The Domesticated Primate

I've been doing the vegetarian thing for about a year now. It wasn't really that hard to make the switch - I had already cut out the beef and the pork years before, and was only eating poultry and fish. Making that last step was only really difficult for group situations, like work. I still get the occasional snarky comment from people (all men, it so happens) but I think I can ignore the ignorant without too much worry...I'm not sure why it is, but men sometimes have to make mention of how much they need a big steak, etc., upon hearing that I'm vegetarian. I think it has something to do with being insecure in their manhood or something. The idea that having a steak makes a man more manly is of course retarded. I've seen women eat steak, bacon and hamburgers and NONE of them spontaneously changed genders. Funny, that.

Of course, advertisers know that many men suffer from such fragile egos and prey on just that to sell meat. I saw a giant ad in Rolling Stone that showed slabs of meat, with the title that says, "We love vegetarians" with message further down that says "...more meat for us". Hardy-har-har-har. Yep, keep preying on those fragile egos. Maybe this ad targets women, too, but somehow it seemed more for the men.

Anyway, I switched for a plethora of reasons. One is that I've been uncomfortable with eating animals since forever - and that was before getting information on the horror that is factory farming. But I think the health reasons finally pushed me over to vegetarianism. Alternet had a good article on 15 reasons to switch. I doubt this will change many minds, but it does provide a nice summation of why someone might want to consider at least reducing their intake.

As for the picture, that was probably one of THE reasons I finally switched - the sheer arbitrariness of eating some animals while others, at least in America, people shudder to think of eating. Like cats, dogs, and horses.