Here’s a good-news, bad-news post for your Thursday. I’ll let you decide which is which. First off, Johnny Diablo, owner of Casa Diablo (you know, the Vegan strip club) has put his joint up for sale. I guess that vegans and va-heena weren’t quite the match everyone thought they’d be.

Second, this news was broken by none other than the New York Times…Style section. Here’s how they start the story:

TWO things that you can find a lot of in Portland, Ore., are vegans and strip clubs

Wow. They New York Times has got us pegged! Aside from the somewhat derogatory opening line, the story goes on to outline an interesting debate in the Vegan community: Should sex be used to sell the message of good health and anti-animal cruelty?

It seems that there are many people in the Vegan community who find the use of flesh to promote Vegan ideals both exploitive and hypocritical:

Isa Chandra Moskowitz, a cookbook author, is among those who believe such images twist the vegan message. “As a feminist, I’m not keen on the idea of using women’s bodies to sell veganism, and I’m not into the idea of using veganism to sell women’s bodies,” she said.

The images that are being referred to here include a new PETA2 ad campaign, aimed at younger audiences featuring Stumptown’s own Suicide Girls.

More on veganism, ethics and nudie pix after the jump!

On the other hand, there are supporters of the “sex sells” strategy, like the ladies from Vegan Vixens. I can't say much about their music, but damn...

Vegans who use sexuality to promote the cause say it is a good way to convert carnivores — in particular, men. Sky Valencia, the founder of the Vegan Vixens, said her group targets “the people who buy Playboy and Maxim and watch talk shows like Jerry Springer. Those are the people we want to educate because they don’t know anything about the environment or animal rights issues or health.”

And, she said, men have told her that it works. “We’ve gotten a lot of men eating vegetarian, if not vegan.”

What? Men eating Vegans? Is that some sort of freaky double entendre?
Oh, s’cuse me. That’s “eating vegan.” My bad.

Turns out feminism and veganism have been inextricably linked for a long time. Personally, I’m supportive of both movements, but I tend to get a bit irate when people in any movement lose their sense of humor.

How is a woman choosing to take her clothes off exploitive, especially when it’s for a good cause? Here’s the blessed voice of reason from the NYT article:

Elaine Vigneault, 32, a vegan and former women’s studies major who lives in New York, doesn’t have a problem with a vegan strip club or a recent PETA protest in London in which a pregnant woman got into a cage in her underwear to draw attention to the treatment of pregnant pigs. “I think it’s really important that when reviewing and analyzing images of women, we take into account their perspective of what they’re trying to say,” Ms. Vigneault said.

And another:

Rory Freedman, an author of the “Skinny Bitch” books, which promote veganism in the guise of a diet, said women who are taking part in demonstrations and stripping off their clothes “are choosing to do so of their own free will.” The issues they are exposing, she said, “are the torture of animals that don’t have free will.”

Brava!

It seems to me that a lack of perspective and humor leads to fundamentalism. The problem with fundamentalism is that it divides individuals across unmovable ideological boundaries. And when you’re divided you just can’t get shit done.

Anyway, Casa Diablo probably won’t be around very much longer. You wanna talk about cruelty? What about the young lady from the Casa Diablo press release:

When one dancer was asked why she didn’t want to work at her current club she said,” I can’t stand the smell of smoldering rotting carcasses when I walk by the kitchen. It is totally gross. I’ve been a vegan for three and a half years and I can’t stand the thought of working in a place that serves murder victims on a bun. Working at a club like Casa Diablo Gentlemen’s Club is my dream!”

Not only is she losing her dream, she’ll be forced to take off her clothes in a “totally gross” animal killing establishment. For shame! Notice, by-the-way, that the gross factor is not from the stripping.

So, I’ll leave the continuation of this debate for the comments section. But I gotta tell you, after seeing those Suicide Girls pics, I am seriously considering eating vegan. If only I could convince my fiancée…