Meat-plugging vegetarian nominated for sexiest vegetarian award
Can you promote eating Dutch smoked sausage as a vegetarian? The animal activists at Wakker Dier don’t seem to have a problem with that. Jan Vayne, currently the main celebrity plugging Unox smoked sausage on television, was nominated as one of the sexiest vegetarians of the Netherlands. (Personally, I would vote for columnist Leon Verdonschot, but that’s just me.)
On the list of Dutch celebrities that claim not to eat meat, the description of Vayne reads “With his wild hair, Jan Vayne would rather sit at the piano keyboard than sit down for a plate of dead animal.” If I remember correctly, he made it pretty clear more than a year ago that sitting down for a plate of dead animal was mmm mmm profitable. You don’t see him eating any sausage on television though.
Wakker Dier is very much against the bad bad bad meat industry, but not when it comes to their annual most sexy vegetarian contest, which is quite odd. Both Wakker Dier and the Netherlands’ political party Partij voor de Dieren (Party for the Animals) held a huge campaign last year against Unox because they use pork from pigs that were not castrated under anaesthesia.
I once had a boss who claimed and acted superior because he did not eat meat, but showed up at work once, back from visiting the United States with fire engine red snake skin boots. They had midlife crisis part deux written all over them. When I told this to my best friend she said, “he doesn’t eat animals, he just wears them”.
(Link and photo: vleesmagazine.nl)
I am reminded of something a comedian once said (I can’t remember which one): “When’s the last time you saw a happy vegetarian?”
Humans are omnivores. We eat plants and meat. Sure the meat-industry could do with some cleaning-up, but I’ll never even consider giving up eating meat.
My problem is this obssession with talking about what someone does not eat, never mind the acting superior part. I have decent, happy vegetarian friends and they have other subjects of conversation. Some of them are even slightly overweight.
There are 2 issues here: 1) the value of a personal ethic/lifestyle (vegetarianism) which permits promoting eating meat, despite not being a consumer of it, and 2) how closely people (in this case, Jan Vayne) live up to an ethic of “cruelty-free” living, to which they claim to subscribe.
Re 1): I think that an ethical approach to reducing animal cruelty that prohibits eating meat, but allows you to promote the consumption of meat is incomplete, in so far as you encourage others to consume meat and contribute to the ongoing use of animals for that purpose.
Re 2): If someone is not living up to their ethical standards, then it can be for a variety of reasons such as financial gain (Jan Vayne), plain old laziness, lack of resourcefulness, whatever… Perhaps, also they are taking a staged approach to a change that is challenging in an environment so saturated with animal products. If that is your concern, then you may as well ask why Christians sometimes lie, although that violates one of the ten commandments… or why cops sometimes commit crimes, or why some doctors smoke… human nature, I guess.
I agree with you. Again, the clincher is not the vegetarian man in a meat eating commercial, that’s not a problem for me. My problem is the animal activists denouncing Unix and sanctioning someone who promotes them when it suits their purpose.
[…] but he does eat chicken every once in a while, as apparently shown on television. Vayne was nominated as one of the sexiest vegetarians of the Netherlands, but as far as I can read, he does not qualify. He also claims not to take the […]
Dietary neurosis is counterrevolutionary.