My parents raised my brother and I pescatarian, a diet that includes fish, other seafood, and animal products but not any other meat. Growing up, when informing classmates I was pescatarian, some confused the word for a certain popular sect of Protestant Christianity, while others criticized it harshly. I was a fairly quiet, shy kid in school, so I tended to avoid the topic as an attempt to deflect attention away from myself.
Once I moved to Oklahoma though, this was a concept that could not be ignored. You’ve never seen an Oklahoman mad until you have threatened their ability to consume meat products, because apparently that is how they react to vegetarianism in Stillwater, OK. I was almost physically force-fed meat on multiple occasions. At this time, I was in fourth grade, so I was simply following the only diet I had ever known. I encountered stereotypes about my diet I had never heard before, and it hurt me to know that my peers were talking negatively about me, even if it was only about my diet.
Stereotypes surrounding people who follow meatless or meat-restrictive diets are often targeted around personality traits, which are difficult to examine the truth of, or measure in any meaningful way. Commonly, a picture is painted of the exemplary vegetarian/vegan, one of a young, outspoken, female, hippie tree hugger with an insatiable love for animals and the environment. While this may not seem to be a negative stereotype, parts of it are viewed unfavorably and taint the whole image.
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I think the most lasting stereotypical characteristics of people with plant-based diets are outspoken, female, and motivated by a love for animals. While these descriptors may fit many vegetarians, they don’t show the whole picture.
As a vegetarian, people I meet often feel the need to divulge their eating practices to me. Because of this, I have met more vegetarians and vegans than you would probably guess exist. Unfortunately, it is only the outspoken plant-eater that others know are plant-eaters, because they are the only, or most, vocal participants.
Consequently, a stereotype persists that people with plant-based diets tend to advertise and preach it to anyone who will listen. This is damaging, because it is not only the vocal vegetarians/vegans that are affected by this. To make matters worse, the people who are particularly open about their diets often have an air of superiority about them, like choosing against consuming meat or other animal products makes a person better than someone else. Now, anytime I tell someone I am vegetarian, they are surprised I don’t shout it from the rooftops, or act like an entitled brat, which is a completely unfair and misguided stereotype about people who eat plant-based diets.
The gender portion of the vegetarian/vegan stereotype actually has a grain of truth in it. While this isn’t a negative part of the stereotype, it is a persistent one. According to the Vegetarian Times, in a study conducted with 5,050 participants statistically representative of the rest of the United States, 59 percent of those who identify as vegetarian also identify as female, while the rest of the category, 41 percent, identify as male (Editors). While there are more female vegetarians than males, the margin is not huge.
Taking into account the continuous and unwavering nature of this aspect of the stereotype, I was expecting a much larger percentage of plant-based diet-eaters to be female. Technically, the stereotype is true, there are more female vegetarians than male vegetarians, but not to the extent that the stereotype had me believing, interestingly enough.
Another common misconception about vegetarians/vegans is that they all do it because of a love for animals. In reality, according to the same study done by the Vegetarian Times, the top three reasons people go meatless have nothing to do with animals. These three reasons are (1) environmental concerns, (2) food-safety concerns, and (3) “natural approaches to wellness” (Editors). Turns out, these three reasons are actually essential topics to consider in our day and age.
Different sources provide starkly varying numbers for gallons of water necessary to produce one pound of beef, but I saw anywhere from 400 to 2,400. Similarly, according to a study done in the UK, meat-based foods produce twice the greenhouse gasses that plant-based ones do (Scarborough). The environment should, in fact, be an important factor when selecting one’s diet.
These three target areas of this stereotype — outspoken, female, and motivated by animals — as I mentioned before, prove troublesome to analyze, as they are, with the exception of female, mostly descriptions of personality, not socioeconomic status, which would be easier to measure and examine effectively and objectively.
Throughout my research on this stereotype, I mostly encountered two types of lists. For one, lists made by vegetarians detailing the micro-aggressions or full-on aggressions they experience on a daily basis. For example, probably 9 times out of ten I tell someone I’m vegetarian, they become suddenly concerned by my intake, or assumed lack of intake, of protein or iron. Secondly, I was met with lists of stereotypes made by meat-eaters detailing their opinions of what a vegetarian looks like. For example, one article was entitled “The Five Types of Vegetarians You’ll Meet in College.”
These ignorant, rage-inducing sites brought me to the realization that throughout my time as a vegetarian — as a young kid, and later in Oklahoma — I have focused a lot of energy on other’s reactions to and what others thought about my choice of dietary intake. In reality, what my peers, and especially strangers, think about what food I choose to put in my body is of absolutely no consequence to my daily life.
Despite this, the stereotypes persist and, because of this, it is important to continue to analyze the prevalence and impacts of these stereotypes on our everyday life, as well as in society in general.
