I like to challenge the standard notions we all live by JAY NEAL

Curiosities of a Campus Quester jaynealoff@gmail.com

Throughout life, we’re bombarded with advertisements every second of the day. Today, you can’t even open your phone without being badgered about how you really should buy this kitchen gadget, it’s life changing! It’s also wellknown that sometimes, advertisements aren’t looking to sell a product, but more to sell ideas. Today, I would like to explore the link between the meat industry’s advertisements and hegemonic (otherwise known as toxic) masculinity with you.

To some, this link is already obvious, while to others, it seems far-fetched, to say the least.

However, wouldn’t you agree that in Western culture, eating meat is considered “manly”? I mean, the last time that you saw an advertisement for steak, ribs, or a burger, was the face of the advertisement a woman? Most likely not. This is because our society holds that eating meat can restore your masculinity. This isn’t by chance, either - the meat industry has built upon preconceived notions of masculinity to reinforce this idea. One example is Burger King’s “I am Man” advertisement, pushing the idea that meat is right to eat for working class men. The question is, if it’s true that these companies are pushing the stereotype that eating meat is manly and eating vegetables is not, what’s the motive behind it?

As with all advertising campaigns, the ultimate goal is to, of course, generate more profit for the company. Unfortunately, one of the easiest target audiences is insecure people. This is no different with the meat industry. In one Hummer advertisement, the character is vegetarian, but gets “showed up” by another man who buys meat after him at the store. In order to follow the slogan, “Restore your Manhood,” the character then buys a Hummer. This advertisement is selling the fact that if you don’t eat meat as a man, you are not following the status quo and you are not masculine enough - but, buying their product will make up for it!

See, now, how they play on the insecurities of men? First, they create the problem: men must eat meat to be manly. Then, they sell the solution: they can buy OUR meat or product to feel better about themselves. In reality, those with insecurities should seek real support, not give their money to corporations who only want to see their downfall.

But why is meat even considered manly to begin with? This is a question I seeked as I worked on this topic in one university class. During my research, I found that, while I couldn’t exactly pinpoint where the idea may have come from, there are a few qualities to “manliness” that may give us the answer. The first is that men are expected to provide for the family in Western culture. In the past, this may have meant hunting meat - which, at the time, was a necessity for survival. However, this isn’t the only origin for this stereotype.

One study I read asked consumers to rank different meals based on how masculine or feminine they seemed. Between a meal with animal-based meat and plant-based meat, on average, the animal-based meat was ranked more masculine. This is, unfortunately, to be expected. However, surprisingly, when animalbased meat was compared with lab-grown meat (meat that is molecularly identical to animal-based meat, but was “grown” from cell cultures in a lab), the animal-based meat was still seen as more masculine! One could interpret this as meat actually being considered manly because you have to kill an animal to obtain it. This goes hand-in-hand with the belief (and finding) that men seem to be more prone to violence than women. To me, this was a shocking realization. Are men, then, also