I Love You, but You Love Meat

[yewberry]

Sharing meals has always been an important courtship ritual and a metaphor for love. But in an age when many people define themselves by what they will eat and what they won’t, dietary differences can put a strain on a romantic relationship. The culinary camps have become so balkanized that some factions consider interdietary dating taboo.

No-holds-barred carnivores, for example, may share the view of Anthony Bourdain, who wrote in his book “Kitchen Confidential” that “vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans ... are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit.”

Returning the compliment, many vegetarians say they cannot date anyone who eats meat. Vegans, who avoid eating not just animals but animal-derived products, take it further, shivering at the thought of kissing someone who has even sipped honey-sweetened tea.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/dining/13incompatible.html?ex=1203656400&en=3607fefe7202acc7&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Not the best article ever, but it does have some interesting things to say. I think the author does a lousy job of handling what, for many us, is actually an ethical issue and not a 'judgmental' thing. Seriously, I don't think much about what other people eat (other than in a pretty academic sense) but I wouldn't marry someone who didn't share something that is a such a fundamental value for me.

[LeftyMom]

1. Yeah, that's my thing. I don't want to have that big an ideological conflict in a relationship.

Luckily, I don't have to deal with that.

[flvegan]

2. I wouldn't date a smoker, either.

Nor someone who hunted. Nor someone that would vote for ANYthing with an R following it's name.

It wouldn't be pleasant to be around them while the participated in these things, and it would cause a rift between us. I have nothing personally against folks that eat meat or smoke, but I don't want to be around these habits.

[LeftyMom]

4. You'd be in big trouble with me if you started dating omnivorous Republican smokers anyhow.

:P

[flvegan]

5. How do you smoke a Republican?

Omnivorous or otherwise?

:shrug:

[LeftyMom]

6. I'm thinking over low heat with lots of hickory chips to mask the bitter flavor.

:shrug:

[flvegan]

7. I don't think that's vegan.

[LeftyMom]

8. Dreadfully unhealthy too, I'm sure.

But if the fad caught on in the purple states, we'd have the election in the bag.

[flvegan]

9. I'll bet that even cooked, you risk a brain wasting disease.

[LeftyMom]

10. Maybe that's how it spreads. ZOMG! Conservatism is a prion disease!

That would explain why Republican vegans are rarer than hens' teeth.

[peacebuzzard]

3. I am a very happy single person so that will never be an issue with me.

I have no trouble sitting at a table while someone carves up their prize hunk of flesh because I have done it so often and taken so much rift from my cannibal co-workers. But they were just that, co-workers. We all needed to unwind or dine.

I try not to spend my time-off with them at grazing time, only to accomplish other interests in common, if wanted or need be.

[NMMNG]

11. I'm a vegetarian and I'm with an omnivore

I'd be perfectly happy if she would go veg (and her sister would be thrilled if she did) but I can live if she doesn't. I won't pressure her on it. Being a gaytheist I'm no fan of evangelism.

[Ilsa]

12. My SO is a meat eater. He's a sweetie, and I ate several kinds

of meat when we dated and married. So I can't give him a hard time over me changing. I still make him meat dinners, and sometimes he gets a meat substitute and doesn't mind it. He's very considerate about asking if a restaurant has something I can eat.

Overall, I think people make meals the center of socialization too much. There are so many other ways to spend time together sharing.

[NMMNG]

16. We sometimes use the meat substitutes in meals

Or have otherwise completely meatless meals. But typically it's separate fare or I just avoid the meat portion of the meal. And you're right, there's more to socialization than meals. :-)

[flvegan]

13. Note to self:

start dropping veg* propaganda over at LLF.

:rofl:

[defendandprotect]

14. Think you get a lot of mis-matches in later life . .. after you realize you want

to go veggie ---

It was a huge battle in my home ---
but, now my husband is a veggie/Vegan ---

My kids are involved with animal eaters, however, which is depressing and which gives them
little incentive to live veggie ---

[defendandprotect]

15. On the "romance" angle, if feminists went veggie, we would have a better chance . . .

of curing the patriarchy of animal violence --- !!!

[LeftyMom]

17. And rape is the backbone of the dairy industry.