Have you ever thought about what it might be like to be vegan and identify as a man? Would you like to know the concerns and strong beliefs behind it?
As a project to create a different way of being a man that supports the values of tenderness, respect and caring for living beings and the planet, Nikiforos explains in this interview how his process was to be vegan and lead with it in the society, where meat consumption and the identity of being a man are so closely linked.
First of all, can you tell us what is your pronoun, and a bit about you. Some highlights about your identity that you would like to share
My pronoun is he/him, and I would like to highlight that I grew up in Greece, socialized as a boy. I born in a family where my grandpa was the only one to be listened, but I have the feeling that it wasn´t like that among my parents, and It was so positive to build my identity in this environment.
Which were the reasons that lead you to be vegan?
My story as a vegan started watching a documentary named “Earthlings” narrated by Joaquin Phoenix. After watching it, I went out of the room and said to my parents “I will start to be vegan”.
I started to be vegan from one day to another. Because I said to myself that it is time to start to stop to hurt other animals. I said to myself that if I wouldn´t eat dog or cat, I don´t want to eat neither chicken or other animals. I also think it is very crucial to stop to eat animal products because of the environmental aspects.
Was always easy to be vegan? And why?
It wasn´t hard in a personal level because in the moment that I started, it was the moment when 40 days before Easter in Greece religious people don´t eat animal products, so it was easy because my grandma did it, so I said to my parents that if there are no vegan options at home, I will go to eat with my grandma.
What was the opinion of your family when you said to them that you are vegan?
My mum is still hopeful that I will stop to be vegan in a point. She knows that I am right, but she is coming from a culture surrounded by meat eaters and it is strange for her to have a son that doesn´t eat meat. She thinks it is a trend that it will go away.
Have you thought to stop it or you were all the time very convinced about this decision?
There are two situations that came to my mind that it was a bit hard to be vegan. One was during my trip to Lisbon. I really wanted to try “pastel de nata”, and we tried to find it vegan. The friend that I was travelling with is vegan, but while travelling is more flexitarian. But I decided that I didn’t want to try it if it is not vegan.
The second hard situation in which I was questioning to eat animal products was in an Erasmus+ project in Romania. They told me that they don´t eat what is vegan, and I was eating for one-week French fries. I still didn´t eat any animal products, even though it was hard because it didn´t feel healthy, and because they were making fun of me. It wasn’t a very respectful atmosphere and I felt not good at all.
Did you have a reference vegan person with who you got inspired to do this step to become vegan? Who was this person?
Not really. But one person that helps me a bit to understand better about veganism was a Greek woman activist named Katrina Tsantali that I started to follow in social media. She recommended the documentary “Earthlings” that made me to start to be vegan.
Would you say that the identity of hegemonic man is linked to consume a lot of meat? How can you feel it?
Yes, unfortunately. I just want to say that for sure it is not needed to eat meat to be a man. There is the socio-cultural idea that if a man doesn’t eat meat cannot be a man, or a straight man. Which is ridiculous.
So many cultures that are not in Occident, with different believes and traditions don´t eat meat, and this idea of being a man and eat meat is not present.
Do you think that the aspect of being a man makes more complicated to be vegan, or a woman is been also affected by the same social prejudices?
I believe that for women is more socially accepted to be vegan than for men.
Women are associated to eat lighter food, vegetables, and fresh, as symbol of femininity. Also, women have the cultural pressure to eat less, which is associated with other oppressions like the fatphobia. And historically, men were the one eating the most amount of food and the one that is more nutritional, and women were eating the leftovers in most of the cultures around the world. For this reason, vegan women are not going to feel that much social pressure to stop to be vegan, generally talking.
Do you feel free to say to everybody that you are vegan? Why?
The first year that I started to be vegan, I just said to my parents, but none of my friends knew. After a year, I started to share that I am vegan with my friends, because I have the certainty that I can be healthy and it is possible to be vegan without missing any nutritional aspects. I felt so scared when I told to them, but at the same time so relieved.
At this point of my life, at least 90% of people around me knows that I am vegan.
It is true, that if I see someone with who I feel insecure, I think it is okay to not to say.
I don´t think it is necessary to share with everybody, and I will choose with who I do or not.
Have you lied in any moment of your life about the factor that you are vegan, in order to not give explanations, or to not feel judge, or suffer some kind of discrimination?
Yes, many times. It is crazy how many times I had to lie to people to not tell them that I am vegan. I lied a lot because I didn’t want to be judged and I was afraid.
For example, we went to an island with my friends and I said to them that I cannot eat meat because I will have an allergy test in one week.
But after the first year of being vegan, I believed in myself, and I experienced that it can work out to be vegan.
During the first year, I didn’t feel I had the words or resources to explain to people why I do it and why it is my choose. I felt it, but I couldn´t find the words.
Also, I didn’t want to be talking all the time about it, because I was insecure since a lot of people said that vegan people are talking in every single conversation about this topic, so I didn´t want to look like that.
Did happen to you that you shared that you are vegan, and they asked you if you are gay?
Not yet. But it is clear that socially there is a connection between being vegan and femininity. So, I won´t be surprise If I share that I am vegan and people associate me with being gay.
Do you think that there is some kind of homophobia/misogyny behind this idea, in which not consume meat is feminized?
For sure, in some extend. I am choosing people that is not having these homophobic or mesogenic way of thinking. But the fact that veganism is associated with femininity and it is considered like an insufficient diet at the same time that vegans are somehow discriminated socially, it shows that homophobia and misogyny exist also in it.
Which ideas come to your mind that could be helpful others men if they start to be vegan?
It is important that society include us. There are so many jokes about vegans, and makes us feel excluded.
If someone is starting to be vegan, I would say to them that it is okay to eat less nutritional food for two days or a short period of time, in case that you are in such a circumstance where it is not easy to find vegan food. It will make you feel more aligned with your ideas. Something bigger that, just our personal pleasure or to not eat not so nice food for several days is behind, like the future of the planet and the lives of many animals.
Something that you would like to share or highlight about your experience as a vegan and as a person that have been socialized as a man.
The most unique experience that I have ever lived as vegan, was in an Erasmus+ project called Green Roots near Napoli about vegan food. It was so nice to see how people that are not vegan wanted to learn about it, and they accepted to be part of a project eating and cooking vegan recipes for a week. The goal was to find from our culture’s natural vegan recipes, while helping others to cook, and exchange these knowledges.
At the end of the project was edited a book with all the recipes. All the recipes were made with low budget, easy to cook, and recipes with ingredients that people coming from the countries are familiarized with these flavours.
It was a safe space where to be vegan, and helps to realize that we are not alone in this world, and people that are not vegan want to learn and respect us.
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