Hi folks,

I got to wondering today: in the show, there is a strong undercurrent of eco-awareness and Mac's own healthy eating trend. I'm wondering if the character had qualms about the ethics and environmental impact of leather items, and if Mac today would embrace the advanced leather alternatives on the market.

I can see owning a biker jacket for safety reasons, but RDA's jacket must have had the armor or pads taken out during filming - it drapes way too easily and looks thin.

The MA-1 jacket shows me that the character was not a leather-addict. For all purposes the MA-1 is actually a better jacket; the nylon jacket replaced military leather jackets because the leather ones were not suitable for jet-age aviation.

I think that the leather jackets were too darn cool to pull from the show, no matter the ethical considerations. I, for one, think the biker jacket is the coolest thing since sliced bread. But in light of leather alternatives that require less care and possess superior warmth and durability, I can't see a modern-age MacGyver pulling on a leather jacket.

Ari

Wow, good question.

The thing that went through my mind was... "what environmental issue are there from leather products?"

I don't really think MacGyver has any issue with leather because if he did he wouldn't have worn it.

I think MacGyver would look at it like this...

Leather has been used since the beginning of time for clothing and such, and 99% of the time the skins used for the leather come from animals killed for meat, so there's really nothing much to get upset about with leather. Stopping the use of leather isn't going to stop any cows from being killed. It's just gonna mean the skins are wasted instead of used.

Actually he may even see the production of artificial leather as having more of an environmental impact because of the plastics chemicals etc used to make some of the products.

Perhaps I am thinking holistically; as Mac's dietary preferences changed, I am assuming that he gave up red meat too. That implies a whole lot of things, including a poor opinion of the global impact of cattle farming (which IS pretty bad). Tanning is a far more toxic process than working with plastics.

All of Mac's leather items - if we are to assume that he only had 3 jackets through the entire series - were bought before he became involved in serious environmentalism. It's kinda silly to throw away a jacket because you suddenly realized that you don't want to support the cattle industry. That's at least where my thought-process is; I would welcome more discussion on this issue.

Ari

I think we've proven pretty conclusively in other threads that MacGyver's eating choices were health driven rather than anything else. To go from choosing not to eat meat for health reasons to having issues with the whole meat industry is a pretty big jump.

That's not how people like that think. They don't not wear new leather jackets, they don't wear any leather jackets. The age isn't the issue for them, its the material and the fact that wearing that material is wrong in their eyes. Have you ever seen a PETA supporter wearing their 30 year old leather jacket? I bet not.

And I think MacGyver was like that too. He didn't do things which supported activities he didn't agree with, so I think if he really had any issues with the leather or meat industries he wouldn't be wearing leather at all.

Actually I think if he had issue with the cattle farming industry he would be getting involved with finding ways to solve those issues rather than protesting against them.
He'd be pushing Pete and Phoenix into all sorts of research on ways to farm without impact because he was smart enough to know that shutting down a huge industry would create a whole new set of problems to replace the ones you just fixed. MacGyver was.. is smarter than that.