Millions of women every day are victims of sexual slavery; women of color in particular have a still-continuing history of being regarded as exotic, animal-like creatures not quite human; and media of all stripes (including PETA) continuously view women as commodities to be bought, sold, and enjoyed. Women worldwide are victims of rape, trafficking, domestic abuse, slave labor, and other atrocities daily. These things happen specifically because women and girls are viewed as less than human, and comparing these heinous crimes to consumption of meat is no different than PETA caging naked pregnant women on Mother’s Day or comparing animal slaughter to the Holocaust—overwrought, offensive, and reproducing oppressions that they claim to be fighting against.

If your argument for veganism is that non-human animals deserve human rights, which is a difficult but worthy argument to make in a meat-heavy culture, then make that argument. I want to hear it. What I don’t want to hear is you half-assing it by telling me that my ovaries, my breasts, or my reproductive abilities should make me feel an identity with animals—women get more than enough of that already.