Is Meat Manly?
"A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral."
–Leo Tolstoy
Eat with Your Heart
If what’s in your fridge determines your masculinity, identity, and ideology, you have a very fragile ego. And yet that’s the world we live in. I've seen so many men, particularly online, coming out with this argument that meat is manly, especially since the sadistic "carnivore diet" has gained popularity. There is also inherent sexism and homophobia in this excuse, as if it's logical that more women would be vegan because they aren't as capable of being strong. And many vegan men are called disgusting homophobic slurs -- but why do we even consider calling someone gay an insult? -- simply because they eat plants instead of animals. This whole "meat is manly" ideology is one of the most ignorant, asinine, annoying excuses I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with, so let's dive in and dispel some myths!
The Health Argument
The health excuses are largely the same for all people, but there are a few arguments to which "manly men" in particular cling. Obviously, the main one is protein. However, all protein originates in plants, meaning that it is impossible to be deficient unless you are actually starving.[1] And as we saw with dozens of athletes in The Game Changers, it is possible to intake high amounts of protein and increase muscle mass on a fully plant-based diet.[2] But either way, why does it even matter? Men don't need to be big and strong in today's society. They don't need to protect women and children anymore; the same men that make these arguments also get all their food from a grocery store and drive a car to work every day. The argument is illogical.
Some men also like to bring up other vitamins or the fact that vegans are encouraged to take a B12 supplement. However, B12 is created by bacteria in soil, and since modern humans and farm animals do not eat food directly from the ground, we all must supplement. The only difference is that vegans supplement directly, whereas meat-eaters consume the B12 that was injected into the flesh of animals. (Also, there is new evidence that there is in fact a plant source of B12, even further proof that this argument is flawed.)
Lastly, we need to talk about ED. If you turn on your TV and see ads for ED medications, you may notice that some discuss how erectile dysfunction was one of the first symptoms of heart disease in patients. The reasoning is that when you eat foods high in cholesterol and saturated and trans fats (animal-based foods), your arteries begin to clog, which is known as atherosclerosis. And it's not just the arteries in your heart; it's all over your body. [1, 2, 3] There's nothing manly about that.
The Emotional Argument
Again, we're treading into discriminatory territory, but I will be saving more of that for a later post. Instead, I want to discuss how it is these "manly men" that are actually the ones being discriminated against. Our society, though based in patriarchy, is very strict on men in ways that it isn't on women. As girls, it's expected for us to show emotions more willingly, even to the extreme that women are often depicted as "overly emotional." Boys, however, are taught that showing emotions is equivalent to showing weakness; and men cannot be weak.
Acknowledging their more "feminine" emotions, like peacefulness or empathy or compassion, is taboo. I guess men aren't supposed to care about anything. But who could be interested in a man that shows no respect for life? Obviously, there have been great strides against this ideology in recent years, but there is still an incredibly strong stigma associated with men having these logical human emotions.
It seems so strange to me that somehow this problem we have in our society is so strongly correlated with the way we eat. For the life of me, I can't understand why a piece of meat is so different from a piece of plant meat or -- heaven forbid! -- a vegetable. It must just be brilliant marketing from the animal agriculture industry to equate their products with manliness, which is apparently one of the most important things to a man.
The Traditional Argument
As I said in Part One of my "Standard Arguments Against Veganism" series, tradition doesn't justify doing immoral things in the present day. When I was living in Tennessee, I knew many guys who had this attitude that good ol' American boys hunt, drink beer, cuss, and smoke; that's very much ingrained in Southern culture. Even a whiff of veganism in the air is like an assault on their manliness. Just because certain belief systems and traditions, like carnism, are accepted within a society, that does not make them morally admissible.
The Defensive Argument
When he starts making jokes about it, that's how you know that a man is insecure with his masculinity and is feeling attacked. They're really scraping the bottom of the barrel when the bacon jokes start coming out. Also, it really calls into question their masculinity when they say things with the sole purpose of making another person, generally a vegan woman in this situation, feel bad. Yeah, good on you, dude, for being a jerk. We all know that only real men bully girls.
The Case for Compassion
Luckily, more men are waking up to the fact that eating meat has no positive influence -- in fact that it has a negative impact -- on their masculinity. It's significantly stronger and more manly to step out of the box society has placed you in and recognize your feelings of empathy and compassion towards the most abused beings on the planet. That's what "real men" do. Real men aren't perpetrators of violence against the innocent; they are protectors of peace.
be conscious, be kind, be vegan
Resources
[1] How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Greger
[3] "Erectile Dysfunction: Cause and Cure"
*Disclaimer
I don’t hate men, though it may seem like it from some of the language I use. It's just that I hate this idea that paying for someone (or even doing it yourself) to enslave, rape, torture, and murder innocent beings is somehow “manly.” I just really wish that men would understand that it’s ok to feel things and think in ways that are outside of society’s demands. Vegan men, please, let’s spread awareness that it’s not only un-manly to consume animals, but vegan men are, at least in the stereotypical definition of the word, considerably more masculine. Isn’t the point of big strong muscles to protect the innocent?