Kay eyes Patrick’s burger from over the top of her book, Meat Is Not Green.
Image from “Meat is Murder.” Original air date April 19, 2010. Copyright ABC Family.
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Sorry for my absence, folks. I’ve been otherwise preoccupied in the “real world,” and – while I wish I could say that I’ll soon return to regular blogging – this may or may not be the case. In the meantime, check out the following alert from DawnWatch, wherein Karen provides an overview of a recent veg-friendly episode of ABC Family’s 10 Things I Hate About You (“Meat Is Murder,” Season 1, Episode 14). Sadly, last week it was announced that the show will not be picked up for a second season; however, I still urge you to send some feedback ABC’s way, whether positive or negative (or a little bit of both!), in order to encourage similar (or new and improved!) plot lines in the future.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: DawnWatch – news [at] dawnwatch.com
Date: Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 8:46 PM
Subject: DawnWatch: Meatless Mondays on ABC’s 10 Things I Hate About You 4/19/10

Last Monday’s episode, April 19, of the hit primetime ABC series “10 Things I Hate About You” was titled “Meat is Murder.” It centered on Kat’s efforts to get Meatless Monday’s introduced at her school.

You can watch the episode on line [here].

I urge you to check it out, at least for a minute — stations take note of what shows and episodes get the most online hits.

I will give you some highlights:

It opens with Kat sitting at lunch, reading a book titled, “Meat is Not Green.” When her boyfriend sits down with a burger and asks about the book in a teasing manner, Kat says: “Did you know that 18% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from animal agriculture?”

He admits that it’s fascinating and she says, “If everybody at this school ate vegetables instead of processed animal flesh just one day a week it would make a huge environmental impact.”

He asks if he could do a walkathon instead, and she says, “If you don’t want to do it for the earth, do it for you colon.”

Then she gets up and says, “Enjoy your carbon footprint. I am going to go do something about this.”

While it’s hard to tell just from reading the words, what’s great about the scene is the fun and warm way in which Kat delivers the information, with she and her boyfriend agreeing to hang out after school that day. There was a time when animal and environmental activists were portrayed on TV as unbearable. This episode shows how far we have come. The animal advocate on this show is super smart and also warm and pretty and charming — characteristics the animals could use on their side.

Kat goes to the student council meeting and says: “Every day the earth is getting closer and closer to cataclysmic climate change, yet every year we are burning more and more fossil fuels. It is time for our generation to say ‘Enough.’ We didn’t cause this mess, but we can clean it up, and that starts right here, right now, with your approval of Meatless Mondays.”

When the item goes up for a vote, it passes! Then we see an appropriate bit of realism when Kat’s previous ally decides to sabotage the win and run a student president election campaign based on the promise of pepperoni pizza on Mondays. But the ending of the episode is positive, with Kat’s boyfriend trying his first soy dog and deciding it isn’t bad. He asks why, if “you guys” hate meat so much, the soy dog tastes like meat. She says: “Well it’s not that I hate the taste, it’s just that whenever I see meat all I see is this little face saying ‘Don’t eat me.”

Nice.

“10 Things About You” takes feedback at: community.abcfamily.go.com/feedback
Choose that show’s title from the pull down menu.

Please take just a moment to thank the producers for the Meatless Monday episode. Positive feedback will encourage similar themes in the future. The Meatless Monday website, www.MeatlessMonday.com tells us that 751,000 people watched last Monday’s episode of “10 Things I Hate About You.” Those numbers mean power to get a message out. Please express your appreciation and give the producers some encouragement so that they’ll keep up the good work.

Yours and the animals’,
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited — leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line.)

Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com to learn about Karen Dawn’s book, “Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals,” which was chosen last year by the Washington Post as one of the “Best Books of The Year!”

To discontinue DawnWatch alerts go to www.DawnWatch.com/nothanks.php

One of the reasons I started POP! is because I felt a little odd discussing every little mention of vegetarianism, veganism and animal advocacy issues over at my main place. There are just so many examples that to address each one would quickly overwhelm a space with pop culture minutiae.

Seriously, once you get into the habit of actively engaging in media – viewing it with a critical eye, rather than passively taking it in – you start to notice animal-friendly (and, on the downside, animal-unfriendly) themes everywhere: vegetarianism is discussed in passing; characters talk about their “pets”; animal “evidence” is discovered at a crime scene; monsters and aliens act as stand-ins for free-living predators and conventionally intelligent nonhuman species; cyborgs and AI challenge our notions of what it means to be “human”; etc., etc., etc.

Anyhow, while watching a rerun of CSI on Spike this morning, I caught an unexpected – and insightful – example of the former: a short-lived character who just so happened to be a vegetarian. His vegetarianism – which seemed to extend beyond his diet, to his ethical beliefs – was incidental to the plot line; he could have just as easily been an omnivore. But his rejection of “meat” (as well as cheese – perhaps he might have better been described as a vegan?) provided the writers an excellent opportunity to slip in a sly piece of commentary on the intersectionality of oppressions.

Season 6, Episode 19, “Spellbound” – here’s the setup. A psychic was found murdered in her storefront. The fingerprints of one Reese Bringham – the self-described vegetarian – were discovered on her cash register, suggesting a murder committed during the course of a robbery. Warrick Brown and Captain Brass have brought Reese in for questioning:

[INT. POLICE DEPARTMENT - INTERVIEW ROOM - DAY]

(Warrick and Brass interview Reese Bingham.)

BRASS: The state has a law that murder committed during the commission of a felony buys you the death penalty. Do you understand that?

REESE BRINGHAM: This has to be a mistake. I don’t even eat meat. Or cheese. I won’t even hire an exterminator.

WARRICK: Your prints were found at the crime scene.

REESE BRINGHAM: I haven’t been to any crime scenes.

BRASS: You been to any occult shops lately?

REESE BRINGHAM: Yeah, I work next door to one.

WARRICK: You want to explain to me why your prints were found on the cash register?

REESE BRINGHAM: The owner’s my friend. Did something happen to her?

BRASS: You don’t know that she’s dead?

(He sighs, saddened.)

REESE BRINGHAM: No.

WARRICK: She was killed and then robbed, and your prints are on her cash register.

REESE BRINGHAM: Okay, yeah, wait … I can explain that.

BRASS: Start explaining.

REESE BRINGHAM: I work at a vegetarian restaurant. We make these soy burgers. Sedona was hooked on them. So, you know, she’d order, I’d deliver.

BRASS: So you’re a soy-burger-making, vegetarian delivery boy, hmm?

REESE BRINGHAM: Look, she’s always busy doing a reading or whipping up some kind of potion. She told me to take the money out of the drawer.

BRASS: Give yourself a tip?

REESE BRINGHAM: Soy burger and fries was $6.95 plus tax. I’d take a ten.

WARRICK: You delivered to her last night?

REESE BRINGHAM: (shakes his head) No.

BRASS: Was it your day off?

REESE BRINGHAM: Like most nights, I work until six and then I like … to go to the Stripperama.

BRASS: I thought you didn’t like meat?

(He chuckles unsure.)

WARRICK: Is there anyone who can confirm that?

REESE BRINGHAM: Well, yeah.

WARRICK: She got a name?

REESE BRINGHAM: Girls aren’t allowed to tell you their real names, but I call her Star ’cause she has these … blue stars tattooed on her hips. And it kind of looks like a meteor shower when she dances.

WARRICK: Would you stand up, please.

(Reese stands up slowly, unsure.)

REESE BRINGHAM: I can go?

WARRICK: No. You can strip down to your skivvies.

REESE BRINGHAM: Excuse me?

BRASS: You want some music?

The Sexual Politics of Meat, anyone?

Later on, when Sanders and Warrick visit with ‘Star’ at the Stripperama in order to confirm Reese’s alibi (spoiler: he’s innocent), the dancer dismisses him as “harmless” – even though he appears to be ever-so-politely stalking her. Also: she describes Reese as smelling like “nasty pickles.” I’m not sure whether this is supposed to be a jab at vegetarians (bean curd stinks!) or deli workers (bread and butter pickles stink!), but it seems to play into the stereotype of vegetarians as smelly hippies. Indeed, Reese himself – a young, white male, in his early-to-mid twenties, of average height and build, somewhat quiet and nondescript (“harmless”) – is perhaps the image many people hold of vegetarians.

So it’s an interesting juxtaposition of the expected (Reese’s appearance) with the unexpected (Reese’s behavior, as well as Brass’s reaction to it).

Thoughts?

(Transcript via TWIZ TV.)

At the risk of making this blog a shrine to Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, DFA, allow me to follow up yesterday’s otherworldly thought experiment with yet another clip from The Colbert Report.

Last month, Colbert interviewed Kanishk Tharoor, son of “Friend of the Show” Shashi Tharoor, who was at the time running for an MP spot in India’s General Elections.

Stephen endorsed Tharoor the elder thusly:

Colbert: Now, your dad, Friend of the Show Shashi Tharoor, is running for position as an MP in Kerala, correct? OK, let’s move his numbers right now. I can’t endorse in this country, but I can in India. I hereby endorse Shashi Tharoor. He will put a chicken in every pot. Or – at least – at least – a chicken in every tandoor.

Tharoor: I’m afraid he’s not going to do anything of the sort. He – like me – is a vegetarian. So it’s not very likely that he’s going to do anything like that.

Colbert: Then he’ll put a vegetable korma in…whatever you wish to eat it out of.

At the time, I noted:

What’s so beautiful about this brief exchange is how Tharoor so casually dismantles Colbert’s preconceptions about Indian dietary preferences. Like most Americans, probably, Colbert “naturally” assumes that people the world over do things the American way – or aspire to, anyway – including slaughtering sentient beings by the billions for no reason other than convenience and selfishness. Even though, at +/- 30%, India has “the highest rate of vegetarians for any country worldwide,” Colbert just assumes that Indians want nothing more than plates filled to overflowing with animal corpses. As Tharoor points out, not so much. Colbert normally strikes me as someone who does his research (or has his writers and interns do his research), which makes this particular flub all the more interesting.

A few readers noted that “a chicken in every tandoor” is a play on the political slogan “a chicken in every pot,” a point not lost on me (though I suppose I could have conveyed it better in the post). Even so, I argued, since Stephen was spinning the phrase in order to make it more relevant to Indian culture, he could have spun it further: instead of “a chicken in every tandoor,” “a pound of tofu in every tandoor.” Given India’s high rate of vegetarianism, ‘twould be the odd politician who promises to put animal flesh on the plate of every Indian, methinks.

Anyhow, Stephen offered an update on Thursday’s show; despite steep odds, Shashi Tharoor

defeated his nearest CPI rival P. Ramachandran Nair by a margin of around 100,000 votes when the results were announced on 16 May, 2009.

Tharoor’s victory, of course, being due in no small part to The Colbert Bump.
 

 
During the segment, Stephen replayed his endorsement of Tharoor:

I hereby endorse Shashi Tharoor. He will put a chicken in every pot. Or – at least – at least – a chicken in every tandoor.

which he interrupted thusly:

Of course, since many of his constituents are vegetarian, he could promise a Tofurky in every tandoorky.

I feel like a totally deranged egotist in saying this, but…could that possibly have been directed at me?! Does one of The Colbert Report writers frequent my humble blog?! ZOMG, could it be the Sonic guy?!

Nah, I don’t think so, either. Either way, I love it.

Bonus AR goodness:

[Stephen, on Tharoor's candidacy:] I was so excited to have a horse in the Indian Parliamentary race. Especially since this one was so much better than my pick for the Preakness, “Headed for Alpo.”

Is it just me, or has there been an uptick in disparaging, anti-horse racing / horse meat jokes on tv as of late?

Videos included in this post

The Colbert Report – Thursday, May 21, 2009 – Naan-Partisan
Stephen calls Shashi Tharoor to congratulate him on getting the Colbert Bump. (04:01)

Okay, so Stephen Colbert’s interview with Kanishk Tharoor (featured in Thursday’s episode of The Colbert Report) has little to do with animal rights – nevertheless, there’s a delightful bit of awesomeness squeezed in at the end, starting at the 4:18 mark:
 

For those who can’t view the video, Colbert interviews Kanishk Tharoor, son of “Friend of the Show” Shashi Tharoor, who’s currently vying for a seat in India’s General Elections.

Colbert: Now, your dad, Friend of the Show Shashi Tharoor, is running for position as an MP in Kerala, correct? OK, let’s move his numbers right now. I can’t endorse in this country, but I can in India. I hereby endorse Shashi Tharoor. He will put a chicken in every pot. Or – at least – at least – a chicken in every tandoor.

Tharoor: I’m afraid he’s not going to do anything of the sort. He – like me – is a vegetarian. So it’s not very likely that he’s going to do anything like that.

Colbert: Then he’ll put a vegetable korma in…whatever you wish to eat it out of.

What’s so beautiful about this brief exchange is how Tharoor so casually dismantles Colbert’s preconceptions about Indian dietary preferences. Like most Americans, probably, Colbert “naturally” assumes that people the world over do things the American way – or aspire to, anyway – including slaughtering sentient beings by the billions for no reason other than convenience and selfishness. Even though, at +/- 30%, India has “the highest rate of vegetarians for any country worldwide,” Colbert just assumes that Indians want nothing more than plates filled to overflowing with animal corpses. As Tharoor points out, not so much. Colbert normally strikes me as someone who does his research (or has his writers and interns do his research), which makes this particular flub all the more interesting.

Or perhaps I’ve just been conditioned to have really low standards vis-à-vis vegetarian/vegan/AR representation in pop culture media?

Videos in this post

Thursday, April 16, 2009 – Indian Elections – Kanishk Tharoor
Kanishk Tharoor describes India’s beautifully choreographed dance of democracy. (05:06)

Update, 6/2/09:

Stephen announces Tharoor’s victory, this time with a vegetarian option.

Proceed with caution: Moderate spoilers ahead. Specifically, I’ll be discussing Sayid’s flashbacks in the Season 3 episode “Enter 77″ (3×11). There may also be a few small spoilers through Season 4, but none for Season 5 – promise! (Although the external links may lead to more current spoilers.)

The husband and I became Losties rather late in the game. We picked up Season 1 on DVD on a whim during the writer’s strike last winter; within the first five minutes of the pilot episode, we were hooked.

Lately, I’ve taken to consuming pop culture with a more critical eye. I’ve always been somewhat sensitive to how women are portrayed in the media; increasingly, I’ve consciously tried to expand my “circle of compassion” vis-à-vis pop culture to other marginalized groups, including non-human animals. While animal welfare issues rarely surface on Lost, one episode in particular has stuck with me – “Enter 77″ (3×11), a Sayid-centric episode.

For those unfamiliar with Lost, most of the episodes to date (i.e., Seasons 1-4; the show’s now in its fifth season) follow a similar format: each episode focuses on one character, juxtaposing real-time action with “flashbacks” that offer the audience some insight into the characters’ current situation and state of mind.

Sayid Jarrah, played by Naveen Andrews, was once a Communications officer in the Iraqi Republican Guard. During Operation Desert Storm, he became an “interrogator” (read: torturer) under the American forces, a “skill” to which he later returned for the Republican Guard. As an Intelligence officer, he tortured rebels and military prisoners, including women. Eventually, Sayid left Iraq and found his way to Paris, where he found work as a chef and tried – unsuccessfully – to forget his past (a past which frequently haunts him). This is where “Enter 77″ finds him.

You can find a full episode summary for “Enter 77″ here; I’ve also included an “episode wrap-up” video from Daily Motion below, to place the flashbacks in context – but you can skip these if you’d rather. Only the flashbacks are relevant to this discussion.