{"id":10823,"date":"2018-10-31T16:25:19","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T16:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=10823"},"modified":"2018-10-31T16:25:19","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T16:25:19","slug":"vegans-why-they-inspire-fear-and-loathing-among-meat-eaters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/education-languages-health\/health\/vegans-why-they-inspire-fear-and-loathing-among-meat-eaters\/","title":{"rendered":"Vegans: why they inspire fear and loathing among meat eaters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Food critic William Sitwell has resigned as editor of Waitrose\u2019s in-house magazine following a row over his astonishingly hostile response<\/a> to a freelance journalist who proposed a series of articles on veganism.<\/p>\n

A statement<\/a> from the food retailer said that John Brown Media \u2013 which produces the Waitrose & Partners Food Magazine \u2013 had announced Sitwell would step down as editor with immediate effect. The statement added:<\/p>\n

In the light of William\u2019s recent email remarks, we\u2019ve told John Brown Media that we believe this is the right and proper move – we will be working with them to appoint a new editor for the magazine. We have had a relationship with William for almost 20 years and are grateful for his contribution to our business over that time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The row erupted after freelance journalist Selene Nelson pitched a series on \u201cplant-based recipes\u201d to the magazine, given the rise in popularity<\/a> of vegan products in recent years. Waitrose, like many UK supermarkets, has recently expanded<\/a> its vegan product range and, as Sitwell\u2019s own article<\/a> in The Times in January 2018 noted \u2013 in less than welcoming terms \u2013 the number of vegan cookbooks available has also grown considerably.<\/p>\n

So Nelson\u2019s proposal seemed pitch-perfect. Sitwell\u2019s response, however, was decidedly off-key:<\/p>\n

How about a series on killing vegans, one by one. Ways to trap them? How to interrogate them properly? Expose their hypocrisy? Force-feed them meat? Make them eat steak and drink red wine?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Anti-vegan hostility not new<\/h2>\n

As veganism is ever more routinely encountered in daily life, hackneyed media stereotypes of vegans no longer resonate as they once did. Anti-vegan media hostility isn\u2019t anything new. Sociological research published in 2011<\/a> documented how UK newspapers discredit veganism through ridicule, with vegans variously stereotyped as angry, militant, self-denying, sentimental, faddy, or joyless. As more people try veganism<\/a>, meet vegans and encounter vegan-friendly products and practices in daily life, the more tone deaf these stereotypes sound.<\/p>\n

Sitwell\u2019s vitriol contrasts markedly with the polite restraint of Nelson\u2019s rejoinder, in which she ironically expressed interest \u201cin exploring why just the mention of veganism seems to make some people so hostile\u201d. The exchange is arguably emblematic of the contemporary plague of entitled anger that toxifies public discourse whenever entitlement is challenged, however politely.<\/p>\n

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\"William

William Sitwell (c) and his fellow judges Grace Dent (l) and Tracey Macleod (r) on Masterchef the Professionals, BBC\/Shine TV Ltd<\/p><\/div>

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Guilty conscience?<\/h2>\n

One aspect of threatened entitlement in a non-vegan society is the presumed right to consume the bodies of other animals. In that context, research has suggested<\/a> that vegans prompt defensiveness among non-vegans by implying a failure to act on a moral issue. Unresolved guilt plays out along a continuum ranging from framing one\u2019s non-vegan practices as \u201cmoderate\u201d (\u201cI don\u2019t eat much meat\u201d) to anger and hostility towards vegans (rhetorically shooting the messenger, the way Sitwell appears to have done). The range, style and tone of these defensive responses<\/a> are wearyingly familiar to vegans.<\/p>\n

Food practices are socially powerful markers of social and cultural identity, making actual or implied criticism of them personally and hurtfully felt. Meat-eating in particular has been closely implicated in the construction of masculine identity<\/a>. Challenging the dominance of non-vegan practices threatens those social and cultural identities that are most closely dependent upon them.<\/p>\n

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My thoughts and prayers are with my sometime colleague @WilliamSitwell<\/a> at this tricky time. But then I realised it\u2019s just his turn on the DailyMail\u2019s sidebar of shame. At least all he did was slag off a vegan. It\u2019s not like he had a train pic nic. https:\/\/t.co\/rGpqkwyT8J<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Jay Rayner (@jayrayner1) 29 October 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n