Are veggie men less macho?

[Rachel]

A new study suggests the omnivorous public perceive vegetarian men as less masculine.
Meat, morals, and masculinity (Matthew Ruby) - Academia.edu
What do you think?

[bandersnatch]

Less macho?
Let me see........
Vegetarian for 25 years. 21stone, weight lifter, martial arts instructor (22years) Baldness due to excess testosterone (i like to think that lol)
Macho is a word used by men who have something to prove but i think that if i wanted to that is how i could class myself. The male mind is just ego based and wants recognition of the fact that he is a BIG man and acts accordingly. Personally i reckon its all a load of bol****s ... Shift+R improves the quality of this image. CTRL+F5 reloads the whole page.

[juker]

What someone eats doesnt dictate whether or not they are macho

Macho is not necessarily something to desire to be anyway, you should just be happy with who you are and if people dont accept that then they are not people you want to be around

[Chris]

There are some pretty compelling scientific studies that suggests that men who follow a meat free diet have less testosterone than men that do consume meat (The Meat and Testosterone Connection), this appears to be a very brief overview of several studies that includes many citations should you wish to check its validity.

Should this be correct, vegetarian men are less masculine, however, due to the decreased testosterone should in theory be more aggressive and appear more 'macho'.

Either way... who really cares?

[juker]

The only way I could understand where they were coming from with this one, was if men still went out hunting and bringing home their kill to be prepared and cooked by the wife. Getting it from a supermarket is just not the same, its exactly the same to go to the supermarket and buy veggie food!

[Pipsqueak]

Hell, who wants to go out with a 'macho' meat-head anyway? I thought the old Rambo stereotype went out with the Eighties! I've never been into blokey blokes in my life and really can't see the point in them myself, it's all about his nice eyes and making me laugh for me.

That said, I haven't actually read the study linked too as yet. So will do so as it might offer food for thought..

[HighballEmy]

The point isn't that veggie men ARE less macho, but that they're REGARDED as being less macho by the omnivorous public - and that's the same as the omnivorous public thinking that all vegetarians wear baggy cauderoy trousers, or that we must be anaemic, or that we only eat lentils and wilted lettuce leaves. It's just prejudice, and there's no sense wasting energy in being offended by it. The energy should be used for improving the omnivorous public's understanding of vegetarianism!

Love,

Emy
xxx

[deaddogsmoking]

Veggie since 1996. Still fully laden with all masculine qualites, and, at least equally, all masculine failings as well. I think, with time, stereotypes have dwindled and will continue to do so.

[Barryloves]

"Macho" is an embarrassing and outdated social construct that I think deserves to be consigned to the scrapheap of archaic attitudes and behaviors.

But to answer the question, no."