The Discerning Brute: fashion, food & etiquette for the ethically handsome man » news

Anntian Spring’11, Eat the Living & Animal Rescue Corps

joshuakatcher — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 04:07:15 +0000

• ANNTIAN's Spring 2011 lookbook, inspired by the natural, ripe lushness of fruit, features bright colors, organic, lux textures and patters, and hints of psychedelic tribalism - an ode to the future hippie in a sane world. Anttian says "Behind this is our wish to touch on the subject of how important the relationship and behavior towards nature and food and "living together" is. Anntiain strives to use sustainable materials like organic cotton. • "Should we name them?" This was one of the first things one of the "foodies" asked before eating live lobster at 15 East for the sake of Zagat. Immediately the woman in the middle says, "No That will give them personality" and the man on the far right, "then there'll be a whole faction of PETA people that think we're terrible". Eating an animal while it's still squirming requires a serious disconnect, but even more-so, it requires a desire to be seen as controversial, edgy, experimental, brave and cool . The website challenges, "If you’re brave enough to experience it yourself, the special is $120 and feeds two." Listening to the people in the video fumble through rationalizations for doing this is amazing. See for yourself: This reminds me of the recent article, The Moral Crusade Against Foodies, by B. R. Myers, which is a must-read for anyone concerned with food and ethics issues. Image credit: John Cuneo

“A true gastronome,” according to a British dining manual of the time, “is as insensible to suffering as is a conqueror.” But for the past several decades, factory farms have made meat ever cheaper and—as the excellent book The CAFO Reader makes clear—the pain and trauma are thrown in for free. The contemporary gourmet reacts by voicing an ever-stronger preference for free-range meats from small local farms. He even claims to believe that well-treated animals taste better, though his heart isn’t really in it.

• I love the aesthetic of the Animal Rescue Corps. It's very effective, using a military-inspired logo and language like "serving" animals. The real heroism of this organization is showcased in their organized, rescue operations - and President Scotlund Haisley is certainly a Discerning Brute, with impressive and extensive experience in animal rescue, shelters, advocacy, fund-raising and legislation - even rehabilitating 11 of Michael Vick's dogs, and working to rescue of over 1,000 animals in post-Katrina New Orleans. With a focus on Puppy Mills, Companion Animal Abuse, Animals in Agriculture, and Animals in Research, the Animal Rescue Corps is a reserve of true heroes. Why not join them?

For Whom Does Taco Bell Toll

joshuakatcher — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 15:15:10 +0000

• Taco Bell was recently called out for their lack of beef in the "beef" they sell. From the MFA blog:

There has been a lot of media attention this week over the recent lawsuit against Taco Bell, alleging the company's "meat mixture" contains only 36 percent meat instead of the 40 percent required to fit the definition of beef. But Mercy For Animals has a solution to Taco Bell's problem that could be a win-win for everyone, especially the animals who are cruelly slaughtered for meat.

MFA took on the issue in an open letter, recently. Click here to read the complete letter.

Striped Ties, Undercover Texans & No Snow Day for Horses

joshuakatcher — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:45:19 +0000

Daniel Hauff is a not a Texan, but he's sure got the mustache for it. In an article from the Dallas Voice (Read the full article HERE), Hauff recently describes his experience as a gay, vegan, undercover investigator in Texas - which is hostile territory for all three of those characteristics. Hoff is the national director of investigations for Mercy for Animals, and is up against some serious cultural differences when he goes undercover and releases investigations like the recent fish scandal in Texas, but he takes them in stride:

"The first undercover investigation for MFA that we did that was employment-based,” meaning operatives for MFA go undercover in slaughterhouses and other animal-based industries, applying for jobs and then cataloging abuses and law violations. On the last day of the investigation just concluded in Texas, Hauff himself was wired with a hidden camera, interacting with the people in the abattoir (though he admits his duties generally don’t put him undercover)."

. • I am loving the new, bold striped ties from Jaanj. With classic combos like blue and gold, red and white, and blue and white, you can't go wrong. Wear these with a solid shirt, and beneath a waistcoat for a more refined look. Also, the navy polka-dot bow tie is a fail-safe if you're considering trying something new. Learning how to tie a bow tie is a long-lost rite of passage, so get on it! These are all made from microfiber satin, so 3,000 silk worms were not boiled alive to make just one pound of silk. • Thanks to the efforts of Donny Moss, NYC's GOTHAMIST reported on a shameful and illegal display of cruelty over the last few days:

Carriage Horses Spotted Working Illegally During "Weather Emergency"

Director of Blinders, Donny Moss, wrote to us last night pointing out Mayor Bloomberg's declaration of a weather emergency yesterday, in which he stated: "Clearing the streets remains our number one job—and to do that, motorists should please, please refrain from driving." However, the carriage horses were still out there working hard, and Moss wonders "how the ASPCA could have possibly allowed them to leave their buildings this morning, given the Mayor's announcement, the dangerous conditions, and the law, which clearly states that horses should not be working under these conditions." Please leave a comment and let them know we appreciate their covering of this story.

CPAS Spring 2011 & China Bans Animal Circuses

joshuakatcher — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:37:10 +0000

• CPAS continues to impress with recycled parachute blazers, organic cotton pants and jackets, upcycled tee-shirt liners, cool cuts and innovative accessories. CPAS is fairly-made and never uses leather or fur. Here are some looks you'll see on the racks for Spring 2011: • China has banned animal circuses and warned its zoos that they must stop abusing animals or face closure."Live animal shows and circuses are hugely popular in China, and draw around 150 million visitors a year at 700 zoos", According to The Telegraph. This is one of the first animal welfare laws in China's history. Some highlights of the new law:

• The ban will also force zoos to stop selling animal parts in their shops and zoo restaurants will have to stop serving dishes made out of rare animals, another widespread practice.
• Zoos will no longer be able to pull the teeth of baby tigers so that tourists can hold them
• Zoos will have to stop attractions where live chickens, goats, cows and even horses are sold to visitors who can then watch them be torn apart by big cats.
• Zoos with "entertainment" like live monkey-fighting, tigers jumping through hoops of fire, and bears walking on tight-ropes must immediately discontinue these practices.

The ban came into force on Tuesday January 18th, 2011 across the 300 state-owned zoos ,which are part of the China Zoo Association. This is a huge turning point for China, and hopefully the law will call public attention to the incredible plight that animals who are kept confined or caged, outside of their natural habitat, prevented from doing anything their bodies and minds evolved to do, and forced to perform cruel tricks and beg for food, experience. If China, the country that has bear-bile farms, the largest fur exports in the world (including domesticated dog and cat) and a taste for endangered animal parts, can outlaw animal circuses and other cruel acts -certainly, the United States can too.

GQ’s Fuzzy Memory, ZOO¡Creatures of Curiosity & Retire Ronald

joshuakatcher — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 15:00:36 +0000

• I was totally thrilled when I came across this retro GQ cover from November of 1970. "Should animals become fur coats?" it asks, showcasing a man bottle-feeding a baby leopard while wearing a leopard coat with one sleeve missing. Where's he gonna get the other sleeve? I wonder if they could have predicted what would happen over the next 40 years in fashion? Wish I could see the article. Anyone want to buy me an Ebay gift or a large deluxe framed cover-print from CondeNast for only $500? OK, fine... 20 greeting cards with the image on the cover for $39.95. • When Karl Addison told me about his book, ZOO¡ Creatures of Curiosity, I was enthralled - I've always been fascinated by creatures of our own imaginations. Who wouldn't love "a collection of aesthetically strange and unusual animals accompanied by preposterous tales of origin...whose goal is to inspire thought provoking conversations about the outrageous treatment of animals-both past and present. Without serious intervention into the destruction of wildlife habitats and continued experimentation on animals-wild and domestic-is a two-headed ostrich or a one-eyed Grizzly bear really that far off?" Get it on Etsy! • Ronald is old and mean and he needs to join Joe Camel, the Marlboro Man, and Spuds McKenzie in the retirement home for marketing characters designed to entice children to hurt themselves. The organization, Corporate Accountability International launched Value the Meal, a campaign, which is described below:

"Value the Meal is a campaign led by Corporate Accountability International dedicated to reversing the global epidemic of diet-related disease. Launched in 2009, the campaign challenges McDonald’s and the fast food industry to curb the range of its practices that are contributing to the epidemic. The campaign’s advisory committee consists of leading experts on food and nutrition, marketing to children, and sustainable food systems."

De Vegetarische Slager

joshuakatcher — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 17:00:34 +0000

If I were in the Netherlands, I would be a happy man during my lunch hour in The Hague. For it is there, in a charming and handsome storefront, that I would order a half-pound of hand-made, locally-grown lupin-based "meats". Europe's very first artisanal vegetarian butcher, Jaap Korteweg, is trying to bring lupin (once as unfamiliar as quinoa) into the mainstream. Lupin is beautiful, flowing plant that produces a yellow legueme seed. It can be used in the same way a soy bean is used to make tofu, or soy protein - minus the soy. This great news for the soy-intolerant, and for yet another alternative protein source. Has anyone been to this place or made lupin bean dishes? I'd love to hear your opinions!

Jake Shields, Kill It Cook It Eat It & Suing Fur From Magazines

joshuakatcher — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 22:59:28 +0000

• Jake Shields recently won Peta2’s most veg friendly athlete of the year! I interviewed Jake way-back-when, and it's awesome to see his career is becoming so successful - and that someone who demands so much from his body does it without meat. When he fights GSP in April, he will become the highest profile vegetarian athlete in the world. Go Jake! For a glimpse into the life of Mr. Shields, watch the trailer for an upcoming documentary about him here: • LA Weekly is reporting on a new BBC show that will premiere in the US on January 18th on Current TV, called Kill It Cook It Eat It. This show is certain to get a large viewership - but I wonder just how honest a depiction of the slaughter really is, and whether the viewers get to visit large factory farms and USDA slaughterhouses (where 99% of meat comes from) or just the small, killing-with-kindness farms that maintain the bucolic myth of where our food comes from. In addition, pay careful attention to the "It" in the title. It's not "Kill Them Cook Them Eat Them" - or "him" or "her" for that matter. They are careful to refer to animals as objects as opposed to individuals. Current TV's description is as follows:

" ...a diverse group of participants is challenged to procure their main course the old-fashioned way: by hunting and killing their chosen prey, butchering it in the slaughterhouse, helping to prepare it in the kitchen, and ultimately sampling it at the dinner table. Some may enjoy the process while others recoil, but for each diner it's an intense journey that just may change their perspectives -- and appetites -- forever."

•Writer Jim Edwards, from CBS's BNET website, is calling for Harper's Bazaar to be sued over it's fashion spreads - which could open a legal floodgate to help animals on fur farms. Long-gone are the days when fashion editorials were created for the sake of fashion-as-art. A list that was accidentally left in a hotel lobby revealed (what most fashion industry insiders already know) that paid-advertisers are given priority when it comes to shooting fashion "editorials", which "...appears to be a blatant violation of the FTC’s new guidelines for advertisers." Edwards c0ntinues, "If the FTC sued Harper’s Bazaar magazine for not disclosing that its advertisers influence its editorial features it would do readers of women’s magazines — and the fashion business in general — a huge favor...the legal framework exists to make it a possibility, and the FTC has shown interest in bashing the fashion biz before. Animal rights attorneys, pay attention!

"A fashion editorial is clearly an endorsement, but does Harper’s disclose the “material connections” between its fashion shoots and the advertisers who buy ads and provide the garments? Not online. In Harper’s December shoot with Iman, the items are identified by designer and price but it doesn’t say whether the Michael Kors fur scarf in shot 1 was selected because Kors is No. 2 on Harper’s list of advertisers."

A large portion of the demand for fur originates from paid-advertisers, which explains why so much fur is in every fashion mag. Fur marketing organizations that represent independent farms have millions of dollars to play with, considering the exorbitant mark-up of fur garments. There's a lot of legal jargon in the full article that I'll leave to you lawyers, but when it comes to heavily-funded designers that use fur, their days gracing so many pages of editorials could be numbered. This also gives stylists something to celebrate, since their craft was hi-jacked in the early nineties. "Of course, readers of women’s magazines know that most of the editorial is either made up or bought-and-paid for by advertisers, so it’s tough to argue that consumers are “damaged” by them. Still, wouldn’t it be nice if one area of the fashion world wasn’t complete fiction?"

The Cost of Edward Gorey’s Coats

joshuakatcher — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 20:33:17 +0000

(Thanks to contributor, Matt Lara, for the tip)

Edward Gorey might have enjoyed illustrating himself rolling in his own grave after his collection of twenty-one fur coats were not sent to Coats for Cubs or the homeless, or someone who might actually need a coat to stay warm or to survive. Instead, when their storage (which requires refrigeration, cleaning, and other treatments so as to not decompose) began costing the estate trustees too much money, they were auctioned off to a small crowd of eager Edward Gorey fans. Sadly, and contrary to Mr. Gorey's own change-of-heart, these fans could make them fashionable, once again. One of the auction winners, A. N. Devers , of The Paris Review Daily writes:

Over the years, Edward Gorey collected twenty-one fur coats, which he was notorious for wearing with Converse sneakers, often to the New York City Ballet. Sometime in the eighties, however (he died in 2000), Gorey seems to have had a change of heart. He opened portions of his home to a family of raccoons that finally settled in the attic. According to a tour guide at the Edward Gorey House, this was an act of penance; Gorey felt guilty for wearing their fur. At some point he locked up his coats in a storage facility. In his will, he left his entire estate to the care and welfare of animals. Among the many beneficiaries of the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust: the Xerces Society, dedicated to biological diversity through invertebrate conservation; the Bat Conservation International Foundation; and the Animals League of Boston (Cape Cod branch). But because of this commitment to our furry friends, the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust faced a difficult decision when it came to his coats.

The NYC auction was visited by what Devers describes as "Gorey’s most devoted admirers," who each had wanted some tangible piece of Edward Gorey to call their own. The irony here is that Gorey had long since locked away his furs and stopped wearing them for a very specific ethical reason. He had come to an awareness and enlightenment about what that coat communicated, how it was made, and the dangers posed to other animals from making it an acceptable fashion statement. The eager devotees and the estate trustees did not seem interested in the fact that the artist they loved so much, whose intentions were clear, would probably ask them to refrain from wearing the coats out in public. In the comments section of Devers article, she defends her wearing of the coat against Discerning Brute contributor Matt Lara's criticism. She says, "I plan on honoring and respecting the coat for its story and history, which I find considerable value in. It is a part of Gorey’s legacy, just as his beautiful drawings of fur coats are a part of his legacy. Should we shut those drawings away in a storage facility too?" Ms. Devers, we should no sooner shut away drawings of fur than we should shut away fictional representations of anything unethical. The difference is, a drawing was not made by the torturous death of 40 animals - who are typically anally and vaginally electrocuted, bludgeoned, gassed, or have their necks snapped on fur farms - or who are trapped in the wild where they starve to death, bleed to death, or chew of their own limbs to escape. Some who are uncomfortable with the reality of fur production call this position uptight, but I call it a clear and honest consistency with the values most of us already share. The problem is a disconnect between the physical reality of fur production vs. the mythology of the fur coat form. I present a parodic comment dedicated to Ms. Devers:

I am so glad we have the same perspective on taking a garment that represents incredible cruelty and finding a way to wear it with honor. I had a similar experience with KKK regalia. I went to an auction of vintage American costumes, one of which was a KKK hood. As it turned out, the racist who had once donned this hood had a change of heart and decided that hating certain people was not ethical - and he ended up leaving all of his estate money to help combat hate. I was so excited to win the hood, and when I wear it, I know the money went to a good cause. I certainly won't be "parading around" in this either. I'll be honoring and respecting the hood for it's "story and history".

You might be thinking - how can I - nay, how dare I compare racism with speciesism! All I am pointing out is that fashion is a powerful form of visual communication. When it comes to living, feeling animals with central nervous systems, who cry out and struggle to escape assault, and who do their best to say "no" - a fur coat's meaning is simple; it means you hate animals. If not, how else could you justify wearing it? For those who think this is brash, I'd question if they've ever seen conditions on fur farms or know why so many countries are outlawing and phasing out fur farming like Denmark, Scotland, Ireland, The UK, most of Austria, and The Netherlands? WWEGD? Those of you out there who won the coats - whose hard-earned money went to animal welfare organizations - I would ask you to take it one step further, if you are truly a fan of Edward Gorey; a fan of the man himself, and not just of the art. Why not donate the coat you won to coats for cubs or the homeless and turn a product that represents indifference to suffering into a life-saving object?