These “Herbivores” May Still Eat Animals December 21, 2009

It’s pretty easy to find examples of media in the West that tie meat-eating to manliness. Connected to this, NPR reports that in Japan, men who are taking on traditionally feminine traits are known as “herbivores.”

Described as “a quiet army of sweet young men with floppy hair and skinny jeans,” they may prefer “sewing, baking and crocheting clothes for [their] stuffed animals,” as does the protagonist of one TV show said to be popular among herbivores.

Though the story features a Sweets Club, for men who like desserts, nothing else about diet is mentioned. The mere idea of non-standard masculinity is enough to brand you as a wimpy leaf-eater, it seems — nothing in this story indicates that the men are, in fact, herbivoric in diet.

The story also demonstrates how manliness — or lack of — is tied to capitalism, economic productivity, & presumably providing for the family (& lustily creating one, of course): “But there are fears about the financial and social impact of herbivores. Their low levels of spending and lack of interest in sex invoke two of Japan’s biggest problems: its lackluster economy and declining birthrate.”

So if “herbivores” are men acting in un-manly ways, what about women acting in non-womanly ways? They’re carnivores: “economically empowered working Japanese women who know what they want.”

(Hat tip to Absolutely Fobulous for the link.)

Vegetarianism and the Hypermasculine January 25, 2008

Originally posted at Afronautical.

So I began thinking the other day about the bizarre relationship between food and gender (and of course sexuality). It is pretty well known that meat is associated with masculinity (perhaps lending to the higher rate of certain health issues in men?). If you want examples: here here here here here. Men eat more meat than women traditionally, etc etc. However, I came to thinking– how is my masculinity affected. After all black men are hypermasculinized in the public discourse… so do I come out not as demasculinized? How masculine, in the public eye, is a Black male vegan compared to a White male vegan, or an Asian male vegan, or a Latino vegan, or so on and so on.