Vegetarianism and Fandom
There's this fic I've been slowly working on for the past six months or so- just occasionally pulling it out and adding in some detail. I'm still figuring out what story I want to tell. There's not even a proper draft yet - just notes, really - but it makes me really happy because I love the tropes in it. It's a story about growth and feelings and I'm not quite sure yet, but I like it. It's also, as of today, a story about vegetarianism.
That's something that I am: a vegetarian. I think this is the first time I've ever written about it, but I've been a vegetarian for longer than I've been in fandom, more than a decade. It's probably a big part of the reason I like bakery AUs better than chef AUs. I read a great fic last week that wasn't either of those things but was filled with all of these glorious descriptions of food, which I skimmed because none of the dishes were stuff that I'd eat. (I have very little interest in reading about someone cooking a turkey or whatever; that is really boring for me.)
Late last week I read a different fic, wherein confusion was expressed about what a vegan could eat for breakfast and I snorted. I'd had a piece of apple pie for breakfast that day, which, while not strict vegan, I hadn't used any eggs or milk to make. (It was delicious.)
Right now I've got two Teen Wolf stories open in my tabs and they both have a kind of vegetarian food is terrible; there should be meat line near the end. That's a coincidence and those lines feel pretty typical for Teen Wolf; real wolves eat a lot of meat and Sheriff Stilinski is seen despairing of his son's attempts to make him eat healthy on the show. I am sort of waiting for the fic where the werewolves express a preference for raw vegetables as well as raw meat, because that will amuse me.
The sort of recurring meme that vegetarian food is terrible I find less amusing, basically because there's this whole slew of anti-vegetarianism embedded in North American culture and I'm tired of it. I'm going to let you in on a little secret, though: when vegetarian food sucks it's for the same sorts of reasons that food with meat in it sometimes sucks. Often this reason is the cook doesn't really know what they're doing. I think that there are a lot of meat-eaters who aren't really incredible cooks and don't know how to compensate when they take the meat out of a dish and lose that fat and flavour; that's something that could contribute to that meme.
So essentially I hit a point today where there was a lot of glaring and grumbling and cursing and then I decided that I was going to write a fic where I described vegetarian food in loving detail because that is clearly the best sort of revenge, and, oh, isn't that character vegan; that is even better. I'm happy with this plan, basically - I like descriptions of food - I just really wish that there was less ridicule of vegetarianism in general but especially in fic; Fandom is my happy place.
This entry was originally posted at http://kiki-eng.dreamwidth.org/85777.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
That's something that I am: a vegetarian. I think this is the first time I've ever written about it, but I've been a vegetarian for longer than I've been in fandom, more than a decade. It's probably a big part of the reason I like bakery AUs better than chef AUs. I read a great fic last week that wasn't either of those things but was filled with all of these glorious descriptions of food, which I skimmed because none of the dishes were stuff that I'd eat. (I have very little interest in reading about someone cooking a turkey or whatever; that is really boring for me.)
Late last week I read a different fic, wherein confusion was expressed about what a vegan could eat for breakfast and I snorted. I'd had a piece of apple pie for breakfast that day, which, while not strict vegan, I hadn't used any eggs or milk to make. (It was delicious.)
Right now I've got two Teen Wolf stories open in my tabs and they both have a kind of vegetarian food is terrible; there should be meat line near the end. That's a coincidence and those lines feel pretty typical for Teen Wolf; real wolves eat a lot of meat and Sheriff Stilinski is seen despairing of his son's attempts to make him eat healthy on the show. I am sort of waiting for the fic where the werewolves express a preference for raw vegetables as well as raw meat, because that will amuse me.
The sort of recurring meme that vegetarian food is terrible I find less amusing, basically because there's this whole slew of anti-vegetarianism embedded in North American culture and I'm tired of it. I'm going to let you in on a little secret, though: when vegetarian food sucks it's for the same sorts of reasons that food with meat in it sometimes sucks. Often this reason is the cook doesn't really know what they're doing. I think that there are a lot of meat-eaters who aren't really incredible cooks and don't know how to compensate when they take the meat out of a dish and lose that fat and flavour; that's something that could contribute to that meme.
So essentially I hit a point today where there was a lot of glaring and grumbling and cursing and then I decided that I was going to write a fic where I described vegetarian food in loving detail because that is clearly the best sort of revenge, and, oh, isn't that character vegan; that is even better. I'm happy with this plan, basically - I like descriptions of food - I just really wish that there was less ridicule of vegetarianism in general but especially in fic; Fandom is my happy place.
This entry was originally posted at http://kiki-eng.dreamwidth.org/85777.html. Please comment there using OpenID.