Myth #5: All Vegans Are a Bunch of Weak/Pacifist/Hippie PUSSIES!

Right from the start, just from the language, we can see how veganism is equated with anti-masculinity. Meat = manly. Vegetables = womanly (pussy). Womanly = inferior. Moving along before I go into another feminist rant...

If I have to hear the "Hey, what's the deal with vegetarians/vegans being so pale and sickly lookin'?" trope out of another person's mouth I swear I'm going to start shoving zucchinis down their throat just to get them to shut the hell up. According to these people, vegans, especially the men (remember, they still want to fuck the PETA girls), are particularly weak and unhealthy. Because we are such weak little pansies, their logic goes, we must also be a bunch of  bunny-hugging peaceniks that wouldn't even dare lift a finger to save ourselves from a bear attack for fear of injuring the bear. We all sit around in drum circles wearing our hemp jewelry and white-people-dreadlocks and sing songs about the plight of Mother Nature in the hopes it will raise a positive energy field that will impact the collective subconscious. Or some such New Age hippie nonsense.

I would just like to say right now that, personally, I am an atheist with non-pacifistic ideologies (because, dammit, sometimes there IS a reason for violence, but it should only be a last resort) who likes to lift weights and listen to German Industrial music. I wear steel-toed boots just in case I need to kick someone's face in on the street (I live in an area that has a large population of violent meth-heads). I am not a fragile little flower.

And neither are these people:

These guys can be found at http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/. A lot of them compete professionally and have won many competitions. But, you know, you simply can't be manly (or a kick-ass muscle-bound Amazon woman!) if you're vegan!

That's Cattle Decapitation. They're a deathgrind band that's been around for about 15 years or so and are pretty damn popular for their genre. They've toured with Gwar (which is the next best thing to actually being Gwar). And they're all vegan/vegetarian.

The Agonist is an up-and-coming death metal band from Canada fronted by the vegan Alissa White-Gluz. But, you know... They probably wear tie-die when no one's looking.

And let's not forget Mike Tyson, who's been vegan for 2 years now and is in the best shape he's been in since quitting boxing.

I might come back and add more to this when I have the time.