On Winning Free Vegan Products . . . and Twilight

Thanks to Adam at AbolitionistVegans.org for:

Win Free Vegan Products at AbolitionistVegans.org

During the next few weeks, we will be watching activity in the forum and in the comments on the front page to select users as recipients for several vegan products to be shipped out by the vendors for food, fashion, and household items.

How does this work?

The idea is to cultivate discussion in the forum in order to better suit visitors needing help from people like you on going vegan or understanding animal rights. All you have to do is comment on products you admire (say anything you want) and if we see you're leading some great discussion in the forums, I'll ask for your address to send you that item. We don't do any financial or postal transactions with the vendors, they just send it to you for free. Pretty cool, eh?

When does this start?

You'll see these products showing up in the coming weeks, but the event starts now! Get in the forum to tell your story and help others.

Any questions?

Email giveaways@vegpage.com or tweet me at twitter.com/abvegan.

Here's the link to the page where you'll see the above. I'm at http://twitter.com/mary_martin, by the way, where this morning I pondered the un-veganness of the film Twilight. I wasn't feeling well yesterday, and every time I coughed someone asked me if I had swine flu, by the way, so I plopped myself on the couch to watch some TV.

It was 7:25pm and first I saw Kathy Freston on Extra! say the one thing she'd tell everyone to do to get healthy would be to stop eating animal products. That was fantastic. Of course, she said it was because of the hormones in them, leaving the door wide open for farmers who don't use hormones to say Kathy Freston would approve of their products.

That brings me to 7:30, when I watched Twilight. Evidently I'm a bit late to the game. I haven't read the books and frankly I didn't know much about the film. The first half bored me and I think I took a nap in there somewhere, but then it picked up a bit.

Here were some odd points to ponder:

• I think Bella, the main character, is a vegetarian. She is not a vegan.
• There are good vampires and bad vampires. The good ones have chosen not to "feed" on humans, but the bad ones haven't. The good ones eat only animals, which apparently isn't a big deal.
• The good ones are morally superior to the bad ones because they don't eat humans.
• The bad ones are more wild--almost like wild animals, perhaps--and the good ones are super pale/white (which was veeerrry interesting) and appear far more controlled for the most part.
• The main good vampire says that the good vampires are like vegetarians because they restrict their eating and then says Imagine if you had to eat only tofu all day. . . That's what it's like (being a good vampire who only dines on lowly animals).
• It's a sacrifice the good vampires make--eating only animals.

Now, this could also be irony at work. But I doubt it. Then again, I had a bit of a fever so I might have missed something.

It's always fascinating to me to see how others symbolize good and evil, and from what I saw in Twilight, I wasn't thrilled.

Comments

[Adam Kochanowicz]

Thanks for getting the word out on this for me, Mary.

I didn't know that about Twilight. Yet another reason not to see it I guess.
That definitely sounds subliminally anti-vegan.

[Jen]

First of all, these books are pretty terrible literature (especially for the age group of girls they are geared to), and yet of course I read them all ;) Bella is not a vegetarian, actually. She eats meat in the books and tons of it - and all the vampires are extremely pale. They tried to make the movie cast as ethnically diverse as possible, but since all the main characters (the "good" vampires) are described in detail they could only take liberties with the "bad" ones, hence the darker skin tone. The movie doesn't do the best job of explaining some key concepts too, so as always, better to read the book(s) if you have time.

I'm in the process of writing a very very long post about Twilight, veganism and feminism. While you've landed on the fact that Stephanie Meyers obviously considers animals to be "lowly" (and has clearly never spoken to a vegetarian in her life) I think you missed the point that her vampires are "more advanced" (using our own standards) than humans - and yet they abstain from eating them, even though they don't have to, or even really want to. It's a complicated concept, and clearly these books don't apply it to non-human animals, but on it's foundation I think there are a lot of similarities.

[Becci]

What an obnoxious plot. I don't think I could handle watching this movie.

[Neva]

I was bothered by that in Twilight (didn't read the book, was forced to see the movie by a friend).

Also, Twilight is so STALKERISH. He breaks into her room at night to watch her sleep? Not ok. Not romantic. Not ok at all.

He happens to rescue her because he happens to just follow her everywhere she goes, but from a distance. So, so, so not ok.

It also plays to certain stereotypes that are harmful--the appeal of the "dangerous" guy, and the idea that a girl should just stick around and count on the purity of her love to fix it when she's with a guy who keeps telling her he could hurt her, in fact wants to hurt her.... Eeeek. Ok, I know it's a vampire story, but I've seen too many abusive relationships from the early "romancing stage" to later overt abuse to find anything good in these messages. If a guy says he could "lose control" with you but he has to be careful not to hurt you, run away. If a guy you've only known a few months says "you are my life now" run away! If a guy admits to following you or breaking into your home, call the police.

[Mary Martin]

Neva, you are so right. I didn't think of it the way you describe it at the time, but your assessment does match the plot.

[Beaelliott]

I have a theory about vampire/living dead creatures... I was/am a huge Buffy fan where blood sucking/flesh eating is presented in an imaginative and humorous way. I believe that throughout time man created these beings through legend and art because it further validated "normal", non-human meat consumption.

These stories help society separate the non-acceptable, unholy corpse-munchers from real people who do such 3 times a day. As we watch the vampire drain the blood juice from his victim... we are convinced that this is evil... because the victim is always human. At the same time, it enables us to ignore our dissonance... We, as civilized beings only consume dead pigs, cows, etc. Vampires & zombies create another worse ogre besides us... Consequently, what we do to "food animals" can be easier tolerated. In comparison... we're not monsters at all!

And it's no coincidence that the Salem witch burnings and other mass killings of those practicing "black magic" were related to dietary differences. Many who engaged in wicca lived with a connection to plants and herbs... and animals. These sorcerers found medicinal remedies through the earth, and in general respected all living things. Many (most) witches were vegetarians... The villagers were so frightening to know of someone living without "meat" that they demonized them. The offenders of course, burned at the stake along with other criminals who violated church/society mores.

One final note... the church and land barons had enormous wealth invested in livestock... They could not risk that these plant worshipers and earth healers might gain any credibility. Had communities been swayed by them - it would have meant financial ruin for those in power. Sound familiar?

[Happy Herbivore]

i definitely wont waste my money seeing this -- thanks for the honest review!