has kind of fucked over the natural development of their population and stuff. It’s like an issue in their communities with how they’re going to relate to animals.
Through diving deeply and unabashedly into their perception of Western veganism, these participants evidenced their own critique of the practice and lifestyle. They continue to problematize classist, racist and ableist ideologies embedded in some aspects of Western veganism. Furthermore, they advocate for interpretations of of consumption and lifestyle practices through an intersectional lens.
Only one woman in my sample, Frances, explains that her value systems shifted towards an overarching social justice lens following adoption of a vegan lifestyle. What began as a concern for animal ethics and eventually an environmental pathway into veganism, transformed into a broader social justice justification for why she maintains her veganism now. Similar to the two genderqueer individuals, Frances shares,
For me it’s about social justice really. I think that would be the top really…I can have empathy for the animals that I have met and you know overall. You know that the biggest part of it for me is understanding how unjust it is and how we just don’t have the right to do what we’re doing…animals were part of it to begin with 74
and that’s why I wasn’t eating most animals but I was still eating some animals. I was eating animal products and and then the climate stuff came in and then after that the animal rights stuff came in and I started making the connection. You know I fought for women’s rights for years and LGBTQ rights so then making the connection between oppression. Oppression is oppression. You know?
This quote as well as the two other outlined by the genderqueer vegans (Riley; Quinn) highlights a burgeoning embrace of altruistic values which underpins these individuals’ veganism.
Ultimately, this parallels processes of ascension from “selfish” to “altruistic” value systems actualized in studies previously discussed; however, social justice values stretches beyond what
Greenebaum and Dexter (2017) cover. Ultimately, with importance of vegan practices highlighted in relation to understanding value systems, I will now detail what these actual lifestyle practices are.
4.2 Lifestyle Practices
Practice Theory situates individual identity within day-to-day actions and behaviours.
Habitual practice becomes a site of identity formation and expression. In this section I address three main spheres of practice where my participants actively assert their vegan identification:
(1) vegan food practice, (2) broader consumption practice, and (3) practices beyond consumption. Within each subsection, I explore commonalities in participants’ actions and behaviours to illuminate sites of vegan practice that develop and reinforce vegan identity formation.
4.2.1 Vegan Food Practices
Abiding by specific dietary practices is most commonly associated with following a vegan lifestyle. As shown in the literature review, this entails abstaining from consuming animal flesh and by-products (Vegan Society 2017); however, how this is actually enacted in my participants’ everyday lives varies. In this section I outline my participants’ instances of vegan 75 boundary calibration, their efforts to attain bodily purity and other participants’ active rejections of this. With respect to the mundanity of their everyday lives, I then turn to general food provision methods outlined by my participants and, lastly, what daily meal composition generally looks like for them.
I. Boundary Calibration
When digging into how women in my sample structured their veganism, a theme of “trial and error” emerged wherein these participants acknowledged a continual learning process embedded in their practices (Avery; Sasha; Sydney; Frances). These participants acknowledge an inherent learning curve in their initial boundary formation. Yet, with dynamic and quickly changing consumer markets, these women also address current struggles to stay abreast of product transformation and innovation to maintain the integrity of their vegan practice. Thus, resulting in what, at times, feels to be a continual finding and re-finding of the boundaries of their veganism. As Sydney explains, “The more I learn, the more I try to add it into my mental bank of the by-products and things that are and aren’t vegan friendly”. Thus, it is more than plausible to accept that this “mental bank” is one under constant revision, especially within the first five years of vegan practice, which the aforementioned interviewees are.
This complex process of boundary recalibration is also echoed by men within five years of their vegan transition (Jack; Ang; Daniel). In describing his transition into and practice of veganism, Jack states, “as you go along, you learn stuff and make adjustments. Sometimes it’s not always immediate…It’s slower adjustments I think”. Similarly, Ang shares being “at the point of fine tuning things”. These sentiments by both the men and women in beginning stages of their vegan practice highlight the dynamic process of finding and re-finding vegan food 76 boundaries through research, sociality and transgressions. Despite this learning process, purity discourses underlie the practices of many of my participants.
II. Striving towards Purity: ‘Air-tight’ Ethics
The “ethical vegan” men, regardless of duration of practice, express stronger desires for purity from animal-derived products in what they consume. For Rory, when being questioned on any instances of slipping up or erring in practice, he vehemently said
Absolutely not. No never violated intentionally…I have found out after the fact someone misled me. If I’m in doubt though, I do not consume it…I do not eat. I would rather starve. It’s a slippery slope. If your ethics are air tight, they’re air tight. It’s not like ‘oh this week I’ll engage in slavery or the exploitation of women cause there’s some utility to it’…I would look at it as an opportunity to fast or I would die.
While Rory is very passionate and outspoken, other ethical vegan men of different tempers echoed similar sentiments stating that they “dislike trial and error” (Aaron) and “if it’s unknown then I’m not going to eat it” (Corey). Therefore, although veganism entails an on-going learning process, caution and safety practices were exercised by most of the ethical vegan men. In doing so, practices around purity are central to their understanding of an effectively lived veganism.
Of the women, Avery, Lynn, Sasha, Patty, and Carmen all outlined strict vegan food boundaries mirroring that of the men above. In contrast to the homogeneity of the ethical vegan men, the women who engage in greater boundary restriction span identification with ethical, environmental and health value systems. As Sasha – a health vegan – explains “I prepare pretty much everything at home...to avoid any potential contamination”. Patty – an ethical vegan – who largely identifies as ‘fruitarian’ and has intermittently engaged in raw veganism, employs an in- depth knowledge of food products when navigating product uncertainty:
I’m very careful these days…for instance, there’s so many people that think they’re vegan that don’t know mono- and di-glycerides are animal fats. I mean they renamed them a long time ago. So many baked goods and that, people think 77
it sounds like a chemical but it isn’t. And a lot of juice manufacturers are clarifying juices with animal gelatins. Like V8 for instance has come out and said that none of their juices are suitable for vegans. So I’m generally avoiding any commercial juices or drinks.
Consequently, the above sentiments showcase a dogmatic practice of stringently checking food labels. There is a consistent striving towards purity wrapped up in these vegan women’s practices. One consideration of the women is that although spanning different value systems,
Avery, Lynn, Sasha, Patty, and Carmen all share health pathways into veganism.
Two genderqueer vegans with divergent value systems – Quinn with social justice and
Morgan with an environmentalist/health lens – aim towards purity in their food consumption. In general, they strictly “err on the side of caution” (Quinn) when in doubt as to whether a food item is vegan. They also scour labels and structure their practices around what is “essential to living” through drawing on the quintessential hypothetical scenario wherein they were “stranded in a desert and were starving” (Morgan). Consequently, Quinn and Morgan feel comfortable engaging in highly restrictive habits purity practices, so long as their existence is not compromised.
III. Active Rejections of Purity
With respect to the women in my sample, Sydney, Frances and Aubrey openly rejected purity principles in their veganism. While discussing food labelling and the boundaries of their product consumption, Sydney and Aubrey both said that although they strive to maintain a largely vegan diet, they do not always check for animal by-products like l-cysteine in bread at restaurants or grocery stores, and will occasionally eat “gray area” foods like honey. This is more broadly echoed by Frances who lamented on her aversion to labouring over food labels due to her finite time and resources to allocate to the vegan cause, 78
You could spend 6 to 10 hours trying to find out if there are trace amounts of you know of dairy or something in this thing that’s called natural flavors in this one product. Or you could spend that 6 to 10 hours screening film for 100 students and possibly making 50 vegans. Or most of them at least think about what they’re eating. So it’s you know it’s a stupid… It’s a stupid waste of time from my perspective. I don’t want to eat things that have animal products and them. I don’t think spending hundreds of hours trying to figure out if there’re trace amounts of animal products in your food is useful. It’s not about the purity of my body. It’s about let’s stop this insanity, right?
Ultimately, these comments stress the fact that boundaries around vegan food practice vary widely amongst vegan populations.
In social settings, both Sydney and Aubrey actively reject purity practices in social situations at times. In addressing how she personally finds consumption of “gray area” foods permissible at times, Aubrey shares “Yeah I’ve definitely made peace with it. It comes a point where it could totally become an eating disorder and you have to just draw the line and be okay with things”. Interestingly, in my women’s sample, the individuals more likely to enact more flexible and porous food boundaries were women connected to climate veganism even if that was not the value system they prioritized most at the time of the interview.
Riley explicitly states that although they do review food labels, to them, veganism is “not about personal purity”. They went on to explain that they situate their food practices, first and foremost, around whether their actions “further contributed to exploitation” (Riley).
Consequently, their food sharing a grill with non-vegan food or their food being produced in a facility that contains non-vegan items does not weigh on them to the same degree as other vegans
I interviewed. Interestingly, they openly assert that they do not want to invite “fears of contamination” or potential practices that mimic “disordered eating” (Riley) into their life, thus drawing a firm boundary around the degree to which they allow themselves to dwell on the nitty gritty of what may or may not be considered vegan. 79
Lastly, Spencer, who prioritizes environmental values continues to grapple with conflicting practices of food waste versus purity. In reflecting on this, he disclosed that bodily purity would never be a catchall goal for him. Values such as sustainability and reduction of food waste, which underpin environmentalist approaches to veganism, are important considerations to him. He demonstrated this in saying, “if I were to order something and it [accidentally] had egg in it, I would probably just pick around it. Like I wouldn’t be outraged because in my head, you need to compare waste to your morals, so to me, I would rather eat it than throw it out”
(Spencer). This example aptly demonstrates how simple everyday decisions can be potent sites for the complex interaction of a plurality of value systems. This was evident for the women, genderqueers and men in my sample who worked against aspirational purity practices commonly associated with vegan populations. Ultimately, the individuals more likely to reject vegan purity are those who associate with environmental and social justice discourses.
IV. Sites of Food Provision
In terms of provisioning, all individuals I interviewed expressed relying on a number of different sources for their weekly food acquisition. Firstly, the main takeaway of this is that all participants engaged in multi-site food acquisition. This acquisition generally took the form of purchasing, but in general, no individual could adequately address all their food needs and preferences through single-site practices. That being said, my participants did express preferences for different food acquisition methods.
Interestingly, around half the women (Olive; Avery; Sasha; Sydney; Aubrey; Alexis) focus the bulk of their food purchasing to low-cost grocery stores – use of higher-end chain stores, health food stores and independent stores remains for specialized and supplementary vegan goods. This is largely borne out of financial concerns on their ends as they aim to practice 80 an accessible and affordable veganism. This practice also showed up in two of the genderqueer individuals (Quinn; Morgan), and all men except for Daniel. Therefore, the majority of my participants aspire to shop as low cost as possible, relying on higher priced, chain health food stores and independent local shops as supplementary sites when necessary. This eagerness to shop at a range of classed grocery stores contradicts stereotypical understandings of Western veganism as “boujee” (Rory) or upper-classed; there exists a willingness to cross classed boundaries in daily practice. Therefore, a cornerstone in vegan food practice is the necessity of shifting between different classed consumption practices.
In opposition to this, Lynn, Leona and Carmen prefer independent and local grocery stores. Specifically, Lynn notes that
I’m becoming more choosey about where I spend my money…. I never go into shops like Fresh Co. and No Frills. I find it’s mostly their fruit and vegetables are not as fresh. I don’t know even know if they have an organic section. Their breads are junk breads that have l-cysteine in them which is of course made from feathers or birds. So I just tend to stay away from those places. I find the the higher end grocery stores more often have an organic section.
Thus, statements such as this aptly surmise how the aforementioned women navigate their food procurement practices within a capitalist market – when feasible, relying on small-scale retailers that are vegan- and organic-focused. This a central focus by the majority of my genderqueer participants as well.
Food considerations by the genderqueer individuals are also overwhelmingly impacted by retailers’ cultural associations to the foods and cuisines they sold. Riley and Quinn specifically address seeking out food from local businesses with authentic social and cultural ties to the foods they retailed. Quinn explains that whenever financially feasible on their end, they aim “to make room in their budget” for purchasing from retailers with direct connections to producers, such as is the case with Bon Tea Place and the retailers’ “connections to the farms in Taiwan where they 81 source a lot of it [the tea] from cause they’re Taiwanese and grew up there”. Or, as Riley explained, they specifically avoided Western food retailers that engaged in “cultural appropriation…such as white vegan restaurants inspired by traditional cuisines”. In doing so, an enduring element of their vegan practice has been “going to restaurants run by people whose cultures originally included plant-based foods” (Riley). Additionally, these sentiments also arose, albeit to a less vocal degree, amongst Leona. Therefore, these individuals embed practices of cultural sensitivity and food justice into their food purchasing habits as they view these actions as potent sites for micro-change. In doing so, they draw upon neoliberal notions of enacting small-scale change through ethical consumption and voting with their dollar.
Lastly, as an outlier, Patty articulates that they grow as much of their own food as possible while supplementing with low-cost grocery stores, farmer’s markets and international grocers that carry unique fruits and vegetables. Although she engages in multi-site shopping, personal gardening serves as a potent and central site of food production and acquisition for her.
Source of Food Examples of Sources Participants Gender Breakdown Chain No Frills All participants Genderqueer: 3 (all) Supermarkets Sobey’s Zehrs Women: 11 (all) Metro Fortinos Men: 7 (all) Costco Chain Health Food Goodness Me Olive, Avery, Aaron, Genderqueer: 0 Stores Whole Foods Lynn, Sasha, Frances, Healthy Planet Leona, Corey, Women: 8 (of 11) Aubrey, Alexis, Jack, Daniel Men: 4 (of 7) Independent/Local Stone Store Riley, Avery, Lynn, Genderqueer: 2 (of 3) Stores New Age Sasha, Quinn, Market Fresh Sydney, Frances, Women: 9 (of 11) Leona, Aubrey, Corey, Alexis, Patty, Men: 2 (of 7) Rory, Spencer 82
Farmer’s Markets Guelph Farmer’s Riley, Sasha, Quinn, Genderqueer: 2 (of 3) Market Sydney, Leona, The Seed Aubrey, Patty, Women: 6 (of 11) Carmen, Ang, Spencer Men: (2 of 7) Personal Gardening Self-owned Plots Leona, Patty, Spencer Genderqueer: 0 (of 3) Community Gardens Men: 1 (of 7) Women: 2 (of 11)
V. Meal Composition
In exploring the meal compositions of my participants, all individuals discuss oscillating between different cultural cuisines in the makeup of their daily meals. Instances of hybridized cultural practices arise fairly frequently, as these individuals seek out unique practices to fulfill their dietary needs beyond those typified by Western cultural food norms. The majority of respondents consume breakfasts that are generally grain heavy and composed of traditionally
Western items such as toast, bagels, oats and smoothies. The exception is Spencer, who generally does not eat breakfast.
Following breakfast, meal composition shifts towards hybridized cultural practices for all participants in my sample. Although some individuals more than others reference eating
“veganized” Western cuisines such as vegan cheeses and meat alternatives (Riley; Quinn; Jack;
Olive; Sydney; Frances), all participants regularly seek inspiration for their lunches, dinners and snacks beyond Western cuisines. Cuisines interviewees explicitly rely on include Asian (Riley;
Olive; Avery; Aaron; Corey; Rory; Daniel) Japanese (Corey), Korean (Core), Indian (Sydney;
Corey; Rory; Carmen; Spencer; Morgan) Thai (Riley; Leona; Corey; Spencer), Egyptian (Ang),
Lebanese (Leona), Jamaican (Riley). As Avery explains, going vegan actually prompted her to branch out and try different foods and cuisines she previously shied away from. Essentially, embracing this lifestyle oriented her towards developing a more diverse palate as she found 83
Western cuisines were too centered around animal products to suffice as a complete diet satisfactory for a vegan.
Additionally, employment of a variety of cultural food practices is likely greater than what I have outlined above because I did not directly ask participants to provide an exhaustive list of the cultural cuisines they frequently consume. Rather, in outlining their weekly meal compositions, participants often referenced meals that spoke to globalized practices and inspiration from non-Western cuisines, such as stir fries and curry dishes without directly acknowledging the cultural heritage of the food. Evidently though, with a largely white sample
(19 of 21 individuals are white), exploring a range of cultural cuisines became desirable and necessary to my participants as they strive to nourish themselves through meal composition which is counter-hegemonic to Western food practices.
4.2.2 Broader Consumption Practices
Moving into broader consumption, understandings of vegan practice and its boundaries become murkier. Expanding into all other areas of product usage beyond food, vegan practices typically entail a rejection of goods commonly understood as exploitative to animals. This entails abstention from products overtly associated with animal exploitation, e.g. leather, silk and wool, as well as those products less overtly associated, including products tested on animals and those with obscure animal by-products, such as dyes and glues. When asked about their product usage, my participants often stressed pragmatism and a harm reduction ethos in how they approached their consumption outside of food. Feeling the weight of the potential for an ever-shrinking boundary, participants uniquely focused on what felt manageable within the scope of their own lives.
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I. Transitioning into Broader Vegan Consumption
In adopting veganism, some men chose to to donate (Corey; Jack) their animal-based goods during their transition process. An outlier to this was Aaron who disposed of their non- vegan products entirely. Vegan men looking to more readily expel overt animal products from their life, like leather, wool, silk and hygiene products generally includes ethical vegans (Aaron,
Corey; Jack; Rory). In his continued practice of veganism, Corey shares:
I mean I guess all of it isn’t a nuanced answer for you. But all of it. Like cleaning supplies, clothes, entertainment choices – not partaking in it.. Aquariums and that kind of thing. Yeah so probably everything. But every aspect because it’s not just about diet for me.
In opposition to this, men in my sample who prioritize health or climate aspects of veganism continue to use apparent animal-based products from their pre-transition lives to some degree:
So this is my opportunity to shit on myself. Not it’s not bad. The way I understand all that and look at life is like a journey...For me a better way of understanding it is not looking at the things to cut out but looking at all the things I’m consuming and seeing if I actually want that in my life or not (Spencer).
These participants would not purchase leather items as vegans now. The caveat is that they continue to use non-vegan goods acquired pre-transition such as a leather watch (Spencer), a leather couch and non-vegan clothing (Daniel) and a leather wallet (Ang) because it does not make sense for them to dispose of a usable product that has already been accounted for within a system of animal exploitation. Thus, such examples point to the temporality of vegan boundaries.
This focus on temporality in transition is also present amongst my genderqueer participants. They all commented on a continual shrinking of their boundaries as they more slowly transitioned themselves into a veganism that stretched beyond diet. In explanation of their mindful and sustainable transition, Morgan states:
So I mentioned when I initially went vegan, I had that really strong emotional reaction and I just couldn’t eat meat. So my diet changed instantly but that wasn’t 85
really the case for my other products. For shampoo and conditioner and soap, it took me a bit longer to transition into having completely vegan hygiene products…I still have a leather computer chair… I just think you should use up your animal products cause it’s just a waste otherwise.
The two other genderqueer participants further explained that they donated or still planned on donating a number of their non-vegan products post-transition (Riley; Morgan). Broader consumption practices thus appeared more complicated to my participants and they hinted that their actions must be situated in a temporal framework of harm reduction and pragmatism rather than absolutism.
With respect to the women I interviewed, most chose to largely use up their animal-based products like clothing, toiletries, et cetera (Olive; Lynn; Sasha; Sydney; Frances; Leona; Aubrey;
Alexis; Carmen). Every once and a while, a woman addressed donating some leather goods
(Olive) or a fur jacket (Carmen), but for the most part, these women, chose to keep pre-transition non-vegan goods. Sasha captures this sentiment in explaining, “I have like a down ski jacket that
I would like to replace with like a vegan option but again that’s like a money issue”. Olive also shares that “at the beginning of turning vegan, I just kept using what I had even though it wasn’t vegan. I said one by one as I run out I’m going to replace it with something that is vegan. And found that was an easier way for me to become vegan. And one by one, find out a vegan alternative for it.” Overall, themes of waste reduction, already accounting for market impact and financial constraints all were addressed in the transition process for women. Consequently, these transition processes by women, men and genderqueer vegans highlight instances of boundary re- calibration according to values and pragmatics. Intentions, feasibility and conflicting value systems all intersect to result in complex understandings of what a morally permissible, accessible and pragmatic transition into broader vegan consumption looks like.
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II. General Practices
Inherent within the broader consumption practices of the individuals I interviewed is a focus on pragmatic harm reduction as they navigate management of conflicting practices: quelling animal exploitation and suffering, reducing product waste, preventing promotion of non-vegan product usage, and curbing economic support for animal-based consumer markets.
The interaction of these different values, thus results in a host of general practices amongst my participants.
As noted, common sites of broader vegan practice include hygiene products, shower routines – including shampoos, conditioners, body washes, razors, lotions, toothpaste, etc, make up, clothing, accessories, furniture, and so on. When discerning the acceptability of use of a non- vegan good, the proximity of the good to participants’ bodies and frequency of use became an important and accessible site of transition. The majority of my participants maintain largely vegan shower and hygiene routines (Riley, Olive; Avery; Aaron; Lynn; Sasha; Quinn; Frances;
Leona; Corey; Alexis; Patty; Jack; Rory; Carmen; Morgan). Sasha accurately describes her reasoning behind using vegan hygiene products when she states:
So I think like toiletries. So shampoos, conditioners, moisturizers, body products, make up. Anything that I’m going to put on my body. Again I mentioned that I’m a sensitive person. My skin, like everything’s so sensitive. And it needs to be vegan but also from the ethical and industrial standpoint… like understanding the cosmetic industry is you know, really damaging.
Here, Sasha addresses not only physiological concerns and sensitivities with using vegan body products, but also, ethical and environmental concerns which underpin many of my participants’ general desires to use vegan hygiene goods.
Shifting into clothing, things became somewhat murkier around the strictness of boundaries. A number of participants express having entirely vegan wardrobes (Olive; Aaron; 87
Lynn; Quinn; Corey; Patty; Jack; Rory; Morgan). For some of the aforementioned individuals, thrifting and purchasing second-hand goods remained part of their practice (Quinn; Frances;
Leona). This is the case with Quinn who explains:
So I end up doing like a lot of thrifting and stuff to buy re-used things that people are getting rid of but I still try to avoid leather products just because fundamentally I would like it if we could not have to in our wardrobe have like body parts from animals that we’ve killed just so we can look good or be warm.
For Quinn, thrifting practices remain within the boundaries of his vegan practice as he seeks out vegan goods in second-hand sites of consumption. For other vegans, thrifting acts as a caveat, gray area or loophole to their vegan practice. Sydney, Aubrey, Alexis and Spencer – all with connections to environmentalist values – share that they prioritize second-hand purchasing, and within this practice, afford themselves more flexibility to wear some previously-owned non- vegan items like “silk” (Alexis). In piecing together how they discuss these practices, it is clear that this is because acquisition and consumption of previously-owned non-vegan goods does not communicate market demand for non-vegan goods the same way engaging in first-hand purchasing does. Additionally, re-use of goods typically aligns with environmentalist values and quells the impact of the fashion industry on climate degradation.
III. Strict Boundaries: Ethical Vegans on Western Medicine
The strictest boundaries were enacted by the longest practicing vegans in my sample –
Patty and Rory – who have both been vegan for over 30 years. Patty and Rory, camped as ethical vegans, largely abstain from utilizing Western doctors and Western medicine. Rory, who has been vegan for upwards of 31 years, will frequent a western doctor on occasion, for diagnoses but treatment plans are largely carried out by alternative health practitioners whose medical training and practices have not been rooted in animal exploitation. This is evidenced in their rejection of vaccines for not only themselves, but their daughter whom they also raised as vegan: 88
Like I never vaccinated my daughter. And that’s after a lot of resistance from doctors and a lot of fighting with people…It was because of what was in the vaccines…They’re using animal products in that and the various animal based testing for anything they do any product to be approved which is useless but they do it anyways cause of litigation. But that’s what I mean about consistency. I want to be consistent across the board until the end of days (Rory).
Although Patty did not outwardly address her opinions on vaccines, she has not been to a doctor for anything other than a massage prescription since 1982; consequently, she also enacts highly restrictive boundaries in her broader consumption. Additionally, she notes that she has also forgone dentistry for a number of decades due to the connection between animal testing and dentistry practices. Ultimately, these practices may be viewed as highly restrictive within the context of my sample, as the majority of my participants did not abstain from Western medicine
(Riley; Olive; Avery; Aaron; Lynn; Sasha; Quinn; Sydney; Frances; Leona; Aubrey; Corey;
Alexis; Jack; Carmen; Ang; Spencer; Daniel; Morgan) and actually advocate for the acceptance of western medicine in vegan practice due to life or death concerns (Riley; Avery; Quinn;
Corey).
IV. Permeable Boundaries: Climate & Health Vegans on Broader Consumption
On the opposite end of the spectrum, is that of vegan men (Ang; Spencer; Daniel) I spoke with who suspect a majority of their products – hygiene, clothing and cleaners – are vegan but they “don’t always” (Ang) know or check for a vegan label. They will at times, but they do not enforce purity practices in their broader consumption to the same degree as their food consumption. This is echoed by a few women (Sydney; Aubrey), both of whom say that some broader products like make up and hygiene will at times be vegan but that more of their attention and focus is on consuming in a way that is “as zero waste as possible” (Sydney; Aubrey). This remains their priority outside of a vegan diet. Interestingly, individuals with greater ambiguity in boundaries around broader vegan practice generally have roots in environmental and health 89 pathways. Ultimately, these cases effectively depict the wide range of permeable and fluid boundaries included in the concept of broader consumption practices carried out by vegans.
Navigating boundaries takes a lot of work for most, and these individuals express openness to recalibrating these boundaries on the principle of harm reduction but view this process pragmatically and with less urgency than the ethically-rooted vegans I interviewed.
V. Barriers to Practice
Multiple women discussed financial obstacles which prevent their more effective shrinking of broader vegan boundaries (Olive; Avery; Lynn; Sasha; Sydney; Aubrey; Alexis).
Indeed, these women flag this as the most prominent hurdle to improving their broader vegan practice. Following a vegan diet low in processed foods is commonly understood as being less costly compared to vegetarian and animal-based diets; however, vegan labelled products outside of food are typically costlier. As Aubrey highlights, “I find that when things have been labeled as vegan that it’s almost like a pink tax. It’s a vegan tax. It’s a markup”, while Lynn laments:
I can’t afford to just pitch everything out. I would like to. I can’t buy ethically produced blue jeans right now cause they’re $200 a pair. So in that way yes, finances definitely play a role...I think it’s ongoing. I don’t think I could safely say everything in my house is 100%, so I tend to use up what I have and switch over.
Evidently, these women are comfortable stating that financial concerns are barriers to enacting a broader vegan practice which more readily aligns with their value systems. In light of this, it is clear that their boundaries are dynamic and responsive to what is practical, feasible and manageable within the contexts of their everyday lives.
Avery, Lynn, Sasha, Sydney, Frances, Leona, Alexis, Patty and Carmen all discuss elements of their broader vegan practices that they aspire to improve upon. For some interviewees hurdles to refining this are rooted in convenience and physical accessibility (Avery; 90
Frances; Alexis; Patty), such as Alexis’ year-long struggle to find a “quality vegan deodorant”,
Frances’ six-month quest to find a suitable pair of vegan shoes that accommodated her disability, or Patty’s use of non-vegan hotel shampoos/conditioners during her annual trip to Florida. Issues around convenience and accessibility are further echoed by the genderqueer vegans (Riley;
Quinn; Morgan) and men (Aaron; Corey; Jack; Rory; Ang). Riley struggled over a period of months to find their daughter effective vegan hair products, while Quinn settled for using second-hand animal-based products for their hobbies before eventually quitting due to lack of vegan options in necessary equipment. Of the men, multiple express struggling with finding vegan footwear (Aaron, Corey, Jack, Ang) while Rory experienced issues around finding vegan hobby materials. Ultimately, these experiences indicate that across genders, knowledge is sometimes not enough to ensure purity in broader vegan practices – accessibility and availability center as major obstacles to enacting vegan practice in way satisfactory for many of my participants.
4.2.3 Beyond Consumption Practices
Veganism is popularly understood through a consumerist lens, but beyond that, further lifestyle practices are often associated with veganism. Examples include relying upon active travel or public transit (Twine 2017), fostering vegan relationships (Potts and Parry 2010), and engaging in vegan activism. These practices are intimately linked to veganism but stretch beyond the confines of consumption. In interviews, I further explored what aspects beyond consumption participants considered integral to their veganism. Vegan practice beyond consumption spanned a range of actions, three of which I will address here: active travel, activism and relational work.
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I. Active & Communal Travel
Active travel, often embraced by climate and ethical vegans, includes mobility and transit practices that generally seek to reduce carbon emissions and negative environmental impacts associated with vehicle transport and flying. In my sample, Spencer, all genderqueer participants
(Riley; Quinn; Morgan), and two women (Lynn; Leona) all discuss biking and walking to reduce their carbon footprints. The majority of these participants still use cars (Riley; Lynn; Leona;
Spencer); however, they strive to employ transit practices that minimize their impact on earth whenever pragmatically feasible. Lynn even plans to eventually retire in the city of Guelph because its urban layout is more bicycle-friendly than her current city of residence. In doing so, she hopes to structure her lifestyle further around their values as they age
II. Activism
A practice stereotypically understood as central to a vegan lifestyle includes activism and advocacy work. Although many participants in my sample do not take part in this, spreading the vegan message is still considered central to many of my participants’ practices as vegans.
Olive, Lynn and Frances all acknowledge that their veganism includes vegan advocacy practices. Olive’s activism stretches into art as she is a frequent painter completing a bachelor in fine arts. The crux of her artwork centers on shedding light on the various form of animal exploitation where she strives to make captivating but jarring artwork that depicts the problematic nature of animal exploitation in various societies. She notes that the opportunity to showcase her artwork in her program thus provides her with a platform to champion the vegan message in non-vocal ways.
Frances represents the most heavily activist-focused woman in my sample. Adopting a social justice lens in her activism, she considers involvement in Climate and Animal Save 92
Movements, Fridays for Future, Anonymous for the Voiceless, Cubes of Truth, et cetera as fundamental aspects of her vegan practice. To her, being an outward and active steward of veganism requires a host of activist work. Beyond this, Lynn engages in some Animal Save movements but caps her involvement in protest work that brings her in close proximity to animals in pain. Sites of protest affect her ability to engage in activist work as the visceral noises and sights of animal exploitation are too emotionally taxing for her. Lynn shares, “if I go to a protest I’m going to hear pigs screaming and you’re going to find me in the mental institution cause I can’t deal with that...I wouldn’t be able to cope. And I don’t need to be converted cause
I’m already there”. Ultimately, although varied in their approaches and what they consider activism, Lynn, Frances and Olive conclude that authenticity and integrity in their veganism rests partly upon representing the vegan message in areas of their lives beyond consumption.
All three genderqueer participants addressed political ideology and leftist politics as intimately connected to their veganism (Riley; Quinn; Morgan). In describing their involvement in “unions, worker’s rights, anti-racism work and queer liberation all through university”, Riley highlights how their veganism intersects with their political and activist work. They view veganism as intrinsically connected to other realms of social justice. In doing so, they perceive their relationship between social justice work and veganism as iterative. Furthermore, involvement in leading regional vegan clubs and events with an intersectional and involvement in vegan groups with a social justice lens is vital to all genderqueer participants’ vegan practice
(Riley; Quinn; Morgan). Consequently, cultivating social and political safe spaces for veganism is deeply important to these genderqueer vegans’ activism.
With respect to the men I interviewed, the most frequently cited vegan practice outside of consumption is that of activism. For Jack, this means “talking about it every damn second [I] 93 get”. To him, to truly be vegan is to unwaveringly champion the vegan message. This includes in-person dialoguing, poster-ing public spaces, protesting, and advocating for veganism through a number of social media accounts – Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Jack ultimately strives to employ a very physical and confrontational approach to his activism. This is echoed by Rory in relation to their previous involvement in animal liberation efforts. For other participants, activism took the form of heading vegan clubs and societies (Aaron, Corey) and communicating vegan messages to political figures (Aaron). This cultivation of vegan space is somewhat akin to the genderqueer vegans whose activism is focused on carving out physical and virtual opportunities to engage in dialogue on all things vegan. Ultimately, there are a multitude of avenues related to activism these men consider vital to their practices of socially and politically advocating for veganism.
III. Intimate Relationships
Stretching beyond consumption, vegan literature addresses how maintaining vegan romantic and intimate relationships is important to many vegans in Western contexts (Potts and
Parry 2010). Popularly termed “vegansexuality” (Potts and Parry 2010), this denotes a sexual orientation wherein vegans are only attracted to other vegans. This is grounded in concerns over values and lifestyle practices, as well as bodily boundaries and the sharing of fluids and physical intimacy. In my sample, Patty and Lynn both require their romantic partners to be vegan. In detailing this, Lynn communicates,
I’m not going to respect somebody that isn’t plant-based, so why would I date them. I already have this preconceived notion that they’re anti-animal. That they’re not healthy. And that honestly, as men get older, sexual ability becomes an issue for men. Definitely with omnivores, so men who can get an erection… Do you really want to date a guy who’s going to be in diapers soon? Or not be able to maintain an erection in 5 years? Or you know, have prostate cancer. Or whatever. Do I really want to do that? And I think cause I’m older and older now, no. So I 94
see veganism as very sexual.
Therefore, Lynn grounds her dating practices in shared values but even more so, in the physicality of veganism and how it impacts health, bodily autonomy and sexual function.
With respect to men, Corey, Jack, and Daniel all require their romantic and intimate partners to be vegan due to shared values and maintenance of a shared vegan home space.
Interestingly, two heterosexual men (Aaron; Rory) acknowledge that their current partners are not vegan outside of the home; however, they have both historically dated vegans and their current partners abide by maintaining a vegan home space. This means that Aaron and Rory’s partners will not bring any non-vegan good into the home, but are free to act according to their own prerogative outside of the home. Essentially, this allows both these men to lead vegan lifestyles congruent with their beliefs, uncompromised by their non-vegan partners’ practices.
With respect to my genderqueer participants, while Quinn does prefer to date vegans, both Quinn and Riley2 share that this is not a steadfast rule – Riley’s current partner is not vegan and they did not express requiring purity in living space. Quinn shares that they are “much more likely to date vegans because of a shared lifestyle but [they are] not opposed to dating vegetarians and omnivores”. Therefore, no genderqueer individual in my sample holds explicit boundaries around only dating vegans; thus, dating and romantic practices for genderqueer vegans tend towards greater flexibility with respect to “vegansexuality”.
4.3 Identity Interpretations: The Interaction between Veganism and Gender
Adoption and maintenance of an identity generally calls for adherence to specific values, norms, practices and degrees of performativity. Each human being is the site for a multitude of
2 While both Riley and Quinn have experienced dating histories, when questioned about dating and partnerships, Morgan noted that they do not date. Picking up on a sense of discomfort broaching the topic, especially since Morgan had just revealed their recent struggles and process of discovering their non-binary identity, I did not push further. 95 identities to coalesce and the management of these is a complex process – one which people must navigate every day. Additionally, identities evolve and interact within individual actors; thus, iteratively informing and shaping one another, and this is the case for many of the vegans in my sample. My participants discuss living as gendered vegans and, in doing so, highlight the degrees of compatibility, contrast and tension between different gender identities and vegan identities. In aiming to both effectively embody and perform their veganism, their gender, and whatever other identities they consider vital to their personhood, my participants provide insight into the dynamic nature of identities and their perceptions of life as gendered vegans. In light of this, I begin this section by exploring women’s interpretations of vegan-women identities. I then shift to cover genderqueer individuals’ interpretations of vegan-genderqueer identities, and lastly, I focus on men’s interpretations of vegan-men identities.
4.3.1 Vegan-Woman Identity Interpretation
I. The Feminizing of Healthism in Western Cultures
Women in my sample share many common beliefs and experiences in understanding the relationship between the management of vegan identities and gender identities.
Olive, Avery, Sasha, Sydney and Carmen all speculate that women gravitate most strikingly towards veganism due to the overlap between femininity, health practices and veganism in
Western countries. These women all believe this is the primary reason the majority of vegan populations in Western countries have overwhelmingly been women. They further highlight that socialization for preoccupation with health and bodily aesthetics serve as justifications for why vegans are more likely to be women. Sydney captures this sentiment in explaining,
I think veganism is more common amongst women or people who identify as women. A lot of them do it for health. So like ‘oh this is healthy and going to keep me thin’. It’s kind of like a bonus. Well it’s like I want to have a healthy diet anyways, so veganism is more on the health end of things. 96
Consequently, based on the fact that Western women are normatively expected to be more concerned with values around health and bodily aesthetics, as well as engage in patterns of food restriction and diet manipulation – some of which overlap with vegan practice – a vegan diet is perceived as more culturally “acceptable” (Olive). Therefore, identifying as a woman and identifying as vegan are perceived as fairly congruent identities due to their common associations with feminized values and practices.
II. A Socialized Compassion
Beyond diet, the majority of women in my sample (Avery, Sasha, Sydney, Frances,
Leona, Aubrey, and Alexis) believe that a woman’s greater propensity to exhibit traits such as
“compassion”, “sensitivity” and “empathy” further orients them towards identifying with ethical and altruistic aspects of veganism. These interviewees note, a strong overlap exists in qualities women typically portray and those that lead an individual to consider veganism as a viable lifestyle practice. Interestingly though, some women problematize this assertion, such as Frances who articulates,
I think it’s because in our society women are socialized to be more empathic and allowed to be more empathic, you know from how there isn’t the pressure on them to be macho that there is on men, and so I think – and I’m pretty sure the stats back it up – more women are vegan than men. And I think that’s partly because women are more able to look at what’s happening to other animals empathically. And also in terms of our socialization, I think we’re socialized to be like that.
While Frances’ point touches on the various ways the performativity of being a woman is compatible with being vegan, she also stresses the key role of a gendered socialization in this practice.
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III. The Interconnectedness of Feminism and Veganism
Building upon socialization into practices of compassion and empathy, Sydney, Frances,
Aubrey and Alexis all anticipate a strong compatibility between identifying as a woman and identifying as vegan due to a heightened sensitivity to and awareness of oppression. Although qualities of empathy and compassion are wrapped up in this, Aubrey and Alexis explicitly connect their “feminism” to their veganism:
I was at a Feminist Market and I was volunteering at a booth... And I was like there has to be a correlation here between all the females I’m seeing coming through this market and so many of them knowing me from work [participant works in a vegan space]. And I was talking to the girl I was volunteering with and it’s like if you’re a feminist and you’re open and you’re compassionate and you’re all those things then that’s kind of what would be the core values to a vegan. So I do think that I’m not saying all females, but if you’re a feminist female – like that and veganism (Aubrey).
I’ve heard feminist theories on veganism on how more women are vegan theoretically because women can empathize more with the oppression of animals. So I would also say femininity is more related to empathy and understanding oppression…And for women I guess it would be easier to go vegan with being able to relate to oppression more (Alexis).
Although not explicitly addressing feminism, Frances somewhat echoes this in commenting on the relationship between being a mother, caregiver and being vegan. Unique to the experience of birthing and nurturing offspring, Frances states, “a number of women begin their their path towards veganism after they have a baby. And it’s breast-feeding that often makes them rethink you know dairy products…Taking another mother’s milk and and taking babies away from their mothers and all of that.” This notion of connecting both feminism and caregiving with veganism is heavily covered in literature related to ecofeminism addressed by Carol Adams (2010) and
Lori Gruen and Greta Gaard (2014). Consequently, all these statements point towards both theoretical and experiential understandings of gendered oppression intimate to the experience of being a woman and how that connects with veganism. 98
4.3.2 Vegan-Genderqueer Identity Interpretation
In examining how genderqueer vegans view the interaction between gender identity and vegan identity, multiple patterns also emerged. All genderqueer vegans suspect that genderqueer individuals are more likely to adopt alternative lifestyles such as vegetarianism and veganism than cisgender counterparts, as is evidenced by Riley’s comment, “probably within the queer community, it’s a surprise if you’re not vegetarian or vegan or you haven’t been vegetarian or vegan”. This is not to overgeneralize and state that my participants believe all genderqueer individuals have been vegetarian or vegan at some point, but rather, to note, that in their social circles, a strong correlation between being genderqueer and being vegan (Riley; Quinn; Morgan)
Riley goes on to state that they suspect this identity intersection to be borne out of a mutual interest and personal investment in social justice. Ultimately, genderqueer individuals view these identities as largely compatible in practice.
I. Identities to Mutually Resist Hegemony
With a focus on social justice, my genderqueer participants suspect gender and consumption identities to be mutually reinforcing in some respects. Riley, Quinn and Morgan all hold that the same values which underpin their understandings of gender identity inform their consumptive identities. Riley opens up about this in sharing:
I feel like part of the reason why queer and trans people are so much more likely to be vegetarian or vegan is because of identifying with systemic oppression and so therefore it’s easier to empathize with animals. It’s the history of being dehumanized and that’s easier to empathize with...Like everything including the fact that baby animals are taken away from their families to the fact that they have no consensual sex lives and are forced into horrendous situations and then their bodies are consumed by people for pleasure. All of that is a lot easier to identify with if you’re part of a group that values interdependence and consent and that has had dehumanization used against you for a long time.
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Therefore, they stress that the same intersectional lens they apply to understanding their own and others’ gender identifications stretches into their view of ethical and moral consumption practices. In doing so, this lived experience evidences a propensity for compatibility in intersection between vegan identity and genderqueer identity.
Building upon this identity crossover, Quinn and Morgan comment on on their experiences in an overlapping of their gender and consumption identity practices. In questioning these participants on how they viewed genderqueerness relating to veganism, they touch on multiple instances of “alienation” (Quinn) from heteronormative and mainstream society and the
“challenging” (Morgan) of hegemonic values in different social spheres. In doing so, social management and practices of resistance exercised in one sphere of identity management are perceived as transferrable to other spheres of identity development and management. Thus, one sphere of identity formation cannot be viewed in isolation from others. This is further compounded in Morgan’s discussion on how their pathway into veganism is intimately connected with their acceptance of their non-binary identity:
when I went vegan, it was more men and masculine people challenging me and it got me kind of thinking like do I care about being perceived as masculine. And I really didn’t. I guess that may have kind of lead to me questioning whether I’m a man…Like my process of researching veganism and understanding gender have been very similar.
This statement illuminates this participant’s intersectional understanding of their identity development processes. Morgan’s experiences draw attention to the fact that identities do not exist in vacuums. Identities overlap, intersect and influence one another. Therefore, Morgan aptly showcases that identity development is murky and processes of identification must be contextualized by and through existing value systems and other identities ever-forming within an actor. 100
II. Creating Socially ‘Deviant’ Spaces through Queerness
Finally, all three genderqueer participants drew on elements of social insulation and support for vegan practice from within their genderqueer communities (Riley; Quinn; Morgan).
These communities – actualized as physical, social, and emotional spaces – more readily revolve around “messages that are supportive of vegetarianism and veganism” (Riley) and serve to cultivate “environments more accepting of other deviations from society” (Quinn). Therefore, these participants communicate that engaging in queer spaces creates opportunities for alternative practices and alternative ways of being. These are spaces which resist normative
Western values while skirting around some of the steep social backlash which stems from rejecting hegemonic practices in communities underpinned by heteronormative and patriarchal values. Additionally, Riley suspects that queer and genderqueer individuals who more strongly identify with elements of femininities are more likely to be drawn towards vegetarianism or veganism. Riley captures this in stating, “I think there is like an intersectional aspect to that in that very few of the gay men in my life are vegetarian or vegan... It’s a stereotype because it’s true amongst queer women and genderqueers to be vegetarian or vegan for sure”. Morgan shares in this viewpoint, stressing that association with femininity fosters more fertile grounds for engaging in seemingly “feminized” practices such as veganism. Consequently, comments such as these further complicate the ways in which gender identity intersects with vegan identity when considering an individual’s relationship to elements of femininities, masculinities, and beyond the binary.
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4.3.3 Vegan-Man Identity Interpretation
I. Emasculating the Vegan Man
In questioning the men in my sample on how they interpret the interaction between gender identity and vegan identity, many patterns emerged. When reflecting on the blending of their masculine identities with their vegan identities, men often frame their perceptions within a collection of personal experiences. Some men discuss their own identity perceptions in contrast to what they perceive the experiences of vegan women to be. Corey exemplifies this in stating
“there’s more backlash and flack for being male and being vegan than many of my friends who are female”. Additionally, Spencer also contextualizes his own understanding of his identity through contrasting with women’s norms in explaining, “as a man you’re expected to be stronger; it’s the whole protein thing”. Response to societal norms around gender identities also comes into play for many of the men as they explicitly address instances where friends, family and/or colleagues chided or harassed them:
When I was a child I was cast into the light of not being masculine because I didn’t eat meat. I was bullied for being vegan. I was bullied for not eating meat…but also [as an adult] I had a co-worker that found out I was vegan and he immediately started attempting to emasculate me; to cast me as a homosexual or a woman or whatever…and other than being bullied for being vegan, a lot of it is more informal. A little subtler. Like when you have to tell someone that you’re vegan and sometimes it’s the way that they look at you and then the things they start assuming about you (Aaron).
Like on social media, older gentlemen will say ‘oh real men eat meat and you’re a fairy or a puff’ or whatever (Jack).
So everyone I work with [in the military] would poke fun at me once and while. Jokes and stuff like that (Spencer).
It is clear that a number of men in my sample experience tensions in existing as both men and vegans in Western contexts where the performance of masculinity through consumption has not traditionally aligned with vegan lifestyle practices. 102
On the flip side of this experience of emasculation, Daniel, who has a keen interest in vegan bodybuilding and fitness aesthetics actually reproduces some of these stereotypes through describing a desire to distance himself from what most people think the stereotypical vegan is like. He describes his perception of stereotypes when addressing how he suspects he differs from other vegan men in my study:
You’ve interviewed other people maybe even some gay males who happen to be vegan and some straight males who happen to be vegan and weigh 150 pounds and you know didn’t have a lot of muscle on their body – you felt like you were talking to another woman when you were talking to them and you wondered about their sexuality…I know you’re not wondering with me…I bet I’m different than most of your sample.
Clearly, reproduction of understandings between hegemonic masculinity and veganism as incompatible still exist both within and beyond the vegan community. Despite their experiences of social reproach though, many men comment on the normalcy they feel living as vegan men.
In reflecting on their experiences, some men articulate an awareness of the incompatibility between masculinity and veganism but how these norms do not weigh on them in their everyday life. Corey actively withdraws from norms attached to elements of Western hegemonic masculinity through sharing,
So masculine and men have dominion over the earth and over women. And the idea that you’re putting another being a little bit higher up or on par or above you, is contrary to what people would expect I guess. So there’s definitely the perspective that if you’re vegan as a guy, you’re less manly…It’s because of years of sexism and that kind of patriarchal structure…But I don’t put a lot of emotional labour into that…Like time and effort to respond to those things. I never took it personally.
Additionally, Spencer, who identifies with gender-polarized identities – social worker, vegan, and military officer – interacts with masculinities in varied ways. He feels that he has “never coincided well with group identity…[and] it’s not as emotionally taxing as you probably think it would be” to manage seemingly incompatible identities. He further avoids processes of 103 groupthink and rejects feelings of insulation that stem from an unwavering commitment to hegemonic gender conformity. Despite this dismissal of elements of Western hegemonic masculinity by some men, a number of men outline different ways they perceive themselves and other vegan men bolstering their own identification with hegemonic western masculinity through practices outside of consumption.
II. Bolstering Masculinity through Veganism
Gender performativity occurs both within and beyond practices of consumption. In their study on gender and veganism, Jessica Greenebaum and Brandon Dexter (2017) found that some men engaged in a form of “hybrid masculinity” wherein men modified traditionally feminized vegan values and practices to more readily comply with elements of Western hegemonic masculinity.
Some men in my sample readily embrace a hybrid masculinity. This surfaced in men’s discussions of their own practice and perceptions of masculine practice in vegan spheres. Jack and Rory tap into this through discussing their shared belief that vegan men are ethically and morally superior. Through stressing intellectual and applied knowledge important to their veganism, they situate themselves as having a better understanding of the world compared to their non-vegan men counterparts. Beyond feats of intellectualism and morality, other men address masculinizing vegan practice through physical feats. Daniel, staunchly embedded in vegan health and bodybuilding spheres, stresses muscle-building, attractiveness and virility as vital to his vegan masculinity, while Ang holds that more men find veganism “through sport or because of their bodies or because they’re athletes or bodybuilders”. In doing so, these men evidence how vegan values and practices can still be understood within a framework of hegemonic masculinity. 104
Interestingly, Spencer occupies a unique position in my sample in that he does not feel an overt need to assert his masculinity through consumption as he believes this to be solidified through other aspects of his identity and lifestyle. Although, he was initially chided for his veganism by military comrades, he notes that being just as strong, effective and capable as other men in military duties quelled these instances of teasing. Additionally, he suspects that being in the military for almost a decade acts as insulation from any derision he might be vulnerable to through his adoption of veganism. He feels his masculinity is not as frequently called into question to the same degree as other vegan men – this he credits with his connection to the military:
People don’t question my masculinity and authority or question my veganism as much because it’s like I’m in the military and work in the explosives unit. It’s like ‘oh you blow things up on the weekends, you must know what you’re doing; yeah you’re tough and manly still.’
Through effectively demonstrating his physical abilities and his identification with a hyper- masculine space, Spencer is largely protected against many of the ways vegan practice could compromise his masculine identity. Thus, this case showcases how hyper-masculine practices may actually offset potential compromises that adoption and maintenance of feminized practices may pose to the “manly” man’s identity. The intersections of various identities clearly shape who feels comfortable and able to perform certain identity practices in different spaces. Ultimately, this indicates how various lifestyle practices are differentially accessed, enacted and experienced across different groups in society.
As the first part of my findings, this chapter largely explored my participants’ pathways into veganism and the value systems they identified with through this process. Following this trajectory of transitioning into a vegan lifestyle, I then explored vegan practices related to food, broader consumption and those beyond consumption as points of identity formation in 105 developing and maintaining a vegan identity. Finally, I outlined to how my participants perceived the interaction between their gender identities and vegan identities in an effort to illuminate their experiences living as gendered vegans. While this point closed out this chapter, the second part of my findings, which I will now turn to, details my contexts in which my participants transgress their vegan boundaries and how they navigate veganism in social interactions related to commensality and conversion.
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5 Chapter 5 – Transgressing Boundaries and Vegan Sociality
Actualizing values in daily life is messy and imperfect. The vegans in my sample are no exception. My interviewees often exhibit honest efforts to maintain their veganism in everyday life; however, existing in a complex capitalist system inevitably impacts how, why and when the boundaries of their veganism are transgressed. Therefore, in this subsection, I discuss contexts in which vegans are more likely to engage in non-vegan practice, as well as their affective experiences – both emotionally and socially – when broaching vegan boundaries.
5.1 Contexts of Transgressing Boundaries
5.1.1 Lack of Knowledge
The majority of vegans do not believe that their veganism is perfectly practiced in their day-to-day. The one exception is Morgan who cannot recall a single instance of dietary slip ups.
Despite this, a commonly accepted understanding is that interacting with and being a consumer in Canada makes practicing a perfect veganism nearly impossible. Almost all of my participants
(minus Morgan) hold that there will always be some degree of error and some area for improvement.
Riley and Quinn both make space for the imperfectability of their veganism when reflecting on the lack of transparency in Western food systems. Quinn points at the unknown of being a consumer in a capitalist society when stating,
people have offered me things ensuring that it is vegan and stuff…I’ll double check this and it’s like ‘oh this has carmine in it which is from a beetle or this has l-cysteine in it which is hairs from an animal’ and they’ll be like ‘what?!’. And it probably happens maybe 3 or 4 times a year when I detect someone providing me food or something. I’m pretty consistent about reading and checking ingredients for things I buy but when I’m eating out though…I don’t question everything. If I get an otherwise vegan sandwich at a place, I’m not going to ask them if their bread has l-cysteine in it if it’s a white bread. Like most bread doesn’t have egg in it and stuff. It’s usually whole wheat breads that will. There is like a probability type thing in there. If I know something isn’t intended to be non-vegan and their 107
expectation of mine is that it is vegan, then at some point I have to just trust other people a bit. Like I can’t second guess people every time and so if an error’s made based on that trust and stuff then it’s fine.
This quote touches on a number of different aspects of ‘unknowingness’ that arise when trusting others’ judgement in food spaces. Furthermore, even when the opportunity to read a food label exists, trusting transparency in companies’ labelling practices if often questionable. These instances of slipping up were also found amongst all the women in my sample as well.
Consequently, all such instances create contexts for transgressions.
When questioning men about times or circumstances when they slip up, Aaron – a highly strict ethical vegan – notes that:
For me, this doesn’t happen often but I guess it’s two different situations where it happens: where you consume it [food] completely and then you find out somehow that it wasn’t vegan or when you’re in the process of consuming it and then you find out it’s not vegan. And in both cases, if I’m not finished, then I won’t finish and if I’ve already finished it then I won’t ever consume it again.
Most vegan men err on the side of caution as much as pragmatically possible; however, a lack of knowledge is among the most notable barriers to perfecting their vegan practice (Aaron; Ang;
Daniel; Spencer). This context of unknowing is further replicated in participants’ transgression of broader boundaries. When discussing his veganism over a coffee with me, Spencer gestures to his disposable cup and says “like I would hope this cup doesn’t [have animal by-products] but it’s all knowledge and I can only do what I know”. Therefore, a fundamental piece in the act of transgressing includes information accessibility and knowledge acquisition, especially pertaining to murky transparency practices are in consumer products.
5.1.2 Travelling and Eating Out
Another situation where individuals lapse in their veganism is when travelling, where, as
Rory finds, you are often at the mercy of what is available in these foreign or unfamiliar 108 surroundings. In these new spaces, patterns of vegan practice and boundary maintenance are compromised as individuals are forced to improvise new ways of engaging in veganism that may be incompatible with the lived knowledges they have built up over their time as a vegan. As a result of this, vegans aim to anticipate and address these unexpected circumstances through menu-reading and meal preparation as one long-time vegan specified (Rory); however, this is not always possible. In recounting his travels, Ang shares, “I was travelling and the quickest thing was a spanakopita. Those spinach puffs in which occasionally they put a bit of feta cheese in it.
So I sacrificed and had it…I’m normally pretty strict but I was starving. I had to eat something”.
Interestingly, Olive and Alexis both find that sometimes they knowingly transgressing boundaries in restaurants so as to avoid being an inconvenience to their friends or the establishment. Alexis does not want to be perceived as “a pain in the butt” in these instances and similarly, Olive recalls,
I’m not going to be annoying. Sometimes I worry about that and ask is there a little bit of milk in there. Egg or things. And later I find out there was. So I forgive myself and say okay I won’t eat bread from that place…One time the waiter told me they only had sweet potato fries… that were deep fried in the same oil they fried shrimp and fish in. I was uncomfortable with that. I don’t know if I would do that now. But I felt pressured and I was on a double sate situation.
Evidently, transgressing while traveling or frequenting restaurants is often born out of elements of social constraint; however, the reasons behind this intent vary across hunger, limited options, pragmatism, and management of social pressures.
Outside of dietary practices, travel is a central context for the transgression of broader vegan boundaries by all men. Additionally, all vegans in this study use technological devices such as cellphones, laptops, computers and cars which are all non-vegan. Even bicycles, while understood as a more environmentally-friendly mode of transport compared to cars, also contain animal by-products and are used by many participants (Lynn; Sydney; Leona; Corey; Spencer). 109
Overall though, these broader transgressions are generally viewed as “an unavoidable part of life” (Corey). Ultimately, an element of pragmatism comes into play, as many vegans make concessions around transportation, communication, connectivity and living in a Western modern society.
5.1.3 Western Health Practices
When discussing their health practices, all three genderqueer vegans in my sample acknowledge frequenting western doctors (Riley; Quinn; Morgan). From the use of
“antidepressants” (Morgan) to pills for “pain management” (Riley) to “medicine for general health concerns” (Quinn) to necessary “prescriptive skin treatments” (Morgan), these individuals all use life-saving medicine with roots in animal exploitation. To them, it is an exercise in self- care and compassion. Quinn excitedly advocates for a radical compassion in saying “I’m never going to begrudge someone that’s doing something important for their livelihood”.
Consequently, these genderqueer individuals display complexity in how they contextualize their understanding of boundary transgression in broader terms. Thus, they aspire to enact a more fluid understanding of veganism to ensure compatibility with western lifestyles and those who rely on western medical practices for their mental and physical well-being.
This willingness to forgo strict boundary enforcement in the form of abstention from western medical practices is embraced by all women in the study except Patty. Other than Patty, all women frequent western doctors and use western medicine. Interestingly, in discussing the different wants veganism can be practiced, Avery rejects extreme boundaries stating “I don’t really agree with people being super pushy about it … and when people are very extreme about it. There’s like some vegans who are anti-vaxx because there’s like some like some… a very small amount of animal product that’s in it cause it comes from animals.” While Avery embraces 110 western medicine and advocates for its inclusion in vegan spheres of practice, Lynn desires a reformation of western medical systems to bring them in closer alignment with vegan values.
She advocates when pondering the ways animal testing can be eradicated:
I’m against animal experimentation. I don’t think it’s necessary…I think that if we want to test medications and so forth, test them on humans. I think there’s enough people out there, that if you gave them a few dollars, they would be happy to try out a medication. I think there’s some prisoners in institutions that would – well this sounds awful – but increased freedoms or increased other benefits…like increased accessibility to outside time.
Clearly, while the context of these women’s transgression of vegan boundaries are similar, there is some nuancing in how they perceive the role of traditional western medicine in their own lives
– some embrace it while others seek to, at times, reform it to align with their own value systems.
All men in this study rely on western medical and health practices to a certain degree – some more than others. For example, Corey takes prescription medication for diabetes while Ang relies on check ins with doctors and hospital staff to monitor pre-existing issues with his kidneys.
All men engage with western medical systems to some degree; however, the outlier with respect to men is Rory. As previously noted, Rory is anti-vaccine. He firmly advocates against western medicine and upholds this in practice as much as pragmatically possible to maintain his own wellness. He will rely on diagnostic tools from doctors and hospitals, such as an MRI for his hip, but seeks out alternative treatment options from alternative medical practitioners. Justifying this process of toggling between western and other medical practices, he admonishes “what battles can I fight here?”. To Rory then, while he is a radical practitioner of veganism, relative to other participants, he still grounds his approach to practice in pragmatism. Ultimately, with roots in animal testing and exploitation, western health practices do not theoretically fall within the scope of veganism but are generally recognized as vital in Western societies. Therefore, many vegans do not consider use of Western medicine a boundary transgression – it is so extreme it is not 111 even registered, while for those that do consider it a transgression, it is understood as a matter of necessity. Overall, this showcases how the boundaries of veganism are rarely absolute.
Lastly, pragmatism is exercised by most participants when navigating hygiene and wellness, especially in public or semi-private spaces. All individuals frequent non-vegan spaces which include goods such as non-vegan soaps and hand sanitizers in public washrooms or the use of non-vegan cleaning products at work such as in Leona’s case. Structural constraint must often be exercised by what is available in these spaces. Therefore, although it is the case that most participants in my sample exercise this pragmatism regarding what is offered in spaces, a number of genderqueers (Riley; Morgan), women (Leona; Alexis; Patty) and men (Corey; Jack) explicitly discuss this as a point of transgression. Ultimately, this serves as a context of transgression; however, due to the mundane and frequent nature that vegan individuals must rely upon hygiene products when moving through non-vegan spaces, I suspect it is not a noteworthy transgression to many of my participants.
5.1.4 Social and Familial Spaces
In terms of navigating shared space with friends and family, Avery, Sydney and Aubrey all find that these can sometimes be difficult situations to navigate. When managing relationships with others while at food-based events, these women find that they are more likely to slip up.
Both Participant Sydney and Aubrey have knowingly eaten non-vegan food in these spaces due to an unavailability of vegan foods and their desire to loosen the reigns on their vegan practice when at some social gatherings. Aubrey recalls a time where she ate some non-vegan chocolate while with friends and her grandma’s muffins, while Sydney shares that she ate egg and butter bread at a Halloween party because she had had a few drinks, figured it was a social gathering, and that it would go to waste if she did not eat it. As Sydney casually states, “I’m not that 112 militant I guess”. Cognizant of the impact of strict boundaries can have on her mental well- being, Aubrey feels it is “it’s definitely something I’ve made peace with. It comes a point where
[it] could totally become an eating disorder and you have to just draw the line.” Therefore, in these social spaces, these women create some flexibility for a vegan practice that allows for minor and minimal transgressions.
Along a similar vein, Avery recently ate non-vegan food at a religious holiday event with her extended family. While trying to adhere to her own vegan practice, she discreetly brought her own vegan sour cream to the event but made a concession for her aunt’s homemade cheese pierogis. In this particular instance, she notes that did not want to be an “inconvenience” to her extended family and offend her aunt who put a great amount of care and effort into crafting the family’s meal. In doing so, she admonishes that her transgressions often stem from prioritizing respect for her family at important events over purity in her veganism. Building upon the prioritization of familial relationships in spaces, Riley also uses “beeswax candles” for spiritual and familial purposes. With religious and spiritual practice being strongly centered in their extended family’s values, they actively create space for transgression in their practice while managing and navigating their different, and sometimes incompatible identities. Overall, in managing the conflict between their vegan practice and familial-social practices, these interviewees created pockets of space for contextualized non-vegan product usage and food consumption.
5.1.5 Managing Conflict at the Thrift Store
As addressed in the subsection ‘Vegan Values: Stable and Shifting’, values impact how boundaries are formed and the ways in which transgressions are understood, rationalized and engaged in. Wrapped up in this is the management of complex value systems with sometimes 113 conflicting practices. Considering waste and harm reduction through an environmentalist and economic lens, Riley and Quinn both highlight occasional thrifting from second-hand stores and family as times when they have used non-vegan goods for work products and activities. In going through second-hand markets, they both feel slightly more comfortable with these transgressions in minor non-vegan product usage, knowing they are not directly contributing to the economic support for the continued production of non-vegan products.
Additionally, Aubrey, Alexis and Daniel echo and extend this willingness to regularly thrift non-vegan items, such as silk (Alexis). While they did express some consideration for the use of second-hand markets as a way to quell economic support for the creation of new non- vegan products, the bulk of their reasoning behind thrifting actually rests in desires for waste reduction and more climate-focused practices. In doing so, they prioritize the environmentalism of thrifting over the purity of broader vegan practice. They center values of environmentalism and this impacts how and when they feel morally justified to use non-vegan goods. Ultimately, it is clear that value management and prioritization shapes the permeability and flexibility of vegan boundaries in practice.
5.2 Navigating Veganism in Social Contexts
Food and consumption are largely social endeavours. As an alternative lifestyle practice, veganism is often stigmatized by the general public due to its incongruence with hegemonic forms of Western consumption (Cole and Morgan 2011; Markowski and Roxburgh 2019) as complex and often tensed social interactions. In this subsection, I focus largely on vegans’ interactions with non-vegans in different spaces. I begin by exploring how vegans feel through navigating commensal situations with non-vegans, focusing on different levels of comfort based on interactions with gender identity. Following this, I explore general conversion practices 114 employed by the vegans included in my sample. This is in an effort to discern how veganism and gender identity intersect in social contexts.
5.2.1 Engagement with Vegans in Commensal Situations
I. Positive Experiences: Shaved Values & Common Understandings
With eating practices historically being centered around sites of sociality, genderqueer individuals experience affective responses to engaging in commensal situations with both vegan and non-vegan individuals alike. Expectedly, sharing table space with other vegans elicits within them feelings of “comfort” (Riley; Morgan) and “relaxation” (Riley). Quinn further notes that that their commensal situations with vegans often rests on a bedrock of “trust”. Common values and assurance of vegan-only food provision makes for what feels like a safer environment for them both emotionally and physically. This is corroborated by Riley who views vegan spaces as rich sites for “connectivity”. Indeed, Morgan sums this up appropriately by appreciating that
“food is such a significant part of our lives that actually having people to eat food with and feel comfortable doing it with is a pretty great feeling”. Therefore, positive feelings typically underlie commensality with other vegans.
Similarly, eight of the women articulate positive experiences around eating with other vegans. Olive, Frances and Leona all comment on a greater sense of comfort due to shared
“morals” and an increased “sense of community” (Leona). Indeed, Frances likens this value sharing to their first experiences attending Pride in Toronto, explaining “when I was first coming out and going to gay pride in Toronto and it would be like you were celebrating Christmas with people who are like you and it’s so amazing. Everyone around you is like you as opposed to everyone around you is all straight, right?” Somewhat akin to this, Avery and Lynn describe an 115 increased sense of “calm”, while Alexis perceives a reduction in tension in commensal situations with other vegans.
Five of the men express positive perceptions around eating with other vegans – these perceptions vary in degrees of positivity though. Aaron, Corey, Jack, Rory and Ang view the opportunity to eat with other vegans as overwhelmingly positive. In describing shared values,
Jack likens this to “a certain sense of kinship and being in an exclusive club together” while
Corey finds that being in bigger groups of vegans is nice because “you’re less likely to have judgement passed on you”. Ultimately, the majority of individuals in this study, across genders, feel that community, connectivity and shared values contribute to their positive experiences of eating with other vegans.
Beyond experiences of shared values, two women rely on vegan commensality for access to vegan food knowledge in accessible and enjoyable ways. Sasha and Sydney both use vegan food spaces to build upon and improve their vegan food literacy. In describing eating with vegans, Sasha, who struggles with cooking, shares,
Like that’s what it’s like for me when I eat with other vegans. Like ‘oh this is delicious’ like ‘oh let’s find out this recipe. We could totally make this. This is totally doable. Oh I have something else that I can feed myself properly with’ right? So with that standpoint it’s just like a purely… how to nourish one’s self. So I don’t know if there’s any posturing around that. Umm it’s just like a strictly…learn how to replicate things.
Ultimately, these women’s perceptions of eating with other vegans points towards positive understandings of sharing tablespace with vegan individuals. Outside of this though, some women feel neutrally or negatively about commensality with other vegans.
II. Indifferent & Negative Experiences
Sydney and Carmen feel largely indifferent when it comes to eating with vegans stating that identification with veganism does not increase or decrease their comfort in commensal 116 situations. They see food preferences as personal and do not feel a need for mirrored vegan practice in those they share tablespace with. These neutral feelings are echoed by two men – Ang and Spencer. In describing this, Spencer explains “It feels totally normal and great but it doesn’t feel like some heavenly experience that I would describe any different than when I am eating at a restaurant with friends eating steak. It’s good but we’re not talking about it a lot.” Important to note is that both Ang and Spencer’s social circles do not include vegans they spend time with outside of their family. They both have minimal experience eating with other vegans outside of their family, which may largely contribute to their indifference.
Contrary to popular opinion amongst most of my participants, Aubrey and Patty describe negative experiences eating with other vegans. Patty shares that she found commensal situations with vegans were when she was most likely to slip up and transgress her own boundaries; thus, resulting in some feelings of suspicion and discomfort around trusting other vegans in commensal situations. Interestingly, Aubrey typically feels “more monitored” through the process of eating with other vegans and feels “more pressure” to enact a perfect form of veganism – a pressure she does not as readily experience when eating with non-vegans.
5.2.2 Engagement with Non-Vegans in Commensal Situations
Historically, eating and food practices have largely been sites of sociality. With veganism partly centering on the abstention from animal-derived products (Vegan Society 2017), this inevitably results in increased complexity for vegans as they navigate Western social food spaces that are deeply embedded in practices of animal exploitation. In my study, a varying degree of affective responses were communicated in response to eating with non-vegans. For the most part, participants did not experience any notable affectations when eating vegan food with vegans. 117
This simply felt like just another meal; affectations, did arise though when traversing commensal situations where non-vegan food was present.
I. Emotional Discomfort
Six women find that commensal situations with non-vegans are particularly uncomfortable due to the presence of non-vegan foods, such as meat or overtly obvious dairy products (Olive; Lynn; Sasha; Frances; Leona; Patty). These women note visceral reactions to the sights and smells of certain animal products are particularly aggravating (Lynn; Sasha;
Leona). In these instances, they explain that sharing tablespace with someone eating animal products can be “disgusting” (Lynn; Sasha) and overly “distracting” (Leona). Some women have more of an intellectual turmoil as they find the presence of animal products to be “offensive”
(Lynn), something that made them “feel down on [their] activism” (Leona), and a harmful reminder of “animal suffering” (Patty). In many of these instances, these women (Lynn; Frances;
Patty) avoid commensal situations with non-vegans eating non-vegan food. Frances represents the extreme end of this as she has partially taken the Liberation pledge which entails pledging against eating meals with others eating animal products:
Yeah I want them to know there’s a clear line and it’s not okay…I will not eat with them if they’re eating meat. I know a lot of people who take the pledge to not eat with people who are eating meat or eating any animal product. For me I take that part way because I think people need time to get there. You know? But it makes it more possible for non-vegan that they can still eat some animal products but they get the message that it’s not okay and I’m not going to normalize a dead animal in front of me so. Yeah I wouldn’t sit there with somebody if they were eating a cat. I’m not going to sit there was somebody if they’re eating a dog or a pig or a fish, right?
Thus, actively pledging against commensality involving certain animal products was only carried out by one woman in my sample but, as noted, similar sentiments were shared by Lynn and
Leona. 118
All genderqueer participants acknowledge a greater degree of discomfort in eating with non-vegans, especially if they were consuming non-vegan food (Riley; Quinn; Morgan). Unless actively working to dissociate from the non-vegan food in front of them, two participants describe degrees of emotional turmoil wrapped up in sharing tablespace with non-vegans eating non-vegan food (Quinn; Morgan). These feelings center around “heartbreak” (Quinn), “a big emotional impact” (Quinn), and “confrontation and anger” (Morgan). Therefore, non-vegan food represented a tangible reminder of contrasting value systems localized at the site of commensality between my vegan participants and the non-vegan individuals they were interacting with.
Of the men, the most plaguing affective response was articulated by a participant who recently attended a non-vegan Mother’s Day brunch with extended family. Jack recalls watching his family interact with, consume and delight in eating animal products which hurt him to his
“very core” making him “super depressed”. Describing this time, he feels a “sense of catastrophism”, and so he generally avoids these spaces as much as possible. In terms of emotional taxation, somewhat similarly, Ang details a time when he shared a table with a woman who was eating “innards”. In observing this, he likened her to “Dracula” (Ang), and believes that such acts tarnish her femininity and make her less attractive. In these spaces, Ang ultimately feels the need to decrease proximity to non-vegan food. Sometimes this is sitting as far away from non-vegan foods at the table as possible, and other times this entails rejecting dinner invitations or arriving at social events following the consumption of non-vegan food (Ang).
Therefore, in these non-vegan commensal situations, these participants experience grave affectations and actively work to mitigate this through practices of social distancing and isolation. 119
Other vegan men in my sample have more pragmatic, albeit largely negative reactions to sharing table space with people eating non-vegan food. Corey laments that these situations are “a reminder that a great world that I hope one day will exist does not exist and it’s actually this bubble that bursts. I always have to eat with non-vegan people but am not generally happy being with people who are eating non-vegan food”. Spencer adds that his relationship to the person he is eating with factors into his feelings in these scenarios. If it is family or a close friend eating non-vegan food in front of him, he finds this more hurtful, as he feels a greater deal of respect for his values compromised in these situations. Thus, both participants ultimately note that although being around non-vegan food is often a by-product of living in a society largely predicated on practices of animal exploitation and oppression, they are more deeply affected when individuals they have close relationships with – family and friends – share tablespace with them and bring non-vegan food. Additionally, two vegan men in my sample noted some “discomfort” (Rory;
Daniel) and “awkwardness” (Daniel), but that they are largely unaffected by seeing non-vegan food with non-vegans in commensal situations.
I. My Mother, My Ally
A theme amongst some of my women and genderqueer participants is receiving support from their mothers when navigating complex commensal situations with non-vegan family members. Three women (Avery; Sasha; Aubrey) and one genderqueer individual (Riley) all acknowledge their mothers’ efforts to cultivate comfortable spaces for their vegan offspring at family gatherings. In these situations, the mother acts as a conduit of communication between non-vegan family members and their vegan children. This is evidenced in how Riley’s mother engaged in “allyship” practices. Their mother would support and mediate points of tension around the subject of food between the them and their extended family at gatherings. Even 120 though their mother does not fully understand the ins and outs of vegan practice, at extended family gatherings, their mother acts as a “buffer” to alleviate familial tension and aid this participant in upholding their vegan practice in environments fraught with hostility. Additionally,
Avery, Sasha and Aubrey all benefit from the support of their mothers when navigating non- vegan family events. Sometimes this tension is something that can be pushed through with solidarity practices and other times, this discomfort is too much and they need space from the family event.
II. Feelings of Inconvenience & Leaving the Table
When describing their feelings around eating with non-vegans, Olive, Avery, Sasha and
Aubrey are all concerned with being an “inconvenience” to (Sasha; Aubrey) or feeling
“apologetic” towards their non-vegan counterparts at meals. Additionally, this is something
Alexis previously grappled with but by becoming more embedded in her vegan practice, she no longer feels concerned over this.
Some women also need to leave commensal situations due to conflicts with non-vegans in commensal situations (Lynn; Aubrey; Carmen). Aubrey exemplifies this in her discussion on eating with non-vegan family members at an event when she states “with my step dad’s extended family, they don’t really know me that well and there’s so many of them...In the past I’ve just gotten up and gone to the bathroom for 5 minutes because it’s just too much. It’s like attacking me at that point.” In these instances, all such women veer topics of table conversation away from veganism and food commentary but perceive hostility and defensiveness from their non-vegan counterparts in these encounters. Consequently, they rely on leaving the physical space as a means to diffuse conflict. 121
This need to leave commensal spaces with non-vegans is also shared by Riley and
Morgan. In describing their experiences in work environments while eating with non-vegans,
Riley recalls:
For a while I was just getting up and leaving the lunch table. In this group that I’m thinking of, there’s at least one person who gets defensive over the food choices and feels the need to double down even though I try my best not to discuss things at all…I try to bring things up only when it’s relevant or practical to my situation. Like I have to ask about this or something and I try not to proselytize at all. Like it’s exhausting and tiring…And I’m just like incredibly uncomfortable now cause it’s just so easy to be neutral with people and not worry about it and stuff but that can’t happen there.
Ultimately, with food being such an emotionally-laden and potent site of interaction, a small number of participants feel leaving these situations as the most effective response to address burgeoning conflict and their own discomfort.
III. Opportunities for Spreading the Vegan Message
For the most part, vegans view eating with non-vegan food as an inopportune time to discuss the benefits of veganism; however, as an outlier, Rory views this as an appropriate time discussing veganism and for conversion practices. He takes delight in this opportunity:
I like delivering the message. I like being the example. I don’t want pity. I hate that. I don’t want ignorance and understanding but that kind of goes with the territory. Most people are curious. They have a lot of questions because they know somebody who’s vegan. We’re not freaks anymore and it’s not so unique. So they’re more into asking the questions and what we eat. But I embrace that part of it because I normally discuss it while I’m starving. I’m eating the French fries or gnawing on a bun because I was not considered an equal citizen in that particular place.
Uniquely, Rory understands these uncomfortable situations through a utilitarian lens in that he uses commensal situations as occasions to “bulldoze space” for veganism in seemingly inhospitable settings. Ultimately, he sees the table as a fruitful site for aspects of conversion practices, another element of vegan sociality I will now turn to.
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5.2.3 Conversion Practices
I. Vegan Activism
Of the more overt means, two women participant in activism (Olive, Frances). Frances’ activism includes engaging in protests and organizing work with groups such as the Save
Movements, Fridays for Future and Anonymous for the Voiceless. A primary aim of her work is to champion veganism by “showing vegan films to reach non-vegan audiences” and her targeting of vegan activism towards individuals she perceives as most receptive – “young, middle class” individuals. Additionally, Olive’s work as an painter focuses on shedding light on various forms of animal exploitation. In doing so, she aims to captivate viewers with enough beauty to orient them towards considering the horrendous nature of animal exploitation and the benefits of a vegan lifestyle.
Community organizing of vegan spaces and events is the primary means of activism my genderqueer participants take part in (Riley; Quinn). A central focus in their work is on bolstering community networks and carving out vegan-friendly spaces founded on the principles of social justice. This includes coordinating, organizing and moderating both online and in- person vegan communities and events (Riley; Quinn). By administrating both online vegan groups and vegan food festivals, these individuals cultivate vegan spaces both virtually and physically to foster hospitable sites for knowledge-sharing for vegans and the vegan-curious.
With respect to the men in my sample, animal liberation efforts (Jack; Rory), poster-ing and protesting (Jack), and mobilizing online and in-person vegan networks (Aaron; Corey; Rory) were all discussed by the ethical vegan men in my sample. These practices are pivotal to their work as practicing vegans with normalizing vegan values as a central goal in their everyday lives. Furthermore, dialoguing on veganism in public spaces such as restaurants, government 123 events, festivals and online platforms is also an important site of conversion for some (Corey;
Jack; Rory). In describing how he advocates for vegan meal options in non-vegan restaurants and at non-vegan events, Rory vehemently exclaims “Initially, I would say, rather than providing space, I was bulldozing space. I was trying to – you know a medieval weapon. Whip it around to open up the space to say ‘pay the hell attention!’”. Clearly a very active and charged approach to cultivating vegan space.
II. Role Modelling Ethical Consumption
The women in my sample overwhelmingly employ practices aimed at circulating veganism through a more silent or non-vocal visibility (Avery; Lynn; Sasha; Sydney; Frances;
Leona; Patty). When discussing their preference to champion veganism, Avery, Frances, Leona, and Patty all avoid publicly wearing non-vegan products such as a leather or fur due to it
“promoting” (Leona) non-veganism and viewing it is “inappropriate because it sends the wrong message to people” (Patty). Public spaces or shared spaces with non-vegans are thus understood as opportunities to “illustrate” the preferential nature of veganism (Sasha), be “the example”
(Avery; Sydney) and abstain from “normalizing” (Frances) non-vegan practice. In Sydney’s words, she wants to exemplify both an “accessible and realistic” vegan practice to others through how she lives. Lastly, although this ethical role modelling is viewed positively by most vegan women, Lynn perceives her silent visibility, such as wearing pro-vegan tee shirts or practicing veganism in public spaces, as less effective approaches to conversion. To this, she adds that “I’m not pushy. I’m quiet about it... I would like to be more physical about it. More physically present. I would like to protest at the Canada Goose store. I would like to go to supermarkets and put those stickers on the meat packages, you know?” (Lynn). Therefore, while others are 124 satisfied with a silent visibility to their activism, Lynn aspires to enact a more vocal form of activism.
All genderqueer interviewees strive to role model a version of veganism which resonates with them (Riley; Quinn; Morgan). For Quinn, this takes the form of a veganism which is both
“practical and accessible to people”. They are constantly striving to quell stereotypes around it being “really hard to actually be vegan” (Quinn). They further admit to feeling an ever-present pressure “to be perfect in [their] presentation of veganism to avoid people dismissing it out of hand for this reason or that” (Quinn). Morgan also worries about role modelling ethical behaviour in public spaces, especially around accidentally popularizing non-vegan products.
Thus, these discussions provide insight into the ways in which vegan practices are, to some degree, situated around the performativity of ethical and moral consumption.
The majority of vegan men (Aaron; Corey; Jack; Rory; Spencer; Daniel) feel that role modelling appropriate consumption practices is important to their veganism. This sentiment is threaded throughout my dialogue with these men. Aaron, Corey, and Jack all explicitly avoid using animal-based products – or products that appear animal-based – as it condones and role models behaviour which counters veganism. As Corey laments, “if you wear a fur coat out of the house, people might think that’s cool and it doesn’t make you as good an outward steward of veganism”. In understanding their practices through a visibility lens, even when not engaging in overt activism or direct dialogue, these men understand their public consumption practices as a more subvert form of activism through role modelling.
The other three vegan men who engage in role modelling practices – Rory, Spencer, and
Daniel – all discuss the mainstreaming of vegan consumption through displaying vegan practice in public spaces. Although not nearly as heavily stigmatized now as it was a few decades prior, 125
Spencer hopes to further de-stigmatize “second hand stuff” through normalizing thrifting practices. Also tapping into elements of dress, Daniel recalls when he consciously began to wear vegan t-shirts in public settings. Messages on these t-shirts include ‘Straight Outta the Garden’,
‘Eat what Elephants Eat’ and ‘YYZV’. These t-shirt messages are all covertly associated with veganism and allow him to introduce veganism into public spaces in a way that allows him to
“engage in activism even though it’s such a small thing” (Daniel). Through dress and consumption, he can popularize the vegan message in a way that feels manageable to him.
Finally, in describing his overall approach to consumerism in public spaces, Rory views himself as “the exemplar”, acting as “the standard” and being “in the vanguard” when it comes to public presenting veganism. Ultimately, in accordance with a neoliberal approach to consumption, these men view their visual publicizing of vegan practices as consistent approaches to conversion overall.
Finally, it is clear that the majority of my participants across all genders view role modelling as a vital component to their vegan practice. In this way, they view their actions not only as affecting personal change in their consumption habits, but also, of the opportunity and potential to orient those around them to more readily engage in ethical consumption practices. In drawing vegan practice into public spaces, these individuals bring forth a silent visibility to veganism through propagating veganism in non-verbal and physical ways. Consequently, simply living as a vegan in Western societies is a less confrontational, consistent form of vegan activism and conversion displayed by my participants.
III. The Home as a Potent Site of Conversion
With already forged familial bonds, shared spaces, and a greater opportunity to exemplify, mentor and transmit practices, many participants see the home as a primary place to 126 begin their conversion efforts. The men in my sample often focus on firstly spreading veganism within their homes. Both Rory and Daniel have raised vegan children – practices they are immensely proud of. Rory views this act of passing vegan values along to his daughter as his
“great victory in [his] lifetime”. Following a number of health scares experienced by his parents,
Daniel also successfully pushed his parents and in-laws to be vegan. He described this triumph as
“one of my most proud things in my life” (Daniel). Additionally, commenting on his home dynamics and living with non-vegan parents and siblings, Jack echoed Daniel stating “one day I hope I’ll convert them” along with Aaron who hopes to one day convert his wife.
Some women in my sample also discussed engaging in vegan conversion and mentorship practices with family, with several converting intimate partners (Avery; Aubrey), mothers
(Olive; Aubrey) and sisters (Olive). Furthermore, Sasha and Carmen introduced vegan material to family members but have not yet swayed their kin to fully adopting veganism. Interestingly, two of the three mothers in my sample were introduced to veganism by their vegan children
(Lyyn; Carmen) and one participant (Leona) transitioned into veganism alongside her mother.
Speculatively, this may hint towards an important connection between vegan practice and maternal relationships. Ultimately though, across men and women, the home was localized as an important site for spreading the vegan message. Consequently, reproduction of vegan values in family members served one of the most effective conversion practices explored by men and women in my sample.
IV. Limitations to Conversion
Finally, an interesting point of discussion arose in my interview with Riley when they discussed limitations to their desire to champion veganism. They viewed living as a vegan within the context of privilege. In describing a conversation, they had at a family event, they explained, 127
one of my aunts was going on – well was probably my nana as well because she was kind of an ass – about how pretentious vegans are. And my aunt was like ‘no --- and I have had conversations about how being able to be vegan is really coming from a position of privilege in a lot of ways. About being able to access the foods at a reasonable price and that it’s not realistic or reasonable for all and -- - is not trying to make the entire world vegan cause that’s not necessarily what’s the best outcome for everybody.’ Alright, so I was like okay some people I’m having conversations with are listening to what I’m saying (Riley).
Consequently, although promoting vegan space and role modelling accessibility was important to this participant’s practice, they had a finite and limited focus on conversion. Riley viewed compatibility with veganism within a heterogeneous framework of privilege and cultural acceptability. Thus, this demonstrated how different genderqueer vegans in my sample interpreted and prioritized work around spreading the vegan message.
In conclusion, in this second findings chapter I outlined the main spaces and contexts in which my participants expressed transgressing in their vegan practice. With many of these contexts socially-rooted in nature, this led smoothly into the following section where I showcased my participants’ perceptions of commensality with both vegans and non-vegans.
Lastly, I detailed the various ways vegans in my sample commented on their approaches to spreading the vegan message through conversion practices. In doing so, this offered thorough insight into my participants’ understandings of the various aspects of vegan sociality. Building from this, I will now turn to a discussion of my findings from both Chapters 4 and 5 where I will employ a Bourdieusian framework to weave together my results with existing scholarship on veganism and gendered consumption in an effort to illuminate elements of the vegan habitus.
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6 Chapter 6 – Discussion
In this discussion chapter, I begin by outlining novel findings from my study with respect to my participants’ values and pathways. Once established, I then detail the major themes that emerged from my data with respect to lifestyle practices. Therefore, in this section I essentially outline the boundaries of practice with respect to the vegan habitus. Following this, I will then shift focus to detail patterns that emerged when my participants discussed transgressing these boundaries – essentially, when, where and why do they break practice in their veganism.
Additionally, I will discuss the central themes related to how vegans understand the intersection of their gender identity with their vegan identity. And finally, I will examine patterned themes across my vegan participants’ discussion of sociality, with respect to commensality and vegan conversion practices.
6.1 Vegan Values and Pathways
6.1.1 Field of Ethical Consumption
When exploring vegan motivations, values, and an embodied lifestyle practice – the summation of what is the vegan habitus – this takes form within a broader field of ethical consumption accounting for the impacts of consumption on human beings, animals and the environment. Hailing more broadly from Western consumption, the field of ethical consumption serves as the structural site whereby individuals contend with a personal morality practiced and performed through consumerism. Informed by the neoliberal state which pits the burden of responsibility for social change on the backs of individual actors who enact change through
“vot[ing] with their dollar” (Guthman 2008, p.1176), the field of ethical consumption thus represents a structural space to engage with political and social ideology, particularly pertaining to the betterment of humans, animals and the climate (Adams and Raisborough 2010). Within 129 this field, responsibility to practice social and political values runs so deep that markers of personal identity calcify around embodied values and practices. In doing so, the field of ethical consumption serves as the structural space within which the vegan habitus is practiced.
A concept iteratively related to habitus, the field, as Bourdieu explains, thus serves as the structural site within which actors carry out their everyday lives; shaping how actors carry out their everyday lives. Acting within this conceptual space sets the tone for practice through producing seemingly objective hierarchical power relations which establish rules, cultural and social conventions, rituals, titles, and positions of power (Webb, Danater, Schirato 2002).
Therefore, as a field, ethical consumption is as broadly defined as the values and practices associated with it (Johnston, Rodney and Szabo 2012). With respect to veganism, four subfields comprised the structural site for an embodied vegan practice to occur. These subfields include: health, animal ethics, environmentalism and social justice. Congruent with studies on veganism
(Dyett et al. 2013; Greenebaum 2012; Greenebaum and Dexter 2017; Janssen et al. 2016;
Radnitz, Beezhold and DiMatteo 2015), these subfields serve dually as pathways and discursive sites to frame a vegan practice. Therefore, these subfields draw in, anchor, and structure my participants’ vegan practices.
6.1.2 Pathways into the Field of Ethical Consumption
Vegans in this study generally identified with one of three main subfields when transitioning into veganism: health, environmentalism and animal ethics. In generalizing the gendered division of vegans’ pathway narratives, women more often identified with health whereas men and genderqueer participants tended to lean towards animal ethics. Despite this, at least one individual of each gender identified with the three aforementioned subfields. As this sample is small, I caution against drawing overly generalized gendered characterizations of 130 vegan pathways; however, participants in my study evidenced the gendered ways they engaged with femininities and masculinities associated with various aspects of vegan pathways.
Preoccupation with health has historically been perceived as a feminized practice in
Western culture (Bordo 2003; Roos, Pratalla and Koski 2001; Sobal 2005). In spite of this, a minority of men attributed the onset of their veganism to health. These men cited improved physical capacity and function as the drivers behind their veganism. In contrast, half the women defined their health narratives around weight loss and physical aesthetics. Additionally, two women discussed holistic conceptions of health focused on curbing animal exploitation and the intake of negative energy transfers. As a result of this, while all fall under the broad umbrella term of health, men’s discussions of health tapped into more masculine norms of athleticism and physical capability (Badinter 1995; Bordo 2003; Rothgerber 2013), while women’s were more compatible with the idealized slender feminine body in Western cultures (Badinter 1995; Bordo
2003; Lupton 1996). Therefore, in general, men and women identify with different vegan pathways, and these pathways are connected to hegemonic Western gender norms.
With respect to animal ethics, a majority of men and genderqueer individuals identified with this pathway into veganism. This connection was typically born of a personal relationship to an animal companion and/or exposure to vegan discourse through books and documentaries. In accordance with literature on pathways into vegetarianism and veganism (Rachels 1976; Singer
1975), distinctions arose amongst my participants with respect to animal welfare versus animal rights. Men generally opted for a staunch animal rights perspective and alignment with liberationist, rather than welfare, ideologies. In opposition to this, genderqueer participants and one woman discussed more compassion-based pathway narratives describing affective experiences relating to animal welfare. While relationships to this pathway were blurred, men’s 131 descriptions centered slightly more around rights-based reasoning whereas some women and genderqueer individuals more readily drew on affective relationships to animals; thus aligning with Western gender norms that align masculinity with logical action and femininity with relationship-based care.
The final pathway addressed included environmentalism. With the burgeoning climate crisis, environmentalism rounds out the trifecta of reasons acknowledged in the literature for adopting veganism (Dyett et al. 2013; Greenebaum 2012; Janssen et al. 2016). Only three individuals – all women – cited environmentalism as the main impetus for their veganism.
Evidently, people of all genders expressed concern over climate change; however, in discussing how environmentalism compelled them to adopt veganism, two of the three women articulated an ethic of care and an interconnectedness of all beings. In centering relationships and compassion in their justifications for veganism, these women drew on historically perceived feminine values (Greenebaum and Dexter 2017) in their pathway narratives. Ultimately, this indicates that while women, men and genderqueer vegans may normatively align with any of the three pathways, the ways that they engage with these pathways and their reasoning for pursuing veganism still attends to elements of Western femininities and masculinities.
While most of my participants could effectively tease out one overarching reason as the main impetus for their adoption of veganism, one genderqueer participant drew on all three central pathways as their reason for becoming vegan. The sum of personal and social change within the realms of environmentalism, health and animal ethics reached a threshold great enough to prompt them to engage in vegan practice. While a blended pathway is not largely represented in vegan literature, identification with blended pathways may increase as the number of individuals who attribute the onset of their veganism to vegan Netflix documentaries which 132 intertwine the trifecta (health, animal ethics and environmentalism) of reasons for becoming vegan in complex and indistinguishable ways. As a phenomenon, the importance of Netflix in my participants’ becoming vegan narratives was largely focused upon and was evidenced across gender identities.
6.1.3 Peripheral Pathways
With respect to peripheral pathways into veganism, themes emerged amongst my participants; however, only some significant gendered differences were evident. Almost half of my participants across all three genders acknowledged that viewing vegan-positive Netflix documentaries was fundamental to their process in becoming vegan. The prevalence of Netflix documentaries included in my participants’ pathway narratives highlights how streaming platforms serve as a vital conduit for the transmission of vegan ideology and development of a vegan identity. Therefore, this satisfies what Christopher, Bartowski and Harverda (2018) discuss when speculating the role popularized vegan documentaries play in “expanding the vegan subculture” (p.20) in an American context. In this capacity then, effective development of a vegan habitus was often dependent on access to and consumption of vegan Netflix documentaries amongst my participants.
Beyond the use of Netflix, two other peripheral pathways – moving away from a parental home and vegan mentorship were included as important pieces to developing a vegan habitus.
Over half the women and one genderqueer participant stressed the importance of mentorship in their decision to pursue a vegan lifestyle, whereas men did not center mentorship as an integral part of their process in becoming vegan. In this capacity, the importance of vegan relationships in facilitating transitioning into veganism appears to be especially important to women and 133 genderqueer individuals. Thus, the development of a vegan habitus may occur through gendered pathways.
6.1.4 Stable and Shifting Value Systems
All but one vegan identified a singular value system in their pathway narratives.
Consistent with literature on vegan value systems (Greenebaum 2012), all individuals in my sample grew to embrace a multiplicity of vegan values through sustained practice. Over time these vegans drew on a range of values, stretching into subfields of animal ethics, health, environmentalism and social justice, to further assert the validity of veganism in their lives.
Therefore, solidifying embodiment and practice of the vegan habitus often entailed a process of vegan value acquisition. Despite a growing plurality of values espoused by these vegans, how they prioritized these value systems remained integral to shaping the subfield within which their habitus largely operated. With various subfields championing different and often conflicting aspects of ethical consumption, how these vegans hierarchically organized these value systems accounted for the heterogeneity of practices affiliated with the vegan habitus. Therefore, the range of diversity in practices accounted for within the vegan habitus
Mirroring Greenebaum’s (2012) work, vegans often shifted from identifying with more selfish value systems (e.g. health) to more altruistic value systems (e.g. animal ethics) through enduring vegan practice. Women in my sample most readily exemplified this as a majority of women initiated vegan practices for health reasons but later identified with animal ethics and environmental reasons for their veganism. In opposition to this, vegan men often exhibited more stability and loyalty to the value systems in their pathway narratives. While a majority of these men adopted veganism for animal ethics, the two men who entered into veganism for health purposes continued to identify with this value system despite sustained practice. Finally, 134 genderqueer vegans generally shifted from animal ethics towards prioritizing broader social justice values. While Greenebaum (2012) does not directly address this, as a subfield which accounts for a wider range of rights including animal and human rights (Adams and Gruen
2014), a strong case could be made for the fact that the social justice subfield is equally if not more altruistic than animal rights subfields.
Although too small a sample to generalize, relevance of the shifting and stability of vegan value systems stems from its capacity to orient the vegan habitus towards a subfield of practice
(health, environmental, animal ethics and social justice) within the broader field of ethical consumption. Practices of the vegan habitus take distinct form in relation to the subfield(s) the actor orients towards, which is consistent with scholarly and colloquial vegan categorizations such as: ethical vegan, climate vegan and health vegan/plant-based (Climate Vegan 2015;
Greenebaum 2012). Ultimately, in understanding the ways the vegan habitus moves through the field of ethical consumption and its subfields, a more accurate picture of the vegan habitus and its practices is achieved.
6.2 Lifestyle Practices
6.2.1 Food Practices
While no vegan acknowledged maintaining perfectly static boundaries in definition or practice, those newer to veganism typically had looser boundaries. Length of practice thus became important as the vegan habitus was increasingly entrenched in vegan actors over time.
While development of the vegan habitus was intimately linked to sustained practices, it was clear that an iterative relationship between boundary and practice existed within this vegan community. Though boundary informs daily vegan practice, there was a feedback loop wherein the improvisation of daily practice informed how boundaries materialized and stabilized over 135 time. As vegan practice became more entrenched in these vegans, the fluidity of their boundaries stabilized but never became perfectly fixed. This is represented in literature (Cherry 2006;
Greenebaum 2012; Key, Appleby and Rosell, 2006) that addresses the ambiguous nature of vegan definitions and practice. Therefore, the hallmark of a vegan habitus was an imperfect practice informed by varying degrees of boundary flexibility.
In accounting for this flexibility, a central tenet of veganism addressed was a harm reduction ethos, which is further corroborated by many vegan organizations (Vegan Society
2019). This enduring fluidity was, in part, responsive to my participants’ recognition of the lack of transparency in Western food systems. While product labelling and vegan certifications have skyrocketed over the past decade (Woolverton and Dimitri 2010), ambiguity in ingredient lists or lack thereof persists (Vegan Easy 2018). While these vegans acknowledged that perfection was unattainable, many discussed the intention to continually strive towards this. In general, vegans more committed to purity practices often operated within the subfield of animal ethics, particularly those who identified with animal rights versus welfare, as a breach of practice was perceived not just as harmful but as a rights-based violation. In opposition to this, vegans moving through subfields of health, environmentalism and social justice were less desirous of bodily purity. Exceptions to this existed with respect to health-focused vegans with allergies and intolerances to animal-derived foods; these vegans prioritized purity largely due to pain management rather than a value-informed practice.
Many vegans did not champion or reject purity practices; however, a select few individuals chose to actively dismiss a bodily purity as inaccessible food labels, vegan gray areas, and the inevitable slip ups, were all part of their everyday practices. Indeed, making space for bodily impurity is consistent with other studies conducted on vegan (Cherry 2006; 136
Greenebaum 2012; Key, Appleby and Rosell 2006) and vegetarian populations (Barr and
Chapman 2002; Jabs, Sobal and Devine 2005) in the United States. With respect to gender, while both one man and one genderqueer individual dismissed perfection in their practice, generally, women were more likely to articulate rejections of purity. While some of this may be attributed to the subfields these actors operated within (health, environmentalism and social justice), women and genderqueer vegans flagged this as an act of resistance against developing disordered eating practices. Western feminine consumption practices have historically been marked by asceticism, restraint and calculation (Bordo 2003; Bourdieu 1984; Lupton 1996) and veganism has shared in this through its abstention from animal-derived goods (Vegan Society
2019). With eating disorders disproportionately affecting women in Western cultures (Bordo
2003; Lupton 1996), my participants’ inclination to safeguard against disordered eating was likely born of the compounded pressures for restraint they experienced as both vegans and femininely-aligned. Consequently, this provides insight into how women and genderqueer vegans, as genders that outwardly engage with femininity, may differ from men in the practice of a vegan habitus. In this capacity, while gender was not a primary organizing principle in the vegan habitus, it did impact development and embodiment of the vegan habitus.
With respect to food provision, most vegans, regardless of gender, centered low-cost food stores in their practice while supplementing with higher-cost chain health food stores and independent/local stores. This finding actively pushed against stereotypes of Western and white veganism which paint veganism as costly and only accessible to middle and upper class individuals (Greenebaum 2018). Nearly all participants relied on a class-diverse range of food sites, shopping in costlier health food chains to supplement everyday provisioning in low-cost supermarkets. Thus, their practice was largely structured around cost-efficiency and food literacy 137 as these vegans navigated various food sites in an effort to balance their dietary needs with low- cost budgets.
The outliers to the cost-efficient vegan habitus arose amongst a minority of women and genderqueer folks who chose to prioritize local and organic practices over economical ones. Two genderqueer folks and one woman (Leona) prioritized frequenting local food establishments with authentic social and cultural ties to the traditional cuisines served. Cognizant of forms of white veganism, cultural appropriation by Western vegan establishments and support for traditional food establishments, these participants embedded neoliberal practices of “voting with [their] dollar” (Guthman 2008, p.1176) as a means by which to push against not only the oppression of animals in Western food systems, but also the oppression of marginalized groups of people, e.g. people of colour and lower income populations. With positionalities and identities more intimately connected to axes of oppression in Western society, they displayed the ways that gender may permeate and impact practices connected to a vegan habitus.
Lastly, with respect to food practices, consistent with previous vegan literature, all individuals relied on vegan diet staples including vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, fruit and some processed goods in the makeup of their daily meals (Greenebaum 2012; Vegan Society
2019). While no two participants’ meal compositions mirrored one another, all participants evidenced an overwhelming reliance on food inspiration from cultures outside of American and
Western diets. Therefore, common to the vegan habitus was centering a cultural adventurousness and a culturally diverse palate drawn from cuisines with vegetarian and vegan roots.
6.2.2 Broader Consumption Practices
Consistent with definitions of veganism (Vegan Society 2019) and literature on vegan practice in Western societies (Greenebaum 2012; Twine 2017), participants’ broader veganism 138 spanned a range of diverse and often disparate practices. Important to note was that as the vegan habitus stretched beyond spheres of dietary practice, the subfields it moved through became increasingly formative in determining the nature of practices affiliated with it.
While food transitions often occurred within a matter of weeks, the overwhelming sentiment expressed by my participants was that robust broader transition could take years or even decades depending on what an individual owned pre-transition and their financial means to replace non-vegan goods. Some goods had been fixtures in my participants’ lives for years (e.g. furniture, cars and clothing) and others weeks or months (e.g. hygiene products and cleaning products). Therefore, achieving a broader embodied vegan practice was typically much slower and less linear underscored by values of pragmatism, financial capacity and the subfields contextualizing practice of the vegan habitus. While transition into food veganism has been explored at length by Richard Twine (2014; 2018) and generally occurred more speedily, cultivation of vegan practices related to broader consumption was much murkier and slower.
Central to the development of a vegan habitus is transition into broader practice. Most of my participants drew on the following four practices in their broader transition into veganism:
(1) donating non-vegan goods and replacing with vegan goods, (2) using up non-vegan goods and replacing with vegan goods, (3) holding onto but not using non-vegan goods, and (4) accepting the presence of non-vegan goods. Consequently, an important element of the vegan habitus is grappling with the legacy of a non-vegan life. Evident amongst all participants was that the subfield they prioritized (health, environment, animal ethics, and/or social justice) shaped this transition. Often vegans aligned with animal ethics, especially more radical rights- based vegans, opted to donate and replace goods as expediently as pragmatically possible. In taking a rights-based stance (Singer 1975; Rachels 1976), one man even chose to dispose of 139 some non-vegan goods drawing on the moral impermissibility of their use. Other vegans aligned with environmentalism and social justice values generally exhibited slightly slower transitions into broader practice, while many vegans prioritizing health did not actively transition into broader practice, but slowly incorporated pieces of applicable vegan knowledge every once and while when feasible.
Within this study, the most extreme boundary of veganism exercised was an abstention from Western medicine practiced by two ethical vegans in my sample. In opposition to this, vegans operating within subfields of environmentalism and health typically exhibited more flexibility around use of animal-derived goods outside of food. With personal health and/or the environment as the orienting structure for these participants’ practices, boundaries around use of animal-derived goods were clearly much more permeable, aligning with other vegan literature on broader practice (Greenebaum 2012; Twine 2017). Ultimately, subfield affiliation and its impact on broader consumption largely accounted for the variation in practices connected to the vegan habitus.
6.2.3 Beyond Consumption Practices
With respect to veganism beyond product consumption, similarly to descriptions from the previous section, as the vegan habitus extended concentrically beyond consumption, the subfields became increasingly important in contextualizing the impetus and meaning behind vegan practices. Practices beyond consumption were so broad in scope that it would have been impossible to discuss any and all of the ways veganism could inform these participants’ lives.
Despite this, common themes that emerged in practices beyond consumption for the vegan habitus included: travel, activism and romantic/intimate relationships. 140
With respect to travel, subfields which often framed active and communal travel— walking, biking, public transit—as a vegan practice and connected to the vegan habitus included environmental and social justice. Reliance on active and communal travel was practiced by participants in my sample as a means to curb greenhouse gas emissions, reduce carbon footprints, and champion the provision of more financially and accessible travel. Consequently, active and communal travel appealed to vegans in these aforementioned subfields as this practice centered values concerned with environmental degradation, climate justice and broader accessibility justice.
Another element of practice stereotypically affiliated with the vegan habitus included activism; a practice embraced by a large number of participants. The crux of this labour entailed spreading the vegan message in some capacity. Consistent with Greenebaum’s (2012) work which found that vegans hierarchically organized value systems from “selfish” (health) to
“altruistic” (animal ethics at the pinnacle with environmentalism trailing closely), data from my study showed that individuals aligned with subfields linked to altruistic value systems (animal ethics, environmentalism and social justice) were more likely to consider activism integral to their vegan practice, and thus, a vital component of the vegan habitus. While this was not particularly shocking, discussions of activism appeared to be substantially impacted by gender in my participants.
As previously noted, genderqueer individuals typically practiced veganism within a social justice subfield. Unsurprisingly, these individuals connected their activism to broader schemes of social justice when engaging in community organizing. In discussing this, genderqueer vegans positioned their roles as social organizers within an intersectional framework attending not just to vegan activism but to queer activism indicative of their broader 141 concerns to eradicate systemic oppression. In existing outside the gender binary, these vegans grounded their approaches to organizing in sensitivity to different lived experiences and positionalities. In doing so, this evidenced how their activist practices considered veganism in conjunction with broader themes of social justice (Haprer 2012), ecofeminism (Adams and
Gruen 2014; Gaard 1997) and queering ecofeminism (Gaard 1997; Loadenthal 2012; Parry 2012;
Simonsen 2012). These genderqueer individuals’ activism was thus informed by their veganism, but also, their genderqueer identities. Ultimately, their activism was shaped by both their veganism and genderqueerness and resulted in an approach to activism more sensitive to the intricacies of and nuances of social justice.
In opposition to this, the majority of women did not include activism as an element of their vegan practice. While two women cited less confrontational styles of activism (e.g. use of art), one of these women expressed a desire to be more militant in her activism. Examples such as this evidenced how women may differentially experience tensions tapping into activist practices affiliated with the vegan habitus when in conflict with more restrained dispositions associated with femininity in Western cultures (Bordo 2003; Butler). The one exception was a vegan woman who championed social justice and heavily centered activism in her vegan practice. Important to note is though was that she had been an activist for LGBTQ2SIA and women’s rights for decades prior to her vegan activism. While, beyond the scope of this study, this highlights how identities intersect, inform and shape one another as she embraced activist practices of a vegan habitus that may have felt largely inaccessible to other women in my sample.
Lastly, a majority of men in my sample engaged in activist work congruent with their strict adherence to ethical veganism. Activist practices cited amongst the men included vegan 142 organizing, protesting and use of social media. Additionally, two men specifically highlighted more radical and confrontational political efforts such as animal liberation and aggression. As a whole veganism generally falls outside of the scope of hegemonic masculinity; however, by including radical activism in their vegan repertoire, this allowed for a select number of men to tap into the performativity of hegemonic masculinity – as dominion over (Connell and
Messerschmidt, 2005) – within the parameters/boundaries of what is commonly perceived as a feminine practice. Through pushing for the “cultural consent, discursive centrality [and] institutionalization” of veganism while “delegitimizing” non-veganism, these men could engaged in the “widely documented features of socially dominant masculinities” (Connell and
Messerschmidt, 2005, 846). Thus, while vegans of all gender identities in my sample practiced activism, both gender and subfield became increasingly important points of stratification through which development of the vegan habitus occurred.
Dating, as a component of vegan practice, arose as a point of discussion amongst participants of all genders. Overall, individuals aligned with the animal ethics subfield typically expressed more interest in maintaining romantic relationships with other vegans. While this has been explored by Potts and Parry (2010) who coined the term “vegansexuality” to denote vegans’ preferred romantic and sexual attraction to other vegans, gendered practice of this was also evident in my sample.
Many of the men, across subfields, required that their intimate partners to be vegan, and the men whose partners were not vegan stressed that their partners abide by a vegan lifestyle within their shared home. In opposition to this, many women touched on desiring vegan partners; however, those that did, did not enforce “vegansexuality” (Potts and Parry 2010) in their dating and romantic relationships. The majority of women did not require their partner to be vegan or to 143 abide by vegan practices while in their shared home. Although beyond the scope of this study, age may impact this as an exception to this as three women over the age of 50 years firmly expressed the necessity for vegan partnership. Finally, both the genderqueer vegans who engage in dating abstained from upholding steadfast boundaries around vegan romantic partnership.
Both noted that while vegan partnership is often easier with respect to compatibility of lifestyle practice, both had and continued to be open to romantic relationships with non-vegans. Overall, based on the frequency dating was addressed, it was clearly an important practice comprised within the vegan habitus; however, as a practice explicitly gendered in numerous capacities, gender became an important structuring principle in who could, wanted to or did not want to employ “vegansexuality”. Ultimately, dating practices entailed in the vegan habitus were evidently impacted by gender.
6.3 Transgressing Vegan Boundaries
6.3.1 Contexts of Transgressing Boundaries
As an embodied way of being, the vegan habitus has boundaries of practice. As the previous section outlined, while there is homogeneity in the habitus, there is a strong degree of variation in how vegans engaged with these boundaries based on the subfields they moved through. In sharing contexts of transgression, the vegans I interviewed touched on a number of themes, particularly: transparency, sociality, and pragmatism.
An experience nearly common to all vegans in this study was grappling with the lack of transparency in Western food systems. Even with the proliferation of vegan certification labels
(Scales 2014; Woolverton and Dimitri 2010) and work addressing a lack of transparency in
Western food systems (Barndt 2002), processed foods often have hidden or unrecognizable ingredients. Nearly all of my participants recognized this as a context in which their vegan 144 practice was vulnerable to error. As such, a lack of knowledge served as the primary barrier to effectively practicing veganism.
Shifting into sociality as a space of transgression, a number of participants across all gender identities touched on the difficulty they experience being vegan when frequenting restaurants. As an actual point of transgression though, one man and two women recognized this as a space in which they have historically slipped up. While the man discussed a lack of options and hunger as the driving force behind his transgression, the two women compromised their boundaries out of concern for inconveniencing their non-vegan tablemates. Although not a large portion of the sample, these women’s concerns over inconveniencing others in commensal situations may offer insights into the difficulties women experience operating as the “vegan killjoy” (Twine 2014) at the tablespace, while contending with enduring normative gender roles which pressure women to exhibit qualities of restraint, hospitality and selflessness at the dinner table.
Along a similar vein, three other women flagged social and familial spaces as frequent spaces where they err in their veganism. These transgressions were again largely born of the desire to maintain smooth table dynamics, while also safe-guarding against slipping into disordered eating practices – a theme which previously emerged with respect to some women’s dismissal of purity practices when enacting boundaries of their vegan habitus. Overall, these women’s descriptions of transgression offer insight into the ways gender impacts enactment of the vegan habitus, as women in this sample were more likely to articulate points of transgression that were born of perceived social pressures.
Lastly, other areas of transgression discussed by vegans of all genders and consistently addressed in scholarly work and vegan organizations includes the use of: technology, cars, 145 computers, and Western medicine (Greenebaum 2012; Vegan Society 2019). Important to note was that participants who actually perceived use of these goods as erring in practice generally camped into more altruistic-based subfields (animal ethics, environmentalism and social justice).
Therefore, this both indicates how vegans understand boundaries beyond food and how they make sense of crossing these boundaries. Overall though, these are widely accepted points of transgression in the vegan habitus as abstention from the aforementioned goods and practices would dramatically compromise these vegans’ quality life existing in Western cultures. As a result of this, my participants displayed how pragmatism within the field of ethical consumption became an important consideration for the vegan habitus across all genders.
6.4 Perceptions of Identity Interpretation and Management
6.4.1 Interpretation of Vegan Women Identities
When discussing how the women in my sample understood the interaction between a vegan identity and woman’s identity, women largely perceived the two identities to be socially and normatively compatible. In discussing how they viewed the interaction between gender identities and vegan identity, almost half the women suspected that a disproportionate percentage of women made up vegan populations in Western countries (Dyett et al. 2013; Martinelli and
Berkmaniene 2018; Radnitz, Beezhold and DiMatteo; Thomson 2018) due to the connection between both vegan norms and women’s norms with healthism. Veganism has increasingly been recognized as a diet employed to reduce the incidence of non-communicable diseases and weight gain in Western countries (Davey et al. 2003; Key, Appleby and Rosell 2006; Newby, Tucker and Wolk 2005; Spencer 2003) and Western women have historically experienced societal pressures to maintain slender physiques (Bordo 2003; Lupton 1998) while also being responsible for familial diet and health (Cairns and Johnston 2018). With health historically perceived as a 146 woman’s domain and the vegan habitus operating within a health subfield, many women pointed towards this overlap in health as a major impetus behind women comprising a greater proportion of vegan populations.
Beyond the health connection, a majority of women also held that women in Western cultures, in opposition to their male counterparts, embodied and exhibited dispositions – compassion, sensitivity and empathy – that more readily aligned with altruistic aspects of veganism. Critiquing this further, a minority of women believed that the ease with which women identify with and perform veganism can be attributed to a normative socialization into those femininely-aligned dispositions. Consequently, the reoccurring performativity of gender through everyday acts (Butler 1995; West and Zimmerman 1987), ensures that performative consumption mutually reinforces both a vegan identity and woman’s gender identity simultaneously. In doing so, these women shed light on the ways they perceived women in Western cultures can normatively access and perform veganism.
Finally, a minority of women drew connections between Western women to vegan populations based on their understandings of and experiences with systemic gendered oppression. Although not all women fleshed out exactly why this connection between veganism and feminism existed, many did point to the fact that their social circles were often comprised of feminist vegans. Deconstruction of this can occur through interpreting the feminist-vegan through an ecofeminist framework. Both feminism and veganism entail resistance against oppressive patriarchal structures, body exploitation and oppression of animals and women, and the gendered oppression of mothering animals with industrialized animal agriculture (Adams
2010; Adams and Gruen 2014; Gaard 1997). As a result of this, these women in my sample tapped into the ways identities, such as vegan and women, mutually reinforce value systems, 147 practices and identity development. Somewhat similar to these women, genderqueer vegans also highlighted experiences with systemic oppression as a means by which to more easily identify with veganism.
6.4.3 Interpretation of Vegan Genderqueer Identities
All of my genderqueer participants perceived a strong positive relationship between identifying outside the gender binary and practicing veganism. This they attributed to wider interests in social justice, a capacity to challenge the status quo and an overarching investment in the eradication of systemic oppression in Western societies. Specifically, they pointed to gender oppression associated with both Western binary systems and the intersection of gender and animal oppression within animal agriculture. This is compatible with Simonsen’s (2012) theoretical exploration of the overlap between veganism and queerness. Employing Sara
Ahmed’s concept of ‘shared deviation’, Simonsen (2012) noted how both veganism and queerness “disrupt the ‘natural’ bond between gender formations and the consumption of animal products, as this relates to social and cultural genealogies” (p.51). Therefore, resistance to hegemonic norms and disruption of structural systems through everyday acts served as vital practices in the cultivation of my participants’ vegan and queer identities.
An additional reason my genderqueer participants perceived a strong connection overlap between veganism and genderqueerness was that both their vegan and queer social spaces were typically “more accepting of other deviations from society” (Quinn). Through participating in a sociality more hospitable to queering heteronormative, patriarchal and gendered scripts associated within Western culture (Butler 2007; Corwin 2017), this created space for the exploration of traditionally stigmatized identities, such as the vegan (Cole 2008; Markowski and
Roxburgh 2019; Potts and Parry 2010) and the queer (Sedgwick 1993). 148
Lastly, through interrogating the gender binary, one genderqueer vegan speculated that genderqueers’ more positive engagement with femininity (Butler 2007; Corwin 2017; Sedgwick
1993) fosters further pathways towards embracing a vegan practice which has historically been viewed through a feminine lens. This willingness to experiment with and explore feminine praxis was seen as an underlying component to a fruitful engagement with both genderqueerness and veganism. While not a view largely represented in my sample, this offers a nuancing of the ways vegan habitus may be embodied and accessed by beyond the gender binary. In opposition to the compatibility of genderqueer identities with veganism, a number of men discussed their personal difficulties in being vegan men in a Western culture.
6.4.3 Interpretation of Vegan Men Identities
When discussing their experiences as vegans, a majority of men recalled specific instances where they were emasculated by other men for their veganism. Western cultural male norms have historically dictated men must eat meat (Bourdieu 1984; Buerkle 2009; Kentucky,
Hank Rothgerber 2013; Sobal 2005) and consume foods/goods hedonistically (Buerkle 2009;
Weller 2017) to accurately perform masculinity. Through subverting hegemonic masculine norms, men in my sample recalled instances where they were subject to teasing and bullying through the conflation of their veganism with homosexuality and queerness. While these men were criticized for adoption of veganism, their experiences being painted as queer and less masculine is indicative of the enduring connection between the performance of gender and sexuality through everyday consumption. Through their maintenance of a vegan identity these men were socially reproached for violating not only masculine gender norms, but additionally, the structural integrity of heteropatriarchal value systems that form the bedrock of Western cultures. Popular chiding vegan men’s masculinity and sexuality thus served as recognition of 149 gendered boundaries crossed in these men’s subversion and disruption of wider patriarchal structures. Therefore, this illuminates points of tension around Western men’s capacities to fully and effectively embody the vegan habitus.
Interestingly, while many of the men in my sample were emasculated for their veganism, one man within my sample further perpetuated stereotypes around the feminization and emasculation of vegan men. In doing so, he enacted elements of what Markowski and Roxburgh
(2019) deem “social distancing” as he aimed to differentiate himself, as a heterosexual vegan body builder, from stereotypically feminized, slender and queer vegan men (Greenebaum and
Dexter 2017). His discussion of this topic established how even vegan men may perpetuate stereotypes of emasculated vegan men in an effort to uphold a vegan identity without compromising performativity of a male identity within Western cultures. Interestingly, this man further flipped stereotypical scripts around the feminization of veganism through employing his vegan practice as a means by which to further solidify his identity as a traditionally masculine man.
Aside from social distancing, over half the men in my sample discussed what
Greenebaum and Dexter (2017) termed “hybrid masculinity” – a reconciliation of the oft perceived feminized vegan practice through a traditionally masculine lens. Evidence of a
“hybridized masculinity” arose amongst over half the men I interviewed as they drew on instances of athleticism, virility and moral superiority to validate their masculine identities.
Similar to the men in Greenebaum and Dexter’s (2017) study, while critiquing and ridiculing elements of masculinity within Western culture, they further substantiated and validated their practices as masculine within a heteropatriarchal framework. Consequently, these men straddled 150 between the performativity of gendered and vegan spheres of practice in an effort to both reject and pass in the performance of Western masculinity while maintain a vegan habitus.
Lastly, one outlier included a man moving through many hyper-gendered spheres of practice – veganism, social work, and military service. In discussing his experiences, he largely perceived his masculine identity as insulated from emasculation due to his work in the military.
In doing so, this showcased the complex ways identities, and the vegan habitus more specifically, may be informed by elements of gender. Ultimately, while veganism was practiced by men in my sample, their experiences embodying and practicing the vegan habitus differ drastically from most of my women and genderqueer participants.
6.5 Vegan Sociality
6.5.1 Vegan Commensality
Commensality is the act of sharing a meal with others, and is often based upon principles of functionality, convenience, companionship and shared interests (Sobal 2003). When exploring vegans’ experiences of engaging in vegan commensality, the overwhelming response to this was positive. Vegans in my sample typically delighted in sharing tablespace with other vegans due to a shared sense of community and values. This was largely expected and mirrors research on the comfort in shared values at meals (Douglas 1972) and vegans’ perceptions of eating with (Twine
2014) and spending time with other vegans (Markowski and Roxburgh 2019). In particular, gendered perceptions of vegan commensality arose mostly amongst some women and genderqueer folks who echoed Twine’s (2014) comments comparing experiences at vegan gatherings to those at queer and feminist potlucks. In doing so, this comparison draws further attention to the parallels between overlapping practices and experiences when navigating the 151 management of feminist, queer and vegan identities (Gaard 1997; Loadenthal 2012; Parry 2012;
Simonsen 2012).
Additionally, a minority of women also highlighted that vegan commensality was an important site of knowledge transmission for improving their food literacy. This is congruent with Shove, Pantzar and Watson’s (2012) practice framework, particularly related to how practice competencies are fostered, and Twine’s (2017) use of commensality as a skill-building exercise during vegan transition. Beyond transition though, women in this study evidenced that commensality offered them opportunity to continually refine their dietary practices. This use of commensality for food literacy may be indicative of the greater normative responsibility women often bear in food provisioning for families and bringing food literacy into the homes and spaces they frequent (Cairns and Johnston 2018); thus, showing the gendered purposes and preferences underlying vegan commensality.
Finally, although most vegans enjoyed sharing a meal with other vegans, a select couple men and women – those with health and environmental pathways into veganism – were indifferent to the (non)vegan status of their meal companions. As individuals operating within subfields of ethical consumption less grounded in altruism and rights-based discourses, these vegans perceived dietary preferences as more individualist. This is congruent with Fischler’s work (2011) which highlights that North American commensality often entails an acceptably high degree of diversity in practices. In connection to the vegan habitus though, as it shifts away from rights-based and altruistic subfields of ethical consumption, appreciation for vegan commensality may lessen in some instances.
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6.5.2 Non-Vegan Commensality
Unsurprisingly, most participants held that commensal situations with non-vegans often entailed some level of discomfort. This aligns with research that paints the vegan presence as an
“embodied questioning” to hegemonic cultural practices that center the use of animal-based products (Twine 2014, p.632). While most vegans felt some discomfort in these settings, those operating within the subfields of animal ethics and social justice expressed stronger negative reactions to eating with non-vegans. Thus, providing insights into the ways moving through subfields of ethical consumption grounded in rights-based values shapes dispositions of the vegan habitus.
A minority of women expressed concern for inconveniencing non-vegan tablemates when joining them for a meal. As previously mentioned, concerns of inconveniencing also arose amongst women with respect to contexts of transgression. This reoccurring theme evidences the many ways women may differentially grapple with acting as the “vegan killjoy” (Twine 2014) and subverting feminine gender norms. With responsibility to cultivate harmonious meals traditionally falling upon women (Roos et al. 2007) and a deep-rooted cultural stigmatization of veganism in Western cultures (Cole 2008; Markowski and Roxburgh 2019; Potts and Parry
2010; Wright 2015), some women in my sample were distressed over the prospect of compromising harmonious commensality. Building upon this, both women and genderqueer vegans recalled instances where they needed to leave the tablespace when tensions arose around their veganism. This is not to state that vegan men have not encountered similar experiences but that in discussions of commensality, de-escalation through exiting social spaces was a tactic largely employed by women and genderqueer vegans. Overall, this highlights the ways some 153 women and genderqueer individuals must navigate the complexities of navigating various gender norms in relation to spheres of veganism and commensality.
Further strategies relied upon by women and genderqueer vegans during non-vegan commensality included solidarity practices. While only a minority of my sample, some women and genderqueer vegans expressed gratitude for their non-vegan mothers’ assistance during hostile or uncomfortable family gatherings. Consistent with Western mothers’ roles as carers and providers to their offspring (Johnson et al. 2011; Johnston and Cairns 2018), they attended to their adult children’s vegan needs while diffusing tensions amongst family members that reject the inclusion of veganism at the tablespace. Despite differing in personal food practices, these mothers served as vegan allies through acting in solidarity with their children. Through explaining these experiences, it is clear that women and genderqueer participants. Bearing this in mind, as individuals subject to systemic gendered oppression in Western cultures, women and genderqueer vegans may more readily invite solidarity efforts from mothers when navigating non-vegan commensality; however, further research is necessary to make broader claims around this.
Lastly, while common stereotypes paint vegans as proselytizers aiming to disrupt the dinner table (Cole and Morgan 2011), almost all vegans shied away from discussing veganism during non-vegan commensality. Most vegans I interviewed felt this would work against depicting veganism as a desirable and accessible practice. The exception was one vegan man operating with the subfield of animal ethics who thrived on evangelizing over a non-vegan meal.
To him, non-vegan commensality represented an opportunity to “be in the vanguard” and
“bulldoze space” for veganism. While this case cannot be generalized more broadly as it is an outlier, his allegiance to the subfield of animal ethics, his assertively masculine disposition, and 154 his over 30 years of vegan practice, lends itself to a much more radical vegan disposition than exhibited by most participants in my sample. Ultimately, he was fully comfortable evangelizing in potentially hostile social spaces. While this was not exhibited by most of my participants, all did engage in some element of vegan conversion.
6.5.3 Conversion Practices
With respect to popularizing the vegan message, a variety of tactics and strategies were employed by participants in this study. Activism has most notably been linked with vegan conversion efforts; however, the use of role modelling and dialoguing in public and private spaces were addressed as important to conversion efforts by vegans.
Activism has historically been linked with veganism as evidenced by groups such as the
Vegan Society (2019) and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA 2019).
Individuals across gender identities expressed involvement in activism; however, gendered approaches to this emerged. Broadly speaking, men and genderqueer participants more often articulated involvement in vegan activism while the women were less likely to report this.
In particular, genderqueer vegans’ activism focused primarily on community organizing as they worked to cultivate community oriented vegan-friendly spaces sensitive to different axes of oppression. Cognizant of the sexist (Adams and Gruen 2014; Gaard 1997), racist (Forchtner and Tominc 2017; Greenebaum 2018; Polish 2016), settler colonialist (Belcourt 2014) and classist (Greenebaum 2018) ideologies historically associated with elements of Western veganism, these genderqueer vegan activists aimed to organize in a capacity that subverted the historically problematized aspects of white veganism. Overall, this was previously addressed in the section ‘Beyond Consumption Practices’ 155
While some of the men in my sample detailed community organizing as a cornerstone of their activism, such practices were complemented by protesting, online debate and illegal animal liberation efforts. Rooted in the ethical vegan value systems they identify with, these men focused their activism pointedly on promoting animal ethics within a vegan framework. In doing so, some of the men exhibited a greater willingness and desire to enter into interactions steeped in hostility, aggressive interaction and political resistance compared to women and genderqueer participants. Therefore, while the practice of veganism have historically been viewed as incompatible with Western masculinity (Simonsen 2012), some of these men exhibited a vegan activism largely informed by Western gender norms (Bordo 2003) and the hegemonic masculinity in particular (Connell 2005).
Drawing inspiration from Carol J. Adams’ (2001) work Living Among Meat Eaters,
Twine (2014) discusses how the tablespace acts a central site for vegans to engage in
“demonstrative vegan practice”, whereby they entice non-vegans to partake in veganism through introducing them to the sensual, aesthetically-pleasing and desirousness of vegan foods.
Similarly, including both diet and broader consumption, most of my participants commented on the importance of consistently role modelling ethical consumption as a means by which to popularize veganism. A central tenet of the vegan habitus is thus to be a “good outward steward of veganism” through bringing this practice into public spaces. As an evangelizing strategy, role modelling or “demonstrative veganism” may potentially be perceived as a subtler and more palatable approach by non-vegans. Consequently, central to the vegan habitus is understanding vegan performance as popularization.
Delving further into the performance of veganism as an evangelizing practice, many women and men discussed concerted, and often successful, efforts to convert family members to 156 a vegan lifestyle. Through viewing the home and shared space as a potent site for conversion, these vegans were able to spread their vegan message through both role modelling and dialoguing. With a greater likelihood for shared values, positionalities and being frequent commensal partners (Larson 2009; Sobal and Nelson 2003), a number of men and women proudly spoke of introducing and converting family members – parents, siblings and children – to vegan lifestyles. Consequently, while many vegans did not identify as activists, common to the vegan habitus was to champion veganism amongst individuals more readily accessible through emotional, physical and relational connections
Lastly, although many vegans hinted at the limitations of the suitability for veganism for various populations, only one genderqueer individual articulated a cogent boundary for the growth of veganism. Although an outlier, this vegan grounded their perspective in the privileged and cultural inaccessibility often associated with veganism as they rejected a one-size-fits-all models for ethical consumerism. To queer is to reject socially sanctioned boundaries (Sedgwick
1993) and while there are queer eco-feminist values integrated into vegan practice (Adams and
Gruen 2014; Gaard 1997), to replace one hegemonic structure (meat culture) entirely for another
(veganism) may obfuscate an approach to consumption grounded in social justice principles this participant identified with. Ultimately, while more research is necessary to explore the ways genderqueerness interrogates the vegan habitus, this provides preliminary insight into how values and practices of the vegan habitus are permeated and shaped by gender and subfields/values.
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7 Chapter 7 – Conclusion
The central purpose of this concluding chapter is to provide a comprehensive overview of the study and what I hope the reader can take away from this body of work. As such, I will begin by detailing the main takeaways and findings from my research, specifically with respect to the vegan habitus and the gendered aspects of this. Following this, I will cover some central limitations of this study, and in light of this, I will subsequently explore directions for future research of vegan populations in Canadian and Western contexts. Lastly, I will provide concluding remarks.
7.1 Main Takeaways
While examples of men, women and genderqueer individuals included in my sample all identified with various pathways into and value systems associated with veganism, gender became an important mediating principle when considering how these participants engaged with these value systems and pathways. Therefore, identifying as a specific gender does not prevent the association with and practice of certain value systems, instead, it impacts how these values are interpreted, engaged with and practiced. In this capacity, associating with traditional femininities, hegemonic masculinities, and/or the queering of these gender norms thus shapes the ways women, men and genderqueer folks connected with elements of veganism.
A cornerstone of the vegan habitus is that association with the various subfields of ethical consumption – health, animal ethics, environmentalism, and social justice – typically grows over time. In this capacity then, the vegan habitus is embedded and solidified in the practitioner through some engagement with and recognition of the plurality of value systems associated with veganism. Despite this though, most vegans maintain a hierarchy in value systems and structure their consumption around a primary value system. 158
In terms of the realms of practice of the vegan habitus, most consistency across individuals associating with various value systems is exercised through dietary veganism. This makes sense and is congruent with common understandings of veganism as, first and foremost, a popularly recognized diet. Moving beyond diet though, vegan boundaries become increasingly blurred as prioritized value systems/subfields play a larger role in shaping what practices become permissible according to the individual vegan actor.
In shifting beyond consumption, gender becomes an increasingly important organizing principle in the vegan habitus as practices such as activism and navigating romantic relationships are more often enacted according to gendered lines. While these were frequently recognized as vegan endeavours by my participants, they were more likely to be practiced according to gender
– men focusing on more aggressive forms of activism, women often abstaining from or choosing less vocal forms of activism, and genderqueer folks prioritizing social justice and inclusivity in their organizing. This indicates that with respect to structure of the vegan habitus, as it shifts concentrically out from dietary practices, to broader consumption, to practices beyond consumption, the vegan habitus is increasingly impacted by subfields/values systems and gender identity in its everyday practices and dispositions. Thus, providing insight into the nuanced ways the vegan habitus takes form within the context of subfield and gender.
Additionally, sites of transgression common to all vegans were discussed, such as a lack of transparency in processed foods and practicing pragmatism while living in a Western society.
While most vegans flagged these as frequent contexts to err in practice, gender and subfield/value system association did influence when and why some vegans erred in their practice. Overall, an important point to note is that women were disproportionately affected by sociality, as they were more likely to cite concerns for inconveniencing others and familial/social 159 gatherings as contexts in which they would transgress. Men and genderqueer individuals were much less likely to engage in non-vegan practice within social contexts. This is not to state that women were more likely to cave under social pressures that men and genderqueer individuals were more immune to. Rather, normative social pressures vegans experience are unique to their gender in some respects; therefore, the social pressures which impact the probability of successful vegan practice in social settings are stratified by gender to some degree.
General themes also emerged with respect to how the vegans in my sample perceived the connection between their gender identity and their vegan identity. Women and genderqueer folks overwhelmingly commented on compatibilities between the development and maintenance of their vegan identities with their gender identities, albeit for slightly different reasons. Women’s norms connected to femininity and the feminizing of vegan practice versus genderqueer folks’ focus on their capacity to queer hegemonic norms and structures. A main point of overlap between women and genderqueer folks’ greater propensity to adopt veganism, as discussed by my participants, was a desire to challenge the patriarchy and the sexist/misogynistic values embedded in industrial agriculture and capitalist structures more broadly. In opposition to this, the men in my sample often lamented on the perceived normative incompatibilities between being a man and being vegan, although most of these men further rejected, subverted or reframed masculine norms to create space for their existence as vegan men. Therefore, how my participants discussed the relationship between their veganism and gender identity evidenced the ways they have had to grapple with living as gendered vegans. Ultimately, this showcases how gendered positionalities shape who can access identities localized around consumption and how these differences in norms impact identity formation. 160
Moving into themes that emerged with respect to commensality, vegans who prioritized less altruistic value systems/subfields, e.g. health, were less likely to seek out joy in vegan commensality. Additionally, an interesting point to note is that a number of women stressed the importance of vegan commensality as space to develop vegan competency and improve their food literacy; thus, evidencing gendered intentions behind engaging in vegan commensality.
With respect to engaging in commensality with non-vegans, similar to contexts of transgression, women raised concerns over inconveniencing their tablemates, whereas as this was not flagged by men and genderqueer individuals. Additionally, both women and genderqueer folks employed de-escalation strategies and relied on solidarity practices from non-vegans during commensality.
As these strategies to navigate non-vegan commensality were largely undiscussed by the men I interviewed, this also evidences the ways gender informs vegan dispositions during sociality with women and genderqueer individuals expressing more concern over disruption at the dinner table and desiring acts of solidarity during non-vegan commensality. Consequently, while a vegan habitus exists, gender penetrates aspects of the values, practices and dispositions associated with it.
Lastly, championing conversion through role modelling and dialoguing proved to be a vital practice of the vegan habitus. Stretching beyond demonstrating veganism though, activism was also considered important to conversion efforts; however, as previously mentioned gender served to shape how activism was actualized by various vegans. Overall then, it is evident that while a stable form of the vegan habitus exists, the performative and embodied aspects of gender and subfield/value association substantially orient and inform the way veganism is done in everyday life.
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7.2 Limitations
The broad scope of my research proved to be both a strength and limitation. My three- fold research questions, extensive interview guide, and lengthy interviews with vegans were all indicative of the vast nature of this study. The breadth and depth of the data collected was robust; however, the time constraints I experienced as a master’s student prevented me from attending to all thematic elements of my data. While I hope to revisit this data frequently in the coming months to explore the nuanced aspects of my participants’ experiences, I was unable to include elements of this in my thesis. One example of my data I hope to more fruitfully explore in the near future is the affective experiences of vegans when transgressing boundaries amongst various genders of non-vegans.
I strove to curate an inclusive sample; however, time constraints and availability of willing participants both served as barriers in this process. Class-wise, my sample was fairly homogenous. Most of my participants have ties to middle class practices and values. While some participants would be categorized as lower income, all participants had completed some post- secondary education with most attending and/or completing a university degree. Additionally, my sample largely presented as white with the exception of two people of colour. While this was to be expected based on the focus and parameters of my study, further diversity of voices that fall within my specified population would strengthen this scholarship. Lastly, my ideal sample would have included a more equitable distribution of men and genderqueer participants compared to women. I did tweak my screening process throughout the recruitment phase to respond to the saturation of and lack of various voices in my sample; however, tapping into diverse voices was a difficulty I faced. Ultimately, while these are limitations to my study, the struggles I experienced around the inclusion of diversified voices in my sample with respect to 162 class, race and gender also mirrors the composition of vegan groups in Western cultures. Vegan populations in Western cultures are overwhelmingly educated women and often white
(Martinelli and Berkmaniene 2018). Additionally, my sample parameters excluded religious- based pathways into veganism; therefore, people of colour connected to religious communities outside Western value systems were ineligible to take part in the study due to the cultural insulation they experience when being part of a community that embraces veganism.
Lastly, as I conducted qualitative research, my sample size was small and thus is not generalizable to larger vegan populations in Western cultures. The findings and knowledge gleaned from my participants is representative of their experiences as a group and not Western veganism in general. This data breathes life into the plurality of voices found within vegan populations; however, I caution against generalizing these findings, particularly with respect to gender, to wider populations. My overall aim for my research is not to express that this is how all gendered vegans move through the world, but to instead, highlight these as patterned and thematic ways the individuals I spoke to do veganism, as gendered actors, in their everyday lives.
7.3 Directions for Future Research
Paralleling the burgeoning growth of Western veganism (Martinelli and Berkmaniene
2018), sociological scholarship has only recently begun its exploration of vegan communities in
Western cultures over the past decade (Greenebaum 2012; Potts and Parry 2010; Twine 2014;
Wrenn 2016). While my study adds to American and British scholarship through exploring how veganism is experienced and practiced in a Canadian context, further research should focus on the different ways veganism may be interpreted and practiced across Canada. As a geographically and culturally diverse country, conducting a similarly structured study in Western
Canada, the Maritimes, Quebec or Northern Canada would likely yield different results. 163
Additionally, building off of Greenebaum’s (2018) inquiry into the ways vegans of colour manage identity and stigma, future vegan research in a Canadian context should hone in on the unique experiences of vegans of colour in a Canadian context. While one of my participants hinted at the tension they experience as a person of colour maintaining connections to their culture while embracing veganism, the limited number of people of colour in my sample prevented further thematic exploration of this in my study. Similarly, I was unfortunately unable to recruit any Indigenous vegan voices for inclusion in my sample. Vegan Indigenous scholars such as Margaret Robinson (2013) have noted unique cultural tensions Indigenous individuals face in adopting an identity perceived as white, classist and largely incompatible with practices associated with Indigeneity. Future research should attend to the unique complexities of identity management that Indigenous vegans and vegans of colour face in their everyday lives.
Lastly, future vegan research should turn towards the importance of not just gender identity, but sexual orientation in impacting adoption and development of a vegan identity.
While I did not directly question participants on their sexual orientation, through the conversational nature of my interviews, approximately 25 percent of my participants acknowledged having a queer sexual orientation. This percentage may even be higher considering I did not directly question my participants on their sexual orientation as it was beyond the scope of my study. Consequently, in line with Simonsen’s (2012) theoretical coupling of veganism with queerness, future sociological scholarship should focus on the ways queer and heterosexual identities influence and interact with development of vegan identities.
7.4 Concluding Remarks
I began this thesis with an extensive literature review on what veganism is, how consumption is both gendered and performative, and what is known of vegan sociality, 164 particularly in relation to commensality. Furthermore, I provided an outline of the concept of habitus as it is understood within a broader theoretical framework according to Pierre Bourdieu
(1977) and various practice theorists (Reckwitz 2002; Schatzki 1997). Following this, I explained my methods and methodology employed in this study, specifically with respect to the use of semi-structured in-depth interviews; how I recruited, collected and analyzed data; and, ethics protocols involved. In establishing my methods, I then moved into detailing findings from my data collected in the two subsequent chapters. These findings addressed the breadth and depth acknowledged in my research questions – responding to these research questions both chronologically and thematically. In doing so, I discussed the ways this work responds to previous scholarship and fills gaps in research on vegan culture, practice and its intersections with gender. Additionally, I highlighted limitations of this work and next steps to be taken in the world of vegan scholarship.
In these concluding remarks, I will briefly turn back to the crux of this study and what I aimed to accomplish by conducting this research. Three main research questions guided my study throughout the entirety of this process: (I) What are the motives, values and lifestyle practices of vegans within a Canadian context? (II) Are there gendered differences in the development of Canadian vegans’ motives, values and lifestyle practices?, and (III) How is the intersection of gender and veganism navigated internally and in social contexts? Informed by a feminist-Bourdieusian framework, I set out to answer these questions through conducting semi- structured in-depth interviews with 21 vegans within Guelph, Ontario and surrounding areas within a 65 kilometer radius. As such, this thesis details the rich and vibrant findings gleaned from these vegan women, men and genderqueer participants who provided me with a window 165 into their everyday lived experiences as vegans. Therefore, this thesis attends to the plurality of worldviews and voices I explored in this study.
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LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix A: Participant Profiles
Participant Gender Age Veganism Education Race Range Riley Genderqueer 40-49 19 years Post-secondary White Olive Woman 20-29 3 years Post-secondary White Avery Woman 20-29 8 months Post-secondary White Aaron Man 20-29 25 years Post-secondary White Lynn Woman 60-69 6 years Post-secondary White Sasha Woman 30-39 1 year Post-secondary White Quinn Genderqueer 30-39 7.5 years Post-secondary White Sydney Woman 20-29 3 years Post-secondary White Frances Woman 50-59 3 years Post-secondary White Leona Woman 20-29 5 years Post-secondary Person of Colour Aubrey Woman 20-29 2 years Post-secondary White Corey Man 20-29 11 years Post-secondary White Alexis Woman 20-29 1.5 years Post-secondary White Patty Woman Over 50 33 years Not specified White Jack Man 20-29 4 years Post-secondary White Rory Man 50-59 31 years Post-secondary White Carmen Woman 40-49 3 years Post-secondary Person of Colour Ang Man 60-69 5 years Post-secondary White Spencer Man 20-29 10 months Post-secondary White Daniel Man 40-49 3 years Post-secondary White Morgan Genderqueer 20-29 1.5 years Post-secondary White
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Appendix B: Information and Consent Letter
Doing veganism in the everyday: Navigating motives, values and lifestyle practices of vegans within the context of gender
Researchers Graduate Student Researcher: Devan Hunter [email protected] Faculty Advisor: Dr. Mervyn Horgan [email protected]
Introduction: About the project The purpose of this research is to explore the motivations, values and lifestyle practices of veganism in a Canadian context; whether gendered differences exist in these aspects of veganism; and, how gender intersects with veganism in social contexts.
I am a Master’s Student in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Guelph, completing this research for my MA thesis. The present research will use data gathered in interviews with vegan individuals. You are being invited to participate in an interview.
Participation To be eligible to participate in this study, you must be: Vegan (for at least six months) Vegan for non-religious reasons 18 years of age or older A resident of Guelph, Ontario OR live within 100km of Guelph, Ontario Your participation in this research is completely voluntary. You are in no way obliged to participate in this research and are free to withdraw at any time. You can withdraw your consent to take part in this study anytime during the interview, and for two weeks afterwards. By stopping the interview and withdrawing consent, any data collected up to that point will be discarded. Your withdrawal has no consequence.
Research Procedures Interviews will last approximately 60-90 minutes and will be audio recorded with your consent. Audio recording is strictly for research purpose, for ease of transcription. The interview will focus on broad themes of motivations for becoming vegan, values and beliefs aligned with veganism, the day-to-day practices of enacting veganism at the individual level, how gender identity may shape lifestyle and consumption practices, and how gender identity and veganism is navigated in social contexts. Please understand that you are under no obligation to answer any question you would prefer not to. 175
Potential Risks and Benefits While there is no direct benefit to you, your participation is important because the results will increase the knowledge of how the development of the vegan movement in Canada has occurred. There is a minimal risk to your emotional and psychological well-being as a participant as the material covered deals with personal beliefs and practices entailed in your own veganism.
Safety and Confidentiality Confidentiality of your personal identifying information will be maintained to the fullest extent possible under the law. Pseudonyms will be used and no directly identifying information will be used in any research output. Only, I, the student researcher will have access to identifying information. The interview transcripts and audio files will be kept secure on an encrypted password-protected computer. Under the law, data may be subject to subpoena.
Compensation If you consent to participate in this interview, a gift card valued at $10.00 to an establishment of your choosing or cash will be issued to thank you for your participation.
Publication This interview, as one of 26 interviews on this topic, will be part of the data for my MA thesis project. A copy of the completed thesis will be available in the Guelph Atrium if you wish to read the final product. Additionally, research findings may be published in academic publications and/or be presented at conferences. No personal identifiers will be used; where necessary, quotes will be paraphrased so as not to reveal the person’s identity.
Informed Consent By giving consent, you do not waive any legal rights by agreeing to take part in this study. Should you have any further questions about this research project, you may contact myself, Devan Hunter ([email protected]) or the project faculty supervisor, Dr. Mervyn Horgan ([email protected]). This project has been reviewed by the Research Ethics Board for compliance with federal guidelines for research involving human participants. If you have questions regarding your rights and welfare as a research participant in this study (REB#), please contact: Director, Research Ethics; University of Guelph; [email protected]; (519) 824-4120 (ext. 56606)
I ______(please print your name):
1) have read and understand the above information, 2) understand that the interview will be audio-recorded 3) understand that my confidentiality will be respected 4) indicate my free consent to participate by signing this form.
Signature of interviewee: ______Date: ______If more information regarding this study is required, please do not hesitate to contact: Devan Hunter ([email protected]) 176
Appendix C: Interview Guide
Beginning Interview
In-person introductions, verbally cover main points of study’s information sheet, review consent process and have sign-off on consent forms.
Outline of Interview Guide Subsections
(I) Becoming Vegan (II) Eating Vegan: Breaking Down Meals (III) Eating Non-vegan Foods: Exploring the Boundaries of Personal Veganism (IV) Broader Vegan Consumption: Breaking Down Veganism Beyond Food (V) Using Non-vegan Products: Exploring the Boundaries of Personal Veganism (VI) Gendering Food: Exploring the Intersection of Gender and Veganism (VII) Gender, Veganism and Sociality: Navigating Veganism in Social Contexts (VIII) Closing the Interview
Guiding Questions
I. Becoming Vegan
So to begin the interview, we will initially focus on how you became vegan, your personal pathway into veganism.
1. Firstly, can you tell me how you came to be vegan? So the main reason or reasons that pushed you to become vegan initially… Probes: a documentary, discussing with a friend, a health-related reason, for the environment, etc
2. And was your transition into veganism a slow process over time or something you feel you adopted pretty quickly? Can you tell me approximately how long it took you to become vegan?
3. Some research has shown that people have picked up additional reasons for being vegan the longer they live as a vegan. Is this the case for yourself? Besides your main reason for becoming vegan, are there any other reasons why you continue to be vegan that you now consider important to yourself? What are some other reasons you’ve noticed people in your vegan community have used to justify their veganism? Are there any reasons that friends, family, acquaintances, public figures or celebrities have used to justify their veganism that you don’t think are necessarily as valid or as important as your reasons for becoming vegan? This isn’t to say that other reasons aren’t important at all, just that you may not view them to be quite as valid as your reasons for becoming vegan. No answer is right or wrong here, I’m 177
more so just looking for your personal opinion.
4. When looking at veganism as a whole in Western countries like Canada and the U.S., what types of characteristics, values or traits would you associate with being vegan? What types of qualities, behaviours or personality traits would you associate with being vegan for yourself? How do stereotypes of vegans in the media affect you? Do you think they factor into your understanding of your own veganism?
II. Eating Vegan: Breaking Down Meals
So we’re going to switch gears and move into some questions that deal more so with eating habits, food preparation, where you get your food from and things like that.
5. So just to begin, can you tell me a bit about your living arrangement. So if you live on your own, with family members, with roommates, etc. If you do live with others, are they vegan or non-vegan? What genders do they identify as?
6. So just to start off, can you tell me some of your typical/favourite meals to eat for breakfast? And can you talk me through what a typical morning meal looks like for you? Was today an average day for you meal-wise? If so, what did you have for breakfast today? How often do you prepare breakfast at home in a typical week? How often do other family members, housemates or friends prepare these meals for you? How often do you purchase breakfast from restaurants in a typical week?
7. Now moving into lunch, can you tell me some of your typical/favourite midday meals? Can you talk me through what a typical lunch meal looks like for yourself? So, to keep it simple, what did you have for lunch yesterday? How often do you prepare lunch at home in a typical week? How often do other family members or friends prepare these meals for you? How often do you purchase lunch from restaurants in a typical week?
8. And moving into dinner, can you tell me some of your typical/favourite meals to eat for dinner? Can you talk me through what a typical dinner looks like for you? How often do you prepare dinner at home in a typical week? How often do other family members or friends prepare these meals for you? How often do you purchase dinner from restaurants in a typical week?
9. And because we’re human and a lot times we don’t eat according to the traditional three meals per day model, can you tell me some of your typical and/or favourite snack foods? And can you talk me through: Whether you make these snacks yourself? 178
If family, friends or housemates make these snacks for you? Or maybe you purchase them from stores?
10. And lastly, in terms of covering the basics of what you consume in a week, what are some of your typical/favourite vegan beverages that you drink daily or weekly? How often do you make certain drinks at home? How often will family, friends or housemates make these drinks for you? How often do you purchase these drinks from stores or restaurants?
Now moving into where you actually get some of the food, meals, and drinks we discussed…
11. Can you list some of the most common places you get your food from? So, where do you do most of your shopping? Or, do you find that you get your food from other places like community gardens, exchange with friends or family, and other less “store-like” places? Or are there other places or systems where you can access a lot of the food and drinks we just discussed?
12. Do you feel that being a vegan is more expensive than being an omnivore or being vegetarian? How do you think the cost of veganism compares to vegetarianism and omnivorousness? If you are comfortable stating your income bracket or class status, do you consider yourself low income, middle income, or high income as an individual? As a part of a household? Do you find that your income affects how you live as a vegan? For example, what vegan foods you choose to eat, vegan goods you choose to use, etc
III. Eating Non-vegan Foods: Exploring the Boundaries of Personal Veganism
So now that we’ve discussed some of the vegan foods and drinks you commonly have throughout the week, I would appreciate it if we could begin exploring the boundaries of your own personal veganism. A lot of research to date has shown that although big ticket items like chicken and beef aren’t consumed by vegans, many vegans in North America show more ambiguity and flexibility with respect to foods that aren’t as explicitly linked to animal production.
So in this section of the interview, these questions are only meant to get at a better understanding of how you personally approach your own veganism. I won’t negatively judge any of the answers you provide. I want to remind you that your identity will be private and anonymized, so no one who sees this data, research or anything like that will be able to link these answers to you personally. Hopefully this helps you open up about what may be a more private aspect of your veganism or something you don’t talk about as regularly.
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13. So firstly, as I mentioned, research shows that there are many vegans who continue to eat non-vegan food on occasion. Essentially that some vegans continue to eat an item here or there that isn’t vegan. Also, that there are some gray areas of vegan food – what one person considers completely vegan another person may not. Do you find that there are situations, events or spaces where you might eat food that isn’t necessarily vegan? If you do eat non-vegan food from time to time, can you describe to me some of the situations when you feel like this most often occurs. Maybe these are situations that you’re a little bit more relaxed with your veganism based on who you’re with or the food options that are available. In these instances, are you alone or in a private setting? Or are you in a public setting? Do you find that you eat more non-vegan food with friends and/or family around or when you’re by yourself?
14. If you do eat non-vegan foods occasionally, is this something you are working towards eliminating from your diet? How do you feel when eating non-vegan foods? Do you feel that you have to justify eating non-vegan foods to yourself? Do you negotiate this process of eating non-vegan food with yourself or is eating non-vegan food just something you do from time-to-time? That being said, is providing yourself wiggle room in your own veganism important to you?
15. When eating non-vegan food with other people, do you feel like you have to go through any sort of justification process for (or with) others around you? This being to explain or justify why you’re eating non-vegan food. If you find that you engage in this justification process when eating non-vegan food, have you noticed that you do this for (Conversationally): -Other vegan men you eat with and/or discuss veganism with -Other vegan women you eat with and/or discuss veganism with -Other vegan non-binary individuals you eat with and/or discuss veganism with -Non-vegan men you eat with and/or discuss veganism with -Non-vegan women you eat with and/or discuss veganism with -Non-vegan non-binary/genderqueer individuals you eat with and/or discuss veganism with
Are there any groups of people that we just touched on that you feel most comfortable eating non-vegan food in front of? Why do you think this is so? With this is mind, do you think that gender and vegan status affects whether you feel compelled to justify your consumption of non-vegan food to other people around you?
16. Based on the previous question, if you do eat non-vegan food the random time here or there, what are some of the non-vegan foods you’ve eaten in the past year? 180
Are there any foods that fall in this ‘gray area’ of veganism that I previously spoke about that you do eat occasionally? Such as honey. If so, can you tell me a bit about the last time you ate something that was non- vegan?
IV. Broader Vegan Consumption: Breaking Down Veganism Beyond Food
Thank you for sharing these more personal and less discussed aspects of veganism with me. Beyond food I would like to dig into whether your veganism includes actions you take outside of food and diet. Research shows that when it comes to defining exactly what veganism is in relation to broader consumption, understanding the boundaries of veganism can become even murkier here.
So essentially I would like to explore whether and how you choose to use vegan products in your daily life. I’m thinking more along the lines of for example household cleaners or clothing but this could extend to Western medicine, travel and beyond. But most importantly, this about how you enact veganism in your daily life.
17. So just to begin, in your life does veganism include being mindful of what you’re consuming beyond food? Essentially, do you make an effort to use only vegan household products, cleaners, beauty products, clothes, jewelry, hygiene products etc? Can you tell me a bit about some of the products you use that are considered vegan or labelled as such? These could be mainstream products or items that aren’t typically vegan but you have sought out vegan versions of? Can you walk me through the last time you decided to switch from using a mainstream non-vegan product to a vegan version? What prompted the decision to change products to a vegan version and how did you go about getting your hands on this product?
18. Tying into my previous question, more broadly, how do you get most of your vegan products that we just discussed? It could be through making these items yourself, gifting from friends or family, product exchange in your vegan community, buying the products from a store, and so on. You can tell me about any sort of way you get these vegan products.
V. Using Non-vegan Products: Exploring the Boundaries of Personal Veganism
So just like the previous section related to non-vegan food you may continue to eat from time-to- time, I would like to begin exploring some of the non-vegan products you may use in your daily life. As I mentioned before, all of the data I’m collecting here will be anonymized and no one will be able to link what is said here today to you. This section is really about exploring different people’s boundaries and ideas about their own veganism. There’s a small but growing body of research which points to various ways that different vegans think about and use different non- vegan products – no two lifestyles are exactly the same. So this section is really just about 181 exploring your personal ideas and boundaries of your own veganism and no answer is right or wrong.
19. So as I mentioned, research shows that some vegans continue to use non-vegan products on occasion. For example, a vegan person might continue to wear leather shoes they bought prior to being vegan because they don’t want to throw them away, or wearing a wool sweater, or products tested on animals because there aren’t vegan labels for all beauty products. Essentially, it’s hard to know where to draw the line. Do you find that there are situations, events or spaces where you might continue to use products that aren’t necessarily vegan? Can you describe some of these situations to me? Maybe these are situations that you’re a little bit more relaxed with your veganism based on who you’re with or the products available. Are you alone in a private setting? Or in a public setting? Are you more likely to use non-vegan products with others around or in private?
20. If you do use non-vegan products sometimes, is this something you are working towards eliminating from your everyday life? How do you feel when using a non-vegan product? Do you feel that you have to justify this to yourself? Do you negotiate this process of using non-vegan products or is it something that you don’t focus on as much say in comparison to eating in a vegan way? Is providing yourself wiggle room when using products important to how you live as a vegan? If so, do you feel that you must rationalize this wiggle room with yourself or is flexibility something that you’ve comfortably afforded yourself?
21. When using non-vegan products in front of or with other people, do you feel like you have to go through a justification process for others around you? This being to explain or justify why you might be wearing leather shoes or using a non-vegan soap. Can you tell me about the last time you used a non-vegan product and then felt compelled to explain to someone why you used it? If you find that this justification process occurs with others you’re around, have you noticed that you provide this justification for: -Other vegan men you’re around -Other vegan women you’re around -Other vegan non-binary individuals you’re around -Non-vegan men you’re around -Non-vegan women you’re around -Non-vegan non-binary individuals you’re around Are there any groups of people that we just touched on that you feel most comfortable using non-vegan products in front of? Why do you think this is so? Do you feel like gender and identification with veganism affect how you may (or may not) feel the need to explain or justify when you use non-vegan products.
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22. Now that we’ve touched on aspects of veganism related to the food you eat and some of the products you use, is there any other aspect important to how you live as vegan that we haven’t covered yet? For example, some research has shown vegan individuals may choose to limit non-active travel, take more public transit, or limit the amount of flying they do. Other research shows some vegans in North America choose to reject Western medicine based on its roots in animal exploitation. Do you consider any of these points I just mentioned important to your own veganism? Are there other broader patterns of behaviour or actions that you consider important to your own veganism that we haven’t yet touched on? Essentially, I’m looking to see where you draw the line for enacting veganism in your own life. No answer is right or wrong – here I’m really just looking to get a better idea of where that line falls for vegan people in Guelph for example. So is there anything else in how you behave that you consider important to your veganism?
VI. Gendering Food: Exploring the Intersection of Gender and Veganism
So we’re going to switch gears here and I would like to begin discussing eating and gender. This section is a bit more reflective so if you do need to take some time to ruminate on and consider what I’m asking, please feel free to slow down. Don’t feel like you need to rush through answers if you do want extra time to consider some of the things I’m asking.
23. First I want to start off by looking at what being masculine and/or feminine means to you? What personality traits, behavioural characteristics, and values would you identify with masculinity? What personality traits, behavioural characteristics, and values would you identify with femininity? What personality traits, behavioural characteristics, and values would you identify with being non-binary or genderqueer? No answer is right or wrong here – I’m just looking to get a baseline understanding of how you personally view gender essentially?
24. And if you were to think about what a stereotypical man in North America eats and what a stereotypical woman in North America eats, what are some of things that come to mind? How are Western women expected to eat? How much is appropriate for a woman to eat? What kinds of foods are more feminine or do you see women eating more often? Conversely, how are Western men expected to eat? How much is appropriate for a man to eat? What kinds of foods are more masculine or do you see men eating more often? Have you found any sort of normative expectations for how a non-binary or genderqueer person is expected to eat?
Now I would like to ask you some questions about how gender and eating relates to veganism.
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25. Do you think there’s something particular about being a vegan while being a man or a woman? Do you feel there are contradictions in self-identifying as a man, woman or non- binary person and being vegan? Do you feel any sort of tension in being your gender and being vegan? Do you experience any tension being a vegan ______? Or do you like to highlight certain parts of your veganism depending on whether hanging out with or discussing veganism with either self-identified men, women or non-binary individuals? If so, can you explain to me why you think this is so? Why you feel this tension? Or why you like presenting your veganism in this way? If not, can you explain to me why you think you don’t feel any inclination to highlight or conceal certain parts of your veganism based on whether you’re hanging out with differently gendered individuals?
VII. Gender, Veganism and Sociality: Navigating Veganism in Social Contexts
Now I would like to dig into how you experience being vegan in social settings with other people both vegan and non-vegan, as well as same gender and different gender interactions. So in this section, which is our final one (thank you again so much for taking the time to talk with me), I would like to focus on your social spaces, people you interact with and how you feel out being vegan in different settings with different people.
26. Can you tell me a bit about the last time you ate with other vegans? How did you feel? Did you feel any pressure to present or justify your veganism in a certain capacity? Such as: you are vegan for ____ reasons? Or you maintain your veganism by doing _____ things when in the presence of other vegan individuals?
27. In these social settings, do you find you typically spend more time with vegan men, vegan women, or vegan non-binary/genderqueer individuals? An approximation is completely fine. When eating with vegan women, how do you talk about your reasons for being vegan, your vegan lifestyle and your values related to being vegan? Can you tell me about your last conversation you had with a vegan woman regarding your values and reasons for being vegan? When eating with vegan men, how do you talk about your reasons for being vegan, your vegan lifestyle and your values related to being vegan? Can you tell me about your last conversation you had with a vegan man regarding your values and reasons for being vegan? When eating with vegan non-binary or genderqueer individuals, how do you talk about your reasons for being vegan, your vegan lifestyle and your values related to being vegan? Can you tell me about your last conversation you had with a vegan genderqueer/non-binary individual regarding your values and reasons for being vegan? Do you think there were there any differences in these conversations? Even if only slightly. Not necessarily that your reasons for being vegan or your values would 184
change depending on who you’re discussing with. More so, I’m wondering if the way you discuss your veganism is tweaked, even slightly, based on whether you’re talking with differently gendered vegan individuals?
The next question is very similar to the previous few, but now I would like to focus on your interactions with non-vegan individuals.
28. Can you tell me a bit about the last time you ate with non-vegans? How did you feel? Did you feel any pressure to present or justify your veganism in a certain capacity? Such as: you are vegan for ____ reasons? Or you maintain your veganism by doing _____ things when in the presence of other non-vegan individuals?
29. In these social settings, do you find you typically spend more time with non-vegan men or non-vegan women? And again, an approximation is completely fine. I’m just looking for a ballpark understanding of whether you spend more time with non-vegan men or women. When eating with non-vegan women, how do you talk about your reasons for being vegan, your vegan lifestyle and your values related to being vegan? When eating with non-vegan men, how do you talk about your reasons for being vegan, your vegan lifestyle and your values related to being vegan? When eating with non-vegan non-binary or genderqueer individuals, how do you talk about your reasons for being vegan, your vegan lifestyle and your values related to being vegan? Do you think there were there any differences in these conversations? Even if only slightly. Not necessarily that your reasons for being vegan or your values would change depending on who you’re discussing with. More so, I’m wondering if the way you discuss your veganism is tweaked, even slightly, based on whether you’re talking with differently gendered non-vegans?
30. Building upon the previous question related to your experiences of eating and interacting in social settings with non-vegan individuals, do you feel any pressure from individuals outside of the vegan community to justify or be vegan in a certain way? Conversely, do you think non-vegan men, non-vegan women and/or non-vegan non-binary/genderqueer individuals are more receptive or welcoming of your veganism? If there’s a difference, why do you think this is so? Do you employ any strategies when you are with non-vegans to present your veganism in a certain way? (e.g. as focused on health, for compassionate reasons, etc) Does this change based on who you are with? Such as friends, family, acquaintances, strangers, etc. Do you find that sometimes you conceal your veganism, even if it’s only slightly, in certain social circumstances?
VIII. Closing the Interview
At this point, invite interviewee to provide any final closing thoughts or – depending on how the interview runs – return to any questions that require further unpacking.