measuring masculinity

One thing that I have started to think about more is why men are sufficiently outnumbered when it comes to the people in the plant-based and/or vegan community. I have met quite a few male counterparts, but I would wager that two-thirds of the vegan and/or plant-based people I have met are female. This is backed up by a quick scan of insufficiently sourced internet articles, but the numbers say that somewhere between 65% and 80% of vegans are female! Did you get that!? Up to four out of five vegans are women! Why is this? Well, to put it simply, it seems our culture doesn’t think being vegan is “manly”. We train men into this machismo attitude. Although it has been memed to death, “bacon” is still a comment on my Instagram feed when a troll wants to really show me what I am missing, or in an effort to “own the vegan”. My comeback is that erectile dysfunction isn’t exactly manly and a diet heavy in cholesterol and saturated fat is more likely to lead to this condition which is often referred to as the “canary in the coal mine for hypertension and heart disease”, but I digress. Looking back, I had a close friend in high school that was vegetarian and we tormented him. Seriously, we were merciless. Almost every meal he brought with him to school we ribbed him for. I think we made fun of him mainly because the idea was foreign to us, just as most things that are “strange”. He had guacamole sandwiches before the age of Chipotle. Avocados and guacamole had yet to experience their astronomical millennial rise in popularity. Those meals were amazing in retrospect and I wish his mom had prepared those for me (although I wouldn’t have touched them at the time). The other factor is the macho aspect. We are brought up in this antiquated culture of the male as an action hero. He drinks beer and eats steak or burgers for every meal, has a give-no-shits attitude and only displays the emotions of anger and frustration. He is more manly by destroying things, people, animals… The man is more manly by consuming, especially flesh. Nothing is more manly than eating red meat and dying of a heart attack (which another rough estimate shows is the largest killer of men over 50 in industrialized countries). This portrayal of men is so commonplace and accepted.  Women tend to be more attracted to these types, even putting aside how this societal view impacts the framing of the role of women. The media portray it often and being a “man’s man” is something to aspire to be as well, one that looks out for the interests of the pack. Luckily there are some signs of a shift. There are more and more athletes, actors and politicians that are openly vegetarian or even vegan, and promoting the lifestyle and choice. A large part of the Tennessee Titans football squad went vegan a couple of years ago, including 300-pound offensive linemen. Cory Booker, a vegan, is running for president. Many in Hollywood are now promoting veganism and the benefits of plant-based diets for the environment and animals, from Leonardo DiCaprio to Beyoncé and beyond. Of course, there are many more vegan options today, foodwise, than there were even as recent as a few years ago. Beyond Meat made a huge splash this week with their IPO and stock prices soared to almost three-times of the initial offering price. This makes it easier for plant-based people to participate in everyday life without the need to “sacrifice” some of the staples of our western diet. However, my question to everyone is; what defines masculinity? In an age where we are encouraging people of all walks of life to claim their true identity and say that society at large should not judge, how is what you eat or having compassion for other beings (especially by men) represented as an identity and when will society shift to include some of these philosophies, characteristics or lifestyles into the larger conversation? Is being vegan still a “fringe movement”, or is it something else? Is it potentially something more? Your thoughts?