Uglitarians or uglivores?
I need some help here. I just came up with the word “uglitarian” for those vegetarians who eat “just this” or “just that”. This or that is never anything big and cute, like a cow, or a horse, or George Clooney. It’s always something small and basically ugly. It’s the same idea that says butterflies are to be eased out of the window, but it’s okay to stamp on a bug.
Now, I should say here I’m not a vegan so I do my share of “bad stuff” even in my own eyes: the dairy industry’s not a great thing to support, and all those dead calves haunt me on bad days when I stop to think about it (so mostly I try not to). So I’m not judging here, I’m observing, commenting, wondering… it’s interesting don’t you think? Even people who feel strongly that eating “anything with a face” (a common veggie phrase) is wrong, find it’s okay to eat shellfish, for example.
There’s an interesting part of the human psyche that associates value with looks. Is it all connected with sex somehow? If it’s not, Freudians will say it is anyway, so lets go with that for a moment… we like people who are good looking, and the gene pool thanks us for our preference: decent looks usually mean sound, healthy stock. So how does that spread to our preferences in the animal world? The thing about liking kittens and puppies is all down to our built-in need to care for the young: big eyes, soft features, helplessness = look after me, and our own babies benefit from the general trend. But big animals like cows, sheep, horses… I don’t think most of us want to have sex with it, or parent it (though exceptions no doubt exist in both cases!) So what is it that makes eating prawns okay when eating lamb isn’t?
It’s not an intelligence level thing. More people are squeamish about eating rabbit than they are pork (outwith religious constraints) and would probably tuck into grilled octopus rather than a whole red snapper that was “looking at them”, but pigs and octopi are amongst the brightest members of the animal kingdom. Perfectly capable of giving your pet dog a run for its money. So it seems like it comes back to looks. But why?
Like I say, I don’t judge. I’m not an evangelical veggie and believe strongly that people need to make their own choices - though I prefer them to be as well-informed as possible - so I’m not saying anything beyond: it’s interesting, isn’t it?
Oh, and sorry yes, I wanted help. The question is: uglitarian? uglivores? What do you call somebody who is mostly vegetarian apart from eating a few ugly things that only their mothers could love? Apart from normal? ;o)
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