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Originally Posted by gberardi  I'm still periodically getting comments like "Yeah, we already knew you were weird" or "You can't eat anything anymore". People aren't being mean in general, and I just take the comments as "You're being different from everyone", which is not exactly the worst thing in the world to be.
Part of the problem is that the word "vegan" can mean nothing to someone who hasn't ever heard it before. Vegan sounds like vegetarian, and all most people know about vegetarians is that they don't eat meat. Of course dairy and eggs would seem to be fine! Who doesn't love chocolate, cheese, and omelets?
Also, since vegan-friendly food is generally harder to find, it will seem to many people that you are deprived. I noticed that my usual interaction with other people is to say "Oh, I can't eat that", and so of course they are going to look at me as the deprived, starving, weirdo vegan. B-) I eat a LOT when I am at home and can prepare my own food, but going out to eat with friends isn't as easy as when I could just point my finger at any item and order it.
So, I guess you're not alone. It is hard being different. When the company provides food, there is NEVER anything without cheese or meat in it, so I just don't eat at the events or I bring my own food. I guess I feel lucky because the only people who don't seem to understand are my parents and cousins, and I generally only eat with them once a week. B-) |
Heh, I can definitely relate (not just to GBeradi, but to all vegans in general). And on a random note, damn, what is it with cheese, milk solids and, well, dairy products in general? They’re in practically everything these days! Soon you’ll look on the back of a clothing label and you’ll see the words “Made from 95% cotton and 5% milk solids. May contain traces of nuts, seeds, and eggs. Warm machine was only.”
Oh and I found it particularly amusing when I noticed that the “vegan” cheese I was looking at a while ago contained
casein.
Anyway, I personally found it really easy to drop meat and other animal products (I just... stopped eating them -- no cravings, withdrawals, or ritualistic sacrificial behaviour
), and actually started to like the concept of eating those things much less after I transitioned to a vegan/mostly whole food diet (from my experience, meat/dairy/eggs become quite repulsive once strip yourself free of the social conditioning of the “normal” diet and experience what it’s like to go without them for once in your life. I could probably eat meat again if I had to for some reason, but I’ll pass on the dairy and eggs, thanks). The two things I've found (and am still finding) most difficult dealing with though is the complete lack of support I get from local shopping venues in terms of availability of vegan-friendly products, and, much like you, VeganMelissa, people who really have issues dealing with the diet choices of someone else.
As for “public exposure”, I generally don't call attention to my diet choice unless it's necessary/unavoidable, but even so, once someone gets word of it, I find they like to call you out on it every chance they get (<insert condescending tone> “Oh, that’s right you’re
vegan, you can’t eat that”, etc.). It's generally highly unnecessary and proves that some people have some real acceptance issues, but eh, I’ll take my healthy, disease/sickness/ailment-free body and let others take shots at me in between complaining about their various bodily issues. (I mean yeah, I too could call out many people for the absolute rubbish they willingly choose to shovel down their throats, but if they won’t listen to the cries of help from their body, I’ll have little chance of getting through to them. Apparently it’s only time to pay attention once you’ve had a heart attack or something equally as damaging).
To anyone who finds themselves being bombarded with ridicule from an inconsiderate meat-eater who's just looking to look big and tough though in front of their ego, I’d bring their dietary choices into their awareness and ask them if they’d be willing to slaughter the animals they consume. If they are amenable to that, add their favourite pet into the equation and see how they fare. It may sound a little harsh, but your goal is not to insult them, rather, you're looking to bring their behaviour and consequences of their diet (consequences they are often unconscious of until they actually think about it a bit and say "damn... didn't think of it like that") into their awareness and invoke some compassion, or at least, some intelligence and awareness.
From my experience, one of the biggest issues most people get caught up with when it comes to veganism is the fact that you give your diet a name/label (although you could easily give the standard, chronically unhealthy diet most people eat a name such as “you’re going to die if you keep eating like that” or “mmmm, processed chemicals... my favorite!”). I don’t really need a label to remind me of what I do/do not eat, but I do find it easier to call myself a vegan over “someone who doesn’t eat meat, cheese, eggs, or drink milk” when I need to describe my eating habits to other people. And I too find it rather amusing when I get looked at (or ridiculed) as the “deprived, starving, weirdo vegan”.
You try to tell people you’re not missing out on much (most semi-healthy people aren’t even aware that a lot of what they eat can actually be considered to be “vegan”, and most other food is probably about as healthy as licking a street pole), but sadly, virtually everyone (bar maybe 2 people) who are aware of my diet choices are usually too busy focusing on diet comparison/ridicule to even take an interest exploring the notion of a vegan diet or taking the opportunity to discuss the matter with reasonable intelligence with a hope of learning something. Even before I was vegan, I was always open to learning from others and making improvements to/experimenting with my diet (one of the many reasons why I’m experimenting with a veganism in the first place).
Overall, I think you can only do your best and take pride in the fact that you’ve made a conscious, informed decision in an attempt to improve your health and the well being of the few animals who no longer has to be subject to excessive cruelty just to sustain your existence (although I do feel for the plants that must be harvested to sustain me, but they don’t seem to mind
too much).