Women of Every Species

Last week Book Riot included Bones & All on a feminist YA round-up. Awesome, right?...And also very disappointing.

Still delighted to be on @bookriot's list of feminist YA today, but I'm bummed there's no mention of the #vegan angle. Veganism IS feminism.

— Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) July 22, 2015

I also tweeted this:

The consumption of dairy products is an anti-feminist act. I know, I know. You don't want to see it because cheese tastes good. #vegan— Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) July 22, 2015

I wound up getting into a bit of a Twitter argument with the author of the piece. The subtext of her tweets was, of course, HOW DARE YOU CALL ME ANTI-FEMINIST?

Here's why: because when you consume a dairy product, you are stealing another mother's milk. It belongs to her babies. You want to call yourself a feminist-for-humans-only? Yeah, you could do that. But it doesn't sit well, does it? Someday—maybe not someday soon, but someday—our society will recognize this theft, exploitation, and murder for what it is. How could I possibly "agree to disagree" on this?

I will write more soon about the underlying dynamic of this type of debate, because if we're not careful it can echo the original problem. We have to other-ize the animals in order to eat them, and I'm not helping if I'm other-izing the people doing the other-izing. I have to remember that we're all the same—ALL of us—not just the animals and those who truly sympathize with them.

I hope that makes sense, and if not, I shall elaborate anon. For now, just remember that I'm not judging you. I ate dairy products for the first thirty years of my life.