A comment to my last post made me realize I'm not quite done yet with addressing TV. First, I goofed, as there are currently two minor bisexual characters in mainstream TV today (House and Grey's Anatomy). Wow--two! And I also remember bisexuality being dealt with on Sex and the City, but was shocked because for a show that supposedly dealt with sexuality in such a frank manner, they perpetuated almost every single stereotype of bisexuality still out there; bisexuals are fence-sitters, and bisexuality is a brief experimental phase before coming out as gay, to name just two. Mind you, I thought the gay male characters on that show were treated as practically just another accessory for the female characters anyway, so I suppose I shouldn't have been too surprised.
But back to vegans! I forgot to mention I heard somewhere that if you haven't been spoofed on SNL, The Simpsons, or South Park, then you haven't quite made it yet. South Park was never my cup of tea, and I haven't watched SNL for years (although watching clips of Tina Fey doing Sarah Palin was priceless), but The Simpsons I always liked. Unfortunately, without cable (and now TV) I haven't been able to watch them either, so I Googled, and what do you know--Lisa went vegetarian way back in 1995! Where was I? Oh, and Apu is vegan. Still, not enough spoofing going on yet, snort.
Another part of the comment suggested that it would be interesting to see what influence things like orientation, gender, marital status, religion, education, race, and travel have on becoming vegan. I completely agree, especially because unlike some of the above factors, becoming vegan is usually a choice, and that makes me wonder if being a member of one minority group affects a person's decision to become part of another. But even the other variables would be fascinating to look at, so I'm going to see if I can find any statistics out there. A sociology of veganism and vegan identity, hmmm, makes me want to go back to school!
