I’ve spent a lot of time wondering why more vegetarians are female. Interestingly, I think the proportion of male/female vegans might be somewhat lower (ie, closer to equal), but overall there do seem to be less men who are or would even consider going veg. My question: Why?
At first I thought, well, duh. Guys are “supposed” to eat meat; they need muscle; they have to be active and dominant…there are all these cultural definitions of what it means to be a man, and one of them is that real men eat meat. I wasn’t really satisfied with this answer–It felt too easy. Boiling everything down to a cultural definitions almost seems like a cop-out to me. So I kept thinking. Unfortunately, I didn’t pay enough attention to remember my thought process, so I can only tell you want the outcome was. Which, in fact, is rather anticlimactic: It is because of cultural pressures. But it’s not just that men are “supposed” to eat meat; it’s that women, in many ways, are “supposed” to fit into the stereotypes of a vegetarian.
In general, mainstream culture thinks of vegetarianism (and especially veganism) as a diet of absence. That is, vegetarians don’t eat x, y, and z; they subsist on salads and weird Asian (read: un-American) dishes; and they never get enough protein. Since women are supposed to be weak, skinny, and passive, it’s fine (good, in fact, for the patriarchy) for them to eschew meat*, as long as they continue to serve it to men, which is where the real threat in the vegetarian diet comes from.
So why on earth would any normal, self-respecting man want to do that? It would make him skinny, weak, passive, feminine, etc. Real men aren’t picky about their food and only eat vegetables because their mothers or wives make them do it; they would much prefer steak. Real men don’t eat less; they eat more. I know I’m guilty of assuming that whatever man I’m with will eat anything left on my plate–because men eat anything, and don’t have to worry about staying trim. Real men eat meat because real mean throughout history have been eating meat–ever since the cavemen first chased down a wooly mammoth.
All of this makes sense, but, again, it just seems too obvious. I know so many intelligent, confident, thoughtful, open men who are still surprisingly resistant to vegetarianism. And many of them would probably be offended at the implication that their choices are based on such popular cultural definitions. But I do think that this pressure to be a “real man” is very present, and often ignored.
Pondering this, I realized that while women don’t experience the sam expectations to be “real women,” they definitely feel similar pressure to be thin. Every woman I know is sensitive about her size–even the most confident, intelligent, feminist-leaning woman can’t help but feel the cultural pressure to be thinner (and thus more attractive). And it’s very convenient that the stereotypes of being vegetarian or vegan fit pretty nicely into those of being female. Not to say that vegetarian women just want to lose weight, but rather that they don’t have to deal with conflicting stereotypes. If I knew that going vegetarian was the right thing to do for the animals, the planet, the world, my own health, etc., but that I would probably gain weight, I would definitely hesitate, as I think many women would. Framed in those terms, it is much easier for me to understand the male resistance to vegetarianism. Dealing with stereotypes is hard enough, but having to fight against two different ideals–the “real man” and the “vegetarian”–would be very difficult.
*I just have to say that I thought of the phrase “eschew meat” the other day and I think it is so funny! 
