The perceived masculinity of meat: development and testing of a measure across social class and gender

ABSTRACT

Numerous studies demonstrate a link between meat and masculinity, with men being more likely to eat or express a preference for meat. Other studies provide theoretical explanations of linkages between meat and masculinity. However, few studies investigate which groups in society are most likely to perceive meat and meat consumption as “masculine.” Scholars have argued that men will be especially prone to perceive consumption of meat as a key component of masculinity. Likewise, others suggest that “working men” (i.e., manual laborers and other working class members) rely on meat for its purported strength-producing properties. This study presents a measure of perceived masculinity of meat and assesses this perception by gender and social class (along with manual labor occupations). Using an online survey and convenience sample (n = 584), the study finds that men score higher on a measure of perceived masculinity of meat. Results for social class are less definitive.

KEYWORDS:

• Masculinity
• meat
• meat consumption
• working class
• masculinity of meat

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Despite our attempts to recruit a variety of participants across our main variables of interest, the sample is predominantly female, middle class and white. This may be due in part to offline attempts at virtual snowball sampling – that is, asking friends and colleagues to share the survey link on their Facebook profiles. One possible consequence of this strategy is a largely homogenous sample that reflects the social positions of our friends and colleagues, as well as our own. Regardless, we contend that the subgroups in our sample are sufficiently large enough to test our hypotheses.

2. We recognize the problematic nature of using “male” and “female” to measure gender, given the biological connotation of these words in light of socially constructed realities. However, “male” and “female” are frequently used to indicate gendered meanings in the larger society and we do not believe this detracts from our overall findings.

3. Although statistical tests depend on the use of probability sampling, we use them here as this is a common practice and it helps to reveal patterns in the data.

4. Two-way analysis of variance shows a significant interaction effect between gender and manual labor that is consistent with our hypothesis: men who identified as manual laborers scored substantially higher on the MoM scale than any other grouping. However, given the limited number of men in our sample (and the fact that their numbers get diluted even further when comparing them across other variables), this result should be interpreted with even greater caution.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jacob B. Lax

Jacob B. Lax received his Master’s Degree from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Middle Tennessee State University. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at North Carolina State University

Angela G. Mertig

Angela G. Mertig is a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Middle Tennessee State University. She received her Ph.D. in 1995 from the Department of Sociology at Washington State University.