Vegansexuals

Remove all ads!

This cracked me up.

 

I never heard about this before - but it doesn't really surprise me. I don't think it's unusal for people to select their sexual partners from a subset of people who are similar to them in a number of ways. Vegetarians in general, and vegans in particular, have a very strong personal conviction that the comsumption of meat is, by necessity, cruelty to animals.

So I don't think this is any more unusual than the far more common position of non-smokers not wanting to form a close relationship with a smoker. The same goes for any storngly held personal conviction, and while it may extend to sexual relations, I imagine even close friendships involve people who are similar to you. It also makes sense that you could be attracted to a certain person, but never actually date or become intimate with someone for any number of reasons - so I don't find it surprising that veganism could be on this list.

I'm not a vegetarian or a vegan, and I doubt I would ever have married someone who was, as it would make having meals together a real chore. In fact, when deciding on a life partner, it probably makes a lot of sense to chose someone who has similar eating habits as you do.

 

Aldeth pretty well says it all, though I still have to say that IMHO their position is pretty extreme. I'd hate for a hot woman to judge me purely on the grounds that I eat meat. But given my luck, she'd probably be ruling me out long before just based on my looks and lack of $$ before she even factored in my carnivorous tendencies.

 

Ah, vegan women. They just need a little hot pork.

 

Quite possibly the funniest (contextual) comment I've ever seen on these boards.

 

they do realise that their vegetables is probably made up of dead bodies too right? or didn't they listen to the song in the lion king? its the circle of life and all that

 

You hit the nail right on the head, Equester -- it's all matter when you get right down to it, regardless of the form it is bound up in. Statements like "charnel house for dead animals" are great for shock value but really hold little logical weight with me. Plants are living organisms too, after all!

And from either the religious or the evolutionary perspectives, veganism holds no water.

Religiously (at least Christianity, though I know many others that hold similar beliefs) holds that animals are God's gift to mankind to be used with thankfulness and respect.

Evolutionarily (is that one in the dictionary?) our bodies seem to be well designed to process animal protein, and heck, we even have canine teeth!

That said, though, I can fully respect their right to not sleep with someone whatever their reasons.

 

death rabbit! BAD BUNNY!!! BAD BUNNY!!!

you made me spit coke all over my moniter!!!

i have to agree that was the funniest comment i've seen on here in a long time

 

That's the weirdest thing I've ever saw, though I can respect the fact they want to choose their sexual partner, the reason beyond it however seems ridiculous to me. As stated before a plant IS an living organism.

 

@Aldeth - yes. Thank you for summing up very reasonable and sensible sentiments about this. No, I hadn't heard of this before, but I can understand the choice, even if I don't adhere to the lifestyle. (besides, I'm already taken for life, so NYAH )

@all the proponents of 'plants are living things, too' - HEAR-HEAR! I have been toying with that little thought for quite a while. The argument is a little hyperbolic, but it does show something of a incongruity to veganism (do you wear cotton? How about 'hemp-wear'? Got rattan furniture?)

And I can even see a rebuttle to this jibe against what is essentially 'anti-animal cruelty' already: "Well, plants aren't intelligent." Which would really open up a RAFT of counter-arguments, centering on how one defines "intelligence".

For example, just because an organism is sessile and virtually immobile, and does not apparently communicate in a manner the observer can detect, does that necessarily mean it is unintelligent, unaware of its environment, and incapable of 'feeling' anything...like pain?

And finally:

@DR & martaug:

I'll see your coke on the monitor and raise you corn nibblets up the nose!!! Gah, at least a liquid would drain fairly quickly; I had to grab a kleenex and blow corn OUT MY NOSE because of you!!!

Despite the momentary pain, very, very VERY well done, you leporidic harbinger of vital cessation!

 

It's hardly a "phenomenon" in New Zealand. There are about 3 of these people here and they just happened to end up on TV. Now I'm off to have a lamb-burger milkshake.

 

The "plants are alive, too!" argument is, frankly, silly. Is anyone going to seriously argue that the life of a broccoli plant carries as much intrinsic value than the life of their cat? This is a meaningless and intellectually dishonest argument. Now, even if this argument weren't utterly ridiculous, it's still wrong.

The animals we eat also eat vegetables. Lots of them. In the US, 85% of our agriculture and more than half our water goes to livestock production. It takes 16 pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat. Since it takes 16 lbs of grain to produce one pound of meat, I would be killing a heck of a lot more vegetables by eating meat than I would by just eating the vegetables directly.

Regarding Vegansexuality.......my wife wasn't a vegetarian when I married her (with no pressure from me, she became a vegetarian, and eventually a Vegan, within about a year). However, after nearly 10 years of marriage I've become adjusted to living in a 100% vegan household. If I were to become single again, I doubt I would be able to date a non-vegetarian again. Ironically, I wouldn't have a problem with having sex with a meat eater. I just wouldn't be able to enter into a committed relationship with one.

 

I would have absolutely no problems whatsoever with being in a relationship with a vegetarian, vegan, fruitarian, carnivore, insectivore, whatever.

Realistically, I only have about 1/3 of my meals with my wife, so I'm sure I could handle whatever dietary restrictions she felt like imposing during that time.

 

I can see their point. As someone who used to drink and smoke pot, I would prefer a woman who abstained to reduce temptation to return to my old ways.

But I think they take their beliefs too far. This Grave yard of animals bit is just too bizzare...

 

Vegans are idiots, period.

 

You see, I could not. This is because whatever we have for dinner, usually becomes my lunch for the next day to eat at work - chicken, rice, and broccoli today. And other than on weekends, I don't eat breakfast. I only eat two meals most days, as on the weekends we usually eat breakfast later, and skip lunch. So if my wife was a vegetarian, then that would pretty much make me a vegetarian.

 

I'm glad to see your opinion of me is so high, Pac Man! Because I choose not to eat dead animals, I'm an idiot? I don't think you are giving me enough credit, here. The fact that I choose not to eat dead animals doesn't make me any more of an idiot than eating meat would make you an idiot.

That said, I imagine the likes of Cesar Chavez, Brian Greene (Physicist and author of The Elegant Universe), Dr Neal Bernard (President of PCRM), Casey Kasem, John Mackey (very wealthy co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market), and Jim Skinner (CEO of a large and highly successful restaurant which you may have heard of......McDonalds) might have something to say about that.

[ August 03, 2007, 16:32: Message edited by: Drew ]

 

Actually, I know people who make similar arguments. I always get a little nervous when I see these people with bumper stickers that say "Cats are People Too!" No, they're not, they're CATS! And if I came down to choosing the life of my child or the life of a cat and a person actually has to stop and think about it, I want nothing to do with that person. The plant thing is just taking it one step further.

The thing is, the argument that some vegans make is that it is wrong to kill in order to sustain yourself. I understand that, but I think they take it to an extreme, in that in order to survive, you have to kill SOMETHING and ingest it somehow. If they are challenging the notion that human life takes priority over animal life, I further extend that argument to sho how ridiculous it is -- by saying that plants are alive too, and do they have lesser value than human life? Of course they do, that's why I eat plants AND animals, because in my world view animals take second place to humans (at least on the food chain.)

That said, I totally respect their right to select what they eat. You couldn't pay me to eat some things. What I don't like is being told I'm a killer for having a steak. That sort of zealotry is annoying.

 

That's just another straw man argument. Vegans are not challenging the notion that human life takes priority over human life. I'm a vegan and, if my house were burning down, I would save my sons (and even my wife!) before saving my cat.....and I wouldn't even feel bad about my decision afterwards.

Vegans believe that it is unethical to kill unnecessarily. You are free to disagree with that sentiment (that killing unnecessarily is unethical), but any competent nutritionist will tell you that Vegans are right about the fact that you don't need meat to live and be healthy*.

Now, back to the "Plants are living beings, too!" thing that you are bringing up again, I thought I already de-bunked that. If I eat a pound of grain, I kill a pound of grain. If, on the other hand, I eat a pound of meat, I not only contributed to the death of an animal, but killed another 16 pounds of grain (the amount of grain it takes to produce a pound of meat) to boot! So, even if this argument were actually valid as opposed to being a ridiculously absurd straw-man, it's still wrong, because I'm still killing less vegetables (taking less life) by eating nothing but vegetables than I would by eating meat.**


*If you don't agree with this, I'd be happy to point you to the American Dietetics Association's (the ADA is a government organization) position paper on the matter. Argue with them.

**Now, you may want to bring up the fact the "what would we do with all those cows if we all became Vegan tomorrow"? conundrum.....and you'd have a point. Just not a very good one. First of all, we aren't going to all become Vegan tomorrow. If we were to transition into plant based diets, it would happen slowly and we would simply taper off the rate at which we breed livestock until we were breeding little to no livestock whatsoever.

 

Sorry, Drew, I wasn't clear -- I'm referring to SOME vegans, not all of them. I know that most are just decent people who have made a lifestyle choice. But the truly strident ones are the ones that I'm talking about.

As for your plant arguments, would I be correct in boiling it down and saying that you think meat is an inefficient product, as it takes a lot of grain to create a smaller portionj of meat? That makes sense to me, but again, it's something that I respect the views of other folks while reserving the right to eat at the Keg!

One thing I will mention, though -- I have heard that people who eat meat smell different than vegans or vegetarians. Any truth to this?