One of the most important areas of our lives influenced by gender is how we choose to take care of our bodies. For many decades Western medicine was ignorant to many gender (as well as ethnic) differences in susceptibility to disease because men were used as standard patients in controlled studies. Doctors assumed that "people are people" and that what applies to men would apply to women.
Now most people know that isn't the case. But what interests me the most is how prevailing gender stereotypes and societal beliefs influence people's lifestyles. Health is one area where men get the short end of the stick. Stereotypes and beliefs about "real men" are often at odds with conventional wisdom about health. In this post I'd like to talk about gender and diet, and I'd like to focus my thoughts on men only.
It doesn't take a sociologist to point out that single men who live alone tend to eat more poorly than single women. There are a lot of different reasons for this, but stereotypes play a large role. For example, men are expected and encouraged to eat meat, and preferably a lot of it. This might explain why there are far fewer male than female American vegetarians.
Not long ago Burger King launched a campaign with the slogan "Eat like a man!" One particularly humorous commercial featured a young couple out to eat at a fancy French restaurant. The woman is obviously pleased with her boyfriend for taking her to such a place while he seems uneasy. When their miniscule portions arrive, the man can no longer conceal his discomfort. He's hungry. He's a man, and he needs more than just a few sprigs of lettuce for dinner.
In a powerful show of masculine liberation, he storms out of the restaurant and runs across the street to order a gigantic burger from Burger King. He's followed by an entourage of men who have similarly decided to take control of their diets. The image of all these men walking together with burgers in hand is a powerful display of masculine solidarity.
The problem with Burger King's message is that it suggests that men who choose to eat less meat are not really "men." Of course, if you're selling burgers that's what you want people to think. But given that heart disease is a leading cause of death in this country, the message seems less than benign.
My next post will look at the different ways in which men and women try to get (and stay) in shape...
