This image shows a white cartoon that appears to be a male chef who is cutting the meat and the second knife that is stuck into the meat could symbolize him claiming his territory. In the article Meatheads: New Study Focuses on How Meat Consumption Alters Men’s Self-Perceived Levels of Masculinity, Zoe Eisenberg and Lusty Vegan affirm that; “We’ve been fed this idea for decades. If you are what you (m)eat, and you’re a man, then you eat meat.”(1) Eisenberg and Vegan are saying that men identify eating meat as part of their masculinity. I never thought about it like that but I can see how some people may judge what people eat but I personally don’t care. If I go on a first thing the last thing I’m going to do is worry about what my date thinks about my meal, if I’m hungry I’m most likely getting the steak as well. Based on this reading I believe the man cutting the meat is demonstrating his masculinity and as I said earlier the second knife is to reassure that male dominance. Eisenberg and Vegan stated that; “It’s hard to shift an individual’s perception without first tackling their society’s view.” (1) I agree with this observation because people seem to be more motivated to do things only when it is socially accepted, if only people would stop giving this society so much power over their lives things would be very different, for the better. These gender roles and expectations are ruining us as people and our planet, some men view veganism and vegetarianism as feminine things and it is truly ridiculous, like who looked at a salad and said this is feminine and who looked at meat and said this is for men. It’s crazy how deep rooted these gender roles are embedded in our minds, in the article it brings up how smoking cigarettes used to be a manly thing to do. Men are willing to do anything, although unhealthy and dangerous, in order to be viewed as manly. In my opinion the manliest man is the one that doesn’t conform in order to please a society that is so accustomed to one way of thinking. Whilst looking at the 2020 Animal clock it broke my heart, I never thought of the impact until I saw the number of animal deaths go up by thousands every few seconds. In the reading Contextual Moral Vegetarianism by Deane Curtain, Curtain argues that; “From a woman’s perspective, in particular, it makes sense to ask whether one should become a vegan, a vegetarian who, in addition to refraining from meat and fish, also refrains from eating eggs and dairy products. Since the consumption of eggs and milk have in common that they exploit the reproductive capacities of the female, vegetarianism is not a gender neutral issue.”(4) There are things that I never related to gender and this is really making me think, we all need to make this a gender neutral issue because at the end of the day It already is but a great deal of the population refuses to acknowledge that.
I like your interpretation of the cartoon. The majority of the blogs I’ve read have said the same thing. I had a different interpretation, but I see where you were coming from. Looking at the image now, I do see how the cartoon means the man is asserting their dominance, even with something as simple as meat. Like you, I also didn’t see the connection between meat and masculinity. I think it just depends on what the person’s diet is, how hungry they are, and what they’re in the mood to eat. Although Eisenberg makes a great point on steak versus salad for men and women, its not that black and white. Both men and women can enjoy a steak from time to time. They can also choose to eat a salad if they want. Eating habits do not always correlate to masculinity and femininity. The problem is the people who make it a gender issue when it shouldn’t. Food shouldn’t be gendered period.
Valorie, I loved your interpretation of this week’s displayed photo. Assuming the cartoon’s gender and discussing the very masculine society we live in created a very well-developed blog post. It’s kind of funny, I feel like you and I, and all kids our age, are in this weird generation where for example, we don’t judge people based on the foods they eat, and we don’t ‘genderize’ food, but we can see how people go about that when it’s explained. My hope is that the generations after us won’t be able to understand how all things are ‘genderized’ at all. I love your explanation of how absurd it is to have foods belong to a gender. “It’s crazy how deep rooted these gender roles are embedded in our minds”. This could be the start of a really important conversation. Where do these deep roots start? Can they be uprooted? I would have loved to see you develop this conversation a little more. Through the last part of your post when you discuss vegetarianism and even veganism as being historically a ‘feminine’ thing, I inevitably wondered why. I think the connection between women and nature that is at the center of ecofeminism isn’t far from the connection between women and animals, as often time animals are seen as a part of nature. I was watching Disney’s Pocahontas last night and seeing her connection with nature, specifically the animals made my roommates and I discuss how in almost every Disney princess movie there is a strong connection between the princess and at least one animal. Why? Where does this stem from? Often in movies the animals that have connections with men are dogs, horses, wolves, while the females have connections with mice, birds, and typically smaller animals. I think this could fit into our conversation about vegetarianism, as I believe it stems from a female’s relationship with living animals, rather than one’s diet choice. This conversation (the mini one I just started) could be much further developed, but I loved you’re post and you did a great job tying some important ideas together.
I think it was so crucial that you highlighted that the cutting of meat was masculine. Back in the day, the men were the hunters and I believe that it is why it is looked at as a man thing. When writing my blog I emphasized that being a vegetarian was sooo much better BUT you reminded me of such a key aspect. Eggs and dairy !! Ughhh I feel horrible. I forgot that eggs are being massed produced by chickens and then they are being slaughtered. Knowing that they know nothing in this life than to be used over and over for eggs and dealing with all the trauma to ones body and then being killed off truly is triggering my anxiety. Or cows and goats being milked day in and day out just for their milk. Ugh we live in such a sick world and I want things to change but HOW. I feel like we would have to start a whole new human race with a new mindset and it just seems like an uphill battle that I definitely don’t have answers to.
I agree with your interpretation of the cartoon. Looking at the image I see how the cartoon means the man is showing their dominance, through meat.