Men, are you brave? Brave enough to order a vegetarian dish ?

“ Scientists from the University of Southampton found even men who dislike meat or are unable to eat it for health reasons find it difficult to pick a vegetarian or vegan dish from a menu for fear of being ridiculed.” Stunned right? As ridiculous as this finding may sound, there is no denying that society always comes up with a newer and trivial way to judge people. After all, society needs a constant supply of entertainment to live on.
Who knew there would come a time, among millions of ways our men can exhibit “bravery”, one would be choosing a vegetarian dish at a hangout.
Nepal, Vegetarianism and Males !
In a common Nepali household, there has always been a widespread discussion around someone’s decision to give up meat. There are hundreds of questions and speculations surrounding the decision. “S/He won’t continue”, “Can you really live without meat?”, “You aren’t that old to give up meat !”, “Why don’t you become a Sadhu/Mahatma? ” etc.

These are the questions that a male faces constantly throughout the years. Females rarely get these kinds of expressions on their decision to give up meat options. It is insane to think about the food choices being a topic of discussion. It is even sadder to think about the “Gender” discussion surrounding a lifestyle decision.
We are all guilty !
We all have a friend or two whose food choices are different from ours or let’s just say they chose a better lifestyle than ours. Or maybe they never came across the taste of chicken. Either way, They chose to be vegetarians. But honestly speaking we all expressed a subtle(if not dramatic) judgement in the tone of our voices when they first revealed their food choices to us. And among those friends, some were males and we expressed a bigger astonishment when they revealed their food choices. I am guilty of this. I was once surprised when i got to know one of the “carefree/cooler” guys in our friend circle was a vegetarian. Because we think the ‘decent/nicer’ guys are vegetarians and the ‘cooler/louder’ ones who exhibit the characteristic of Alpha males are meat lovers. Its amazing how our society gets into our thinking. We are born judgemental.

Reality!
Should this even be a thing? The discussions and articles surrounding a mere lifestyle choice or a food habit? Is this even a reality? What do my male counterparts think about it? This article is triggered by a research carried out in the British society. Is this apt in our daily life? These are all the questions that shouldn’t be answered by a single person. This is something that should be concluded by a wider and wiser audiences it reaches.