#animality

Animality on Yamazaki

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but one thing that has been a constant the whole time is this bizarre exchange where people will ask me if I’m vegan “for ethical or health reasons” where there is a subtextual and preloaded expectation that answering “ethical” is incorrect and worse.

but, like it’s easy to spot that mainstream rhetorics of “health” when the subject is food (even though veganism is not a diet, that’s what people hear when I say “vegan” so this is the immediate lens through which they filter everything I say) are just dogwhistling fatphobia. Like we all can acknowledge this, yes?

so the underlying question is really:

“do you abstain from this food out of political boycott within a particular ethical framework, or are you just on a diet to Get Skinny?” and if you refuse the implicit fatphobia/healthism then people immediately assume you’re a bad person.

like they can sympathize with diet culture and fatphobic discourses, but you’re completely alien if you have more complex political goals.

it’s just wild to me how often this interaction plays out, and how uncomfortable people are when I refuse to play the role of the “health concerned plant based dieter who eats exclusively ‘unprocessed’ foods and raw produce”

like nah, I want to abolish capitalism actually! I want systems of large scale food production to be freed from imperialism and colonialism. I think it’s fucked up that we have socially constructed the concept of “animality” to have the properties of “can be bought, owned, and sold” and “outside of moral concern”— especially when the entire existence of this construct has been a history littered with various human groups being sorted into this category! Animality is a central logic of enslavement, colonization, and genocide. It’s not a coincidence that populations being subject to these violent forces are always compared to an animal— that’s the logic of the construct. It exists to justify routine normalized death and cruelty. eugenics as a practice can’t be separated from animal agriculture and the mechanized controlling of bodies to be useful to capitalism. foundational eugenic texts are full of direct references to these comparisons with agriculture. eugenic ideas continue to rest in our ideas about animals, ready to be applied to human populations whenever it benefits capital.

Theriantropy comes from a long time ago. All over the world, at all ages, it has always been there. There have always been therians. Humanimals, or non-theriform animals.

On November 16, 1996, if I'm not mistaken, the first Howl took place. The founders of the current community came together to be creatures, together, without judgment, without fear. To celebrate this identity that is both mysterious and authentic.

It is now time to celebrate our history, greymuzzles, and ourselves!

Plan at least one little thing for yourself today, you deserve it and it's non-negotiable. Be wild, be free, be yourself and take care <3

And also : look at the moon a bit, it's a supermoon, it means that it's bigger and shinier than usual ! It's magnificent !