VEGWORLD 59 - The Food Issue

Page 24

MARKETING MASCULINITY

Photo by Sander Dalhuisen from Unsplash

THE MEAT OF THE MATTER by Lola Olvera

It’s another sunny weekend under the bright blue sky of an American suburb. An oozing red steak is sizzling on a gleaming grill in a wellmanicured backyard. In your imagination, who’s holding the barbeque tongs?

Photo by Lukas from Pexels

Chances are the hypothetical griller in your mind is a cisgender, heterosexual man. You’re not necessarily sexist for imagining the scene this way: You’re responding to centuries of ingrained gender stereotypes that associate men and masculinity with meat-eating. Men, as enthusiastic carnists, are not inherently evil; they, too, are responding to a culture that pressures and manipulates men to assert their masculinity through the consumption of animals.

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The Food Issue

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Issue 59 - July/August 2020

The connection between meat consumption and masculinity is not new. What is new is the increasing influence of prominent vegan men who speak up about the benefits of their diets. At the start of 2020, Men’s Health UK published a complete guide to eating a plant-based diet. The Game Changers, a documentary comparing the health and fitness effects of eating meat versus only plants, was released late last year. The film, in making the case for

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