Vegan masculinities between virilism, heterosexism, and homophobia:

stigma and response strategies in public and private speech

Abstract

The present paper aims to investigate the relationship between male subjectivation and the diffusion of veganism / vegetarianism as a food practice, a style of consumption and a political issue. In fact, the refusal to eat animal bodies (or products derived from the exploitation of such bodies) has a particular impact both on the public perception of masculine models, and on the individual perception of one’s own body, sexuality and positioning in terms of gender and sexual orientation.

Particularly, the relationship between meat consumption and “traditional” masculinity, between sacrificial norm and heterosexual norm, is central. The meat-based diet, whose association to virility has been detected and documented by various ecofeminist authors, can be considered as a device for reproducing the heterosexual norm and, at the same time, the sacrificial norm. The gesture of not feeding on meat –  a gesture full of consequences on the body and in interpersonal relationships - is therefore the object of stigma, a stigma that, in the case of male veganism, assumes homophobic and misogynistic connotations. Through a survey on the response strategies of vegans to accusations of low virility or homosexuality, I propose the development of alternative discursive strategies that can be able to simultaneously challenge anthropocentrism and heterocentrism.