I HATE this so much. Can we have one single character in a movie, TV series or book that is a vegan and 1) not a patchouli hippie and 2) does not succumb to meat eventually? I stay away from horror movies but I love Friends and I do remember that Phoebe moment. I found it funny though that Phoebe always wanted to stick to her morals but sometimes fell short - remember the fur coat? It's so common to have this kind of treatment of vegetarians and vegans - and it really is just them. There are plenty of characters in books, film and TV who are sober alcoholics and not all of them go on a vodka bender before final credits roll (although some of them sure do). I have a tip: in some of Holly Bourne's books, like How Do You Like Me Now, the protagonist is vegetarian and it's not A Thing. She just is. It's great.
Absolutely! It's such an outdated cliché, but it's like the writers can't bring themselves to think too deeply about why their characters would be vegetarian or vegan. Thanks for the Holly Bourne recommendation, will definitely be checking her out!
Most important question first: American Psycho...the musical???
I appreciate your dedication to seeking out vegan characters and themes throughout fiction and on television/film. I agree that it seems to be one of those things where, unless a writer is vegan (or vegetarian) themselves, they will not understand the ethical considerations that must go into characterizing appropriately.
Which is why we need more representation :)
Oh...and perhaps we need to start getting paid to be "sensitivity readers" for writers who decide to write vegans into their work!
Oh man the American Psycho musical is so good! (Though I may be biased because that's one of my favorite books.) And even though I want to see more vegetarian and vegan characters, I worry that we'll just see more of the tired clichés. At this point I'd take basically anything over nothing. And, yes, we definitely need to get some sensitivity readers out there!
American Psycho is an incredible book. And I agree that vegan and vegetarian characters may likely remain that way so long as we remain in the minority 🙄
There's a YA series called Everworld where one of the protagonists, April, is vegetarian. I haven't read it in years but I'm pretty sure she never eats meat. She's also a devout Catholic which is a major part of her character. In one book a god demands the group makes a ritual animal sacrifice, and she adamantly refuses, and gradually gets the rest of the main characters to agree with her for a variety of reasons. The story still has the element of struggling with her own ethics, although it's about her religion rather than her vegetarianism.
The Orville by Seth MacFarlane in one episode reveals that the future is entirely vegan, as the crew member travelling back in time was traumatized that he had to eat meat to survive while hiding in the wilderness. I think this is a good way to portrait veganism.
I think it's also a bit natural for an author to explore the extreme sides of a character, but for that to be good the author has to have a lot of self awareness, and write with a lot of depth 🌱
I HATE this so much. Can we have one single character in a movie, TV series or book that is a vegan and 1) not a patchouli hippie and 2) does not succumb to meat eventually? I stay away from horror movies but I love Friends and I do remember that Phoebe moment. I found it funny though that Phoebe always wanted to stick to her morals but sometimes fell short - remember the fur coat? It's so common to have this kind of treatment of vegetarians and vegans - and it really is just them. There are plenty of characters in books, film and TV who are sober alcoholics and not all of them go on a vodka bender before final credits roll (although some of them sure do). I have a tip: in some of Holly Bourne's books, like How Do You Like Me Now, the protagonist is vegetarian and it's not A Thing. She just is. It's great.
Absolutely! It's such an outdated cliché, but it's like the writers can't bring themselves to think too deeply about why their characters would be vegetarian or vegan. Thanks for the Holly Bourne recommendation, will definitely be checking her out!
Most important question first: American Psycho...the musical???
I appreciate your dedication to seeking out vegan characters and themes throughout fiction and on television/film. I agree that it seems to be one of those things where, unless a writer is vegan (or vegetarian) themselves, they will not understand the ethical considerations that must go into characterizing appropriately.
Which is why we need more representation :)
Oh...and perhaps we need to start getting paid to be "sensitivity readers" for writers who decide to write vegans into their work!
Oh man the American Psycho musical is so good! (Though I may be biased because that's one of my favorite books.) And even though I want to see more vegetarian and vegan characters, I worry that we'll just see more of the tired clichés. At this point I'd take basically anything over nothing. And, yes, we definitely need to get some sensitivity readers out there!
American Psycho is an incredible book. And I agree that vegan and vegetarian characters may likely remain that way so long as we remain in the minority 🙄
There's a YA series called Everworld where one of the protagonists, April, is vegetarian. I haven't read it in years but I'm pretty sure she never eats meat. She's also a devout Catholic which is a major part of her character. In one book a god demands the group makes a ritual animal sacrifice, and she adamantly refuses, and gradually gets the rest of the main characters to agree with her for a variety of reasons. The story still has the element of struggling with her own ethics, although it's about her religion rather than her vegetarianism.
That sounds so interesting, I'll have to check it out. Thanks, Alex!
The Orville by Seth MacFarlane in one episode reveals that the future is entirely vegan, as the crew member travelling back in time was traumatized that he had to eat meat to survive while hiding in the wilderness. I think this is a good way to portrait veganism.
Awesome, thanks so much for the recommendation, will have to check that out!
I think it's also a bit natural for an author to explore the extreme sides of a character, but for that to be good the author has to have a lot of self awareness, and write with a lot of depth 🌱
This is why we must write our stories 😩☀️🌱🫶