Vegetarianism and Harassment

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ive been vegetarian for a year and a half now and i get the same sort of things as you. i didnt mind at first but i gets tiring. people always act so astonished. It does irriate me a bit. but i get use to it.now
xx

You are entitled to your own opinion, blackduck...
but this comment is actually quite funny.
I'm vegan, but wont take offense to this, because it's absolutely rediculous.

Vegans are trying to do something GOOD, where as terrorists are trying to do something BAD. See my point?
Terrorists might blow up a plane to get a point accross, but overall thats still doing harm. I've never known a vegan to take to blowing up planes to end animal suffering.

Also, not every vegan supports PETA. So it's really not fair to judge many vegans on the counts of ONE organizations actions...as not every vegan supports those actions.

I've been vegetarian (nearly vegan) for 15 years. I try to avoid talking about it, or even letting people know about it. I hear, "You vegans want to force your ideas on people," all the time. And then the person launches into a monologue in defense of eating meat, as though my mere admission of vegetarianism was an attack on their food preferences or ideology. I don't understand this at all.

Most of the time, when someone finds out that I don't eat meat, they become emotional. Common responses include:

1. Defensiveness - as though I had criticized their diet, when in reality I merely stated one fact about my own diet

2. Extreme concern - they require me to convince them that I am not starving or malnourished or attempting to starve myself

3. Argumentativeness - they expect me to debate the merits of different reasons for being vegetarian, including reasons/beliefs that I do not agree with

4. Story telling - "My cousin's ex-girlfriend was a vegetarian. She didn't want to eat anything but potato chips and salad. She got really sick, so she started eating meat again. What do you think of that?"

These reactions typically come from people I don't know very well. Friends and family members respect my choices. Usually, the more casual the relationship, the more intense the criticism of my dietary choices. Typical "offenders" include co-workers, relatives of friends, relatives of significant others, and total strangers such as waitresses, grocery store employees, etc.

It's absurd because other, arguably comparable dietary preferences do not provoke the same sorts of reactions. When someone says, "I don't eat any fruits or vegetables. I only eat meat and white bread," people just laugh, and this diet is obviously less healthy than a typical meat-free diet.

And veganism is not the only dietary idea that is occasionally "forced" on people. People proselytize about organic food, the macrobiotic diet, low-carb diets, religiously based diets, and plenty of others. I am not overweight and yet I have been told, "You shouldn't eat rice! It's full of carbs!" and that diet promotes abstinence from a nutrient, as opposed to a source of nutrients.

What is it that people find so offensive about one person's choice not to eat meat?

OK, I'll stop now.

if you are vegan in the south you are looked at a weird way, when i worked at mcdonalds in alabama, there would be days where not one salad was sold.

I went vegan in one day last October. I won't go into details but when I went vegan I thought people would be just as excited as I was about it.
I thought people would be excited to learn what I've learned and maybe even join me.
In the least I thought people would accept it and be happy for me.

That was not the case. And I totally agree with you - a lot of the time it does feel like harassment. I don't usually know how to deal with it, but I know the reasons why I do it, and as long as I keep strong I will set an example. I've found that over time people begin to understand more if you set a good example of a veggie or vegan. It sometimes comes down to the fact that people have bad misconceptions of vegan or veggies and why they do what they do.
Just because someone believes in animal rights, for example, does not mean they go around throwing paint on fur coats or breaking into University Labs. Extreme people come in all kinds - omnivore or not.

I was over time also able to educate my spouse and now he is vegan too. For the first few months he thought I was crazy and would get a mad at me when I would be adimant about not eating something.
My Mom and her husband have started recycling and not using products that have been tested on animals. Although they are not vegan and never will be, they were able to see my point. But this only happened once I was able to show them what veganism meant to me - through my actions and my words, over months and months.

You do realize he said that 2 years ago, and probably has forgotten wrongplanet is a website, right?

They think your vegetarian for moral reasons and immediatly think that you would judge them, so they go on the defensive. Saying it with a smile might help.

This is sort of on topic, sort of not. I was in school one day, and someone said they were a libertarian. Someone else said "You don't eat meat? That's disgusting!" It's both prejudiced and idiotic.

I have had vegan friends here and there. I am cool with them as long as they dont tell me i am a monster for eating meat on occasion. (they never have for that matter.) I get closer to vegetarianism the older i get. I am in the food service industry in Oklahoma. Vegetarianism and veganism is taking off a little in the more diverse areas, but in those small towns, its a different story. You order the vegetable plate in your standard small town, even the green beans are going to have bacon in them. Meat is a condiment around here. Put it on your burger, your salad, your quesadilla. Its sad that people are so up in arms about vegetarians.