Working in journalism, I have frequently heard the phrase “there is no such thing as bad press.” However, I wonder if this always holds true. For veganism, which is often misunderstood, I believe there can certainly be bad press. 2011 was a big year for veganism, and although much of the attention it garnered was [...]
image by Tina Phillips
Working in journalism, I have frequently heard the phrase “there is no such thing as bad press.” However, I wonder if this always holds true. For veganism, which is often misunderstood, I believe there can certainly be bad press. 2011 was a big year for veganism, and although much of the attention it garnered was positive, there were certainly also some negative lights shone on the lifestyle.
A couple in France face up to 30 years in prison for refusing to feed their infant formula and instead relying solely on breast milk. This doesn’t seem out of the ordinary—tons of parents opt for breastfeeding only. However, in this specific case, the mother’s milk was deficient in vitamins, specifically vitamin A and b12, which prosecutors attributed to the vegan diet of the mother. Millions of babies around the world end up with vitamin deficiencies, in cases that are sometimes fatal. Yet the parents of these children are not charged with “food deprivation followed by death.” Had the mother been an omnivore with a vitamin deficiency, would the couple still be charged the with same crime? Whether these parents have been wrongfully accused is not up to me to decide, but it does make me think about the way vegans are being portrayed here. It is very possible to raise a healthy vegan child, yet this case makes it seem otherwise. On top of that, it shows these vegan parents as extremist, and even cruel, by ‘depriving’ their child of vitamins based on their lifestyle choice.
Vegans are also frequently shown in a bad light for the extreme activism and attention-getting tactics that some vegans advocate in order to catalyze change. This year, well-known vegan actress Portia De Rossi opened up to VegNews magazine that she often feels more uncomfortable telling people she is vegan than that she is gay. When people hear she is vegan, they—according to De Rossi—often feel that she is going to preach, or that she will judge their lifestyle choices, which is not the case with her sexual preference.
It’s hard enough to spread the vegan message with so many misunderstandings and stereotypes about veganism floating around—for example: that we are all hemp-wearing hippies; that we can’t possibly get enough protein; that all we eat is lettuce; that we are all crazy, angry activists. Negative media attention only further exacerbates the idea that a vegan lifestyle is not sustainable, or that it can’t be deployed on a wide scale. I believe that when it comes to veganism, bad press is just that—bad.
What do you think? Do you cringe when you see veganism being ripped apart in the news? Or do you agree that there is no such thing as bad press?
Source: feedproxy.google.com
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