Innocent Essay on Vegan Ideals Somehow Makes Natalie Portman a Rape Apologist
Classy, Attack of the Clones-surviving ingenue Natalie Portman is everyone's unimpeachable dream girl, but apparently the actress has an inner vegan activist waiting to get out (I blame you for this, Devendra Banhart). In a HuffPo editorial, Portman wrote today about how a read of Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals turned her from a timid vegetarian to an ardent vegan who's not afraid to confront her meat-eating friends. Though such a sentiment might be a little insufferable in a "Williamsburg sliding scale" kind of way, somehow, online pundits have divined from this fairly unremarkable argument that Portman loves rape, or something.
Here's the key passage:
I say that Foer's ethical charge against animal eating is brave because not only is it unpopular, it has also been characterized as unmanly, inconsiderate, and juvenile. But he reminds us that being a man, and a human, takes more thought than just "This is tasty, and that's why I do it." He posits that consideration, as promoted by Michael Pollan in The Omnivore's Dilemma, which has more to do with being polite to your tablemates than sticking to your own ideals, would be absurd if applied to any other belief (e.g., I don't believe in rape, but if it's what it takes to please my dinner hosts, then so be it).
So, despite the fact that Natalie Portman is clearly quoting a Jonathan Safran Foer quote of a Michael Pollan analogy, the following game of blog telephone occurred.
First, Portman's original HuffPo headline:
Then, Jezebel came up with a take:
E! took it from there:
And Oh No They Didn't brought it home:
In conclusion, because Portman is a vegan who's quoting someone else thirdhand, she clearly loves rape, hopes that meat eaters always get raped, and fought hard for the inclusion of a rape subplot in Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. Got it. Nobody tell these people that she signed the Team Polanski letter, OK?
Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals Turned Me Vegan [HuffPo]
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Comments
Anyone who has eaten Kogi truck spicy pork tacos clearly knows what it's like to have been raped.
The way I read that paragraph, she's the one making the equation.
Michael Pollan promoted polite consideration of one's tablemates over one's ideals when it comes to meat eating. Jonathan Safran Foer posits that this is wrong and that this politeness would be absurd if it where applied to any other situation. It is Portman who then makes the comparison to tolerating rape for the sake of politeness.
She may be quoting something Foer wrote in his book, but it certainly isn't in his NY Times essay.
this has to be the best comment in the history of comments
Ummm no. You are completely missing the point here. Nobody said Ms. Portman loves rape (although she seems support rapists who can help her career out), people are upset because she compared eating meat to supporting rape. It is completely offensive not only to those who do eat meat but to rape survivors.
Did you completely miss this sentence. These are Portman's own words.
e.g., I don’t believe in rape, but if it’s what it takes to please my dinner hosts, then so be it.
She was trying to come up with an edgy comparison and while she may not have wanted to offend anyone she did. So no one needs to lighten up. Ms Portman needs to gain some more knowledge on the crime of rape because it is in no way comparable to the eating of animals, and the simple fact Ms. Portman does view it as such shows alot about her views on the crime.
I second that emotion.
Absolutely amazing to see that twisted like that, and a perfect example of one thing massively wrong with our world. Of course, the same practice is exactly what Fox "News" does with every "news report" they cover, only they do all the twisting themselves.
Portman is about a thousand times more intelligent than most people- of course, in our current society that's not saying much.
have you read the comments at ONTD? they know she's a polanski supporter.
"I don’t believe in rape, but if it’s what it takes to please my dinner hosts, then so be it"
No matter whose quote it is, if you swap "dinner hosts" for "academy members", this could explain her signing that Free Polanski petition.
"Portman is about a thousand times more intelligent than most people- of course, in our current society that's not saying much."
And where is your proof of this? No one may have told you this but your opinions don't count as fact. And before you jump on the "she went to an Ivy league college" train just remember G.W. Bush also went to an Ivy league college.
I don't believe in being vegan, but if that's what it takes to please my Natalie Portman, then so be it.
...I'm sorry, where am I?
No, maybe you need to know more about eating meat. You may need to see this from the perspective of a vegan who acknowledges animals' equal right to dignity.
Try to weigh the trauma of being locked up your entire life under inhumane conditions before being slaughtered against the trauma of rape.
People offended by Portman's comment could be seen as on par with a white man getting offended by the suggestion that a Cambodian child losing a leg in war is on par with a white child breaking their leg on dangerous play equipment.
Seriously though, I think we should engage in Portman's article as it was meant to be engaged: a suggestion that we take seriously the ethics of what we eat. Turning this into a game of ranking various traumas is reactionary nonsense.
We understand your position and we reject it wholeheartedly. No amount of wanky comparisons are going to change anyone's mind.
No, people who are offended by her comment should be seen as rational, logical people who see a disconnect between her saying that you wouldn't condone rape just to be polite when she signed a petition for keeping a child rapist free just because he's a director. She has no business talking about how immoral rape is at all. It doesn't matter that she wasn't actually making a comparison between eating meat and rape; her statement was still idiotic in light of her recent actions.
Confused. None of those articles seems to remotely imply that Portman approves of rape.
I don't give a meat-eating shit about what Natalie Portman thinks of my position on the food chain.
When she was in Harvard she smoked weed everyday.
She cheated every test and snorted all the yay.
She's got a def posse, you've got a bunch of dudes.
She'll sit right down on your face, and take a shit.
In summation, she never said she was a role model.
Who is this "we" you refer to? The Borg collective?
You want proof? American Idol is going on its ninth season. Mmmkay?
Non-vegans, dummy. Now get in my stewpot.
portman should tell the 15 year old girl in SFO who was gang raped for 2 1/2 hours outside a school dance, because nobody reported it until another woman called the cops - who arrived to find the rape still in progress, that she knows exactly how she feels every time i eat a ham sandwich.
that would go over really well i think.
equating the moral dilemma of vegetarian/vegan-ism with forcible sodomy is such a brave stance. kudos to you nat!
/end sarcasm
Eh. I just generally don't think she's as smart or as right as she thinks she is...
But, hey, neither am I. So, we're cool.
I could not agree more, Brad. Brilliantly put. Be prepared to get hammered on by those who don't have the courage to look closely at their own behavior. Yet. 🙂
Eating meat is socially acceptable in our society as a whole.
Rape is not.
If that changes, and eating meat becomes punishable by law, then I could see using the analogy.
Otherwise there is no correlation whatsoever.
Find another analogy.
As I consider eating meat AND rape completely offensive, I know exactly what she means, i.e., that it's somehow expected of courteous vegans (who, tragically, are still considered laughable in many circles, even by the author of this article) that we serve meat and other animal fare to our flesh-addicted dinner guests and not "offend" them by forcing vegan entrees; which is philosophically akin to inviting rapists to the dinner table even if you're ethically against rape (and who isn't, except the rapist himself)?
Serving meat to friends is as offensive as serving any food to rapists would be. It's quite possible she's done both, and knows what she's talking about. It's about suppressing strong ethical objections to someone's behavior for the sake of civility.
Even if I disagree, I fail to see how she's condoning rape. Analogies don't work that way, and I'd think journalists have a better command of grammar.
Seriously, get a clue. She's a vegan. If you're going to stereotype, at least use the right bag of stereotypes.
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