Meat, Masculinity & Sexism

"Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds them. We live by the death of others. We are burial places."

-Leonardo da Vinci

Unrealistic Standards

One of the foundations of the "meat is manly" myth is that there is a certain set of standards that make a man a man. These standards include: physical and mental strength, power of authority and dominance over others (particularly those of inferior male standards and any other gender), and appeal to the opposite sex. Though they present themselves in different ways, they all stem from the same source: mankind (and men specifically) have complete domination over animals, and this domination is best represented in man's ability to manipulate and kill other creatures. Let's go through each of these standards to explore the myth that meat is manly.

*Disclaimer: As I said in the first part, "Is Meat Manly?," I do not hate men, and I absolutely do not condone discrimination against any gender. I have great love and respect for all the incredible vegan men out there who are breaking the "meat is manly" stereotype every day by simply existing as the beautiful people they are. This is not written about every man but is directed at men who believe it's acceptable to insult women for being vegan. This is intended to instruct and understand why so few men are vegan and what is preventing many men from going vegan. To be clear, I believe in human rights for all of us, regardless of gender, and I believe in showing basic compassion to all beings, regardless of species. That's where my morals lie, not in some "feminist agenda." I do apologize if sometimes I sound slightly angry, but I'm sick of seeing so many men (more like boys) make jokes about hurting vegan women. It's disgusting and despicable, and I hope one day they hang their heads in shame.

Physical Strength

The desire for physical strength is a remnant of the notion that men are meant to be protectors. But what does protection matter in the 21st century? For that matter, why do we even care about strength anymore? For some of us, our most consistent workout is holding our phones in front of our faces and chewing food. We drive cars to work and buy food at the grocery store; any need we had for physical strength has long been abandoned with the advent and advancement of life-simplifying technology.

To clarify, physical strength doesn't mean that men that value this all have Mr. Universe-like bulging muscles or Instagram model abs, but it does mean that they value their appearance or the appearance of strength. To them, physicality is very much a marker of health and a symbol of pride, and to insult that -- by saying that eating animals is actually the opposite of healthy and makes them weak -- is quite offensive to them. They've built up in their minds, as most of us have, regardless of gender, that the way we live as a society must be correct. It must be good for us or else we wouldn't do it...right? And for someone -- particularly a woman or a "scrawny" vegan man -- to completely deny that is almost too much to process. It's hard for them to believe that a woman or a man that may value physical strength less could have any legitimate knowledge on this subject.

Mental Strength

Empathy is a powerful human emotion, strong enough for millions of people to flip their lives upside down to go vegan. It's come to be expected by society that vegans are mostly women or hipsters or "outcasts." For a man to be vegan already goes against the grain of what the public imagines vegans to be. And when a vegan man shows any semblance of emotion regarding the plight of animals -- or even less taboo related topics, like health or environmentalism -- he's often met with crude insults. Showing emotion, to not be able to just "grin and bear it," is seen as mental weakness. Being emotional like that is a trait of femininity, and the very idea of embracing more feminine traits like empathy and compassion is completely antithetical to male strength.

Mental strength, to them, is seeing animals being abused on a farm or murdered in a slaughterhouse and not shedding a tear. It's to push it to the back of their mind, say that's how the world works, and move on as if nothing happened. Of course, we know that's not what true mental strength is; that's ignorance, apathy, guilt, and stubbornness. Ignorance that this is what happens every time they eat their "man food." Apathy to the very real suffering of the animals. Guilt over what they do that they know, on some level of consciousness, is wrong. And the stubbornness to not stop doing what they've always done and, more importantly, what everyone else does.

Every vegan knows that it's not always easy to be vegan, and it does, in fact, test your mental strength to live every day knowing that the people around you are an integral part of the violence animals face. We must always be strong to get up each day and continue facing some of the most powerful entities on earth -- and even harder, our family, friends, and colleagues -- telling us to bend down and give up the fight.

As I said in "Is Meat Manly?," I'd like to reiterate that this is not something we should ever blame individual men for (as much as we might want to sometimes) because there are certain stereotypes assigned to all genders, even including the one that women are more emotional -- sometimes to the point of being hysterical or overly emotional (whatever that means). This attack on male compassion was formulated by a society created through the suffering of others, and in order to cope with the suffering we inflict, men, as the leaders of this world, had to block off the part of them that felt something when enslaving Africans, when culling Native Americans, when slaughtering baby cows. But we don't need to continue to shut off our emotions because that only causes more pain and suffering for all. We need to wake up and help others do the same.

Power & Dominance

We expect men to be powerful. We can't deny that our society has been a patriarchy for basically as long as it's existed, and though things are slowly shifting, there is still an expectation for men to lead. But the thing about power today is that men have far less than they used to, yet even some young men are being taught certain archaic ideals about the role a man has in society. When it comes down to it, men's desire for power is a matter of personal pride.

Dominance comes from the expectation of being the most privileged person in the room, and the most privileged person has dominance over the less privileged. That isn't always a bad thing if that person uses their dominance for something good. However, we often see "manly men" express their dominance -- and their frustration when that dominance is thrown into question -- with insults. Of course, insulting a woman should give them no pride, but it's usually a last resort, as their egos are heavily bruised. Even using simple words, like "girl" or "gay," are meant to be derogatory, but some men go much farther than that, saying vegans should be raped, shot in the face, or have meat shoved down their throats. Truly awful. Like an injured animal, they feel the need to attack to protect themselves. But would we accept that kind of language against other groups of people? Against racial or religious minorities? Heck, would we even permit things like that to be said about vegetarians?

This desire for power, in my belief, comes from a warped ideology that humans are apex predators. Of course, we know we're no match for a fearsome lion, but because of that knowledge, we crave even more to be the most lethal creatures on the planet. We've tamed the most exotic, ferocious animals, and all the animals beneath them, because we want to overpower the creatures that scare us. Like how a bully hurts others to cover up their insecurities, we crave strength because we know that we're actually not nearly as strong as the other kinds of animals that eat the food we eat -- a man is no match for a lion, tiger, or even the small but ferocious wolverine.

Sex Appeal

There is nothing attractive about a man that belittles others, and if that man also wants women to be interested in him, it would behoove him to be a little more considerate when communicating, even with topics on which he disagrees. Maybe back in the days of cavemen, a strong man that forced his will upon a woman was seen as attractive. (Or maybe that's what the male leaders told themselves to feel better about doing it.) But dragging your knuckles on the ground and swinging a club around isn't how we live in modern society, so there's no need to act like brutes anymore.

Me Protect!

Our society no longer needs the protection of men. We are all equal and should, therefore, be treated as such. It's time to stop using this ancient excuse to continue exploiting animals. And if you really want to be protectors, how about putting your focus on the most innocent and powerless beings of all: the animals? They're the ones now who need protection. From all people.

be conscious, be kind, be vegan