Is Fight Club soap vegan-friendly?

[RealHousewivesOfTaunton]

DH and I had an animated discussion on this earlier.

In Fight Club, the protagonist makes £££ making soap from fat stolen from liposuction clinic bins. My thinking is that this soap would be vegan because:

• No animals were harmed in the production of this soap.
• Voluntarily donated human fat is more animal-friendly than habitat-destroying palm oil.

DH says human fat is an animal product and therefore not vegan. He's also absolutely banned me from asking our vegan NDN to settle the question so I'm turning to MN.

And yes, I know I've broken the rules of Fight Club.

I would say no as it's made from a mammal.

My understanding that vegan would all be plant based.
But I'm not vegan so really have no idea.

What about human breast milk? How do vegans stand on this?

Human breast milk is intended for human babies, so all good.

DH doesn't accept that I'm winning the poll.

I’m team DH - I think that soap made from human fat is not vegan - in the same way as a bag made from leather as a byproduct from the milk industry is still not vegan.

But, then I’m not sure where that leaves human breast milk…..

I'd say it's vegan - animals can't consent to their products being "removed" but the lipo was consensual.

Using the lipo fat for soap wasn't consensual though!

I don't think that's the same thing though. Animals are slaughtered for the dairy and leather industries. No one is killed having lipo (unless it goes very badly wrong!). They pay to have it done.

Surly true vegan soap can only be from plants

Plants that have lived their life to full

Then there leaves are picked up once naturally fallen by the children of pure innocence

A prayer is then said thanking the plant for this gift

The question is does soap made from fat people fat hit this high bar of veganism 🤔

True. Would it make a difference to the vegan argument if it was?

You can buy leather that is made as a byproduct (ie the animal isn’t raised or slaughtered for the leather) but I take your point that the milk industry doesn’t have as much consent as liposuction!

I think so.

It's a horrible film about obesity in general and views the fat as animalistic, like blubber. It always strikes me as a bit cannibalistic.

I know human milk is for human babies but it still begs the question of is it vegan as it's not made from plants

Humans are animals, and veganism doesn’t allow any animal products, so no, it’s not vegan in the true sense of the word.

However if your main argument for being vegan is that you don’t want animals to be exploited then it becomes difficult to argue against human fat soap - but even here you could argue that the liposuctees (I’m groundbreaking I am) are in a sense being exploited by societal pressure bla bla. Also it’s a slippery slope to poor fat people being pressured into selling their fat or even murdered for it. Q.v. prostitution, surrogacy etc.

Forgot to say though that I have thought about the same thing. Like what if we made clothes from human hair. Or when people make sweaters from their dog’s hair (that has been collected by comb).

That's a very good counter-argument. I suppose the clear black-and-white answer is no, but if you're a shade-of-grey vegan then it might be acceptable.

Breastmilk is fine for your own baby, you know you’re consenting to give it to your baby. You’re not using another living thing, who can’t consent, for your own benefit. So I’d say the soap isn’t vegan.

P.S. do people really make clothes from their pet dogs? I mean, I suppose it's no stranger than angora rabbits but you'd have to be choosy about the type of dog.

Just realised the last bit didn’t make much sense, I meant I don’t think human fat soap is vegan because you can’t know that the humans consented as you don’t know them.

I cracked and asked my NDN. After some thought, she says it could be considered vegan but she'd rather go without soap entirely.

Would you seriously want to wash with soap made from lips fat?! Perhaps I'm impractical but I'd feel distinctly unsettled about it!

Oh it's definitely illegal under cosmetics legislation in this country, the EU and US at least. The potential for transmitting nasty diseases is worrying, to say the least.

However, this is a purely hypothetical question. NDN also says that vegans should try to avoid palm oil, which is new info to me.

But the palm oil must be applied environmental ethics, it’s a plant based product so not un-vegan?

ps knityourdog.com

Reasons for being vegan vary, but yes, lots of vegans avoid palm oil due loss of habitats endangering many species.

@RealHousewivesOfTaunton I would have thought because of the destruction it can do to habitats?