Anthropomorphism & Me

My friend, dance-diva Karin Nagi from Holland, is also the spokesperson and head of the group Voices for Children and Animals. Karin came to New York City last summer to speak at the United Nations. We hung out afterward, with my friend, author and cabaret columnist, Kevin Scott Hall. We saw Ron Giles' act at Don't Tell Mama (which we all loved), then had a sensational vegan dinner at the nearby Zen Palate (now closed, unfortunately).

Since last May, I've been struggling to go vegan myself. Karin is an advocate of it, and my podiatrist and his life partner are vegans and strongly support this. I have given up eating mammal meat (cows, pigs, lamb, etc.) because of the cruelty issue to these creatures. To be frank, I've slipped a few times, but as I wrote, this is a struggle. At this point, I still eat fish, fowl, cheese and dairy.  I'm hoping to eventually evolve past that.

On Voices' Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/1410717999210324/?ref=ts&fref=ts, Karin's images depict animals with very obvious emotions on display that we human animals can relate to. You can see grins, joy, happiness, depression, sadness, hopelessness on their faces just as you can with other humans. You can read and understand their body language.

I learned the word anthropomorphism in high school. It means to assign human attributes to everything from deities to animals to inanimate objects. In a way, my respect for animals came from my mother taking me to see classic Disney films at the movie theater, like Lady and the Tramp. Bambi and Dumbo were particularly traumatic as their mothers were killed in those films. My mom consoled me and taught me about animal cruelty. And I grew up realizing that, when it came to animals and their feelings, Disney's films had a reality to them, even if dogs don't eat pasta human-style. Of course, we still ate meat in our house. I mean, c'mon, it was the late '50s/early '60s and vegetarianism was not part of the consciousness for the average family at the time.

But I learned it at the movies. That we are one and not so different, we creatures sharing the Earth. And I continued to learn through films like 1973's The Day of the Dolphin. Or Orca (1977) with its beautiful theme song, "We Are One." The film starred Richard Harris. Someone left the cake out in the ocean!

So, I recommend "anthropomorphic" films for the kiddies, especially via animated film and tv shows. Ok, I'm in the mood for a vegan meal tonight. Corporations aren't people. Animals are people, my friends.