I was raised vegetarian, and as such it was normal to me and my brother. My mom did it for environmental reason because she is fucking awesome and I have decided to stay vegetarian as an adult.
It was around 10 when I started encountering this oddness. I would be at a friend’s house, they would offer to give me food, I would say I’m vegetarian, and they would act like I was an alien or make comments about my parents being abusive to me. And then as I got older I got all these comments about me not being a man because I don’t eat meat.
For fucks sake, being a man doesn’t mean conformity. As far as I can understand, it means being brave enough to not give in to stupid gender norms and to find out who you are for yourself.
Of course the people who made the most asshole type comments were always right-wingers, too. What a surprise!