Join the Plant-Based Riot in welcoming very special guests from across the pond to discuss if eating meat promotes toxic masculinity. This week, the Riot talks with two plant-based blokes valiantly raising the vegan banner in England! We warmly welcome Kofi Smiles, host of the BBC's Humberside radio show, and Jordan Matfin, a founding member of The Vegan Man Club, to debate the ends and outs of diet and gender on a transatlantic scale!

Episode 23- Is Eating Meat Manly?

What is the definition of “manly?” What defines "a man? "Does the food we choose to eat, or perhaps not eat, have an implication on our masculinity? Well, in our current climate, it appears that ordering kale salad over cheesesteak sandwiches instantly knocks you down a few pegs on the masculinity scale.

According to Google Dictionary, a manly man is one “having or denoting those good qualities traditionally associated with men, such as courage, strength, and spirit” or “befitting a man”.

Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? It would seem that google dictionary recognizes a "man" as someone compassionate, epithetic and sympathetic. But in today's age of over branding, over marketing, and deceptive advertising, the simple act of eating has become a marketing tool used to appoint gender to a diet! And if you are a man that openly eats a plant-based diet, you can be assured that manhood will constantly be called into question.

For far too long, vegans, especially vegan men, have been ridiculed for their dietary preferences, lifestyles, and choices to show compassion. If we look back to googles description of men, it would seem those vegan males, more so than their meat-eating counterparts, demonstrate "good qualities", "courage", "strength" and "spirit" simply by defying the American Man's traditional diet ladened with meat, cheese, bacon eggs, and dairy. It is obvious that eating mounds of meat have no bearing on anyone's masculinity. This notion is a campaign that has been constructed by advertisers, marketing agencies, and the meat industry in an effort to drive more units in the male demographic. If we are being 100% transparent, this industry-generated narrative should also include an amendment that informs "manly men" that they will also obtain obesity, cancer, and heart disease with such a "manly diet."

The companies that promote these masculine directives are brainwashing men into believing that they are feminine for choosing more plants and less meat. This is a deceitful narrative supported by millions of dollars in the fictitious advertisement. However, these efforts appear to be failing as veganism is now growing faster than ever. Globally, veganism has skyrocketed and the same companies that were aggressively glorifying masculinity in meat-eating are now offering plant-based alternatives by the dozen simply because it is becoming more profitable! So I leave you with this: How can the same industries that exploited toxic masculinity through meat-eating for so many decades also simultaneously promote healthy plant-based eating simply because it is building momentum?

What's really going on here?