vegansaurus!

Mayim Bialik is a young vegan mom doing her thing!  »

Above is a new PETA ad starring fabulous vegan Mayim Bialik. It’s pretty cute. Here’s a little interview to go along with it:

[Can’t see the video? Watch it on Vegansaurus.com!]

Go Blossom! Do the damn thing, girl. As you know, she’s coming out with a vegan cookbook soon. It’s said to be very family-oriented. I like this whole vegan-family schtick she’s got going! Do we have other stars like that? Stars that are all about vegan family values? Vegan Family Values sounds like a really terrible public access TV show. Unless it was all about piglets cuddling babies, that’s solid gold.

But yeah, we should be promoting veganism as a whole family thing, not a get-skinny-quick-for-your-next-movie-role thing or an “oh, the idealism of youth,” thing.

For the vegan sports fan, PETA’s best veggie food at baseball stadiums  »

I grew up on baseball. My parents took me to my first Baltimore Orioles game when I was two months old. I didn’t realize you couldn’t throw peanut shells on the ground in polite company until I was way too old. And when I became a vegetarian at age 11, one of the few things I missed was ballpark hotdogs (I now shudder at the thought, but kids will be kids).

As a grown-up vegan, baseball games are still fun, but I don’t ever go for the food (though I do love the garlic fries at Giants’ Stadium). I usually bring my own version, scoff at the suckers around me paying $12 for a crappy hamburger.

Now PETA’s gone and messed that up, by pointing out there’s some veggie food at stadiums, and giving them publicity for it, so they maybe have an incentive to add more. Last week, they released a  Top 10 Vegetarian-Friendly Ballparks list.

Surprise! No. 1 is in Philadelphia. Apparently the Phillies offer a vegan chicken-steak sandwich. Sign me up!

Other top contenders, and the things there I really would want to eat, are:

2. Seattle Mariners’ Safeco Field: Vegtastic has the run-down of what to eat here. Sushi! Vegan hotdogs!

3. Detroit Tigers’ Comerica Park: vegan hot dogs.

4. Oakland Athletics’ O.co Coliseum: Eh. I’ve been here, not impressed. Not much vegan that I know of, though the vegetarian offerings might be OK.

5. Los Angeles Dodgers’ Dodger Stadium: vegan sloppy Joe, veggie sushi, and edamame, hurray!

6. New York Mets’ Citi Field: veggie dogs, veggie burgers. Here’s an outdated report!

7. Los Angeles Angels’ Angel Stadium of Anaheim: veggie dogs (I’m noticing a theme here), black-bean burgers, bean burritos, veggie wraps, and California cucumber rolls. Plus gluten-free options!

8. Washington Nationals’ Nationals Park: Hell yeah, I want me a tofu sandwich with Vegenaise, and a falafel! Last time I was here I brought my own Chipotle; that was good too.

9. Pittsburgh Pirates’ PNC Park: Vegetarian lo mein and salad with fried green tomatoes sound interesting, but not sure they’re vegan. Sigh.

10. Minnesota Twins’ Target Field: “vegan mousse martinis”?! What is that? Why don’t I have one? Plus veggie kabobs!

Road trip in order? Find out more and get ongoing news at Veggie Happy. And watch some MLB bloopers to get in the mood!

Lush’s new anti-animal-testing campaign is more powerful, less exploitative than PETA  »

Via Ecouterre, we learn of this shocking new ad campaign from Lush, meant to make explicit the horrors of animal testing by using a LIVE (simulated) NUDE GIRL in place of the non-human animal subject. This window display, featuring vegan performance artist Jacqueline Trades, debuted at Lush’s Regent Street store in London on April 25. It coincides with this Fight Animal Testing site and European Union-centered petition.

What does your Vegansaurus think about it? We’re divided!

Meave says:
It’s very PETA, no? I find it significantly less obnoxious than those “Sexxxy ladies in lettuce-leaf bikinis” or whatever outfits for PETA. This is more freak ‘em out than make ‘em want to fuck you, which is appropriate, because animal testing is horrific and should be treated as such. I take issue with the subject of the testing being a nearly naked woman. The female body is 100 percent commodified in Western society, and I don’t think that this campaign recontextualizes it enough to desexualize it, which is to say, as awful as the tests the “scientists” are simulating performing on her, I see “naked lady” before I see “human-as-animal test subject,” and that bothers me.

I wonder how much PETA has ruined the shock value of substituting a human body for an animal’s. PETA uses conventionally attractive (by Occidental standards) female bodies in varying states of undress for essentially every campaign; is it PETA’s fault now I can’t look at this girl without thinking about all the meat-eating, leather-wearing celebrities in the “I’d rather go naked than wear fur” posters, or women wearing only saran wrap? I hate animal testing, but I also hate the exploitation of any body. On the other hand, how many of the products I slap on my face every day exploited animal bodies before they got to my makeup case?* Because you worked with a performance artist, I think you do win this one, Lush. Sign the petition!

Jenny says:
This is pretty horrific, but in an avant-garde kind of artsy way. I mean, just looking at these images is grossing me out, but I can’t stop. Oh those activists, always putting themselves on the line for their causes. And hey, look how much attention and signatures it garnered (nearly 200,000 as of Wednesday night)! Yep, here’s the deal — I’m into it. As long as I don’t have to be the one in the store window, yo.

Isn’t it crazy how art will bring out such intense emotion?! Isn’t it great to really FEEL something? So tell us, what do you guys think? How does this make you feel?

*Actually none, I am a careful makeup consumer.

Guest Post: Proud to be vegan, happy, and chubby  »

Before I became vegan I knew that the world hated fat people, but I didn’t know that vegans hated us as well. I find that as a chubby vegan who has no desire to be skinny I am an outcast within the vegan community. I am forced to read about how a blogger lost 40 pounds on a vegan diet—yeah, that’s nice, but I don’t really care. Just give me recipe ideas, and keep your skinny preaching to yourself.

I went vegan for the animals, and one reason I will always stay vegan is because it is better for your health. Unfortunately, we live in a culture that equates being slender with being healthy, and I don’t think that is true at all. Sure, I might have a few extra pounds, but I eat a whole-foods-based vegan diet and you are telling me I am less healthy on the inside than a skinny person who eats McDonald’s every day? I beg to differ. According to my doctor, I am in great health with near-perfect blood pressure and cholesterol levels—two major issues in American health. I might be fat on the outside, but my insides are well cared for.

However, it isn’t just about health. Even if those who worship at the altar of skinny were to agree that fat people can be healthy, we are still ugly, or at the very least less attractive than skinny people. Here you can read about how PETA is trying find the sexiest non-celebrity vegetarian. This is what they have to say about sexiness: “On average, vegans and vegetarians are fitter, trimmer, and healthier than their meat- and dairy-eating counterparts, and that makes them sexier too.” Apparently you have to a skinny vegan to be a sexy vegan. Well, I call bullshit on that. Sexiness is not tied to any number—your dress size, or the number of inches on your waist, or your age! Here is how Merriam-Webster describes sexy:

1. sexually suggestive or stimulating

2. generally attractive or interesting

Hmm, I don’t see the words “fit or trim” in there—but they do say “generally attractive or interesting.” I would rather be interesting any day.

Sexiness is a feeling from within; the confidence to parade around your house naked because it just feels good. It is wearing lacy panties to work every day because it makes you feel a little sassy. Sexiness is loving yourself just as you are and thus attracting another sexy person who loves your body as well. And finally, perhaps most importantly, sexiness is exploring and enjoying your sexuality with someone you love (or maybe someone you just met). The point is, none of these things require you to be skinny. Here is a quote from my husband (a skinny man) who married my chubby self: “I can see a woman who might weigh 400 pounds and find her sexy as hell. It is all in how you carry yourself.” If you are confident, vivacious, and happy, that is sexy.

You have until March 26 to enter PETA’s contest. I for one will be sending in a picture of my not-skinny but still sexy as hell vegan self. I hope you will join me—whether you are fat or skinny, we are all sexy. This society needs to learn that skinny does not equal healthy, happy, or sexy. I am all of those things, and haven’t been skinny a day in my life.

Ashley Hermann is a happy, chubby vegan who resides in Milwaukee, Wis., with her husband and three cats. Any free time she can find is dedicated to volunteering with cats, reading classic literature, and scouring the internet for recipe inspiration.