What do you think can we reasonably look forward to in our lifetime regarding animals, speciesism, veganism...?
I just had this idea last night while watching episodes of the fourth season of Falling Skies - something to look forward to in the near future is to see more people who genuinely care about animals in mainstream literature, cinema and television.
Just like racism, sexism and homophobia are now commonly seen as wrong in films and shows whereas not so long ago they didn't really cause much of a stir, I believe we are going to progressively see more and more people and characters who are vegetarian/vegan and who say or do things that illustrate how they take into account the interests of non-human animals.
It's already started with vegan stars such as Ellen DeGeneres or Joaquin Phoenix and back in 1995 was the first time I saw a clear, explicit reference to anti-speciesism in the movie 12 monkeys by Terry Gilliam (with an animal liberation group that had a "No to speciesism" sign).
I think it's going to happen more and more. I am looking forward to seeing a movie or tv series where a character explains how they care for non-human animals and think it's wrong to mistreat and kill a sentient animal. I imagine a typical post-apocalyptic tv show where a character would try to explain to other survivors that if they care about rebuilding something just and fair and solid then they should not base it on animal abuse once again.
When I was little (I am 40) you didn't really see many Asian or Black characters in mainstream shows and movies, or they stuck together or were the token multicultural characters. A black male character would be in love with a black female character. If a character was homosexual it was often a caricature, a stereotype and it was so unusual that this character had to be at the centre of the film and not one character amongst others. Now things have changed a fair bit (and of course there is still a long way to go against sexism, racism and homophobia). I am looking forward to seeing the same thing happen regarding speciesism - more and more anti-speciesist / vegan characters here and there.
