Natalie Portman Compares Eating Meat to Rape

Oh come on, Natalie

We absolutely love Natalie Portman. Love her. But her recent comments on eating meat are kind of annoying us. It's one thing to be a vegetarian; it's another to talk about eating meat in terms of rape.

Natalie Portman is a Harvard graduate and known animal rights activist and vegan. We totally respect that. But now that she's talking about meat-eaters in a horrid way, we're starting to get annoyed. We don't mind her sharing her opinions, but please remember that everyone is different!

She starts of nicely enough by saying, "I've always been shy about being critical of others' choices because I hate when people do that to me... I'm often interrogated about being vegetarian (e.g., 'What if you find out that carrots feel pain, too? Then what'll you eat?')" Sounds sweet, right? We can all respect each other's choices and we all do what we think is right for us.

Not so fast, though. Despite saying, "I've also been afraid to feel as if I know better than someone else," after reading Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals, she realizes that "some things are just wrong."

And then she gets quite controversial and says, "consideration…which has more to do with being polite to your tablemates than sticking to your own ideals, would be absurd if applied to any other belief (e.g., I don't believe in rape, but if that's what it takes to please my dinner hosts, then so be it)."

Um, OK, Miss Natalie. We think you've gone one step too far by comparing eating meat to rape. We get that she's just trying to tell people not to be passive about their views. But this comparison is just too ridiculous. Plenty of good, moral people eat meat. Do you consider any rapists to be moral people? Remember earlier this year when Natalie called the recession "exciting"? We know she doesn't mean harm, but she needs to think before she speaks sometimes.

What do you think of Natalie Portman's comparison of meat-eating to rape?