Veganism and Masculinity: The Vegan Society’s deep dive on gender imbalance in veganism
Meat-eating, and animal-product consumption more broadly, has been widely viewed as a key masculine performance for a long time, and breaking from this behavior by going vegan may be perceived as a gender role violation.
VEGCONOMIST: The Vegan Society’s first Research Briefing was published last month which explored the reasons why men are less likely than women to go vegan. The publication, titled Research Briefing: Veganism and Masculinity, provides a succinct overview of the topic, offering key recommendations for professional practice and identifying potential opportunities for future research… The purpose of this Research Briefing, besides being an information and educational resource, is to directly inform our Vegan and Thriving campaign…
Meat-eating, and animal-product consumption more broadly, has been widely viewed as a key masculine performance for a long time, and breaking from this behaviour by going vegan may be perceived as a gender role violation,…often met with hostility, potentially invoking harsh judgement from meat-eating individuals or groups… and experience social stigma which may be preventing many would-be vegan men from going vegan… men are also more likely than women to justify meat-eating as natural and hold hierarchical attitudes towards non-human animals…
The research suggests that vegan men are more likely to reject traditional or rigid understandings of masculinity: Masculinity is dynamic in that it does not mean the same thing to everyone and that popular understandings of masculinity change and adapt over time… The Research Briefing also found that social misinformation regarding vegan nutrition may be putting men off going vegan. Specifically, the estrogen present in soy has been used by those seeking to spread misinformation to insist that soy-heavy diets will affect testosterone levels in men. The implication often being that men who consume a lot of soy will be less physically strong and more feminine. SOURCE…
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