The Ever-ending Masculinity in Red Meat Consumption
A series of articles on red meat consumption and its contributions on men hegemony, through ads and campaigns that has been made for the purpose between 2000's-present
Meat is long considered as a strong link between cultural conceptions of masculinity and power. Throught much of European history, meat has been closely associated with manhood, power and virility.
Above, is an advertisement video made by Burger King, goes by the name “Manthem” which was by that time a backlash against “I am Woman”, a song which celebrates female empowerment and independency, written by Helen Reddy. You can listen it from here.
The lyrics of the Manthem goes as below;
I am man, hear me roar,
In numbers too big to ignore,
And I’m way too hungry to settle for chick food!Cause my stomach’s starting to growl,
And I’m going on the prowl,
For a Texas Double Whopper!“Man that’s good!”
Oh, yes, I’m a guy!
I’ll admit I’ve been fed quiche!
Wave tofu bye-bye!
Now it’s for Whopper beef I reach.I will eat this meat
(Eat this meat)
‘Till my innie turns into an outie!I am starved!
I am incorrigible!
And I need to scarf a burger beef bacon jalapeno good thing down!(Yeah!)
I am hungry!
(I am hungry)
I am incorrigible!I AM MAN!
The song basically tells the whole story of establishing hegemonic male dominance in which red meat consumption provides, so the highlighted lyric parts will the my keywords through the article.
Part 1. The Curse of The Chick Food
First part we’re gonna walk our way towards is the chick food. The almighty Burger King men uses this phrase as an insult to small-portioned healthy foods, such as salad, fruits, vegetables, yogurt, etc.
The reason behind for men to acknowledge healthy foods or basically green eating as feminine is because the relative lack of male enthusiasm for animal rights and vegetarianism are best be understood as an outgrowth of the construction of masculinity itself. As fast-food industries suggests repeatedly like in this ad, compromised masculinity can be regained through meat consumption.
That’s why the pumped-up-with-testosteron crowd in this ad are so eager to get that damn burger. Let’s not forget the real big thinker in this ad is a fast food company, so what Burger King is trying to do is to monopolize its burger so that only men are allowed to eat it. Which is a meat taboo that is applied on women. Like in some countries where women are even not allowed to consume meat, at all.
Part 2. Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche
Second part is the confession; “I’ll admit I’ve been fed quiche”. It should not come as a surprise when I say several research pieces made on the subject of meat eating justification shows that men are more likely to embrace eating meat through religious justification, human destiny/fate justification and denial, along with the notion of thinking animals in a lower hierarchy than humans.
This pro-meat attitude has its roots both in meat being rich in protein -because how are you gonna get your pump on otherwise?- and in North American soceity, where meat is often viewed as an archetypal food for men, with many of them considering a meal without meat not to be a real meal.
The obvious shame lying behind the quiche eating confession is that most of the vegetarians are considered as pacifist, weight-conscious and liberal. I mean, those are three horrible concepts that you just cannot fit into your vision of ideal men, right? Because who wants a man to be fit, healthy and have a clear, strong mind on animal suffering? Nobody, says Burger King.
Part 3. I Am Incorrigible!
There comes another confession, but a proud one: I am incorrigible! This sentence might not be the first one when you think of a pro-meat statement, in fact it sounds something more like a heartbreaker’s pathetic apology.
In fact; it makes the most sense, because women are linked to meat as absent referrents. Although we must admit, the lady in this video is barely an absent referrent. She’s all there, look!
The term “absent referrent” was first put out by the famous feminist-critique Carol Adams, in The Sexual Politics of Meat. If you’d like to do some further reading on the subject, I strongly recommend it.
According to Adams, just as dead animals are absent from our language about meat, so too Adams argues in descriptions of cultural violence, women are also the absent referrent.
Through the point of intersection in the absent referrent, sexual violence and meat eating are interconnected. Meat eating, as an act of virility, is linked to strength and manhood, then whereas animal flesh is associated with women, pacifism and femininity. I’ll show some of the supportive pieces of this notion afterwards.
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Coming up next: Meat and masculinity in ad posters and banners
