So NYC is getting a Veggie Pride Parade this year. I heard about it a few weeks ago & I think it could be fun, & certainly interesting to see how it pans out.
I just noticed that one of the events scheduled is the wedding of Penelo Pea Pod, who has been the mascot of VivaVegie (the group sponsoring the parade) for 10 years. Apparently the “lucky guy (ur, animal? vegetable?)” is still to be decided.
I get that doing something with Penelo Pea Pod makes sense, since she’s been around a while. Something to celebrate her life, or whatever. But having that be a wedding seems really… tired, & pandering to narrow traditions, even if her spouse ends up being another girl pea pod or something (can you tell I’m tired of the increasing emphasis on marriage rights at Pride [meaning the GLBTQ one] in the past few years?), which somehow I doubt will happen.
And… I don’t know. What does it have to do with veggie pride? I get it, I really do, that the parade organizers want to have cute, fun stuff to interest crowds. Hence the costume & poster contests they’re planning. And I guess summer is the wedding season, or whatever. It still makes me wanna roll my eyes.
Vegans of Color 
I felt the same uneasiness when I first saw the announcement of this event. I mean, a “pride parade” is a pretty direct appropriation of queer culture. Given that, and given that marriage is the queer equivalent of the white-only country club, it would feel pretty disrespectful to me, as a lesbian, if the event were to feature a mock heterosexual marriage. On the other hand, if they were to make it a same-sex union, that would serve the cute attention-getting purpose while also showing some solidarity with the movement from which the “pride parade” motif was appropriated. I guess I’ve been hoping that that’s what they’ll do but maybe somebody ought to give the organizers of the event a nudge in that direction.
It’s kinda weird reading about veggie pride, although as Sydney’s Mardi Gras has changed over the years from a student-organised street protest to the No. 1 money earning tourist event, I guess I don’t care so much whether it gets appropriated. Marrying vegetables bothers me though, especially if they’re male and female. A genderfuck wedding would be so much more exciting.
In Sydney the two non-MG things dominating mainstream gay media have been same-sex marriage and the rise in homophobic violence. Many of the aggressors are reported as being poc, one group was described as Aboriginal, leading to a lot of racist media and gay nationalism. There was even a street protest on Australia Day.
I can’t stand the gay mainstream.
I’ve been following this blog for a while, and it’s been really eye-opening, making me more aware of what I need to do to be a better ally. You’re fantastic 🙂
I didn’t even know they were doing a wedding. I guess I just read passed that. Or else I thought it was a real wedding, not a stunt.
I see exactly what you mean about it being “tired, & pandering to narrow traditions, even if her spouse ends up being another girl pea pod or something”. They should have some other, weird kind of celebration, like the ‘I got out of debt party’ or the ‘adopted a new cat gala.’
🙂
pattrice & harrison — thanks for your comments! Color me oblivious, but it didn’t even occur to me that the v. concept of a “pride” parade was obviously taken from queer culture. Or, at least one that’s called a “pride parade.” There are lots of other parades that are meant to show pride in various aspects of one’s identity, y’know? Like all the ethnic/national parades we have in NYC (some of which, like the Philippine Independence Day Parade, are explicitly tied to events — becoming a nation or whatever — & some which may be more general, I’m not sure). I’m not sure what one could call a “veggie pride” parade w/o using the word pride & thus the association w/queer stuff — any ideas?
Also, yeah, it’d be so much preferable if they had the wedding be a queer one (if they had to have one at all). Showing solidarity would be nice! Although part of me is really cynical about that — I’m sure the organizers know that this parade is likely to get national, probably even international coverage. And so maybe they are hoping it will be more conservative, less wacky — lest people think that being veg*n is just some bizarre thing those crazy New Yorkers do.
& harrison — that’s really disturbing, how the queer hate crimes have been tied to Aboriginals (b/c I’m sure they’re ALL being done by Aboriginals, right?) & playing into all the existing racism. Augh!
Elaine — I LOVE the idea of an “I adopted a new cat” gala!! 🙂
[…] pride, race A little while ago I just returned from the Veggie Pride Parade, about which I was a little dubious previously. Comments on that post expressed concern about the concept of “pride” being […]