In the past five years, veganism has been a movement on the rise in America. More Americans have been ditching meat and other animal products for veggies and fruit. A plant-based diet is said to be better for overall health and disease prevention, more sustainable for the planet, and obviously, kinder to animals. With all the benefits of the vegan diet and the added bonus of trendiness, it’s no wonder the lifestyle is on the rise.
But a particular group of Americans aren’t biting. A study done in 2013 showed that 22.8 million Americans follow a largely plant-based diet and 1 million are completely vegan. However, out of the 1 million vegans in America, 79% were women and only 21% were male. These statistics elicit a question: Why aren’t men so gung-ho to jump on the vegan bandwagon? Are they more apathetic towards animal cruelty? Do they just not love our furry and feathered friends as much as women do?
Instead of making narrow-minded and sweeping assumptions about men’s compassion and ethical awareness, we should take a step back and look at how our food choices are affected by our culture. After all, there are plenty of women who aren’t too keen to ditch the burgers and suede purses for quinoa and pleather either. For every one person who is willing to try out a vegan dish, there are four more who say, with a touch of concerned panic, “Where do you get your protein??!!’’ as if you might melt into a protein-deficient puddle at their feet.
Recent studies have examined the prevalence of “real-men-eat-meat” culture in American society. Meats, especially fad foods like steak and bacon, are seen as manly in our society. This “fundamental” American view is only perpetrated more by the media. Super Bowl commercials display men crowding around a TV with wings and beer while Carl’s Jr. parades their 2000-calorie burger across the screen with the added effect of motorcycle noises. Dr. Steven Heine did a study showing that, on average, women prefer a “manly” meat-eating man to a “principled” vegetarian one. And the pervasiveness of weight lifting and muscle building has many men consuming enormous amounts of high-protein animal products like meat, eggs, and whey. There’s a societal pressure on men to be “masculine,” and companies selling meat use this fact in their advertising to target a specific audience: the leather-jacket-wearing-backyard-barbeque-grilling-Nascar-loving-all-American meat junkie.
Added to this man+meat equation is the underlying perception of many people that vegans are over-emotional and care too deeply about the feelings of non-human beings. In a society that often praises men for being strong and stoic, a deep and passionate concern for the welfare of animals and nature could be seen as a negative thing. Many female writers, including Willa Cather and Maya Angelou, have alluded to a similar theme in their works; women are seen to have a deeper connection to nature than men do because of their gentle maternal instincts. And Gary Yourovsky, a popular vegan activist, has stated that populations that have historically faced prejudice or oppression, such as women or people of color, are more likely to empathize with the abuse and torture farm animals face every day. Thus, people in these groups (i.e. not Caucasian men) would be more likely to adopt a “cruelty-free” lifestyle. Though there is no empirical evidence to support Yourovsky’s claim, it is true that 91% of hunters are men, which, if nothing else, shows that men are much more willing to kill animals than women are.
Taken as a whole, these trends are just broad generalizations and stereotypes about male culture in western society. Are there kind, compassionate men who are vegan? Yes. Are there kind, compassionate men who aren’t vegan? Also yes. A person’s kindness has nothing to do with their gender.
But these findings do present an important point: people’s values and actions can be shaped by social stigmas and gender roles. It’s possible that some men want to go vegan, but are afraid of the judgment of others. So next time your dad, uncle, or boyfriend turns up his nose at your kale chips and hummus, it might be because he secretly wants to be vegan too. It sounds far-fetched, but people will do crazy things to stay within our culture’s social constraints. If only we didn’t have them.
At the end of the day, empathy and concern for our planet and for the beings that inhabit it is definitely more attractive than big muscles.