Natalie Portman Likens Eating Meat to Rape in Article

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Natalie Portman is as fierce as her fuschia lipstick when it comes to her arguments against eating meat. She's a known activist and wrote a Harvard-esque piece for the Huffington Post that went up today on how Jonathan Safran Foer's book Eating Animals led her to make the leap from being a 20-year vegetarian to an all-out vegan. But, what starts off as a nice essay about her love of four-legged friends quickly makes a turn for the, uh, not-so-nice when she likens eating meat to rape. Yes, rape.

Natalie Portman. (Getty Images)
She wrote: "[Foer] posits that 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)."

Her argument was getting at that people shouldn't just eat meat at dinner parties because that's what's expected of them, and that's what the host cooked, because it's that sort of passiveness that also leads to the breaking of morality and ideals, and sexual assault. Some would say she took it a little far.

There have been a few fiery responses posted since the actress' diatribe went up today, arguing that Portman hugely belittles the seriousness of rape, and is oversimplifying the case against meat, too.

A writer on Jezebel.com responded to the star's piece, saying she highly doubts the actress is trying to discount the severity of sex crimes, but, she writes: "Portman's words make me angry. Women are not the same as pigs, and while I wouldn't befriend a known rapist, most of my friends eat meat, and I consider them good, moral people."

Portman also talks about the environmental impact of factory farming animals, and the disease and pollution that stem from it, and closes by re-posing a question about how we define ourselves.

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