University of London: Beyonce's Veganism Promotes 'Discrimination and Inequality'

Two University of London professors are warning that Beyonce’s brand of veganism promotes “discrimination and inequality.”

Two professors at the University of London argue that Beyonce’s version of veganism “reproduces existing patterns of discrimination and inequality.” The claim comes as a part of a new academic journal article, first uncovered by Campus Reform’s Toni Airaksinen.

The article, which was written by University of London professors Ella Fegitz and Daniela Pirani, was published in the academic journal Feminist Media Studies. The article critiques Beyonce’s recent “22 Day vegan challenge.” Fegitz and Pirani argue that the challenge stimulates inequality because it is a “post-feminist dietary practice.”

“The appropriation of a vegan diet is mobilized as part of a post-feminist ethics that promotes an individualistic form of emancipation, which sustains existent patterns of discrimination and inequality, consumerism and neoliberalism,” Fegitz and Pirani write.

Fegitz and Pirani set out to differentiate traditional approaches to veganism from Beyonce’s brand of pop veganism, which they argue “commodifies” the vegan lifestyle. “In this context, the endorsement of veganism is radically different from the ethical and political stance of eco-feminism or black veganism, becoming commodified as just another lifestyle choice,” they attempt to explain.

The professors bash Beyonce’s 22-day veganism experiment as an activity of the elite class rather than an actual exploration of the merits of veganism. “Indeed, Beyoncé’s uptake and promotion of a vegan diet highlights what Elspeth Probyn has called ‘choicechoisie,’ by which she means the bourgeois, neo-liberal logic of shaping personal identity through the exercise of consumer choice,” they continue.

“Ultimately, the post-feminist endorsement of veg*ism becomes a business opportunity, with celebrities such as Beyoncé capitalizing and aggrandizing their wealth through a dietary practice that eco-feminism has employed for political and ethical reasons,” Fegitz and Pirani finish.