Our plates say a lot about us — about our history, our beliefs, our tastes, our conditioning, and our gender. And meat consumption today crystallizes many fantasies at the intersection of politics, ecology, health, and gender issues. What is it really?
After investigating in May 2020 the eating habits of French people during the lockdown, we are publishing this new installment of our observatory on a subject close to our hearts because it affects both our health and the environment.
« Meat is perhaps the food most loaded with symbolism. Eating meat is a way of asserting domination over nature. For a long time it was a product of hunting, as opposed to gathering. Meat therefore symbolizes action, strength, energy – characteristics attributed to men (…) » acknowledges essayist Nora Bouazzouni, author of Steaksism: ending the myth of the vegetarian and the meat-eater (Nouriturfu editions) in an interview with L’ADN.
Men consume more meat than women: 61.2 g per day for men, 34.1 g per day for women. And the proportion of people who consume too much red meat compared to official recommendations (it is recommended not to exceed 500 g of red meat per week) is almost twice as high among men (41%) as among women (24%).
It is for these reasons that we specifically focused on men’s meat consumption in France.
The label ‘meat-eater’, a right-wing marker?
Are ‘meat-eaters’ mostly right-wing? That’s what our survey reveals.
56% of the men surveyed self-identify as ‘meat-eaters’, and 54% of the men who self-identify as ‘very meat-eaters’ position themselves ideologically on the right or the far right.
40% of them consume beef daily.
The perspective of François Kraus of IFOP
For men influenced by identity-based discourses that valorize this symbol above all of strength and power, claiming a taste for meat can be interpreted as a form of rejection of a “politically correct” food culture that, in their eyes, calls into question both the “meat-eating tradition” of their territory and the “masculinity” of men attached to a very meat-centered culinary heritage.
Consumption frequency, political sensitivity, and feminism
Would you say that you eat meat without ever worrying about how often you eat it? 41% of respondents answer positively to this question, and this figure rises to 54% and 53% respectively among supporters of the National Rally and Reconquête.
14% of respondents say they try to consume as little of it as possible. Among men who cast a Europe Ecology – The Greens ballot in the first round of the 2022 presidential election, this figure rises to 27%.
However, only 32% of men who are ‘strongly feminist’ eat meat ‘without worrying about how often’.
“ You eat meat…but without ever worrying about how often “
” You eat meat…but you try to eat as little of it as possible “
The viewpoint of François Kraus of IFOP
In a male diet still largely dominated by the ” carnist dogma ” – barely 1% of men describe themselves as vegetari(an/vegan) – moderating their meat consumption appears to be a very marginal reflex outside the most eco-progressive segment of the male population : the French generally seem largely insensitive to messages denouncing the harms of a highly meat-based diet on the environment and health.
Carnist dogma still overwhelmingly dominates men’s diets
Carnism is a concept developed by social psychologist and author Mélanie Joy. It refers to a dominant ideology according to which people (in developed countries) are unaware that they choose to eat meat without physiological necessity.
This common belief that one should eat meat every day (for nutritional reasons, to be healthy…) appears persistent. Thus, to the question “Under normal circumstances, how often do you eat meat (e.g.: beef, pork, veal, poultry, deli meats…)?” 25% of respondents answer every day or almost every day and 27% 4 to 5 times per week.
Leading the meats consumed by French men are poultry (87% weekly consumption), beef (79%) and pork (76%).
Under normal circumstances, how often do you eat meat?
Over the past 7 days, how often did you eat…?
François Kraus’s point of view from IFOP
In a male dietary regime still largely dominated by the « carnist dogma » –
barely 1% of men call themselves vegetarian –, moderating meat consumption appears to be a very marginal reflex outside the most eco-progressive segment of the male population : the French generally seem largely insensitive to messages denouncing the harms of a highly meat-based diet on the environment and health.
Heavy red-meat consumers are much more likely to subscribe to sexist stereotypes
IFOP examined the profile of men who consume beef daily, particularly their degree of adherence to sexist stereotypes across different categories: rape culture and tolerance of sexual violence, a misogynistic view of gender relations within the couple, a misogynistic view of women’s place in society, a ‘traditionalist’ conception of the family, misogynistic attitudes in gender relations within the couple.
47% of daily beef consumers agree with the statement ‘In a couple, it is normal for the woman to do more household chores than the man’, compared with 16% of men who don’t eat it or who eat it once a week.
4% of French people adhere to all the sexist stereotypes below. This figure rises to 10% among men who identify as far-left and 20% among hunters.
Furthermore, 40% of men adhering to the roughly ten sexist stereotypes tested by IFOP eat beef ‘every day or almost’.
Personally, do you agree or disagree with each of the following statements?
The viewpoint of François Kraus of IFOP
In light of these results, intense consumption of red meat can be interpreted as a desire to ‘act the part’ among men who see the ingestion of a ‘man’s food’ as a way to socially fulfill their gender roles: their logic being that they reinforce their masculinity by ingesting the virile properties of a food still very much socially coded as masculine. However, this mindset goes hand in hand with a system of thought deeply misogynistic in its view of gender relations.
Barbecue: a practice to demasculinize?
78% of men surveyed are more often in charge of the barbecue than their partner.
46% of men believe they are better at the barbecue than women. This figure rises to 66% among heavy beef consumers.
Notably for the future: a majority of French men, 62%, consider it necessary to de-masculinize the consumption of meat cooked on the barbecue.
Which household member is in charge of the barbecue, the plancha, the grills, etc.?
The viewpoint of François Kraus of IFOP
In light of this study, one can only observe the gap between the overreaction of
social networks to Sandrine Rousseau’s remarks and the reality of a much more nuanced male opinion on the subject, notably because many men – including those on the right – admit the need to question this ‘masculine totem’ that the barbecue would represent…
The hyper-sexism indicator: 67% of French people adhere to at least one of the 10 sexist stereotypes
Ultimately, the analysis of the profile of men “ hyper-sexist ”, that is, those who adhere to all the sexist stereotypes tested by Ifop (4% of men), confirms the idea that an extremely meat-heavy diet often goes hand in hand with a conservative view of women’s place in society.
Thus, a high rate of men “ hyper-sexist ” is recorded among hunters (20%), heavy consumers of game (20%) and beef eaters (15%).
The viewpoint of François Kraus of Ifop
If the general relationship to meat can be expressed as a particular worldview (“Weltanschauung”) (see vegetarians / flexitarians), it is not sufficiently discriminating to influence the degree of societal conservatism among the French. However, the (over)consumption of red meat or game, especially when it is associated with certain socio-cultural characteristics (working-class groups, rurality, low levels of education…), goes hand in hand with a very conservative attitude toward women, the world and the planet. Be careful: asserting that an unbridled love for “barbaque” would be intrinsically linked to rampant sexism would be too easy a shortcut, contradicted by this survey which notably shows a high number of men who are both meat enthusiasts and hostile to sexism. But in some working-class, rural or identity-focused milieus, displaying a taste for this symbol of strength and power is indeed the expression of a form of hegemonic masculinity, likely responding to a need to symbolically assert a virility often undermined by a relative social failure.
