Discrimination and Bias Against Vegans
What does the research say?
Vegans, many committed as part of their faith and spiritual practice, face ridicule, prejudice, and social marginalization. This is especially problematic in family systems and the workplace but also insidiously present in the media's negative portrayal and mockery of veganism. In one study, researchers found that 74% of news coverage related to veganism were "negatives"; 20.2% "neutral" and only 5.5% "positive". Prejudice against veganism are similar to religious prejudice and oppression; this makes sense considering that, for many vegans, the abstention from violence against animals used in the meat and dairy industries is fundamental to their spirituality.
Researchers MacInnis and Hodson (2015) studied participant attitudes toward vegans and found that they faced as much bias as racial and ethnic minorities who are common targets for such hatred. They found,
“...attitudes toward vegetarians and vegans were equivalent to, or more negative than, evaluations of common prejudice target groups… Both vegetarians and vegans were evaluated equivalently to immigrants, asexuals, and atheists, and significantly more negatively than Blacks. Vegetarians were evaluated equivalently to homosexuals, whereas vegans were evaluated more negatively than homosexuals.”
While this is a new area of scholarly research, here are some articles from the literature, some of which overlap with issues of social justice:
Animals Australia and the Challenges of Vegan Stereotyping
A model for prison change: fighting discrimination
The Constitutional and Legal Rights of Ethical Vegans on Campus
BBC Article Saying Veganism Affects Intelligence Uses Outdated Data
‘Ethical veganism’ is a protected class akin to religion in the U.K. after a landmark ruling
Employers, got vegan? How ethical veganism qualifies for legal protection under Title VII
Speciesism, generalized prejudice, and perceptions of prejudiced others
An ethnographic analysis of the cultural critique of vegan animal rights activists in The Netherlands
Older, greener, and wiser: charting the experiences of older women in the American vegan movement
New York Times: Stop Mocking Vegans
The “V” Word: An Inquiry into Vegan Student Experience in Calgarian Schools
BBC: The hidden biases that drive anti-vegan hatred
Toward a Vegan Jurisprudence: The Need for a Reorientation of Human Rights
In defense of the vegan ideal: rhetoric and bias in the nutrition literature
Becoming vegan: rhetoric, ambivalence, and repression in the self-narrative
Vegan Discrimination: An Emerging and Difficult Dilemma
Gender and Victorian animal advocacy
Veganism through a Racial Lens: Vegans of Color Navigating Mainstream Vegan Networks
Questioning the concept of vegan privilege
Vegans’ problem stories: Negotiating vegan identity in dealing with omnivores