Vegetarians on TV

sarahvma · Dec 4, 2006

This has probably been discussed before, and if so, feel free to modslap me (I'm new!), but does anyone find that vegetarians on TV (the characters, not their actors), tend to come off very stereotyped? 
As you can tell from my avatar, I'm a Sara Sidle fan (CSI). And while I know that Jorja Fox is an adament vegetarian, it seems as though Sara is always rather extreme about it around other people. Maybe it's just me, but I don't make other people pack away their hamburger just because it's upsetting to me. Though I don't find the sight of raw meat disgusting, I just choose not to eat it. 
I assume that was the writer's choice rather than the actress's, but still. 
It seems that vegetarians on TV are either the beatnick variety, whose clothes are made of nothing but hemp and string, or they're forcing it on other people. 
I think Sara's a good example of someone who doesn't go too far with it, but I was watching my sister's cartoon show "The Weekenders", and I found that although it was nice that one of their characters is a childhood veg, she was still sort of "pushing" it on the others. 
Do you think there's a natural tendency to make vegetarians very one-sided in shows, can you think of any positive vegetarian characters, or is this really what the majority act like?

Sevenseas · Dec 4, 2006

Well yeah let's see. 
-Phoebe on Friends: crazy hippie type. Easily sacrifices her ideals (her comments about fur, her deal with Joey about eating burgers). 
-Abby on Dharma&Greg. Weird hippie type. Easily sacrifices her ideals (killing a turkey by her bare hands for no reason) 
Actually, those are the veg*ns I've paid most attention to, but there are probably many others. The clearest positive portrayal of a veg*n is Lisa Simpson who has stayed true to her commitment throughout the series and is not a hippie.

jeezycreezy · Dec 4, 2006

The mother in Alice I Think (crappy Canadian show) is portrayed as a hippy vegetarian flake. 
Here's an exchange to illustrate how the writers handle the subject matter. 
(For context, Alice's mom went away leaving Alice, her teenage daughter, alone. Alice is excited at the prospect of eating meat for the first time in her young life. She goes to a steakhouse where she sees her mom's best friend.) Geraldine: What are you doing here? Alice: I could ask you the same thing; mom thinks you're a vegan. Geraldine: I'm anemic, okay? I have very low levels of iron. My doctor says that...oh to hell with it, I just love the taste of cow. PS. Sara Sidle has chicklets for teeth.

sarahvma · Dec 4, 2006

Meh about Sara's teeth. My mother has a gap between her teeth, so it's never been something that I notice. 
I didn't even factor in the "going back on your stance" aspect of it. The main problem seems to be writers who just don't get what being vegetarian means. 
I've read some CSI fanfiction in which Sara will eat steak for the hell of it, wear full leather outfits and it's just assumed that she eats seafood. 
I'm not asking for them to get it dead-on, but making someone a character who happens to be a vegetarian, rather a character who is defined by it would be nice.

Amy SF · Dec 4, 2006

There HAVE been veggieboards discussions of portrayals of veg*ans on TV before, and somebody posted a link to this: <a href="http://www.moveleft.com/moveleft_vegontv_1951to1993.asp" target="_blank">http://www.moveleft.com/moveleft_vegontv_1951to1993.asp</a> which I bookmarked. I'm too lazy to go search for previous threads on the subject, which is why I posted the link here. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/grin.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="

">

jeezycreezy · Dec 4, 2006

<div class="quote-container">Quote:
<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by sarahvma <a href="/forum/post/0"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style=""></a> 
I'm not asking for them to get it dead-on, but making someone a character who happens to be a vegetarian, rather a character who is defined by it would be nice.</div>
</div>
 
I think anyone who isn't vegetarian is going to approach writing about it very much like Will & Grace approached homosexuality—with obvious jokes and banal stereotypes. PS. Debra Messing, now there's an actress with a proper set of teeth.

sarahvma · Dec 4, 2006

Thanks for the link. 
And Debra Messing has a weird nose. lol. 
As someone who was in high school drama, I kind of grimaced at just about every joke on Will and Grace. 
Do the friends of gay guys talk about homosexuality? Sure. But it's not every.frigging.discussion. 
I dunno... I just don't get why vegetarianism can't be treated as simply a way of eating rather than a lifestyle. It hasn't changed my entire life or the way I view things or people. 
Okay - a question I was meaning to ask, though - leather, fur, et al. 
Someone told me that only vegans reject clothes made from animals (not including wool here), so like with the not-so-funny Phoebe Embraces Fur because it "looks good" scene, is this another myth in the non-vegetarian world?

Sevenseas · Dec 5, 2006

<div class="quote-container">Quote:
<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by sarahvma <a href="/forum/post/0"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style=""></a> 
Someone told me that only vegans reject clothes made from animals (not including wool here), so like with the not-so-funny Phoebe Embraces Fur because it "looks good" scene, is this another myth in the non-vegetarian world?</div>
</div>
 
I'm not sure I understood the rest of your paragraph but vegans reject all clothes from animals, including wool (which often involves rather cruel production), and lacto-ovo-vegetarians for example may also avoid things like leather and fur if they're ethical vegetarians (concerned about animal suffering).

s0ad · Dec 5, 2006

On Thats so Raven Raven's friend is a vegetarian. I remember one episode where she saved a school animal mascot because it was cruel and another where she had a protest with her other veg*n friends protesting the use of fur in one of Raven's outfits. I don't remember her "pushing" them to eat/wear certain things though. Well, I think she does encourage them to eat healthy, but not vegetarian. I think its okay, unfortunately shes the stupid one of the bunch. ;( 
This is the only vegetarian played on tv that I know of. I think many roles on television are very stereotypical, not just vegetarian roles.

Nishani · Dec 5, 2006

<div class="quote-container">Quote:
<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by jeezycreezy <a href="/forum/post/0"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style=""></a> 
I think anyone who isn't vegetarian is going to approach writing about it very much like Will & Grace approached homosexuality—with obvious jokes and banal stereotypes. </div>
</div>
 
I think it's meant to be like that. It's a campy show. 
The characters in Will and Grace are based on real life people. Max Mutchnick one of the co-creaters of the show based 'Will' on himself. 
I've had gay friends who are a bit like Will, and some who are a lot like Jack <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/smiley.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="

"> It's not good to always stereotype but sometimes stereotypes are real. It's the same with vegetarianism, sometimes in real life you do get vegetarians with annoying character traits and people are going to remember that and write about it.

misq17 · Dec 5, 2006

Then again, if characters on tv are veg*n but not pushy or "hippy" about it how would you as a viewer know about their veg*nism and how would it effect their character? Why would anyone care?

Iria · Dec 5, 2006

<div class="quote-container">Quote:
<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by misq17 <a href="/forum/post/0"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style=""></a> 
Then again, if characters on tv are veg*n but not pushy or "hippy" about it how would you as a viewer know about their veg*nism and how would it effect their character? Why would anyone care?</div>
</div>
 
I think it's healthy for a minority group to be portrayed in the media as 'normal,' not with their minority quality (whether it's vegetarianism, race, disability, or something else) being the basis of their character. I've heard this a lot from disabled people, who want disabled role models on television who are important characters in spite of, not because of, their disability (like House before they got into the whole drug addiction). With vegetarians, I think we would all like to see someone on television who is a vegetarian and yet can be related to by omnis. Maybe then omnis would see vegetarianism more as a matter of course and not immediately associate us with the most stereotypical hippie on television. 
On an interesting side not, if anyone here has read the series Animorphs, I was rereading some of the books a while back and realized that Cassie is a vegetarian. They never say it, but she's portrayed as an animal lover (her mom is a vet, her dad owns a wildlife rehabilitation center, and she takes after both of them) and they very subtly portrayed her vegetarianism in lines like this (paraphrased): "Four burgers and a veggie wrap for Cassie." They don't have to make a big deal about it and it doesn't matter if anyone notices, but some people will and it's just a part of the character's background. It would be even more obvious on TV, when you could see that one person is eating something different, and it could be referenced to in dialogue without anyone making it into an issue.

karenlovessnow · Dec 5, 2006

I think ER wrote a doctor into the script who's vegan.

Jessica Alana · Dec 5, 2006

Darlene on Roseanne. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/smitten.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title=":smitten:"> (not in the way that SHE likes girls, of course...)

Sevenseas · Dec 5, 2006

Will & Grace, noooo.... The most annoying show on TV. <div class="quote-container">Quote:
<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by misq17 <a href="/forum/post/0"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style=""></a> 
Then again, if characters on tv are veg*n but not pushy or "hippy" about it how would you as a viewer know about their veg*nism and how would it effect their character? Why would anyone care?</div>
</div>
 
I think characters have various traits that do not have to affect their character: Christianity, being a businessman, being a Republican, etc. The traits may come up sometimes but they don't have to influence everything they do. 
Moreover, there are plenty of ways how someone's veg*nism can be relevant to the series without the veg*n being a flip-floppy hippy or a tattooed anarchist. The whole Simpsons episode about Lisa the vegetarian used veg*nism as a springboard to make various jokes or funny observations, without having to rely on stereotypes.

sarahvma · Dec 5, 2006

<div class="quote-container">Quote:
<div class="quote-block">I think ER wrote a doctor into the script who's vegan.</div>
</div>
 
Ironically I think that was the character that Jorja Fox played - the woman who now plays Sara on CSI. lol.

Joe · Apr 24, 2012

I was flipping through the channels and saw part of an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger. Walker has a partner named Jimmy Trivette who is a vegetarian. (Trivette is black, so a "double minority" in a sense.) 
In the episode I saw today, the restaurant/bar owner, CD, had cooked up some "vegetarian" chili for Trivette. Walker tasted it and told CD it "tastes meaty." CD then admitted he had put some pork lard in it. Walker said that's meat. CD then argued about this, with Walker arguing the vegetarian position while CD said it was just a "meat byproduct" so OK.

I Heart Corey Haim!! · Apr 24, 2012

Rules of Engagement Audrey is eating Veggie to he healthier. 
peace, love and nirvana<img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/smiley.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="

">

Fromper · Apr 25, 2012

Holy thread necros, Batman!!! 
--Fromper <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/juggle.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title=":juggle:">

LedBoots · Apr 26, 2012

<div class="quote-container">Quote:
<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by Joe <a href="/forum/post/3146159"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style=""></a> 
I was flipping through the channels and saw part of an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger. Walker has a partner named Jimmy Trivette who is a vegetarian. (Trivette is black, so a "double minority" in a sense.) 
In the episode I saw today, the restaurant/bar owner, CD, had cooked up some "vegetarian" chili for Trivette. Walker tasted it and told CD it "tastes meaty." CD then admitted he had put some pork lard in it. Walker said that's meat. CD then argued about this, with Walker arguing the vegetarian position while CD said it was just a "meat byproduct" so OK.</div>
</div>
 
Norris should have kicked his ass! <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/grin.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="

">

Vegetarians on TV

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Not such a Beginner ;)