Wow! This is a crazy thread! I am going to try and reply to your question the best I can u/mutteringfeminist.

Do feminists have a moral responsibility to be vegan? Well, let's establish a moral baseline for my argument. I use an argument based around Ethicist James Rachels paper “A Critique of Ethical Egoism” to fulfill that need for moral grounds. The argument reads as follows:

I. Any moral doctrine that assigns greater importance/value to the interests of one group than to those of another is unacceptably arbitrary unless there is some scientific difference between the members of the groups that justifies treating them differently.

II. Sexism and omnivorism both assign greater importance to the interests of one group than to those of other groups.

III. There is no scientifically meaningful difference (in terms of value) between the men and women/humans and animals that would justify treating them differently.

IV. Therefore, both sexism and misogyny are unacceptably arbitrary

You are probably objecting to the second premises of my argument. Surely, there is an abundance of scientific differences between animals and humans? Well, I definitely don’t think so! Physical distinctions are not valid in my eyes, because physical distinctions are what separates a man from a women. I would never treat another human differently because they have a body that is not similar to mine, so why would I lose this principle when It comes to animals?

BUT WAIT U/UPDIKENSTUFF! What about intelligence? The intelligence of the human race is what makes us distinct from animals! Correct? Well, in some ways, yes! It is true that humans are different from animals, in that we seemingly have a much higher level of intelligence and self consciousness, but this isn’t (in my eyes) a valid reason to treat animals differently than humans. There are plenty of humans (the very young, the very old, those in comas, those with mental disabilities) who have lower intelligence levels than primates/other animals with very high intelligence levels. So intelligence doesn't really stand as a valid reason for discrimination either.

I hope none of you read this as me being antagonistic or anything. I have been an outspoken feminist for a handful of years now, and I think everyone in this subreddit is making an extremely important contribution to society, regardless of whether they are vegan or omnivorous. I just hope that those who are not vegan would be willing to consider my argument! You don’t have to agree with me, but It would mean a lot, even if you just consider it.

If anyone has any questions about veganism and feminism, PM me. I love talking about this stuff, and hope to make a career out of it someday. :)