Are pearls cruel?

[Coventina]

As I've been thinking about my Christmas shopping, I was thinking about jewelry, which I love. It's the one "vanity" thing that I really seem to have a weakness for. I am against diamonds, though, because of the DeBeers cartel and all the related cruelty of the diamond trade. But all of a sudden I started thinking that maybe pearls are cruel. I mean, it requires the death of the animal, kind of like fur, which I am adamantly against.

What do you guys think?

Are vegans against pearls?

[alwynsw]

1. I have no problem with pearls

I have less of a problem if the oysters are eaten.

Meat: it's what's digesting in my colon.

[DS1]

2. If you want to be swayed against buying pearls, remember these pictures

Had enough, or do you want more?

[THUNDER HANDS]

4. ugh

god she's ugly. It's like looking at a vagina with shoulders.

[DS1]

5. try this

scroll back up to the first picture, cover from the lower half of her nose down with your hand, the eyes say it all

[alwynsw]

6. Shame on you, Rat!

I find vaginas attractive. How dare you bash them so unmercifully!

On topic: I still like pearls. Just because people I loathe drive cars, I refuse to walk in protest.

[Coventina]

11. Hey! Watch it buddy!

My vagina does NOT look like Babs!

We are offended!

:spank:

:D

[alwynsw]

13. All are beautiful in my eyes

The brain may be the biggest erogenous zone, but I still like the business end better.

I'll stop now; before this becomes a sex thread.

[alwynsw]

7. But she said that her "pearls" weren't real

therefore, I'm boycotting fake pearls.

[pippin]

12. Those are fake pearls

and in incredibly bad taste! Ugh! :puke:

[CanuckAmok]

14. Jesus--what an ugly woman!

Seriously, you're GHWB, and you're rich and powerful and connected and a dashing Navy pilot and not too bad looking in your youth. So why the hell do you marry this Baba Yagga?!

I suppose he had his pick of every co-ed at the Seven Sisters, plus the Rockettes and the Playboy Mansion staff.

Sheesh!

I remember when King Bush 1 was running for office, and finally getting lots of press coverage. I seriously remember thinking, "Is that his mom?"

By god...she's hideous. I never looked that closely before, but she has not got a single attractive feature. Actually, she has one; she's close to a terminal age.

[Coventina]

16. LOL! I thought the same thing!

I didn't pay any attention to the election that year. When I caught a glimpse on the news of Bush I's inagural walk I wondered to myself, "I wonder why he's walking with his mother?"

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Normally, I would protest and say that "pretty is as pretty does", and maybe she's a really wonderful person full of inner beauty, but I think we all know that is not the case here.

[hlthe2b]

15. Forget old lady Bush: think Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Jackie wore them with class. The old hag was a Jackie-wunnabe.

[blondeatlast]

3. I believe I've heard somewhere that working conditions

for divers are sometimes rather harsh, but much Googling has turned up zilch.

PETA regards them as cruel, I do know that. But I have little faith in PETA due to their disregard for human issues.

Edit: Personally, I love them and they look good on ME, but Babs is enough to stop me from wearing them.

[Lars39]

8. There's cultured pearl diving/harvesting in the TN river, unless it's

died off and I didn't hear about it. The divers do work in very dangerous conditions for seasonal *good money*, while the rest of the year they're unemployed. Resulting ear infections are the pits, too, from what I hear.

[trof]

9. Incredibly cruel.

They're next, now that Bush* arrested Saddam.

[pippin]

10. in natural pearls

grains of sand that get into a molusk are an irritant and the oyster react by putting out a liquid that coats the irritating object. It takes several years for a pearl to form and sometimes the oyster dies any way--average life span is about 6 years some only live a year. whether the irritant is natural or surgically implanted it takes the life time of the oyster to form a pearl. Cultured pearl oysters have to be over three years old before they can be implanted.

Incidentally silk too is cruel and some Buddhist sects forbid its cultivation and use.


As for diamonds, the Russian simulants or lab diamonds are diamonds--carbon bombarded in the lab--are inditinguishable virtually from the real thing unless you look closely under a loop. So I say screw DeBeers! Don't know if any of this is helpful
but I think it is helathy to indulge sometimes in a little vanity! Happy holidays! :-)

[Lady Freedom]

17. Ask this guy!