It’s arguably the most significant obstacle to widespread adoption of the vegan diet. Why does the male ego act threatened by a diet that does not involve violence?
It’s a remarkable phenomenon. Estimates are that about 80% of vegans in the U.S. are female. Do women like the taste of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nuts and seeds more than men? Or perhaps have a natural dislike for the taste of meat?
No, there’s no evidence for that. Most women eat meat, after all, and heart disease is therefore the leading cause of death for men and women alike. The fact that more women are vegan doesn’t seem to have anything to do with taste.
It’s a psychological phenomenon, clearly. Could it be that meat’s masculine attraction stems from the fact that it’s classically the food that men, the hunters, would provide after bravely shooting a buffalo with an arrow or (maybe less bravely) beating a rabbit with a stick?
If that’s the case, then I think we can agree that the brave “hunters” today who go to the grocery store and look for a package of ground beef wrapped in cellophane become proud of themselves a bit too easily. Roughly as many women, of course, accomplish this same feat of purchasing ground up cow in the grocery store, a fact that may wound the pride of the meat-buying men. The reality, of course, is that the real dangers associated with meat today come from eating it, not obtaining it.
Could that be the explanation, actually? Could men be thinking, “We guys don’t mind braving heart disease and cancer when we eat our food—only wimps and women care about stuff like that?”
That would be bizarre, but I wouldn’t rule it out.
Or could it be that men find reading to be a feminine activity, and so they don’t want to read up on all the scientific evidence against consuming animal foods? Instead, they may be easily won over by all the tv commercials that show healthy-looking, muscular guys wolfing down meat.
Or could it be that men believe they can exercise their way out of the diseases that they’re eating their way into? That approach, of course, hasn’t helped the many runners who have collapsed from heart attacks.
Here’s one possible solution. Someone should do a vegan cookbook that lists the ingredients of all the recipes, but omits the recipe directions. Men might go for that. We’re famous for hating to ask for directions.
Of course, then we’d have to find a way to get men to buy cookbooks.
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