Some people are vegetarians for the environment, some for the animals, some because meat grosses them out. Either way, dietary preferences should be respected.
And, they shouldn’t be thrown at someone’s face.
Redditor Ok-Pressure-7458 encountered this very issue with her friend. So she turned to the “Am I The A**hole” (AITA) subReddit for moral judgment.
She asked:
“AITA for being a ‘sensitive vegetarian?'”
The Original Poster (OP) explained:
“So, I (20F) went out to eat lunch with a few of my friends (20F, 20M, and 21M).”
“I am a vegetarian and they all eat meat which I am absolutely fine with, and I eat eggs as well. Now in all honesty, meat (or rather the idea of eating meat) grosses me out.”
“I was raised vegetarian and still am even though I have the choice not to be, because my family gets grossed out by it and so do I, so I’ve never had any desire to have anything to do with meat.”
“However, I also grew up around a lot of meat eating friends, which was perfectly fine with all of us, to each their own. Plus I have a dog and we give her regular dog food.”
OP explained the main issue.
“Now one of my friends does this thing where he likes to start ‘mini food fights’ where he essentially tears off a bit of whatever he’s eating and starts throwing it at people.”
“Today he was eating a chicken sandwich and thought it would be funny to start throwing it around again and I asked him repeatedly not to, as I didn’t want any to get on me. I have no issues with being in such close proximity with meat, as long as it’s going into their mouths and not mine!”
“He scoffed and said I needed to lighten up and then immediately threw a piece at my face, which hit my mouth and fell into my lap. It was wet and had some kind of meat sauce on it.”
OP was not happy.
“I freaked out and blew up at him and nearly started crying, because it was so gross.”
“Not trying to offend anyone here, again I have zero problems with people eating meat, but let’s be real, it’s a dead animal. My rules for meat are I don’t want it touching me, I don’t want to serve it to people (for religious reasons, it’s sort of like ‘encouraging’ people to eat meat idrk) and I don’t want it eaten under my roof.”
“He knew about the first one especially as I’ve already told him before not to do this.”
“So after I blew up I went home and scrubbed and scrubbed but I couldn’t get the taste or the smell off and I was really pissed, just fuming. Ten minutes later I get a call from my other friend and she says I overreacted.”
“Am I the a**hole?”
Redditors gave their opinions on the situation by declaring:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
Most Redditors agreed OP was not the a**hole.
“NTA. He was being an absolute jerk. You probably were a little on the sensitive side, but you had strong provocation.”
“Take the vegetarian aspect out. Imagine you just really loathe okra and your friend is eating it and thinks it would be funny to throw some at you. That’s childish and a**holish.”
“Anyone older than 6 who thinks a food fight is funny is an AH. It’s gross and makes a mess that other people have to clean up.”
“ETA: my reason for taking the vegetarian aspect out was to show that even without that, the dude’s an AH.”
“Not to discount it as a factor. I expected more people to tell OP to get over it because sometimes the anti-veg people come out with knives sharpened. When you take into account the whole scenario, the guy’s an AH with extra AH sauce.” ~ NoiseProvesNothing
“Yep, I hate this sh*t.”
“‘You overreacted,’ piss off, she shouldn’t have needed to react at all, she wasn’t stopping him doing anything except throwing food at her, and she warned him, he did it just to be an AH, so her reaction is irrelevant. So is her being vegetarian.”
“Edited for civility. 😂” ~ The-Emerald-Bar
Many vegetarians gave their opinion.
“Can’t speak for OP specifically but…meat doesn’t appeal to many of us. Many vegetarians and vegans find it gross, to put it bluntly.”
“Maybe for you, if it’s not meat, but something else you find gross or unappealing, you’d probably have a similar urge.” ~ Leaf_Warrior
“This nails it, I can’t get behind the idea.”
“Ironically, I find I like watching cooking shows with meat being cooked, I just never see plant based foods sizzle like that. 😂” ~ Ok-Pressure-7458
“Imagine a corpse whacking you in the mouth. That’s what it’s like.” ~ tinyriiiiiiiiick_
“I’ve never eaten meat before, a lot of vegetarians are newly converted, so to speak, and generally don’t mind it at all.”
“My family has shaped my outlook on it to an extent, and that’s the reason for my aversion. I don’t make a distinction between a dead animal and, say, a corpse.”
“Also why I hate when people joke about East Asians being ‘dog eaters’ and why even if they did eat dogs, I wouldn’t see it as outrageous or anything like that.”
“A dead dog is no different in my eyes from a dead pig, cow, etc.” ~ Ok-Pressure-7458
OP added an edit.
“Edit: the overwhelming consensus has been NTA and I’m grateful for that, I think I’m gonna go it alone until I find new friends.”
“However, a large number of you are sort of blowing it out of proportion with the good fight aspect of it, I said ‘mini food fight’ for a reason. It was a small piece, and the entire reason for my reaction was that I have an aversion to meat.”
“Some people in the comments said it best; picture a dead rat or a corpse, that’s exactly how it feels for me. He purposely chose to throw meat at me and not like a fry or something because of this.”
“Saying that the vegetarian aspect is irrelevant completely discounts my situation, IMO.”
Also, it’s a waste of food.