Okay, I don’t *hate* Natalie Portman. I’ve always thought she was a mediocre actor, but I had nothing against her personally. But I couldn’t get through the piece she wrote for HuffPo yesterday because it pissed me off so much. I’m talking flames shooting up the sides of my face like Madeleine Kahn in “Clue.”
Portman, a long-time vegetarian, writes that she’s now a vegan, and will henceforth be more vocal about her choice. Alright, whatever. Good for her. My concern about what other people can and can’t eat extends only to events where I’m providing the food, and that’s only because I don’t want anyone to starve. So I think the people Portman says “interrogate” her about being vegan are a-holes.
So, my frustration with this piece isn’t with Portman’s dietary choices. It’s with her sanctimonious tone. When Portman lectures us about the evils of factory farming, she comes across like an over-privileged twit.
Wow, Natalie, how did you find out about water-table pollution from hog farms in eastern North Carolina? Oh, that’s right… you read a book. No need to come down here and talk to people in the communities who are perfectly aware of where the dead fish are coming from, but who continue to support factory farms because they need paychecks. No need to examine the systemic problems that might cause a community to sell out their long-term health for a short-term economic gain. Oh, no, it’s much easier to pretend that those people are just evil and stupid, and to tell me once again about how Miss Piggy has a soul.
I have long-standing problems in general with affluent vegetarians who can’t seem to yank off their blinders to ask why people find it easier to eat high-fat, high-carb food. The same goes for the local-food and organic movements. We can debate which type of diet is healthier, which is better for our environment or best for the local economy. But we won’t get anywhere until we confront the reasons why, in much of this country, it’s easier to find a McDonald’s than a bunch of fresh asparagus.
Newsflash, Natalie: vegan food is expensive, and hard to come by if you don’t live in a large city. And for those of us with life-threatening allergies to nuts and soy, being vegan is pretty much an impossibility, despite one’s intentions.
One last thing… Portman writes that, for her, not speaking out about eating meat is ethically on par with not stopping a rape. Aside from the analogy’s poor taste (in light of the well-publicized gang rape of a teenager in California), it – assuming it accurately reflects Portman’s thinking – further reveals her utterly skewed perspective. By the way, she signed the “free Roman Polanski” petition, so as far as I’m concerned she can take her faulty rape analogy and go f*ck herself.
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