Meat consumption and hegemonic masculinity
When gender roles are mentioned, in the collective imagination we talk about colours associated with feminine or masculine, or sports that are categorised by gender.
But gender roles are much more pervasive in our lives than we often realise. For example, there are also stagnant and strong social pressures on food preferences. Gender roles control and determine to a large extent what we like and don't like, even when it comes to what we eat.
In the study Gender Differences in Attitudes to Vegans/Vegetarians and Their Food Preferences, and Their Implications for Promoting Sustainable Dietary Patterns-A Systematic Review, it is studied how in the collective imagination, a steak is an appropriate meal for a man and a salad is a typical meal for a woman. These factors play a crucial role in the adoption and modification of eating habits according to social contexts and age. Food preferences depend to a large extent on a person's gender identity, in search of acceptance and a sense of belonging.
It is unfortunate to think that we cannot choose what we really want to eat based on our individual preferences. Men who choose a vegetarian diet often face an internal dilemma between their individual preferences and gender norms. Whereas women (mostly in Western countries) mainly choose the food they want to eat according to the number of calories and nutritional value, not only for the sake of good health but also because of the pressure of imposed beauty standards.
These preferences are not innocent and simply determine what people eat in terms of whether they have been socialised as female or male:
Preferences associated with the masculine rank high in the hierarchy of what is complete and best. So much so that even though a multitude of scientific studies have proven that plant-based diets are far better for a healthy lifestyle and prevention of cardiovascular disease, there is still a widely held belief that to eat a healthy diet, you have to eat meat. And that a plant-based diet can never meet a person's needs, either nutritionally or in terms of appetite.
This is how a vegetarian diet is associated with the feminine, which is related to the insufficient, insignificant, and not worthy of great social relevance. For example, in the book The Sexual Politics of Meat: A feminist-vegetarian Critical theory, Carol J. Adam explains that the word ‘vegetables’ is a generic term that carnivores use for all non-meat foods, with vegetables being a concept associated with women and meat with men.
When in truth the variety of fruits, vegetables, legumes, mushrooms, and plant products are far more diverse than the animals that are considered edible in omnivorous societies.
A multitude of anthropological studies have proven that in general, vegetarian diets are considered less masculine than meat-based diets, and omnivores are more prejudiced against vegetarian/vegan men than against vegetarian/vegan women.
In Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, men consume more meat than women. Meat is often considered a ‘masculine’ food, and men with more masculine jobs tend to consume more meat. The reverse trend is associated with dairy products, fruit and vegetables, which are perceived as typically feminine foods.
In Western societies, women are twice as likely as men to be vegan or vegetarian, as there is not the social pressure that vegan men experience.
Differences in food preferences between the sexes are observed as early as childhood. In Cooke and Wardle's study Age and gender differences in children's food preferences, carried out with a large group of school children, show that girls like fruit and vegetables more than boys. In contrast, boys like fatty and sugary foods, meat, processed meat products and eggs more than girls. Results from other studies also confirm that, compared to boys, girls eat more fruit, more vegetables and more fruit and vegetables combined, while boys prefer fast foods, meat, sausages and fish.
Thus it is logical to think that it is not so much due to biological gender differences in food preferences, but an educational aspect where there is a clear socially inherited link between the meat-based diet and masculinity.
This information discussed in the previous paragraphs hides strong values associated with masculinity and femininity, in which values categorised as feminine promote a world where care, empathy and dignity for all living beings is the priority. For example, Kalof and other anthropologists demonstrated in a study called Social psychological and structural influences on vegetarian beliefs that altruism has a significant positive effect on vegetarianism when controlling for demographics. Moreover, altruistic values increase beliefs that vegetarianism is beneficial for health, the natural environment and the welfare of farm animals. Furthermore, the results of this study also show that women believe that vegetarianism helps prevent cruelty to farm animals. Considering that empathy is a trait more valued by women than by men, it can be hypothesised that the strong disproportion in the number of male and female vegetarians and vegans is related to women's higher level of empathy towards animals.
All these preferences are not just harmless and innocent social structures. Meat consumption has major repercussions at the societal level, and is directly related to the capitalist cis-heteropatriarchal system, and to climate change.
-Between 3.4 and 6.5 billion animals are killed every 24 hours for food.
-Although it is women who provide the food and ensure the survival of family units (especially in countries of the Global South), they are the ones who receive the food with the worst nutritional value, an aspect that is aggravated the more material deprivation there is in families.
-The animal products industry is one of the human activities with the greatest environmental impact, as it is the leading cause of deforestation and contributes decisively to the loss of biodiversity, climate change, pollution and eutrophication of water bodies and soil degradation.
So, how do you identify as a man and be vegan when meat consumption is such an important aspect of maintaining the status quo, and relevant to male identity?
Discrimination against vegan men is real, and we want to say it loud and clear. You can read the interview of Nikoforos, a vegan man who explained his experience since he started being vegan (more interviews in the future on our social networks or on the Sakáta website).
We need allies. No more of hierarchical dichotomies which are the basis on which the patriarchy is based to continue with abusive behaviours that justify systematic racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic and classist discriminations.
The fact that men who choose not to consume meat or animal products are effeminate is harmful, and there is a clear need to create other types of masculinities that are not within the cis-heteropatriarchal order.
The analysis A dual-process motivational model of attitudes towards vegetarians and vegans by Judge and Wilson mentions that the discrimination that male vegans/vegetarians experience comes mainly from other men: Omnivorous men expressed significantly less positive attitudes towards vegetarians and vegans than non-vegetarian women. This may suggest that men's sceptical attitude towards vegetarians is due to the fact that they are perceived as a threat to the status quo based on commonly accepted principles and male dominance.
These factors are related to a general tendency to metaphorically associate meat with masculinity, resulting in vegetarian men being seen as less masculine than meat-eating men. Given that in many cultures masculinity is largely a social construct rather than a biological phenomenon, which manifests itself through social behaviours, competitiveness and social position.
For this reason, it is intuited that meat consumption associated with masculine identity plays a really significant role for men in whether or not they have a vegan/vegetarian diet. Torti in his research The Social and Psychological Well-Being of Vegetarians: A Focused Ethnography found that men were often teased, taunted and mocked because of their vegetarian identity. Moreover, they were called names and had their sexuality or sexual orientation questioned, and their masculinity underestimated.
The study Gender Differences in Attitudes to Vegans/Vegetarians and Their Food Preferences, and Their Implications for Promoting Sustainable Dietary Patterns-A Systematic Review mentions that not only are gay men evaluated more negatively than lesbians in general, but they are also evaluated more negatively by heterosexual men.
In general, men subscribe to traditional gender roles and gender biases to a greater extent than women when it comes to meat consumption and sexual orientation.
It is possible that homosexual men who do not eat meat represent a double threat to the social status quo, not only by violating gender role expectations, but also by following a diet that may be considered less masculine.
One of the possible hypotheses explaining the significant discrepancy in the number of vegetarian men and women may be that men are afraid of losing their masculinity, both in their own eyes and in the eyes of their social group.
At the same time, it is visible that a growing number of male-identified people in certain social groups are working on and disassociating the culturally existing association between meat consumption and masculinity.
The social movements that are working on building up New Masculinities share among them to have as an intrinsic part of their paradigm the anti-speciesist values and therefore, veganism/vegetarianism is generally widespread among its members.
For as Carole M. Counihan says in the book Food and Gender: Identity and Power: ‘From this perspective, vegetarianism is a political statement: a rejection of patriarchal power and values, an expression of feminism and a reclamation of female power over herself and nature’.