The Intersectional Construction of Vegan Identity on Social Media

This study focuses on how veganism and vegetarianism-often considered individual dietary choices based on various rationales- are represented in digital media. The study analyzes 170 posts shared on platform X using qualitative content analysis. The discourses related to vegan identity were found to cluster thematically around axes such as gender, class, ethnicity, ideology, and perceptions of the body. The findings reveal that vegans are represented not only as individuals who abstain from consuming animal products but also as subjects who are excluded on multiple levels due to their deviation from societal norms. The discourses reveal not only discrimination based on singular identity categories but also exclusionary discourses that intensify at the intersections of these categories. Multilayered patterns such as the reinforcement of masculinity through meat consumption, the attribution of class-based and cultural biases to veganism, and the merging of ethnic identity with political affiliation to produce a marginal identity map are among the key findings that support the framework of intersectionality. These discourses, which were coded under separate thematic categories, are observed to be not isolated from one another but instead form interconnected and mutually reinforcing structures. In conclusion, the findings indicate that, in the digital sphere, vegan identity is not only represented but also constructed as a site of identity in which its boundaries are negotiated, its meaning is continuously redefined, and it becomes subject to social exclusion.