The Sexual Politics of Meat

There's a new strip club in Portland, and for some unknown reason, it's "vegan"... There's video, but I'm new to blogger and I don't know how to add it, so you'll have to work a little harder to view it, but the answers are there.... I guess....

The opening of the strip club has been all over the news in Portland, and making its way around vegan sites, but very few people are talking about the bizzare paradox this place is. The owner of the strip club is vegan, he claims he's vegan for ethical reasons. He's totally down for not consuming animal flesh for pleasure, but he's all for allowing for the consumption of women's sexuality for profit.

I could go on about how this pisses off the feminist in me, the one that has read Carol J. Adams' book cover to cover multiple times, was inspired by it and has used it to topple many a debate with meat-eating "feminists".... but I won't. I'm not the same vegan I used to be. I can admit that.

This isn't the world of activism that it used to be, and that's been on my mind a lot lately. Is it the fault of all the activists who dropped out of the movement? Is it the Patriot Act? Is it places like Portland that allow activism to atrophy into a lifestyle of free trade coffee after a raw food dinner, hopping into your electric car to drive half a mile to your next destination - the vegan tittie bar, where you can get your rocks (clad in organic un-bleached cotton boxers) off as pale vegetarian girls in tacky outfits try desparately to fill the empty void in their cholesterol free hearts with the attention of men snacking on seitan hot wings?

I hope that the feminists of Portland can get it together to get a dialogue going about what this place represents, but they're probably too busy with important agendas like knitting vibrator cozies, and selling them on etsy to raise money for their roller derby team.