What It's Like to be a Vegetarian

In advanced Western societies, it has become increasingly difficult for people to understand what it feels like to be a vegetarian. Eating meat is the height of civilized accomplishment for societies at the top of the economic pyramid. Vegetarians just can't seem to appreciate one of the major accomplishments of sustained economic growth. Last night, I saw the film August: Osage County and I found the perfect scene (the "Fear Clip" above) to help people understand what it's like to be a vegetarian in an advanced society of meat eaters.

Let me first set the scene: The Weston family has just settled down for a family diner in rural Pawhuska, Oklahoma. The family patriarch, poet Beverly Weston (Same Shepard), has committed suicide and the diner is being held after the funeral. Daughter Barbara Weston (Julia Roberts) is seen sitting to the left of her daughter Jean (Abigail Breslin). Abigail is asked why she is a vegetarian by relative Charles Aiken (Chris Cooper). The scene shows 14-year-old Jean trying to defend herself against the derision and mockery of the entire family.

This is what it is like to be a vegetarian in the US. You are perpetually at a table surrounded by the meanest, nastiest family imaginable ("meanness" is a constant theme throughout this dark movie). No one at the table has ever read the China Study and would ever think to question the necessity of having meat at every meal of the day, every day of their lives (Barbara screams at her mother, played by Meril Streep, in another lunch scene to "Eat the fish, Bitch"). As she grows up, teenager Jean will certainly loose this battle; at least her family will make sure she doesn't succeed. For this evening's meal, she handled herself amazingly well.