What does our eating behavior say about us? Martin Winter has researched it. Here he explains why women are more likely to be vegetarian than men - and what is sexist about meat consumption.
SPIEGEL: On average, men in Germany eat just over one kilogram of meat and meat products per week, compared to just under 600 grams for women. Women eat a vegetarian or vegan diet more often than men. Can you explain this difference?
Winter: Meat is very strongly associated with masculinity. This has been the case since industrialization, a time when meat consumption increased. It brought about a huge social change. The estate-based society disintegrated and was replaced - initially as the ideal of the newly emerging middle classes - by a separation of the public and domestic spheres: while the man went to work, the woman took care of the home and the children.
SPIEGEL: What does that have to do with meat consumption?
Winter: Only men's work, not women's, was considered physically demanding. Men were factory workers and soldiers whose strong bodies needed meat. We still encounter this idea today. In 2020, Bavarian politician Hubert Aiwanger said in a discussion about cheap meat: “The debate must not come to a head with the paternalism that meat once a week is enough. Maybe for an office worker on a vegan trip - but not for a construction worker. If they only get meat once a week and only salad, they'll fall off the scaffolding on the third day.”
SPIEGEL: But care work also requires physical strength, both at home and in professions that are still predominantly carried out by women, such as nursing care for the elderly and sick.
Winter: There is too little awareness of the physical strength required in care work. This is due to the fact that men's public work and women's domestic or caring work were and are not perceived as being of equal value. The aforementioned separation of spheres was also linked to the fact that the skills required for care work were declared to be the natural nature of women. In line with this logic, the fact that care work is also physically hard work is still not recognized today.
SPIEGEL: Back to meat consumption: you say that meat is associated with masculinity and strength...
Winter: ...there is also a sexist component in which meat and women's bodies are associated with each other. The man who eats meat not only subjugates nature, but also symbolically subjugates women. I look at examples of sexist advertising for meat products with students every semester. New negative examples are constantly being added.
SPIEGEL: Do you have an example?
Winter: An advertisement shows three pieces of meat with the text “belly - legs - bottom for men”. Several things come together here: Meat is a food for men, while women are supposed to work their bodies through 'their' belly - legs - bottom for the male gaze. One could also go so far as to say that men symbolically incorporate women's bodies with the meat.
SPIEGEL: Do traditional role models give women a head start in eating more healthily by eating less meat?
Winter: I wouldn't see a starting advantage. However, there are differences in who has to justify giving up meat. I have noticed that health is now more widely accepted as an argument for a vegan or vegetarian diet. The idea that men need meat to be strong is no longer unchallenged in all milieus. Attitudes towards meat consumption are changing.
SPIEGEL: Nevertheless, meat consumption has recently increased again somewhat, especially among younger people, while the proportion of vegetarians and vegans has stagnated. That's according to the nutrition report that Cem Özdemir has just presented. How do you explain this?
Winter: It will be exciting to see whether we are dealing with a trend reversal or whether it is an outlier after all. However, it shows that the political strategies for the necessary food transition are not enough, as is also the case with the energy and mobility transition. Information and appeals are clearly not enough to reach large sections of society. Positions are hardening, because while giving up meat is losing its exotic status, meat consumption is being defended all the more vehemently.
SPIEGEL: One particular form of meat consumption is the so-called raw food trend, where influencers eat raw meat or raw offal. A tricky idea from a food hygiene perspective. The trend is mainly driven by influencers who presumably don't want to be associated with the original raw food made from grated vegetables.
Winter: I would interpret it in such a way that, on the one hand, this trend imagines a naturalness and purity and thus also conveys an originality. On a symbolic level, this can be linked to the gender order described as “natural and original”. On the other hand, it is precisely the dangerous aspect of the raw that allows “doing masculinity” - in other words, risk-taking behavior demonstrates courage and strength, which sets men apart from other genders.
SPIEGEL: Despite all the social issues and norms: Don't you mainly eat what you like?
Winter: That's true, of course, but what tastes good to me is very much a social issue. Preferences for different foods differ between different milieus, while they are surprisingly similar within them. Society sets a framework within which individuals operate, whether consciously or unconsciously. This can be seen in the fact that only meat from certain animals is eaten and not from others, even though it would be nutritious. Consuming meat is not an individual preference, nor is it a purely individual decision, because the ethics of animal husbandry and the sustainability of nutrition are relevant to society as a whole. On the basis of sustainability and ethics, a vegan or vegetarian diet would be desirable. However, appeals for this diet are usually individualized. I think that's the wrong approach.
SPIEGEL: Which one would be right?
Winter: That's a good question! I would put the costs where they arise: in production.
SPIEGEL: Which would probably lead to a debate that meat must remain affordable so that the construction worker doesn't fall off the scaffolding.
Winter: This populist argument I just mentioned does indeed play two social conflicts off against each other. I doubt that Mr. Aiwanger really cares about the welfare of construction workers. I am convinced that the ecological and social issues should not be treated separately.
SPIEGEL: Do you eat meat?
Winter: I've been eating a vegan diet for many years.
SPIEGEL: Did you have to explain yourself?
Winter: Rarely. It was never a big issue in my environment, which also shows how dependent it is on the milieu.
