ImpostorMom

The husband and I watch this show called 30 days. It’s done by that guy that ate McDonald’s for 30 days, Morgan Spurlock. Sometimes he’s in it, sometimes he’s not. Anyway the premise is that someone does something for 30 days that is outside their normal realm of experience. Usually it is polar opposite. So far this season we’ve had 30 days of coal mining, living in a wheelchair, and animal rights activism. Tonight we get 30 days of same-sex parenting.

These shows always provoke the most interesting conversations between myself and my husband and luckily we are most often on the same side of the fence. I’m looking forward to watching tonight’s show (tomorrow or Thursday with the power of Tivo, of course) but I am also anticipating some uncomfortable moments just having watched the previews.

Last week’s show took an avid hunter and plopped him down in LA with a family of vegan, PETA activists. I can sort of see both sides of that coin. I think it helped that the hunter was also a nature and animal lover, and I do think it is possible to be both. I didn’t always feel this way but I have friends that I know to be both. We learned a lot from that particular episode. For instance, I never knew that farm animals are not protected by the same animal cruelty laws as other animals.

The episodes I enjoy the most are when both parties walk away having learned a little bit about what it is like from someone else’s point of view. The hunter in last week’s episode did come away having learned a few things about animal rights. That’s not to say that he’s going to become a vegetarian but I think he may make some different decisions at the grocery store. I know I did this weekend when I went shopping.

The husband and I talked a lot about our own lives and how we contribute or don’t contribute to the issue of animal rights and specifically farm animals. We have both been vegetarians at one point in our lives for one reason or another. I have no desire to be a vegetarian again, I like meat and I don’t think it is entirely unnatural or cruel to eat an animal. However, the things we saw on that show about factory farming were sad and disturbing.

It made me seek out meat that was labeled “Organic and free-range.” I already buy organic eggs and milk. Yes the organic stuff is more expensive but I feel like that is our part we can do to support such a cause. At least we know the chicken on our plate was a happy chicken at one time, not crammed into one of those tiny cages I see on the back of trucks being driven to the processing plant. Maybe I’m deluding myself and that really isn’t anything to take note of but I felt as if I was helping.

There was one thing about that particular episode that really bothered me. There was a woman who ran a farm for rescued livestock from factory farms. A very good cause. But she kept making the analogy to the hunter that an animal was no different than a human and the factory farming industry was just like the Holocaust and the Nazis. I am not Jewish but I found that to be an incredibly offensive statement.

I love animals just as much as the next person but I do believe there is a difference between an animal and a person. That doesn’t mean animals don’t have rights but to compare something as horrible as the Holocaust to the factory farming industry just seemed like a cheap attempt at shock value and it made me respect that women a little less.

As far as tonight’s episode goes, it will be interesting to watch I’m sure. I wonder how pissed off I’m going to get at the close mindedness of this week’s subject. Maybe she’ll surprise me and actually see that any family, regardless of its composition, can be a loving place to raise a child. I sure hope so. At least it’s TV that makes me think. :)