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The official definition is "A philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose", so strictly speaking no - if you wear any animal products you are not vegan. I'm sure there are thousands of people out there who consider themselves 'vegan' in terms of what they eat, but still wear woollen jumpers etc.
Try Wills-vegan-shoes.com or Vegetarianshoes.co.uk... both do mail order, both offer a wide range, and are great quality!
I like Johnny Marr and what he stands for, so I don't want to seem picky, but as far as I know he composed music then Morrissey wrote lyrics. He might as well have written about anything else to the music, so it's not ''really'' an achievement of Johnny, is it?
To be fair, that album was at least 10 years ahead of its time.Does he not know when MIM was released?
To be fair, that album was at least 10 years ahead of its time.
Do you talk shite for a living or is it just a hobby?
- Sami P
I've got a feeling that, whilst being a vegan in terms of diet, Johnny is less rigid when it comes to footwear (something Morrissey also said he struggled with for years). Morrissey comes in for harder criticism for any 'cheesy/leathery' mistakes he makes, because he is so violently judgemental on any statements on the issue he makes.
A follow up statement by Johnny on facebook:"'Earlier today we posted a message on this page to acknowledge World Vegetarian Day. There was no criticism of anyone else's choice to eat meat, as I believe it's everyone's right to live and let live. Unfortunately there are some people out there who don't afford others the same courtesy and who think it's acceptable to hurl abuse around on social media. I'd like to ask anyone of that mind to stop visiting this page and leave the rest of us to get on with getting on, regardless of differences in our lifestyle choices. Intolerance and abuse is not welcome."
He also 'liked' someone's post of "You and Morrissey must have balanced each other so well. This is wonderful to hear as I know Morrissey isn't as tolerant as you are and as much as I love him, I wish he was a bit more understanding."
The difference in approach between the pair is interesting, as there is probably nothing between them in terms of actual politics on this. Personally, I am all for Morrissey's direct statements and shock tactics - but these can also immediately put meat eaters on the defensive, so that instead of even listening to the argument, all they want to do is eat more bacon just to spite you. The gits.
This doesn't make sense. If he's proud of his part in a song that accuses meat eaters of being guilty of 'murder' whilst he's wearing leather shoes and Morrissey is eating cheese, they're both delusional and JM is not a vegan by any rational use of that word. I assume the Social Media abuse he's talking about are Morrissey's TTY rampages?
That picture looks to be from the MM era. I've never seen Johnny say he's primarily a health vegan. He just makes noncontroversial positive statements about going from vegetarian to vegan. But I remember reading an interview in one of the Dynamic zines that a few shoe and clothing manufacturers send johnny free shoes, jackets, etc. in hopes he wears them on stage. Understandable, I suppose, that he'd want to maintain such "sponsorships." Though, really, he could be angling for free Keds or Chucks, some company whose standard product is leather-free.
Those leather moccasins are the only blatantly leather shoes he's worn in heavy rotation in recent years. I guess he thinks of them as a signature look. But he managed to quit leather jackets in the 80s, so that's not much excuse. I think in that interview he mentioned admiring a mohair coat, but I've never seen a photo from the last decade or so of johnny wearing an animal-derived coat, guitar strap, etc. (Why yes, I take an interest in Johnny's fashion choices.) If anyone is interested I could probably dig up the link to the interview.
In any case, looking forward to the real drama on Nov. 1, world vegan day.