Vegansexuality: Troubling Gender and Sexuality Norms to Combat Climate Change

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has driven many to consider our relationship with the planet and the other sentient beings we share it with. Many are of the opinion that we are in the midst of the Anthropocene and Sixth Mass Extinction (Moore, 2016; Wagner et al., 2021), meaning that finding a way to sustainable development, which meets our political and economic needs without harming the environment, has never been more urgent. The case for climate veganism has been made convincingly, with various studies showing that adopting a plant-based diet is the single biggest way to reduce our environmental impact. Vegan feminists have argued that there is a link between eating meat and gender inequality; that the exploitation and objectification of animals as ‘meat’, parallels the oppression of women by men (Adams, 2010). More recently, debates have extended to engage men in such debates (Lockwood, 2021).