i think sometimes there is an element of fear and discomfort around the unknown. for a lot of people, the idea of full meals with no meat (let alone no meat, dairy, or eggs!!!) is seriously unknown territory. and in other circumstances, when i'm afraid and uncomfortable about something unknown or unusual, i've myself been known to project my own imaginings of what i think it means (usually very wrong, lol), then panic, flap, dig my heels in, argue till i'm blue in the face to get my way and avoid it happening, and then sulk.<br><br><br><br>
i can see how, if you've been bought up in a very traditional meat eating family, as a 'slab of meat and sprinkling of potatoes for every meal' kinda person, the idea of a vegan meal conjures up visions of vats of gross slimy brown lentil stews, seaweed and dandelion salad, and mountains of dreadful tasting tofu, probably accompanied by strange dancing dervishes, prayers to the mystical god of sunshine and trees, and all kinds of other traumas to the sensibilities. i'd be worried about that kinda thing too, if i didn't know better, lol.<br><br><br><br>
example: my omni bf sees me eat all kinds of interesting things, but they are things he's never been exposed to in his life before meeting me. things that look weird, are made from weird ingredients, and have weird names, aren't comfortable food choices for him. he's got preconceived ideas that he won't like them, and they don't even feel like food to him, cos he's never had them, and they look and sound so weird- guacamole and hummus both sound like the names of aliens from startrek, and also look pretty much like intergalactic space slime, and don't smell much better.<br><br><br><br>
he's sworn on his life that he hates tofu, for 3 years now, despite having never actually tasted it- until 2 days ago, when i was eating some somewhat chewy, crispy and brown looking panfried tofu, which didn't look anything like the tofu he's seen me eat before, but looked more like 'food' to him. it was intreuging to him, and under much persuasion, he tried the teeniest bit, and liked it! he actually asked for it for his dinner yesterday, and now says he likes tofu, 'but only when you cook it like that, so its nothing like real tofu'. if he was around anyone like his brothers, or the other big butch mechanics at his work, he'd probably still go 'bleurgh' at the mention of tofu, probably not wanting to look like a hippy, or something equally bizzarre, i assume.<br><br><br><br>
not only are you dealing with people worried by the idea of weird scary horrible tasting foods, but the connotations that come with them, and the idea that everyone might see them eating it without a fight, and make a fuss, or assumptions of hippy traits running in the family, etc, etc, etc, but heaven forbid, they might find they even like the vegan food, and then they'd have less excuse to keep eating cows and feeling mildly guilty about it, but justifying their own behaviour because 'vegan food is horrible and i could never live like that'.<br><br><br><br>
its scary territory. much safer to push the vegan into serving 'normal' food. way less risky to the sensibilities.
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