Grr....

[jarandhel]

So, the other day I got some Buffalo burgers at Wholefoods. Cooked them up for me and Dusk for lunch. (VERY good, btw.)

While I was still eating mine, our housemates came home. Almost immediately, I was confronted and asked not to leave plates with blood (from the defrosted meat) lying around the kitchen because we have a resident vegetarian. Now, I was going to clean up the kitchen (including this plate) as soon as I got done eating anyway, and if it hadn't been for one little thing this whole incident probably wouldn't have bothered me...

... but the thing is, the girls themselves left a dish FULL of bacon grease sitting on the kitchen counter for TWO DAYS. It was still there while they were complaining about the plate! How is liquified animal fat any less offensive to a vegetarian than a little bit of blood? And this got me thinking...

This vegetarian has sat down with me and her partner before as her partner and I have consumed a big fat christmas turkey, even taking a small nibble of it herself. She is not a vegetarian because of beliefs about cruelty to animals or anything like that, it's just a personal preference. So how is her vegetarianism at all relevant to the situation with the plate? It feels to me like her vegetarianism was not the issue, and was just being used as a weapon, and that bothers me... because I can't figure out what the underlying issue actually was. Considering their bacon grease dish, it certainly couldn't have been a cleanliness thing, unless they were being REALLY hypocritical. The whole thing just gets under my skin...

Comments

[silvaerina-tael.livejournal.com]

Fear of blood = a need to control the situation to get rid of it, perhaps? Even subconsciously most people have a fear of blood to some degree or another.

[rangermorgiah.livejournal.com]

Ick, I am unconfortable with the situation. My diet is based on ethical/environmental/spiritual beliefs, so I would not like to see a plate of blood, but I also would not eat even a tiny piece of a dead animal intentionally.

That's the sort of thing that makes us seem crazy and annoying. Sorry to hear about it though :(

[ex-casteylan314.livejournal.com]

She's not much of a vegetarian if she'll sit and nibble your turkey. And the bacon, was that hers too?

I think Silvaerina's right, thst it's probably a fear-of-blood issue. There's also a lot of fear regarding raw meat and blood as being much more unhygeinic than cooked meat (the OMG-SALMONELLA!! issue), which I could understand if it was chicken blood or pork, but heck people eat rare beef with blood still dripping out of it so with beef/buffalo it's clearly not an issue. I don't think everyone realises that though. So it could well be that she perceived the plate of raw blood as being much dirtier/more dangerous than a plate of two-day-old bacon grease. A lot of this perception comes from fear-mongering in the press, even with "official" sources (it certainly does in the UK). Wrong, but not necessarily hypocritical.