Interviews

Vegan Voice, Summer 2005

Blaze magazine, 20 October, 2005

Vegan Voice, Summer 2005

In Your Face

Kitty Minge's creator, Katrina Fox, talks to Sienna Blake about the art of protesting, comedy and wearing high heels.

VV: Katrina, how did it feel to be voted sexiest lesbian in the Sydney's Pride Centre's Awards for 2005? Or does a vegan gal just accept this as her natural reward for looking after herself?

KF:Well, it was a pleasant surprise, as I was up against some stiff competition, including popular DJs. Almost everyone was younger than me too, although I don't look my age which I'm sure has to do with not consuming animal products. So I was delighted because often the image of vegans is not always glamorous or sexy, and I always like to break the mould, go against the grain - I think it's inherent in my nature.

VV: You've been vegetarian since the age of 11 and vegan for 10 years. Did you have a life-changing experience when you were a kid?

KF: I was brought up in a working-class family about an hour outside of South London, where during the week, we ate things like beefburgers, mashed potato and/or chips and peas. I didn't really question it, and being a town girl I didn't get out to the country much. I asked my mum one day what beefburgers were made of and when I learned they were bits of dead cow that had been murdered, I was devastated and became vegetarian. My parents didn't take it that well - during the week they substituted the beef burgers for things like cheese or vegetable pancakes that you'd buy frozen in a packet, but on Sundays my mum would cook chicken and despite my saying I wasn't eating it, she'd still put it on my plate. I hand-fed it to our cat, who was well pleased to have got a second helping after his own. I didn't know any other vegetarians during my teens or any groups, I was quite isolated. When I moved to London aged 20, I went on some protests with London Animal Action and learned that not all cheese was vegetarian, so made that switch, but I still didn't get the leather and dairy connection, I just thought it was ok because leather was a by-product and I didn't realise the cruelty involved in the dairy industry.

VV: You're from the UK, where you took part in the huge and ultimately successful campaign to close down Hillgrove Farm, a business that bred cats for vivisection. (I remember this protest from when I first went vegan in England in the '90s.) Can you tell us a bit about it?

KF: Yes, and this was around the time I went vegan, because of going on those protests. Hillgrove was a 'farm' that as you say, bred cats and kittens for vivisection near Oxford. A big campaign was launched to draw attention to it - I think I learned about it through a sticker or leaflet. It was so well organised - coaches were booked to bring people to protest in the area from all over England, and even from Scotland on designated national days of protest. At least two or more would depart just from London, so the numbers were large. I met lots of vegans and found out about the cruelty involved in dairy and just how many other animal-based ingredients are in so many products. It was like a big light bulb that went off in my head.

Also, I'd started doing some voluntary work at the Celia Hammond Animal Trust, which neutered and rescued cats and kittens and rehomed them. Celia was a famous model in the 60s who's spent the past 40 years helping animals and she spoke at one of the Hillgrove demos and a couple of people at the shelter were also vegan. I got to meet the people who organised the Hillgrove demos, as well as people from the Animal Liberation Front who take a more direct approach. The thing about Hillgrove is that it was successful because it utilised different forms of protest - from petitions and letter-writing, to big demos where hundreds of people would literally sit down in the roads and bring Oxford to a complete standstill, thereby ensuring press coverage, to more 'hardcore' actions like setting fire to the cars of workers and generally harassing them so they stopped working there. I know the latter is seen as controversial and anti-abortionists often use those tactics, but I met an old man on the demos, who wore a sandwich board over him with graphic images of tortured animals, and he said the labs were like animal Auschwitzs. And the thing was - he'd been in Auschwitz. When people like you or me who are younger say this, people get annoyed at the comparison and say it's disrespectful, but when someone who's been inside it says it - you can't argue with that. So, when people are going to work at those places, they are the equivalent of the SS going to the concentration camps and doing their 'jobs' torturing, starving and gassing humans and I don't think many people would have a problem with harassing them - the workers at Hillgrove were never physically harmed - that's one of the tenets of the ALF, not to harm the people but to destroy the tools they use to torture other sentient beings and the places they do this in.

But every day the workers would be greeted by protestors and their neighbourhoods leafleted - it sounds a bit vigilante, but you have to remember what's at stake - thousands of helpless creatures destined for torture. I really liked going on the demos - running through fields in doc martens (can't be glamorous all the time!) chased by riot police, and sitting down in the roads. It was so good to be around people who really believed in stopping animal abuse and were able to outwit the authorities to get this information into the press. The demos were rarely organised in the sense of you agree to meet at a designated place the police agreed to because then they've got you under their control. The protestors decided where they wanted to be and there was often little the police could do - although they'd sometimes arrest a load of people, tell the media they'd arrested 100 people, but then release them without charge. Fortunately, the tide turned, and the guy running the farm decided to give it up. Shortly after a monkey farm in Brighton also closed, Shamrock Farm.

VV: You're a freelance journalist, I believe, but you're also a stand-up comedian. Where did your alter ego, good-time girl Kitty Minge come from, and where is she going?

KF: I've been a journalist since 1997. I have to work freelance as I'm not prepared to sell out my principles by working on staff for mainstream media. Before that, I did a degree in performance art in the early 90s and worked in fringe theatre, so I've always enjoyed performing. I've always enjoyed writing too, which is why I took a break from being on stage and focused on journalism for a while. Since coming to Sydney four years ago, my desire to be on a stage in front of an audience returned and Kitty Minge was gradually born. Kitty is really a bigger, more outlandish version of me. She's an outspoken, omnisexual, trashy vegan trollop! Over the years I've met so many colourful people from all walks of life and I tend to gravitate towards those who live on the edge of or outside mainstream society and whose voice is often not heard. Many people I've known over the years have a sense of camp and eccentricity and lack of regard for social conformity. Kitty Minge combines a large part of me, as well as some of those people.

And as I mentioned earlier, I love to break down stereotypes. Yes, Kitty is bawdy and trashy, cheap and blue, but she's also highly intelligent and political. So one minute she might be talking about eating pussy (and I don't mean cats - this is a vegan magazine, after all!), or going down to the Hellfire (fetish) club in her dominatrix outfit and picking up a girl for an SM session, the next she's spouting off about the dangers to human health of animal experiments, or the corruption of fast-food chains and biotechnology firms who are messing with our food and eco-systems. The audience don't really expect it and they're kind of like 'huh?' and I hope in that confusion that the sentiments I've been talking about will slip into their unconscious - apparently it's a psychological technique, so I hope it works!

At the moment, I haven't referred to meat-eating in my gigs, but I will. I don't want to totally alienate audiences, so it's finding the right way to bring it in. I focus on stuff that the majority of people 'get' ie most people don't agree with animal experiments, and I attack drug companies. I want to get the positive messages of veganism into people's minds and one of the best ways to do that is through humour. But obviously there's nothing funny about the animal-based industries, so I have to do it in a particular way - it's kind of hard to describe without seeing my act! Kitty is definitely 'cult' - she's not for straight mainstream audiences and by straight, I don't necessarily mean heterosexual, I mean straight with a capital S - it's more of a mindset. I love performing for gay, lesbian, bi, queer and fetish crowds. I did a spot at the Hookers and Strippers Ball recently and that went really well. I haven't yet performed for vegans or animal rights people, but hopefully some will come along to my Mardi Gras show!

VV: Okay, I have to ask this: what are your favourite vegan dishes? And where do you like to eat out?

KF: Well, I'm not one for cooking or making things. My girlfriend, Tracie and I eat a good percentage of raw food such as salad and fruit, and I also like the organic yeast-free bread from the health food store. I tend to steer clear of restaurants that aren't vegan, and don't generally eat out much. My favourite place to eat out (or usually get a takeaway from and take it home) is Iku Wholefoods. I was so glad when I discovered Iku a few months ago. Most of the other vegan places do Chinese or oriental food, which I don't mind in very small doses, but I was hoping there'd be somewhere in Sydney that offered some European-style vegan dishes. Iku's vegan lasagne is a huge hit with me, it's delicious. They've got several branches in Sydney, and I hope they keep expanding and stay with the vegan ethic - it's so nice to be able to have anything I like on the menu.

VV: Do you find Australia a bit backward when it comes to vegetarianism? (I do, and it's so boring. I'd like to get hold of Kitty's thigh boots and dish out some Uma Thurman-style kicks, but I'd probably fall off those heels.)

KF: In a word 'yes'. The fact that Meat & Livestock Australia put out an ad saying being vegetarian is 'un-Australian' and the ad won several awards spoke volumes about the way vegetarianism is perceived in Australia. It really annoys me that ads like this get airplay, but when groups like PETA put billboards up in the US highlighting the cruelty involved in industries where animals are used for food, clothes etc, they're told to take them down. Maybe it's a numbers thing too - I'm used to being in London where there's a lot more people in a central place, so it's easier to muster up large numbers of people to take part in demos or protests, whereas Australia has fewer people and is a much bigger place so the people are more spread out.

I think, sadly, that it's the health angle that is most likely to lead to people giving up animal products, rather than waking up to the cruelty - I'm generalising obviously, and that's not the case with everyone, but it's like Chrissie Hynde said in a documentary when asked about people who eat meat: "I think most people know [about the cruelty], but they choose to ignore it." I'm astonished - not just with Australians - that people who I otherwise like and admire and who are switched-on and intelligent in many ways eat meat or wear leather. I feel like shaking them and saying 'Don't you get it? How can you not get it? You're not stupid - Wake up!' And it's frustrating, but you have to just keep on chipping away and doing what you can, being informed and ready to explain to anyone who asks about veganism, rather than whacking them over the head, even though it might be tempting!

I'm all for wearing graphic t-shirts with messages. I had one in London that was a PETA one with a skinned cow with blood dripping off it in an abbattoir, it was truly horrific, and the words "Would you like fries with that?" It was so effective. I used to wear it on the crowded tube and get looks of horror, but no one ever challenged me because the veggie folk understood what I was doing and if anyone who ate meat was upset, it was pure hypocrisy, so what could they say? If you're going to eat it, know exactly where it comes from and what really goes on. It's very in-your-face but sometimes you just have to be. As for heels, darling, a tip for not falling over is to lean back slightly when you walk, although these days I'm a big fan of platforms - you get to be tall, leggy and fabulous, and your feet are in a flat rather than an arched position - it's a win-win situation!

Blaze Magazine, 20 October, 2005

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©Katrina Fox 2005