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Being vegan is easy, dealing with people is something else.
Saying you’re a vegan is fashionable. But leading a vegan lifestyle is a bit more complicated since the mainstream media acts like vegans are aliens who came to take over the planet. Vegans online in real life deal with many different situations. Online you get the support of strangers, who are into a vegan lifestyle. In reality, you deal with very questionable statements and misconceptions.
1. When your friends are planning a dinner party, you always feel left out. You’re that kid on the playground, and no one picks for their basketball team. So, they either forget to ask if the restaurant has a vegan menu or they keep telling you that you are picky. “Just eat some chicken, I won’t tell.”
2. The issue of labeling people is scary. You don’t have to declare you’re vegan, but when you spend time with your friends, you expect them to notice that you are against leather, you drink soy milk, and you like to talk more about baby animals than tiny humans. So, naturally, when they do realize your “agenda,” it’s like opening Pandora’s box. When, where, why, and of course, “So can I get your designer purse now, I mean it’s leather…” No, you may not. Vegans can keep their accessories, bought before they realized how messed up the fashion industry is.
3. Suddenly, once you come out as a vegan, everyone pokes fun at your choices. You get a ton of nasty pictures of dead animals, and you cannot make a fuss about it: “it was a joke.” Even your loving parents are worried about your health, and it doesn’t matter if you are 16 or 46, they will treat you like a toddler. The same parents and friends will try to put dairy and meat into your food, “for your sake.”
4. When it comes to information, vegans have to spend hours to find something useful while Googling. Almost every page tells you that you need supplements, which isn’t true. Go and do your blood tests if you think something is missing. But there are way better ways to get proteins, irons, and other nutrients than just from meat. The lack of proper information is what causes people to act so irresponsible towards vegans, and the media is just feeding them. And about the media…
5. It’s understandable why no one bothers to see vegans as humans since the only news is always about some chaos, caused by a very few people. The representation of vegan people looks like this: they think they’re better than the rest of us, and they want you to be one of them no matter what. The vast majority of vegans never said anything other than “I don’t eat that.”
6. If you think holidays are every vegan’s nightmare, think again. Every time a female vegan goes shopping with besties, it ends in tears. Well, that’s a bit over the top, but why do you need to ask a vegan to try on those cute leather shoes? To annoy them? And why is it that you have to try out a fur coat, which you know you can’t afford in this lifetime?
7. But while most things can be explained, some are simply cruel. Telling a vegan that they care more about the animals than humans and asking them, “what about the starving children?” is way, way out of line. The line’s a dot at this point. You can be eco-conscious and have empathy both for children and for the animal kingdom. Respecting nature includes respecting humankind as well. If a vegan is directly responsible for starving children, then we can talk.
8. And if by chance, you have to have some cow milk with your coffee, you will never hear the end of it. Avoiding dairy is easy, but a coffee shop can run out of soy or almond milk. People who know you will take photos because it’s the “evidence.” Let’s call it what it is: bullying.
This is just a portion of what’s happening in the life of a vegan. You cannot reason with everyone: some will accept it and move on. Others will always have some brilliant comment or similar questions. No amount of books, science, or documentaries will make people think you aren’t at least a bit weird. And that’s OK; you’re doing your part, for animals, for the planet.
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