Today I saw "Julie and Julia", with Amy Adams and Meryl Streep. Both gave lovely performances; it was a very sweet, and touching movie overall. I give it 9 of 13 stars, if anyone is interested...
I noticed, however, my (literally) physical reaction the first time in the movie they showed the character Julie preparing a whole chicken for dinner. It occurred to me there was going to be a LOT of meat eaters in this film, and I had to tell myself to let it go and focus on the story. It was hard, admittedly, especially when they were eating chicken and duck and working with the whole bird. I kept thinking to myself, "How can these people not see this creature for what it is (was)? How can directions from a cookbook that read, 'feel the knife scraping the bone' not freak someone out?"
And the scene where Julie must prepare lobster? Holy crap. In the beginning of the scene, she's (understandably) appalled at the idea of steaming the crustaceans alive... but she can't bring herself to sticking a knife in their heads, so she ends up throwing all three in a pot of boiling water. She can't even watch herself toss these creatures to their death, but she does it, millions do. For the sake of taste.
Don't misunderstand, I watch people eat meat all the time. And I realize this movie was ABOUT cooking (French cooking, specifically), but it got me thinking about what we see in the media about vegetarianism.
Who are the vegetarians we know best from TV? The two that come to mind first for me is "Phoebe" from Friends, and "Lisa" from Six Feet Under. Phoebe was the lovable ditz; the new-age, hippie massage therapist that only occasionally mentioned her vegetarianism, until the season she had the triplets, and decided they "wanted" meat. Oh, NBC... you almost had it. Next up? Lisa was actually an intelligent character; a vegan chef. She was also pegged as "new-agey", but Lili Taylor played Lisa in a way that you felt she had made an informed decision about animial cruelty and her own health... Until, of course-she got pregnant. I remember watching the episode that she was eating meat "protein for the baby", and almost fell over from the disappointment (HBO... I love Six Feet Under-this was my only complaint; but a BIG one).
***Don't even get me started veganism and pregnancy. Of COURSE you can have a healthy pregnancy without animal products... hmm. Just had an idea for another post, but another day.***
Am I leaving out any famous Veg*n characters? Any others you can think of? Any veg*ns that aren't depicted as flakey? I'd love to hear your comments on this.
I look forward to the day that the entertainment industry can depict vegetarianism not as a character quirk, but instead as something to be admired... or even, as something NORMAL. Vegans are some of the strongest, most determined, and mindful people I know. I say we show the world!
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