ABSTRACT
A critical personal reflection on the relationship of queer and trans bodies with online representations of health veganism is presented. Veganism is commodified within a late capitalist society as a means of maintaining standards of fitness and health. In the 21st century, these standards are synonymous with achieving culturally hegemonic yet transient body ideals that perpetuate a binary opposition of masculinity and femininity. Queer and trans identities are culturally perceived as constructed in negotiation of this opposition. By establishing a predominance of cisgender, heterosexual bodies within the contemporary characterization of the “healthy vegan” on online social platforms, queer and trans people are shown to be alienated from vegan body ideals. This analysis positions the dietary restrictions of health veganism as neoliberal practices of surveillance and self-improvement that can lead to disordered eating and orthorexia nervosa. Queer and trans people are presented as potentially more susceptible to such habits in veganism. Environmental motivations and centring “feeling” over appearance are proposed as a means by which to counter the harmful practices that health veganism may propagate. Furthermore, by centring queer and trans experience and the nuance of individual feeling, a moral absolutist element of socially motivated vegan activism may be destabilized.
