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You are what you eat. But for men and meat, you’re also what you want to eat. Because a new study finds that we strongly associate meat with masculinity. Which may explain the big gender bias in meat eating: Americans eat an average of 195 pounds of meat a year, with men consuming much more than women. The study is in the Journal of Cancer Research (pdf).
In a series of experiments, people consistently rated meat as more masculine than vegetables. Researchers also found that meat-related words like “steak” conjured male-related words in free association tests significantly more often than female-related words. The word “chocolate” however, conjured more female-related words in the minds of participants. And foods like raw beef or blood were viewed as far more “male” than “female.” And participants rated male meat-eaters as more masculine than male non-meat-eaters.
The studies took place in the U.K. and the U.S., but the researchers found the results to be consistent across various languages and cultures.
So if you want to make a meat-eating man try that tofu burger it might help to dress it up with grill marks and Hungry-Man’s BBQ sauce.
—Christie Nicholson
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
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6 Comments
Add CommentYes, tofu burgers. Or on a less biased note, there are unhealthy people of all shapes and colours eating unhealthy restricted diets lacking in needed variety, be they carnivores, omnivores, vegetarian or vegan. Just as many women would benefit from re-introducing some 'manly'-meat into their diets as there are men who could benefit from cutting back on the red meat. Nothing against tofu, or grill marks, but eating fake processed food pretending to be something its not is sort of how we got here in the first place.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUsing Tofu as an example. Tofu IS feminine on a molecular level. Containing plant based estrogen. Any one who knows ANYTHING about men's health will tell you that tofu is OK in very small concentrations for men. Even more crucial to developing boys, especially during puberty. And on a lighter note, several veggies appear pretty masculine to me. Cucumbers, gourds, carrots to name a few.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe study is in the Journal of Consumer Research, not Cancer Research.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisReal men don't eat quiche, unless of course real women
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this(especially their wives), tell them to eat it or else no desert!!!
We should consume enough protein,carbohydrate and fat, calories, to balance our energy output. Fish, meat and poultry contain optimal calories per gram of each nutrient unlike the grains, vegetables and fruits. Indeed,the essential amino acids- required for vital functioning of the brain- exclusively come from animal sources except Quinoa- a South American variety of wheat. Assuming that not all those who eat food think of calories, the current article does shows that more men enjoy the taste of meat than women. On a positive note, this is good news for magizines like Men's Health to sewek advertisements suggesting,"Meat's Macho."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am an eat-to-live vegan male. I see nothing "masculine" in meat consumption, which entails meat "production", one of the greatest scourges if not the greatest scourge to the global environment. This man is not playing that game.
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