From: cansoori@athena.mit.edu (Christina Ansoorian)
Subject: Re: the term "vegetarian"
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1992 03:41:10 GMT

In article <2A95E31F.541@orion.oac.uci.edu>, ruman@meroot.eng.uci.edu (ruman) writes:
|> In article <1992Aug21.210552.7136@cerritos.edu> radams@cerritos.edu writes:
|> [....]
|> >Another variation would be "I am a vegetarian
|> >most of the time".
|> >
|> 
|> OurOrdinaryOmnivore:I am a vegetarian most of the time
|> VeggieAcquaintance:Oh! How long do you remain veggie at a stretch..
|> OurOrdinaryOmnivore:<in all seriousness> All day except when I have my meals.
|> VeggieAcquaintance:<grr grr grits his teeth.> <weak smile.> You should
|>                    try to make your diet vegetarian
|> OurOrdinaryOmnivore:<blah blah about how 90% of a hamburger is veggie>
|> VeggieAcquaintance:<Silence> Did u watch the new show yesterday..<blah
|>                    blah> 
|> 
|> This actually happened to me when I first joined school here.
|> I personally don't care what people call themselves. If it gives
|> them great mental satisfaction to go about calling themselves
|> veggies or near veggies let that be. I can stand the nuisance of
|> ill-informed or AccustomedtoFisheating"Veggies" waitresses 
|> ask me if I don't mind seafood etc (sizzlers..). To those vegetarians
|> who feel irritated at people calling themselves 'near veggies' etc, I
|> would like to suggest that probably they are, in their sub-conscious
|> atleast, deriving some sense of superiority and feel that they are
|> at a higher plane than such psuedo veggies having changed their 
|> lifestyle with great self-discipline and will power (personal experience
|> :) :)). In fact I suspect that most of the people who feel irritated are
|>  probably vegetarians who have converted because of ethical reasons
|>  rather than medical reasons.   

I became a vegetarian (as of the beginning of the summer) for completely
personal reasons.  When I "changed over", I of course told the people whom
I am close to.  However, since I live in a dorm, I must see most of these
people virtually all of the time, and oftentimes cook with/near them.  Now,
I made it clear that I became vegetarian for personal reasons; since none
of them shared my reasons, I didn't expect any of them to give up meat,
and had absolutely no intention of trying to convert them.  As a matter of
fact, after the first week or so that I had adjusting, it is no longer
a big deal, and does not seem like it should be a topic of discussion for
anyone except for me and my SO (since we cook and eat together).

However, for some reason, several of my friends seem INSISTENT on discussing
it.  For example: there is one individual (call her X), who is oftentimes
in the kitchen cooking her own dinner when I go in to cook mine.  She will
look over what I am doing, then start up one of two discussions: 1) how she
could never become a vegetarian, because sometimes she just craves a big
juicy piece of cow; or 2) how she is actually a vegetarian herself.

Another friend (call her Y) does practically the same thing.  For example,
a few nights ago a group of people (myself included) were out for the 
evening, then decided to grab a bite to eat at a grill/fryer/bar type of
restaurant.  I had never been there, and had no idea what their food was
like, so I asked if they would have something for me to eat there.  The 
others in the group looked at me funny, and reminded me that they do have
FOOD at RESTAURANTS :-)  (most of them did not know that I was a veggie).
At this point, Y loudly declares, "NO, she's a vegetarian, she can't eat
MEAT."   And they all assured me that they had non-meat things there (which
they didn't, really).  Someone in the group asked Y if she was a vegetarian
too, and she said that she was.  When we got there, we looked over the 
menu, and the only thing I could order was a dessert.  However, Y wanted
food, so she went ahead and ordered a plate of chicken wings, after loudly
telling everyone that she was ordering it, but that it was ok because she hadn't
had any meat at all so far that day.

Another incident involved X and Y going together to a burger place.  
Afterwards, Y told me that they had gone, and what large chunks of meat
they had both eaten, and how good it was.  The VERY NEXT DAY, X 
self-righteously told me about how she couldn't even STAND the SMELL
of meat anymore.  When I asked her about the burger she had eaten, she
admitted that she had thought that it was pretty good.

Now, I'm sorry that this has gotten so long-winded, but this is something
that has been annoying me for quite some time.  Every time these people
start talking about how they are VEGETARIANS, I want to scream that all
they have done is REDUCED their meat intake.  They have not eliminated 
one single kind of meat from their diets, and if suddenly being a vegetarian
is no longer CONVENIENT to them, well, then suddenly eating meat is ok.

This bothers me for several reasons:
1) they call themselves vegetarians, when they are in fact not.  If they
claimed to be "cutting back on meat", or even "semi-vegetarians", it really
wouldn't annoy me as much.

2)  they do this, despite the fact that they seem to have made absolutely
no difference whatsoever in their eating habits.

3) they appear to be doing this for my personal benefit.

4)  it is people like X and Y who claim to be vegetarians who indirectly
support my parents' opinion that, although it is ok to give up MEAT, there
is no sensible reason to give up something like CHICKEN BROTH.  

5) it is because of people like X and Y that most omniverous people are
so oblivious to vegetarians when planning things like restaurant trips
and party food.


Sigh.
Well, anyway, I feel a lot better now.  :-)

Christina
Newsgroups: rec.food.veg