[TW: abelism, mental illness shaming, eating disorders ] I’m vegan and I won’t shut up
The earlier and subsequent parts of this thread can be read here.
Hahaha…WON’T SOME ONE THINK OF THE POOR OPPRESSED VEGANS?!?!?!111!!1
Way to not actually address any of my points.
Also, you know, I was vegan/vegetarian. For years. I had to stop when I realized it had become less about living compassionately and more about making excuses to starve myself. So, yeah, I have heard it all. And you know what? When people tell me they don’t want to be vegan, whatever their reason is, I still don’t get all up in their faces and tell them they are just making excuses. Because it is their choice and I am not going to shame them for living their lives the way they want and holy shit it is not my place to judge them for their choices I cannot even believe I have to spell this out for you.
And I sure as hell am not going to dismiss the multiple voices of people with ED’s who tell you that, yes, being vegan is triggering and only listen to people who talk to me calmly and rationally (hello tone argument!). As actual marginalized beings with mental illnesses, we have a right to our hurt and our anger because we too have been dismissed and patronized and talked down to and mocked over and over and fucking over again. Way to contribute to that.
I’m patronizing you because you’re an insipid little shit, not because of mental illness. Also, again with the lack of reading comprehension. Or perhaps I just didn’t address all of your points the way you wanted them addressed? My point had nothing to do with a tone argument and everything to do with understanding the complexity of the issue, something that is difficult to do when someone is raging in all caps.
And speaking of that, you can rage all you want, little one, but I will continue to advocate veganism for those who are able until the day I die. I really have no idea why this is so offensive to you. Perhaps you need to look into Dialectical Behavior Therapy to deal with your strong emotions. Or maybe just stop trying to make everything all about you all the time.
I’ll tell you what this fracturedrefuge person’s problem is. They don’t know the goddamn difference between a vegetarian and a vegan. The words are not interchangeable. If you think they are, no wonder you failed so miserably at your so-called attempt at veganism.
And whether or not you had an eating disorder is irrelevant to why you cannot be vegan.
“I had to stop when I realized it had become less about living compassionately and more about making excuses to starve myself.”
There’s your problem. It was your responsibility to change that. You don’t choose an eating disorder, of course not, but you can choose your reasons for being a vegan. You should have made it about living compassionately and stopped using it as a means to starve yourself. It’s not veganism’s fault that you were only doing it for personal reasons instead of being vegan for ethical reasons. Had you been eating animal products, you would still have been starving yourself. What types of foods you were eating would pretty much have nothing to do with it because either way you’d still have the disorder. I’m not trying to trivialize your eating disorder but I’m also not gonna let you get away with pathetic excuses and shifting the blame off of yourself.
If you were a truly compassionate person who cared about things beyond yourself, you would have found a way to stay vegan while recovering from your eating disorder. If you had been in it for the right reasons, it wouldn’t have mattered.
Of course you’re not going to get in someone’s face when they refuse veganism because you are one of those people that’s refusing it. Eating animal products when you have other options is not something that I will ever respect. There is no reason to respect it because it’s purely out of selfishness. It is not merely a “personal choice” that everyone should respect because it’s inflicting pain and suffering onto others. Personal choices end when they start impacting the rights of someone else. Not to mention, it’s all happening on the basis of something as trivial as your fucking taste buds.
Basically you’re admitting that you are one of these “privileged” people you keep referring to and you’re just saying that you don’t give a fuck about the animals and refuse to stay vegan because you don’t wanna be bothered to have to think about anything except for yourself. You cannot go on and on about how people are dismissing your opinion or silencing your voice when you are turning around and doing the same goddamn thing to all kinds of animals by not being a vegan when you have the means to. What about their voices, their wants, their lives that are dismissed day after day for your own selfish desires? Oh, just kidding, I forgot they don’t count because you’re the only one that matters lolz. Yeah, you’re definitely someone worth listening to.
Wow, way to miss the point completely about what mental illness and eating disorders actually entail.
As you note, quoilecanard, eating disorders are a complex thing. Which is why I can’t understand why you say, after acknowledging they aren’t a choice, things like this:
if you were a truly compassionate person who cared about things beyond yourself, you would have found a way to stay vegan while recovering from your eating disorder
and
[you] refuse to stay vegan because you don’t wanna be bothered to have to think about anything except for yourself
and
doing the same goddamn thing [silencing your voice] to all kinds of animals by not being a vegan when you have the means to
and
what about their [animals’] voices, their wants, their lives that are dismissed day after day for your own selfish desires? Oh, just kidding, I forgot they don’t count because you’re the only one that matters lolz.
Firstly, there is no WOULD or SHOULD about how one recovers from an eating disorder. It’s a fucking battle for survival against a disease that actively makes you kill yourself. If the only way you can overcome that is to set yourself free from the rigid constraints of veganism/vegetarianism, then that’s your fucking RIGHT as part of your recovery.
And yes, when it comes down to individual survival and overcoming mental illness, if the ONLY way you can survive is to eat animal by-products or meat then that’s no one else’s business. Sure, that does involve prioritising your own life over that of some animals, but to call that ‘selfish’ is offensive, ignorant and completely abelist. If it’s ‘selfish’ to want to live a life free from the vice-like grip of anorexia, bulimia, binge-eating disorder, compulsive over-eating or ED-NOS - then you need to fucking reconsider your definition of selfish. I cannot understand what you think gives you the right to berate someone with your abelist privilege about how you think they should and shouldn’t be recovering from their fucking eating disorder.
Yes, some people in recovery from an eating disorder can remain/become vegan whilst not hindering their recovery. Importantly, some cannot - and they shouldn’t be shamed or chastised for that. Would you kill yourself to save the life of an animal? Because that seems to be what you’re encouraging with your abelist bullshit.
I agree very much with the OP’s sentiment that veganism is a privilege and, quoilecanard, you need to check yours. Some people have the means to be vegan; some people don’t. And sometimes those reasons legitimately include a fraught and disordered relationship with food. It’s as simple as fucking that.
Not to mention that for a fuckload of people with EDs, it is their foray into veganism/vegetarianism which enables their illness to take its stranglehold. If you wanna be a spokesperson for veganism then you need to fucking educate yourself about psychiatric conditions that oftengo hand in hand with those dietary choices.
And as a final point, to veganfemme, self-righteousness doesn’t mean “merely telling the truth” it means being so utterly convinced of your own beliefs that you THINK they are a universal truth.
oh look, ableist vegans. wait, I know I have my shocked face around here somewhere….oh there is it! /shocked face
Cause putting cows before our own mental health is what should really matter. who cares is we are starving ourselves to death, ammirite? as long as the cows are safe.
I cant even….
I love you Bria.
That eating disorder ableism is beyond belief.
I am absolutely horrified that those vegans are giving the rest of us a bad name: ignoring the voices of those speaking about eating disorders, and being high and mighty arseholes. I’m vegan for a lot of reasons, and it’s a massive privilege to be able to choose this diet. I think it’s disgusting that some people who advocate a ‘compassionate’ lifestyle are treating other human beings like crap because those people are calling them out on their behaviour.Grow up, take a look at yourself and stop talking to people like they are beneath you because they have different priorities. Being vegan does not make me better than anybody else: my respect for other people and their life choices does however, make me a nicer person than you.
