What is a “true” vegetarian? :

• In this paper I reflect on a preliminary analysis of discussions in an online Q&A (Yahoo! Answers) about “true” ways of being a vegetarian. From the search term “why vegetarian” I sampled the first 100 threads that fitted my inclusion criteria, i.e., threads that clearly discussed vegetarianism in relation to food (most excluded threads were judged to be troll threads posted as provocations), corresponding to 198 webpages. From this sample, my focus was on a sub-sample of threads discussing the eating of (i) fish, (ii) eggs and (iii) meat substitutes (often referred to as “fake meat”). Based on my analysis, I discuss the boundary work performed by the participants and argue, in relation a rather comprehensive literature suggesting that vegetarianism is a highly ambiguous term, that the boundaries drawn up are in fact quite clear and expressed with certainty and sometimes even aggressively. The discussions thus reveal an interactive dynamic in which some participants assume the role of telling the others what being a vegetarian or a vegan truly entails, and why others are wrong.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Kostvetenskap

Food, Nutrition and Dietetics

Sociologi

Sociology

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)