Other stuff I’ve been up to: Stephanie at Change.org’s Animal Rights blog invited me on board as a guest blogger. My first piece (a two-parter) went up last week (here and here). It’s about - what else? - intersectionality and animal advocacy.

And of course, these are topics I’ve been blogging about ad nauseum on easyVegan, by the by.

I’m not abandoning Smite Me, just taking a break. I’ll be back in the winter, at the very latest, to share all the crafty FSMas goodness I came up with since the previous December.

Now if you’ll ’scuse me, my office is littered with doggies in need of belly rubs.

Today is the Day of Silence,

a student-led national event that brings attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools. Students from middle school to college take some form of a vow of silence in an effort to encourage schools and classmates to address the problem of anti-LGBT behavior. The event is designed to illustrate the silencing effect of this bullying and harassment on LGBT students and those perceived to be LGBT.

The DOS organizers explain:

As the Day of Silence approaches we’ve been getting lots of questions and comments along two similar but distinct threads on our various websites and in our email.

1) Do I need to be silent all day? Can I communicate at all? Can I blog/tweet/facebook?

2) Being silent doesn’t help and only perpetuates the problem. We should be speaking out.

The answer to both of these is similar: being silent has been and continues to be a very powerful way to create positive dialogue around the problem of anti-LGBT bullying for many students across the country. However, each person who participates in the Day of Silence has a different way of participating.

For some, the best way to participate is by being completely silent, including not participating in online communication. For others, the best way to participate is by spending the day speaking out about the issues of LGBT bullying. Some who participate get limited approval from their schools for their participation and so can only be silent during breaks between classes. There are many ways of participation ranging from complete silence to no silence.

The point is that the DOS is a day to bring attention to the problem of anti-LGBT bullying and each person who participates must determine how they can best use, or not use, their voice to do that. If you feel you will have the deepest positive impact by remaining completely silent and have the appropriate approvals to do so then go for it. If you feel that in your situation, you can have a deeper positive impact by speaking out then that should be your way of observing. No one can make that determination but you.

Your voice, whether silent or loud, WILL make a difference this Friday and the Day of Silence will speak volumes.

The DOS isn’t just for students, however. Adults can participate as well, by signing the pledge of solidarity; speaking out against anti-LGBTQ prejudice and bullying; observing a day of silence, whatever form that may take; Tweeting about the DOS; writing about the DOS on Facebook, your blog or similar; silencing your blog; and/or wearing red or rainbow-colored clothing.

In observance of the Day of Silence, easyVegan.info will remain silent for the rest of the day. Please take this opportunity to check out the Day of Silence blog and website, and educate yourself about LGBTQ issues.

The Get Active! section of this site also features links to a number of human rights organizations, including the following:

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) * Action Center * E-Mail Subscriptions * Lesbian & Gay Rights

Amnesty International * Action Center * E-Mail Subscriptions * OUTfront!

Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) * Action Center

Human Rights Campaign (HRC) * Action Center * E-Mail Subscriptions

People for the American Way (PFAW) * Action Center * E-Mail Subscriptions

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) * Action Center

Like many of you, I assume, I focus most of my energy and attention on animal advocacy issues because I believe that, generally speaking, non-human animals are the single most abused and exploited group of individuals on the planet. As such, I have the potential to make the greatest impact in this area.

Yet, it’s critical we realize that all social and environmental justice causes are equally important and in need of our support. While we may choose to concentrate on one area or issue, it’s absolutely imperative that we consciously refrain from adding to the suffering of and further marginalizing other groups in the process. This means - at the very least - making a concerted effort not to engage in sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, ageism, ableism, sizeism, colonialism, xenophobia, etc., in the course of our animal advocacy efforts.

Just as it’s morally wrong to mistreat and exploit non-human animals based on arbitrary criteria like species membership, so too is it morally wrong to mistreat lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and transsexual persons due to such arbitrary criteria as sexual orientation and gender identity.

I hope you’ll join me in this day of silence and solidarity.

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Updated to add:

Immediately after posting this entry, I saw at Bitch Magazine this memorial for Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, an 11-year-old boy from Springfield, Massachusetts, who took his own life on April 6. The suicide came after months of bullying at the hands of classmates; ‘girlie,’ ‘gay’ and ‘fag’ were just a few of the slurs hurled at Carl - who would have turned 12 today.

Please take a moment to leave an encouraging note for Carl’s family.

Words matter.

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Tagged: day of silence dos intersections parallel oppressions events dos lgbtq homophobia transphobia gender identity sexual orientation action alerts solidarity

The message reads,

Attention

If you are currently being stalked or abused, it may not be safe for you to view this site.

Why? Because your abuser can track your online actions.

We suggest going to the library to use a public computer, or calling the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799 SAFE.

It’s followed by three buttons: ENTER, LEARN MORE and LEAVE.

I can’t help but wonder if it took a death or two before the webpeoples thought to post a warning.

Sigh.

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Tagged: domestic violence abuse violence family violence misogyny screenshot flickr photos

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The last time I made a batch of Oatmeal Banana Cookies, I wasn’t able to enjoy them as much as I would’ve liked. Truth be told, I felt a wee bit guilty. The dogs, you see, started begging like lil’ vegan monsters before the goodies even came out of the oven. I’m fairly certain that they thought the cookies were meant for them, since the week before I’d made some pizza biscuits for Rennie’s birthday. So I resolved to adapt the recipe to make a doggy edition.

Which I did, yesterday. I took the last version of the human Oatmeal Banana Cookie recipe and made a few changes: omitted the salt, cut the sugar down to almost nothing, and added a few extra ingredients that I just so happened to have on hand. The result? Total success! The dogs absolutely loved the cookies. They’re also 100% suitable for human consumption (really, shouldn’t everything we feed our nonhuman friends be?), if a little bland. By which I mean unsweetened. But maybe unsweetened is your thing?

Again, this recipe has proven extremely versatile. The oat/soymilk combo makes the dough impossible to mess up: Too dry? Add some soymilk! Too wet? Toss in some oats and/or let sit! As long as you taste test the dough before baking, and like what goes in, you’ll love what comes out of the oven.

Oatmeal Banana Cookies: Doggy edition!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon + a little extra to taste
1/2 cup of dark brown sugar (or less)
Slightly less than 1/3 of a cup of vegetable oil
1 banana, mashed to liquid (the riper, the better)
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1/2 to 1 cup of water or soy milk
2 1/4 cups of quick oats
Several handfuls, give or take, dried fruit (cranberries, cherries, blueberries, apricots, etc.) to taste; for this recipe, I used about 4 handfuls of dried cranberries and 4 of homemade dehydrated apple slices

Note: If this is for your furry friends, do not use chocolate chips!

Optional: Add some backstrap molasses, nutmeg and/or wheat germ.

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix the flour, baking soda and cinnamon together in a small bowl. Set aside.

3. In a larger bowl, mix the dark brown sugar and oil. Beat until smooth. Add the whole banana and vanilla. Mash the banana with a hand masher, stirring it in with the sugar/oil mix. Keep mashing until the banana is mostly blended with the sugar and oil.

4. Add the flour mix to the banana/sugar/oil mix and blend as best you can. At this point, the mix will probably be somewhat dry.

5. Start adding the water (or soy milk) to the mix, a little at a time. Keep stirring in the liquid until your batter is moist and blended, even a little liquid-y.

6. Add in the oats and stir. Keep adding more water (or soy milk) as needed. The batter should be thick and moist, not dry, but not too liquid-y. If you do add a little too much water (soy milk), let the batter sit for a few minutes; this will allow the oats to absorb the excess liquid.

7. Taste the batter. If it’s a little bland for your furkids, add in a cinnamon - just a sprinkle at a time, until the batter’s to your liking. You can also use a little nutmeg or backstrap molasses if you’d like.

8. Add dried fruit and/or nuts as desired. Again, I should stress - do not add chocolate chips if these are for hungry doggy mouths!

9. When done, drop the batter onto greased cookie sheets by the teaspoon. You should get between 30 and 36 cookies. Allow space between the dough balls, as the cookies will expand and fluff up.

10. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!

11. You can also let the cookies sit out for a few hours; this will allow them to harden a bit and become more biscuit-like - perfect for your furry friends!

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I also made - or tried to make, rather - a batch of these lemon poppyseed cookies from about.com for myself. I say “try” because I spent almost an hour on them, and all I got was a big plate of lemon FAIL.

I’m not really sure where I went wrong. Possibly I made the cookies too big, and didn’t leave enough space between them, because after ten minutes in the oven, the cookies all kind of blended together into one big sheet of cookie dough. Consequently, the cookies on the outside came out ok, with nice crisp edges, but those in the middle never baked all the way through. Even after I scraped the half-baked cookies off the sheet and flipped and re-baked them, the dough remained doughy.

Of course, I didn’t have any poppyseeds, so…maybe that was the problem? I dunno, though - the dough was really good, so I assume the issue arose during baking. I should have just frozen the dough or dumped it in the ice cream maker - yum!

Anyway, here’s the recipe in case you’d like to give it a go. Maybe you can tell me where it all went so horribly wrong?

Vegan Lemon Poppyseed Cookies

Ingredients

3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup margarine
3/4 cup soy yogurt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon zest
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup poppy seeds

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cream together the sugar, brown sugar and margarine until smooth and creamy. (I used a hand mixer.)

3. Add the soy yogurt and vanilla and mix well. (Again, with a hand mixer.)

4. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until smooth and creamy. (I used a wooden spoon and elbow grease for this last step.)

5. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes, or until done. (My bake time was more like 15 to 20 minutes. And tablespoonfuls!? I used a teaspoon and they still came out too big!)

(Crossposted from.)

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Tagged: recipe food vegan veganism vegetarian vegetarianism dessert cookies lemon poppyseed lemon poppyseed cookies oatmeal banana cookies ots oatmeal bananas dried fruit apples apple slices dried apple cranberries dried cranberries dog canine pet companion animal nonhuman companion dog food dog treats dog biscuits dog cookies flickr photos

If you consume meat, eggs or dairy, this is what you support. The alienation and separation of mothers from their children. The reduction of the female body to a meat- and/or milk-producing machine, wherein babies constitute the “meat,” and the milk meant for them is stolen and sold to humans who have absolutely no need for the stuff. Rape, murder and ecocide.

Parents: how would you feel if someone abused your child in such a cruel manner? If someone tore her from your side, and denied her all but the most basic of maternal comforts?

Women: have you really no sympathy for your animal sisters, singled out for especially brutal abuse and exploitation - all because they’re capable of giving rise to new life? Some miracle.

100 million pigs. 100 million mothers, daughters and sons. 100 million reasons to go vegan.

Photos via Animal Rights Advocates Inc.

(Crossposted from.)

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Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare meat food pork factory farming intersections parallel oppressions animals and women Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson the pig who sang to the moon pig sow piglet ethology animal behavior flickr photos farm sanctuary books farmed animals

While I’m rather ambivalent when it comes to PETA’s nude “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur,” “Turn Your Back on Fur,” (and similar) campaigns, I quite like anti-fur ads which depict fur as the bloody, murderous mess that it is. (In theory, anyway…hence the forthcoming caveats.)

For example, this recent series from IndyAct:

Each ad features a thin, white, conventionally attractive, stylishly dressed woman, decked out in a fur coat which once belonged to various animals. The knife-wielding women are covered in blood spatters - bright red blood, everywhere. The woman in the first ad is, inexplicably, rubbing the knife along her chin, as if in contemplation of fellatio (?). Needless to say, I prefer the other two ads in the series.

The text on each photo is different, depending on what type of fur the woman’s wearing.

Top to bottom:

A rare SNOW LEOPARD cat:
Outer: 5 back skin pieces stitched
with 7 neck skin pieces for maximum comfort.
Inner: 13 chest skin pieces for silk-soft feel.
Bring out the real you, for
JUST 9,999 pounds

A lavish RED FOX coat:
Outer: 31 small black skin pieces to give you a constant color.
Inner: 11 chest skin pieces for maximum softness.
Reveal your inner self, for
JUST 5,999 pounds

A beautiful sleeveless BOBCAT coat:
Made of 16 - carefully chosen - quality
black skin pieces.
Bring out the wild side of you, for
JUST 7,999 pounds.

The slogan on each ad reads: “Stop the Carnage; Support our endangered species campaign.”

PETA has produced similar ads, such as their “Here’s the Rest of Your Fur Coat!” series featuring Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Shirley Manson, Persia White and Christine Dolce, as well as “fur trim” ads with the likes of Simple Plan.

Interestingly, the “Here’s the Rest of Your Fur Coat!” ads with Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Shirley Manson and Persia White are notably bloodless - even though the celebs are are holding up skinned animal corpses (i.e., the rest of your fur coat). Christine Dolce and a Simple Plan’s ads are more fitting, as they appear covered in blood.

Also interestingly, PETA’s “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur,” “Turn Your Back on Fur” (and similar) nude anti-fur ads outnumber their “Here’s the Rest of Your Fur Coat!” ads by a huge margin. Could it have anything to do with the T&A, I wonder? But I digress.

The thing I like about these anti-fur ads is that they’re arresting and controversial - without resorting to gratuitous-yet-predictable displays of T&A. Instead of putting a woman’s naked body front and center, these ads focus on the bloody, murderous business of making a fur coat (or a similar product). Whether the ad’s models are drenched in blood or brandishing the skinned corpses of previously living creatures (or both), the audience’s attention is drawn to the victims of this (should-be) crime, the fur-bearing animals - or rather, what’s left of them, now that the furriers and fashionistas/os have had their way. The viewer’s gaze is where it should be - on the blood and guts and corpses - instead of lingering on a woman’s body parts.

Additionally, this ad concept offers the potential to “sell” the anti-fur message without objectifying women or otherwise displaying their naked bodies. I say “potential” because the woman celebs and models are still glammed up a bit; Christine Dolce, for example, displays ample amounts of cleavage, while her chest is covered in blood. This, too, points to a possible pitfall of the “fur is murder” ad concept: imposing murderous imagery on a sexualized woman runs the risk of conflating violence with sex, and making violence against women seem sexy. And, um, today’s advertisers certainly don’t need any encouragement in that arena.

That said, anti-fur ads such as those above still irk me. As with the cruelty-free cosmetic campaigns I discussed earlier this year, anti-fur ads (whether produced by PETA or another animal advocacy organization) tend to target women to the exclusion of men, thus reinforcing the gendered stereotype that only women care about frivolous, superficial and vapid matters like fashion and makeup. News flash: men wear fur and fur trim (and leather and wool and silk…), too! Yet, looking at these ads, you’re likely to come away with the impression that only women are cruelly narcissistic enough to kill fuzzy wuzzies in the name of fashion. Cruella de Vil, anyone?

Granted, full-length fur coats are more likely to be found in a woman’s closet than a man’s. Excessive and ostentatious furs - when draped on an American male body - can even be the butt of a joke; cue images of David Puddy and his “man-fur.” Even so, many men do wear fur - just in a different fashion than women. Men should, at the very least, comprise a strong minority of the models featured in (and audience targeted by) anti-fur ads.

Yet, with the exception of PETA’s “Ink, Not Mink” series, men very rarely make an appearance in anti-fur ads. “Ink, Not Mink” strikes me as a weird slogan, anyhow, as tattoos and clothing aren’t really comparable products. While each can function as means of self-expression, fur coats (no matter how odious) also serve a more functional purpose, that is, to keep you warm in cold climates. In fact, this is often an excuse used by fur apologists (who among us haven’t heard the red herring “But Eskimos neeeeed to wear fur!!!!1!!!1″?). A tattoo isn’t a substitute for a coat, fur or otherwise. The whole series seems like a reach - a transparent attempt at coolness by finding any and every reason to highlight naked celebrities and their ink. Either way, though, the “Ink, Not Mink” series represents a small portion of PETA’s anti-fur advertising; most features and targets women, and naked ones at that.

So what are the practical consequences of such gendered advertising? By implying that women and women alone are concerned with such fluffy, silly things as fashion, animal advocacy organizations (and others) disempower women - including the very women who constitute the majority of their activist force. Through the selective use of women models, such ads reinforce gender stereotypes which hold that women are vain, shallow, inane, “girly,” overly concerned with appearance, and wasteful (inasmuch as they spend obscene amounts of money on extravagant baubles). If you believe these ads, women are more concerned with appearances than with more important matters….such as politics and ethics. Likewise, men are assumed to be free of such vices, owing to their near-absence in such ads. All of this serves to objectify women - to tell them that how they look is more important than who they are. Add PETA’s gratuitous - and sometimes pornified - nudity to the mix, and the result is toxic.

These hundred or so ads might not seem like a big deal - but when considered in context, they’re yet another small part of a very large and harmful pattern. We live in a culture steeped in misogyny; certainly, there’s no need for animal advocacy organizations to pile on women as well.

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* I actually started this post in early February, hence the lengthy gap between the two posts. I got sick and then sidetracked, and yada yada yada. You know how it goes.

(Crossposted from.)

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Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare peta people for the ethical treatment of animals marketing psa advertising fur anti-fur fur trim fur free faux fur wildlife conservation environment fashion feminism misogyny sexism women and animals intersections parallel oppressions IndyAct violence photos photo blogging flickr

Today is Miss O-Ren’s birthday! She’s five years young today. (OK, who am I kidding?! My lil’ babies are all getting old!)

Not-so-coincidentally, today also marks the four-year anniversary of the day we adopted her from Animal Haven. All our girls are strays, so we’ve no clue when their true birthdays fall. Hence, we celebrate their birthdays and adoption days together; if you think about it, the day we adopted each of the dogs was the first day of the rest of their lives, a sort of rebirth, into a new home and better life, if you will. So it’s not very far off base, really.

On the flip side, Ralphie and Peedee were both owner surrenders; we know their dates of birth, so they get to celebrate two special days every year. As usual, the ladies get screwed. To add insult to injury, Kaylee and Jayne share their special day with one another, since they came as a package deal.

Which is why I try to pamper the girls and give them an extra-super-special day of celebration. It’s too cold to take Rennie walking today, but rest assured that she’s getting plenty of belly rubs and lots of playtime.

I also made her a batch of Pizzas for the Pupperonis (recipe via Yummy for Dogs).

These treats smell wonderful while baking - so much so that I was tempted to try one myself. I wouldn’t cheat Rennie like that, though.

Happy birthday, my sweet little piglet! I don’t care how old you are, you’ll always be my little lady.

(Crossposted from.)

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Tagged: my furbabies o-ren rennie rat terrier fox terrier dog canine pet companion animal vegan veganism vegetarian vegetarianism recipe yummy for dogs dog treats birthday dogs in clothes flickr photos

That is, until yesterday, when I recalled this recipe for baked zucchini chips. “Could that possibly work with spaghetti squash strands?” I wondered. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give it a whirl; after all, even if I didn’t like the result, I have five hungry, indiscriminate dogs who would.

So I baked the spaghetti squash using the usual method, and then scraped the strands from the rind, spread them out on greased cookie sheets, and then baked ‘em a second time.

The dried spaghetti squash strands were delish, but not very filling - with most of the moisture evaporated, there really isn’t much left in spaghetti squash! One smallish medium squash yielded a small, single serving, when all was said and done. It sure makes a yummy side dish or snack - and is a great way to use up any leftover squash you might still have laying around, sitting, staring, accusing, mocking your utter lack of culinary creativity.

Twice-Baked Spaghetti Squash

Ingredients

1 spaghetti squash
Pam or similar cooking spray
Salt to taste

Directions

1. Slice your spaghetti squash in half, lengthwise. Using a large spoon, scrape out the insides, i.e., the stringy mass in the middle. You can save the seeds to roast later, if you’d like.

2. Once the two halves are “clean,” place them in a large glass baking dish, rind-side up. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. When done, remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes or so.

3. Spray a cookie sheet with Pam or a similar cooking spray.

4. Place one of your squash halves on the cookie sheet, rind-side down. Grab a fork and scrape the prongs of the fork through the flesh; the flesh should fall away from the rind, in a string- or strand-like formation. Keep scraping until the rind is rather bare. Repeat with the other half of the squash.

5. Spread the strands out on the cookie sheet as much as possible. If needed, use a second cookie sheet. Sprinkle on some salt to taste.

6. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 15 minutes. Keep an eye on the squash, stirring and turning the strands every 5 minutes or so. A few dark or burned strands add a bit of flavor, but try not to torch all your squash!

7. If you’re feeling daring, keep going: I had hoped to bake the “spaghetti” until it git crunchy, almost like a snack chip, but I lost my nerve.

You feeling lucky, vegan?

(Crossposted from.)

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Tagged: recipe recipes vegan veganism vegetarian vegetarianism vegetable squash spaghetti squash twice baked spaghetti squash snack side dish flickr photos

Sigh. Next thing you know, I’ll be wearing a Snuggie. Or a Slanket. Probably a Slanket. For some inexplicable reason, they’re currently donating a portion of their proceeds to NRDC.

(Crossposted from…just because.)

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Tagged: video video blogging gardening tomatoes infomercial tomato tree topsy turvy food vegan veganism vegetarian vegetarianism vegetables diy