Hawaiian pizza, with pineapple on top of the things we all expect on a pizza, seems to be a very controversial food. Some people love it, while others find the very idea revolting. I’ll suggest the revulsion some people have makes it a good model for a divisive topic that has no serious political, ethical, moral, or religious baggage – at least not yet. Today’s Wall Street Journal has a story about it that inspired this diary. Here’s a link that I don’t think is behind any paywall:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-divided-nation-reveals-itself-in-one-question-do-you-like-hawaiian-pizza-1523976831
Some excerpts:
A divided Nation Asks: Hawaiian Pizza, Yes or No?
“I love how the juice from the pineapple blends with the sauce,” said Ali Johnson, a University of Arizona sophomore who is part of a family of Hawaiian pizza lovers from Gilbert, Ariz. Advocates say they enjoy the sweet-and-salty combination and are puzzled by the intense disgust registered by detractors.
As the article points out, Hawaiian pizza has attracted some not-very-serious political baggage:
When Iceland’s president, Gudni Johannesson, playfully proposed a ban on pineapple pizza last year, world leaders responded. President Johannesson later clarified his position on his official Facebook page. “I like pineapples, just not on pizza. I do not have the power to make laws which forbid people to put pineapples on their pizza,” he wrote. “For pizzas, I recommend seafood.’’
Read the whole article. I was very limited on what I could excerpt by the fair use rule, which we’ve simplified as “two to three paragraphs”. (The article uses very short paragraphs.) Then go through it again, substituting “homosexuality” for Hawaiian pizza, and “oral sex” for pineapple.
Doesn’t the idea of “juice from the pineapple mixing with the pizza sauce” ring a bell? It reminds me of terms like “racial mixing” and “miscegenation.” Perhaps the issue of pineapple on pizza could be an opening to show people how revulsion at something unfamiliar can lead to loathing not only of the unfamiliar but of people who enjoy it.
You don’t have to eat Hawaiian pizza, or ever try it, but before you suggest making a law against it, look in the mirror. Is that the face of a pizzaphobe?