Today I’m interested in sharing with you something that has puzzled me for years, in hopes that one of you can answer my question. Why do so many people hate vegetarians? It’s not everyone, it’s probably not even most people, but a good amount of Americans seem to regularly hate on vegetarians. The usual criticisms vary from calling them stupid and pussies, to arguing that they’re misinformed, to complaining that they’re too annoying. I can understand if someone is annoyed at a certain vegetarian friend or acquaintance that’s constantly proselytizing or nagging omnivores, but they are few and far between, and the rest of these complaints are completely misguided. I’m not a vegetarian myself, but I can’t understand how anyone on either side of the issue can be so incensed by vegetarianism. If anything, they should be praised for taking one for the team and asking for nothing in return. My guess is that even for most vegetarians, being a vegetarian sucks, but they do it anyways because it’s something they believe strongly in, and as a result, they help the environment which helps everyone. In short: you doing nothing + vegetarians making a sacrifice -> benefits for everyone (including those who did nothing) -> a lot of people hating on vegetarians and calling them pussies. There has to be something I’m missing here.
I’m not going to spend this post going through the merits of vegetarianism, nor is my object to convert anyone to vegetarianism. In return, all I ask is that you not make this necessary for me by conceding that vegetarianism is on the whole advantageous for society. Even if you don’t have the slightest care for animals, it is a well established fact that vegetarianism is better for the environment because farming vegetables requires less greenhouse gas emissions and natural resources per calorie than raising meat does. Okay? Moving on.
For the most part, vegetarians are not misinformed about the benefits of their practice. Among the wealth of sources corroborating that a vegetarian diet is overall more healthy than the average American diet, this position paper by the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada states in the opening line that “vegetarian diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.” The concerns about the lack of protein or iron in a vegetarian diet are also largely overstated, as there are a variety of easily available sources of these nutrients within the confines of the vegetarian diet. Another argument against vegetarianism is that humans are by nature omnivorous, and that a vegetarian diet is therefore unnatural, to which my only response is that I can’t imagine it’s any less natural than loading up cows and other animals with hormones so that they can digest corn and other animal feed they were never meant to eat.
Again, I don’t mean to lecture on the benefits of vegetarianism; my main focus is instead on the perplexing fact that vegetarianism in our society often carries with it the negative connotations of effeminacy and self-righteousness. In some ways it makes sense that men often dismiss vegetarianism (along with many other environmental protection efforts: think Prius ownership) as a feminine practice: females make up about a 2:1 majority of all vegetarians. There’s also some evidence that soy products (common in the vegetarian, and especially vegan diet) may increase estrogen levels in males, though there have been studies coming out on both sides of this issue (not to mention that excess body fat (negatively correlated to vegetarianism) has also been proven to raise estrogen, and consumption of monounsaturated fats such as those in nuts (also common in a vegetarian diet) has been shown to correlate with an increase in testosterone). For some reason, though, there is a stigma against vegetarianism that goes way beyond this. Quite simply, eating meat is seen as manly. Perhaps this goes back to earlier eras when hunting was seen as a man’s job, and how much meat one ate could be tied to their skill as a hunter. Even in more recent times when meat was far more expensive than it is today, providing meat for one’s family could show that a man was a successful provider. Still, this hardly relates to eating meat in the present day. If you’re eating meat from a buffalo that you yourself took down with a spear, I’m more than willing to declare you far more of a man than I’ll ever be, but if you’re eating beef from a steer that was raised in captivity and slaughtered helplessly hundreds of miles away, you’re just another person. And for that matter, if another man chooses to sacrifice his own taste and social standing to become a vegetarian so that his children can live in a better world, that doesn’t make him any less of a man, if anything it makes him a greater man. Sadly we live in a world where putting oneself second and sacrificing on behalf of others (in any context outside of war) is considered feminine, and masculinity is determined by the degree to which one consumes food and anything else with no regard for the consequences to oneself or others.
Finally, we come to the issue of vegetarians as annoying, self-righteous, proselytizers. First of all, while I have no evidence to back this up, I believe that most vegetarians (the one’s I know at least) are generally humble people who commit themselves to vegetarianism, and leave everyone else to do as they please. Then there are some who will bring it up occasionally, and may suggest it to someone else, citing their own satisfaction with their experience. Most of these people will simply drop the subject if you’re not interested in it, and won’t judge you because of it; they’re realistic and understand that it’s not for everyone. Finally, there is a very small percentage that feels it’s their job to convert others, and make it their goal to do so. Yes, these people can be annoying, but they make up a very small percentage of the vegetarians out there. Additionally, they’re not bringing it up because they want to annoy you or make you feel bad, they’re bringing it up because it’s something they feel strongly about, and they would feel remiss not to make some sort of effort on the behalf of vegetarianism. For those who believe that animals have the right to life, seeing someone eat an animal may be equivalent to watching someone eat another human being (or at the lower end, someone’s pet dog). I would hope that people who believe that meat is murder would stand up for their beliefs, just as anyone else would if we witnessed our society and courts not just allow, but outright approve of a genocide or mass murder that had been ongoing for millennia. You want to eat another living animal? That’s fine with me. But you can’t bitch about it when you get a short lecture a few times a decade from an outspoken vegetarian.
I’m not asking anyone to become a vegetarian. I’m not asking anyone to shower vegetarians in appreciation. All I’m asking is to stop making fun of them, and at the very least be neutral towards them. Every ounce of meat they don’t eat is just more for you. Every gram of CO2 they don't burn is a slightly better world for you and your children. Every animal they don’t kill takes a little suffering out of a world that has far too much of it across all species. Yes, it’s annoying to be told you’re doing the wrong thing by a vegetarian, but I can’t imagine how much worse it would be for a vegetarian to be told their doing the wrong thing by some ignoramus. If nothing else has convinced you, and you still see vegetarians as a group of judgmental pansies, then maybe the best reason not to judge them is because it would make you no better than they (theoretically) are. I’m not a vegetarian. I like meat too much, and I don’t like vegetables enough. If some vegetarian out there wants to think they’re better than me, however, I’m okay with that, because I know they’re right.
BV
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