If you haven’t seen this already, you should! Brightened my boring day immensely!

Now to what the survey was about! This was a small experiment I had to do for my class in environmental psychology.
There were actually two surveys. Some got one and some got the other. In the first, the one linked from this blog for example, you got to choose your prize before answering some questions about your personal norms. In the other survey, which was mailed to some of my customers on Lily of the Valley for example, it was the other way around. First personal norms, then choosing what to win. My hypothesis was that people who first thought about their personal norms (aka norm activation), then chose what to win, would make a more altruistic decision or at least not chose to win money for yourself but shop second hand which was the inbetween choice.
And that was also the case apparantly! (Yay!)

These are the graphs, sorry they’re in swedish.

Result from survey A, when you chose prize before thinking about your personal norms on environmental issues & second hand.

Planting trees – 50%
Shop second hand – 38%
Get money for yourself – 12%

Survey B, first personal norms, then choosing a prize.
Planting trees – 63%
Shop second hand – 29%
Get money for yourself – 8%

Pretty cool! Thank you so much to all of you who took the time to take the survey! I was very positively surprised that so many chose the tree planting alternative, you are so nice! :) (By the way you’re all nice, no matter what you chose and I don’t mean that if you chose to be able to win money you’re selfish either, you might have really needed it or something of course, it was just the general pattern I was after.)
The trees help to prevent soil erosion, helps farmers with agroforestry, give fruit, wood and take up carbon dioxide so I’m glad that was what was randomized. Have a great friday!

“We live in a world that tells us we must choose an identity, a career, a relationship, and commit… to these situations… as if we don’t live in a world of constant flux… which we do. Don’t freak out just cuz the jigsaw is laying on the floor and it’s not all the way phone and has been laying there for 4 whole hours now, resist the freak out. You will get to it… it’s all part of the process.
To force some forever identity on other people is stupid. Point out inconsistincies in their behavior, explain how they are not ‘truly what they say’ because you saw them ‘do this’ one time… why? Because it is easier to deal with cardboard cut outs than real people, cuz a lot of us pretend like we’re the center of the universe sometimes and everyone is just background extras in the movie we imagine we star in. WELL WHILE WE ARE ALL ARGUING ABOUT WHO’S GONNA GET TO OPEN FOR THE MELVINS, WHO’S GONNA WEAR WHAT TO THE PARTY, WHO IS LAME/TAME BECAUSE THEY PERPETUATE THIS THING WE HATE, WHO IS NOT REALLY A PUNK ROCKER CUZ “I remember when he/she used to listen to Duran Duran”, THE REVOLUTION IS GOING DOWN…no it’s not happening without us, it is just plain not happening at all… it is going down under the gurgling sounds of our own voices, reproducing the voices of our parents in a slightly altered way, the TV people… trying to dictate to each other what is and what isn’t cool or evolutionary or true resistence, what is or isn’t true in other peoples lives we sit around making all these boxes and labels, nothing to put in them, we are wasting valuable time. FUCK THAT SHIT, LET’S START TALKING FOR REAL.
To be a stripper who is also a feminist, to be an abused child holding a microphone screaming all those things that were promised, in one way or another, “I won’t tell.” these are contradictions I have lived. They exist, these contradictions cuz I exist. Every fucking ‘feminist’ is not the same, ever fucking girl is not the same, okay??? Because I live in a world that hates women and I am one… who is struggling desparately not to hate myself and my best girlfriends, my whole life is constantly felt by me as a contradiction. In order for me to exist I must belive that two contradictory things can exist in the same space. This is not a choice I make, it just is.
JIGSAW, a puzzle made up of all different weird shaped pieces. It seems like it will never come together, it makes no sense, but it can and it does and it will. Jigsaw, pieces like where you grew up and in what kind of fucked up culture and do you have a penis or not and did your parents have money and did you get teased for wearing the same coat four winters in a row and are you Thai-american or Black or Mulatto? And what do all these things mean when you are trying to resist, do something, have a good time??? I see the Jigsaw, fuzzy in my head as everything else, sometimes clear. The fact that he grew up in a working class family has everything to do with he is gonna express sexism, what kind of music he is gonna like, how I am gonna treat him. Jigsaw girl, she got fucked by her father, 8 years, people say she’s flakey and inconsistent, lays in her bed eating donuts, resisting going outside where the silence will engulf her, rather sit there wating than always being eaten up… her experience has everything to do with how the pieces are fitting together (or not) for her, judge her from your place without wondering what’s going on in that there Jigsaw mind of hers, and you have pushed her further away from clicking, her hand wants so bad to feel, one edge against another, together, one piece next to another, locking into place… you have to be able to see the puzzle before you start putting it together.
Resistance is everywhere, it always has been and always will be. Just because someone is not resisting in the same way you are (being a vegan, an ‘out’ lesbian, a political organizer) does not mean they are not resisting. Being told you are a worthless piece of shit and not believing it is a form of resistence. One girl calling another girl to warn her about a guy who date raped her is another. And while she may look like a big haired makeup girl who goes out with jocks, she is a soldier along with every other girl, and even though she may not be fighting in the same loud way that some of us can (and do) it is the fact that she is resisting that connects us, puts a piece together.
Jigsaw Youth, I don’t know what this means anymore than anyone… only what it means to me. Standing proud and saying “I don’t know who I am, I wanna know more, I am not afraid to say things matter to me.”
Assuming that people are either “part of the problem or part of the solution” disincludes a lot of people, who, at this moment, do not feel (and therefore ARE NOT) safe enough emotionally, physically, and/or financially to resist in the same ways you might be. By judging people according to your standards of resistence or whatever… it makes it harder for people to recognize what they’re doing as being important and political, etc…. it makes it harder for them to get into safe enough situations where they can resist in more outward, community oriented ways if they want to.

Jigsaw Youth, the island of lost and broken toys, feminists who wear lipstick, people who envision ‘the land of do as you please’, whose lives are not simple and they are sick of trying to make themselves cohesive enough to fit into a box. Jigsaw Youth, listening, strategizing, tolerating, screaming, confronting, fearless, girl soldiers, boy lovers, boofy haired teen girls scraping out the eyes on a photo of Rick Astley, Jigsaw Youth, the misunderstood seeking to understand other people’s reality. Making mistakes… making mistakes… making mistakes… making mistakes… feeling something. Knowing you will never see the puzzle put all together but trying anyways cuz each fucking piece really matters and being with friends matters. Jigsaw Youth… inventing and reinventing what these words
mean.”

-Kathleen Hanna

Söndagen den 10 oktober 2010, alltså 10/10/10, kommer en global arbetsfest för klimatlösningar (Global Work Party for Climate Solutions) att firas över hela världen. Initiativtagare är organisationen 350.org. På hittills över 1000 anmälda platser i världen kommer människor att samlas den dagen för att tillsammans och med glad stämning genomföra konkreta åtgärder för att ställa om till en hållbar framtid med minskad klimatpåverkan. Det handlar om allt från att plantera träd, bygga solpaneler eller cykla.

I Göteborg har vi dragit igång en öppen arbetsdag på

Tillsammansodligen i Mölndal.

Tillsammansodlingen är en nystartad odling med inspiration från community shared agriculture, där man delar på arbetet och delar på skörden. Odlingsmarken har under året successivt tagits över av en gammal ekobonde som har använt den i 30 år. Nästa år ska  Tillsammansodligen stå på egna ben.

På söndag bjuder vi in till arbetsfest för röja upp och göra i ordning marken inför nästa säsong. Det finns fortfarande en del grönsaker kvar att skörda och i slutet på dagen bjuder vi på soppa.
Man behöver inte ha någon tidigare erfarenhet av odling för att delta, vi lär oss på plats.

Missa inte möjligheten att vara med och göra någonting av denna globala arbetsdag som beräknas bli den hittills största dagen för positivt klimatarbete. Den konventionella matproduktionen är starkt beroende av billig olja  både i produktionen och i transporterna. Att ha lokal ekologisk matproduktion är viktigt för att bryta oljeberoendet, för att inte förstöra klimatet och för att öka den långsiktiga matsäkerheten.
Så vi börjar klockan 12 på söndag, arbetar i några timmar och avslutar med soppa.
Om du redan nu vet att du kan och vill delta får du gärna anmäla det till Frej på hej(at)frejnicolaisensiden.se Anmälan är inte obligatorisk utan är för att vi ska få en hyfsad uppfattning av hur många som kommer.
Välkommen!

Vägbeskrivning:

Det är lätt att hitta. Från Göteborg tar man buss 765, 764 eller 761 och stiger av vid Pilekrogen. Odlingen ligger precis vid hållplatsen.

Ring Frej på 0733447811 om du undrar något.
Mer info:  http://www.omstallninggoteborg.se/oms/om-odlingen-i-moelndal.html + http://www.350.org/oct10

Short english explaination.

This is what will happen in Göteborg as a celebration of the organization 350.org’s Global Work Party for Climate Solutions.
Tillsammansodlingen is a community shared agriculture project which we will support on 10/10/10 (and hopefully people will start activating themselves there after that date aswell) by working with them & eating soup made from their veggies.
Go to 350.org to find out what is happening where you live! There are over six thousand work parties all over the globe!

Hoppas att vi ses där!!! /Karin

I got this question from Magdalena, which I will translate for your reading pleasure. I’ve been thinking about writing an entry about this so I’m glad the question came up!

“…Since I know you’re vegan and a vintage lover just like I am, I have a little question for you. What is your position of wearing fur from, say the 50s? Do you make a difference between vintage and non-vintage in that case? I ask since I’ve been thinking about it a lot and there are many angles and viewpoints to it.”

Short answer: I won’t wear vintage fur, or new fur. I think there’s a big difference between the two but I don’t feel comfortable in it anymore, dressing up in something that really reminds me of a living creature makes me start thinking about the politics of it all the time I’m wearing it and it’s not the mindset I want my clothing to evoke. That’s not a moral stand point though, merely a selfish one. I do wear second hand leather, wool and silk. (For some, that would mean that I am not a pure vegan, but just someone who sustains her life on a plant based diet.) I don’t mind others wearing vintage fur. I think it’s good that it comes to use. I think that all vintage things, including fur, should be worn until it’s all worn out or put in textile museums, and that new production of merchandize made out of the bodies of animals should be phased out.

Figure out if you are vegan because you mainly 1) think that animals are autonomous creatures who should not be used for human purposes or 2) because of how they are now being treated & the environmental aspects of it. Maybe read a bit of Regan & a bit of Singer, and about speciesism. Knowing what you think in that question will help you in determining if you think it’s wrong or right to wear a fur even if it’s vintage.

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Long answer: From what I can gather, you can divide vegans into two belief groups. Those who are mainly vegan because they think that animals have a right to live their lives to the fullest for their own sake and that you shouldn’t use them for your own purposes. And those who are mainly vegan because of how the animals are treated today, concern about the environment and biospheric balance, and out of concerns of their own health. (Of course a lot of people agree equally with both parts and, hopefully, then live their lives after the moral reasoning which comes from those two beliefs. But those people often come to the conclusion that Fur Is Wrong straight away, as does the first group… Can’t say that I think they’re wrong about it either, it’s a different and less anthropocentric moral position to start at and it’s a noble one I think.)

My reasons for being a vegan are definitely mainly the latter; particularly an environmental concern & that I find it wrong that someone suffers for my sake when it’s easy to prevent. I can’t say for sure that I would be vegan in a world where animals were treated fairly and you ate their products and used their bodies after they had lived a full and rewarding life. Veganism is probably not my “main fight”, it’s environmentalism. I’ve had a lot of discussions about this with Frej who is more animal rightsy than I am.

So here are a few topics, typical comments, etc that you have to consider if you are not among the ones thinking it is wrong to use animals, period.
All of these arguments and thoughts can be torn down with “It’s wrong to condone violence against an animal by wearing it’s carcass no matter how long ago it died. Killing someone without having to is the most violent act one can take part of.” I know this but it’s not part of how I reason about me being vegan and I’ve been in that discussion numerous times.

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- It’s more wrong to wear vintage fur than to eat meat and wear leather because you throw the rest of the animal away and luxorious consumption is worse than eating. And it’s better when you use the whole animal.

I don’t agree. It is (for most people, in western society) easy to choose to not eat meat. It’s easy to buy a canvas bag instead of a leather one. The choice to consume animal parts is mainly a luxury choice, as in having the ability to chose what looks or tastes more to your liking and the luxury to not have to think about what consequenses this has for anyone else. I think that is luxury consumption.

To mainly consider how much of the animal was used as a reason for killing it, I find strange. We need food to live, and we need clothes not to freeze to death (in Sweden anyway). That means we need to eat food and wear clothes. Not that we need to eat meat and wear clothes. Or that we need to eat meat, wear clothes, make leather filofaxes, shoes, bags, wallets, and then feed other animals with the last parts of the animals just killed. How much of an animal should then be used to justify it’s death? How many percent?

If you buy one vintage fur, X number of animals died for it in the past and continues to be dead whether the fur is worn or thrown. If you eat meat or drink milk, an animal died just a few days ago, or is suffering right now because of your decisions, and other ones will suffer today & tomorrow for you. The fact that the skin is then made into a pair of shoes doesn’t really make up for it.

And what is the difference between buying a vintage fur & buying for example a vintage wool coat for which sheep were subjected to mulesing or the like? Or a pair of leather shoes, or anything else of animal origin where you can be pretty sure they were treated badly. If you think that vintage fur is wrong because it’s unneccessary – buying anything else that’s produced out of suffering is unneccessary aswell as long as there are other options. It’s just that it’s more obvious when it’s in your face the way fur is.

- Buy a new fake fur instead!

I think that throwing out usable things is pretty disgraceful. And I think that production & demand of new things made out of oil are ridiculous aswell, if there’s a substitute that is being thrown instead. If you don’t want to wear a dead animal but like fluffyness, buy a fake fur. But I think it’s strange to buy a fake fur because you wanted or already owned a real, vintage one.
Also, less fashion aware people or people with bad eyesight might still believe you’re wearing fur and get ~*inspired*~, which leads me to the next topic.

- Wearing vintage fur inspires other to buy new fur. You’re showing support for the fur industry by wearing a vintage fur.

Possibly. Doing anything probably inspires someone else to do something, if you are interacting with other people. This is why I probably would think it was “more ok” to wear vintage fur if the fur farms in Sweden were closed down as they have in Britain, Croatia and Austria. And I sincerely hope that will happen,

But someone has definitely suffered, and will do in the future due to climate change and environmental destruction, for most of what you consume. Especially if you use electricity from fossil fuel. Many entire species of animal are being extinct each day, from destruction of rain forests. So if you don’t want to be hypocritical, maybe you should ask yourself what suffering is worth preventing, how your life style is harming or “inspiring others” to do harm, and how to act on it, instead of focusing on someone else’s consumption of just one type of merchandize that is thought to inspire destruction. (Throwing away useful things also inspires destruction, just in another way. The world’s resources are not endless, we are already at Overshoot Day on 21th of August.) I think this is a bit narrow way of thinking, even if it’s very understandable since the fur is a very clear symbol of someone who died for nothing after a life of suffering.

If you buy something second hand you are directly supporting the second hand industry, with your money. Not the fur, or leather, wool, or meat industry. You are however showing that you’re okay with wearing something obviously dead and provocative. It might also be very visible that the fur is vintage, especially if it’s an accessory or a brim on a coat or something that is easy to put a date on, and then I find it as supporting to the current fur industry as wearing an obviously 50s dress is supporting the clothes industry in general. A bit far fetched. And if I were to follow this logic in my own life considering I am strict on buying nothing new produced except underwear and stockings, I would not be able to wear anything second hand that doesn’t look super vintage, because other might get inspired to buy new things which I wouldn’t want them to do on behalf of me.

(Also, though this is a weak argument, I do find it pretty unlikely that for example I, a pretty strange looking pierced girl, would inspire a random rich person in the street to make a 50.000 kronor purchase, if I were to be spotted wearing a vintage fur, would it not be more likely that I would inspire a random similarly subcultural girl to use her grandmother’s old fur?)

- Wearing vintage fur is a provocative thing to do and it produces a lot of debate.

Which I find pretty great! I’ve been over this subject with a few aquaintances who are wearing vintage fur aswell as aquaintances who are very clear with their position on not using animals for any reason, and it always leads to big environmental/moral/ethical debates. If you are prepared to talk for yourself a lot of new thoughts might be planted in someone elses & your own head aswell.
(No I don’t mean this as reason on it’s own to go out and wear fur to create debate but it is very interesting to listen to the debates that emerge when someone is wearing it at a party or whatnot… or in this blog…)

- Vintage fur is an ecological hazard when thrown away. (As is leather, by the way.)

You have to add a lot of chemicals, such as chromium, formaldehyde, aluminium and more, to an animal’s insides to make it last as a fur or leather as it naturally will decompose as any other dead object would, and it will last for more than a hundred years if moths don’t get a hold of it… So throwing a fur before it’s time means adding to piles of trash of  hazardous waste that won’t decompose properly.

- The money for a vintage garment goes to a charity or to a second hand store owner. Or you enherited it and no money is transmitted.

Isn’t that pretty good aswell? Better than to throw your money at any brand that actually sells both new synthetic jackets and ones with fur brims or filled with duck feathers. Then you’re directly supporting a company that is doing harmful things to animals, even if you’re not buying the actual animal product. If you want to buy a new jacket – buy one from a brand that doesn’t use animals in their production. If you want to buy a vintage jacket, buy one that is made out of animals if you can live with it and don’t if you can’t.

- The degree of suffering the animals went through should gross out any thinking person out of wearing their fur.

Possibly! Maybe you should watch a documentary about mink farming or seal clubbing if you’re planning on wearing a vintage fur. If you want to, I’ve linked one below. However, when it’s vintage fur you might not be sure if the animals have been farmed, or trapped, or shot or whatnot. Maybe they didn’t suffer to the degree where you draw your line. As long as your reasons for wearing or not wearing fur comes from an anthropocentric view where you’re “allowed” to determine what suffering is acceptable you should perhaps check the history of the production of the kind of fur you’re considering buying vintage. So perhaps a research of how the animal in question was treated say 80 years ago is in order. Was it hunted wild, or already fur farmed? Maybe it suffered when it was being hunted aswell, or was stuck in a trap.

- Give the fur to animal rights groups instead. Or to homeless people.

I don’t know if this is as custom in Sweden as it is in the US with PETA’s actions but I think Djurrättsalliansen have asked for furs a couple of times. So if you do have a vintage fur and you’re feeling weird about wearing it – send it to them? However, there is probably more vintage fur around than they could ever make use of. So what to do with the rest? Flood them anyway so that they’ll have the problem of dealing with hazardous waste? To give it to homeless people feels (more than) a bit offensive. Is it to not accidentally inspire a rich bitch to buy a new coat? Let the poor people wear the dead animals that we “normal” people are too ethical for? I think it would be very very awkward.

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I think that was what I had to say about it. If there’s anything else, just comment! I like new perspectives.
(Please keep the commenting civil, I know this subject is controversial to say the least.)

Read more about poisons in fur here.
Second Hand Store Emmaus fur policy as an example.
Watch Djurrättsalliansens short documentary on farming of mink below. (all these three are in Swedish.)

If you live in Sweden and own a TV maybe you saw the documentary on SVT1 yesterday – Yes Men Fix the World! I’ve been wanting to see this ever since before COP15 in Copenhagen where there were people wearing Survivaballs represented…
The Yes Men are two smart and hilariously poker faced men hoaxing corporations and governments about changes that should be made to mitigate climate change, compensating people for deaths and injuries due to chemical disasters, and so on. I just watched it streamed on SVTPLAY (I think you can watch it there for free from abroad aswell) and I thought it was pretty great! Very impressed with their ability to keep their faces straight & the whole documentary had a clear direction ending in hope. Which is nice you know.

Short info you’ll need to understand the video, for those who have not spent time keeping up with Swedish politics:
The Alliance is the right wing alliance. The election is in a week and we’re risking another 4 years with them at office.
Gudrun Schyman is the leader of the feminist party F!.
Rödgröna/redgreen is the opposition of the left wing; the social democrats, left party and the environmental party collaborating.
Verklighetens folk means the people of reality and is a loooong story…
The right wing party Moderaterna are now calling themselves “the only workers party”……

Also here is the trailer for the musical Moralist Instructions; The Revolutionary Conduct with english subtitles!