We interviewed 5 women about feminism and veganism!
1. Interview with Sara Sálamo,Actress and activist for women's rights and animals
Do you think that veganism and feminism have some point in common?
Of course. For me, the common denominator is respect. Not to disqualify the oppression exercised in both cases during the history of humanity. Both movements struggle for inequality. We fight for the world to be a fairly right place and a better place for everyone and all.
What do you think is the biggest challenge of being a woman in your profession?
In my profession in a generic way, it is unemployment. There is a lot. As for being a woman in my industry, the challenge that I see is that the characters that write us and that they produce us, are mainly written, directed and counted by men. In addition, in general, we are to support the important frames (the masculine) and in case it is not, we are hypersexualized. Luckily, there is been a wave of writers and directories occupying, and settling, in relevant positions and taking projections forward with which, half of society, will also be represented.
What does Women's Day for you mean?
An important day in which we all join us to raise a voice for all the work that remains to be done, so that we can live in an equal and safe world.
2. Rain Interview Caron, Chef Plant Based
Do you think that veganism and feminism have some point in common?
Its point in common is the desire for equality and the fight against oppression. Women and non-human animals deserve the same right to be treated with respect away from violence and cosification.
What do you think is the biggest challenge of being a woman in your profession?
As a chef in the gastronomic field, I feel that the biggest challenge is that more women we take leadership positions in kitchens and gastronomic projects, let's go to the front and in that way we give visibility to our talents. We must be granted and recognized that place. Kitchens must urgently cease to be hostile sites and prone to discrimination.
What is Women's Day for you?
It is a day of commemoration, dialogue, reflection and awareness. In Spain the reality that we live is very different from the 1908 in New York but not in other countries and even so day by day we have to fight for a more just world where there are no steps back if not forward.
3. Interview with Ally ViaMalama, creator of content on veganism and sustainability
Do you think that veganism and feminism have some point in common?
Of course. Both try to eliminate an oppression. They are really fully related and probably for that reason 84% of vegan people are women. We understand what it feels like being oppressed and discriminated, treated as "lower beings". Many people try to deny this fact but you just have to see the story we have behind. Actually I believe that veganism should always be intersectional, and I try to do what I can to disclose this.
What do you think is the biggest challenge of being a woman in your profession?
Sincerely as a creator of content I think we are required much more rigor, perfection, forms and content more worked than other content creators. I also feel that if some of us did the same content and communicate as aggressively and authoritatively as other colleagues ... they would eat alivas. In fact 95% of comments with corrections or inadequate tone I receive (although very few) are usually coming from men. It is something about what we should reflect.
What does Women's Day for you mean?
It means that it is a day to celebrate everything that I and the rest of women (colleagues of profession or not) have achieved and that although we have come far, there is still a lot of work to be done, and we must work together to achieve it.
4. Interview with Cristina Rodrigo, Director of @ Provep.es and founder of @vegansofspain
As for both of them are social movements and ethical positions that fight against discrimination, they do have points in common. Now from my point of view the nature of both is different. In the case of feminism, people affected by discrimination based on our sex, women, can speak for us, decide what current represents us better and the way in which to vindicate our rights, always considering the limits of contexts Sociocultural of each.
However, veganism struggles to avoid suffering from animals, who can not decide what is the best way to "defend themselves" before the abuse that current society makes of them and the suffering that inflicts them. That is why I always say that veganism is a very comfortable and at the same time very complex movement. Comfortable because anyone can say that their way of doing activism is the best and the animals are not going to tell him the opposite. Complex because victims of discrimination, animals, can not speak for themselves or decide the best form (or the most effective) of fighting for the purpose of their suffering or discrimination.
In addition, the historical moment in which both struggles are different. The feminist movement has a journey and a greater maturity, and certain discourses can afford that veganism still can not. However, I believe that the Vegan Movement can learn from the strategies of other social movements, such as feminism, as long as we compare it with the beginnings of them, when these struggles had less social support.
What do you think is the biggest challenge of being a woman in your profession?
As in the whole sector, the still unequal representation of women with positions of power and responsibility in the movement, when we know that more than 3/4 of whom we are part of the Vegan Movement is women. Fortunately, I have seen great evolution in recent years in this regard. And more and more organizations adopt policies of inclusion and diversity to try to end this problem.
Another scourge of the movement is that of men who have abused (and abuse) of their "high positions" or status to mistreat active activists, either at a psychological or physical level. It is a secret to voices that in some countries began uncovered a few years ago, but on which it still costs to speak.
Lately I have also reflected a lot about whether the ethics of care that is still associated with the sociocultural role of women, the delivery and sensitivity that is presupposed from us, can lead us to be more likely to fall into situations of Burnout. I think maybe we are not aware of when we need to stop and take care of us or that many times we do not even believe you worthy of this rest and self-care. Luckily, there are more and more resources available to activists to avoid these situations. And more and more is talked about the need for sustainable activism, to take care of us to take care, without feeling guilty.
What does Women's Day for you mean?
On the one hand, it is a day of celebration for all rights achieved. One day to honor all women who have struggled to get that every time the discrimination we suffer is less. On the other hand, it is the opportunity to remember the inequalities that still exist and to catch strength to continue fighting for a more just and egalitarian society.
5. Interview with Gala, professional make-up and owner of Veggala, vegan cosmetic store
Of course! Both feminism and veganism defend that women and rest of sentient beings (non-human animals) are treated with dignity and equality, having the same rights as man, and that are not treated as mere tools, objects or possession goods.
In the world of makeup there is a lot of rivalry among women, not so much with the companions of profession, with which there is usually fellowship and collaboration, as with the clients. Sometimes women doubt the opinion of others of our same sex, for fear of criticism or envy, and we get more of the opinions of someone from the opposite sex, because there is no "rivalry". It's sad, but it happens.
For me, women's day is another opportunity to give visibility to the situation of oppression, discrimination and mistreatment that continue to suffer millions of women around the world, and claim equality. We no longer settle for having a space next to the main actor of history, we want to be the protagonists! The ones that we carry the reins of our life freely, without limitations, despices or injustices because of sex.