Although we believe food preferences should have nothing to do with gender, there is still an undercurrent that ties the two together. The stereotype that meat is inherently a more "manly" food is the result of a "strong metaphorical connection in the Western pysche," according to a series of studies recently done in the US and Britain.
The studies, as recently highlighted by Forbes, states that across the world items like steak, hamburgers and frankfurters coming in on top as "boy foods," and that ordering anything vegetarian is, by contrast, wimpy.
In a particularly telling part of the research, it was found that respondents implicitly perceived male meat-eaters as being more masculine than non-meat eaters. "To the strong, traditional, macho, bicep - flexing, All-American male, red meat is a strong, traditional, macho, bicep-flexing, All-American food," the authors contend. "Soy is not. To eat it, they would have to give up a food they saw as strong and powerful like themselves for a food they saw as weak and wimpy."
Forbes goes on to explain that it doesn't have to do with genetics, as you might assume: neanderthal women hunted and ate meat independently of their male counterparts. It wasn't until much later when early Man diversified his diet that men became the primary hunters and women turned to foraging.
Read the full article and then come back and tell us: what do you think of this?
Read More: The Truth Of Why "Manly" Men Order Steak, And "Wimps" Order Salad from Forbes
Related: How To Cook Perfect Steak in the Oven
(Image: Faith Durand, Emma Christensen)
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Female here - Interesting article and research. I had never put much thought to it before, but I would have to agree that I find meat to be masculine. I never shy away from ordering a giant steak at a restaurant, but if you asked me to assign a gender to steak or hamburger, I would pick male.
The ideas about why women were in the foraging, cooking roles really do make sense. I would have thought it went way back to the neanderthals but the findings that neanderthal women were hunters too was eye opening.
Thanks for linking to the article. It was a great read!
I can't count how many times I've been out with my husband and the server (who didn't take our order) tries to give him my steak and me his chicken.
That or the server tries to give me his light beer and gives him my stout... :(
Can we please stop engaging "caveman days" assumptions in order to justify gender stereotypes?
I wonder if it also has something to do with that boys take a lot more calories to grow. While a pregnant or lactating female requires the most calories of all humans during those specific times, men require more energy, from the time they were just a spermatazoa until death. I may be a healthy vegetarian, but I happily admit that meat gives more calories than lentils, and for most of human existence, just getting enough calories was a problem.
But so many young women have an iron deficiency.. you don't just get iron from meat but it is one of the great sources. I found myself craving steak and spinach lots recently, took a blood test and I was iron deficient.. doctor said its so common in women in their 20s.
After reading this I now find it humorous that when I do go 'girly' and hit up the local grocer's salad bar for lunch, I notice the line always has more men than women.
Thoughts?
I think part of it is just an appetite thing. Guys' physiology is just different -- they're slightly larger and have a greater proportion of muscle mass that needs to be fueled (on average of course).
Most young men I know are constantly worried about being hungry after a meal. They pick food based on what they think sounds most filling, and that seems to usually involve meat. For office lunches, my twenty-something male coworkers always look up photos of the food beforehand and pick what looks biggest.