Were living in an enlightened age, the story goes. Aside from Andrew Tate and a bunch of freak gender critical obsessives, most people dont judge others gender identity based on frivolous details like what they enjoy eating. Men dont have to gnaw on red meat to prove their masculinity these days, right?Well, a new study suggests this might be wildly optimistic. According to research published in Sex Roles journal, men on vegan diets are often perceived as lacking in masculinity. This perception seemed to cut across gender, too meaning this wasnt just the Andrew Tate bro crowd calling vegan guys gay. A significant proportion of men participating in the study reportedly felt that male vegans are often viewed as physically weaker and less masculine, and a number of women participants believed there was truth to these stereotypes. Even weirder, some vegans thought this too. In a clear case of vegan on vegan prejudice, the study found negative beliefs about male vegans such as being unmanly or weak were harboured by a number of female vegans. The female vegans themselves were surprised that they have such stereotypical thinking. After all, on a rational level they know that a vegan diet is not related to a persons masculinity, the studys co-author Dominika Adamczyk tells PsyPost. I think this observation further underscores how strong the connection between meat-eating and masculinity is.This seems like a fairly wild discovery, and a blow for all the vegan dudes out there. If even vegan chicks think youre a wimpy soy boy for spurning animal products, what hope is there?! But does this study really hold water? Do women think vegan men are less masculine? More importantly, do guy vegans give girls the ick? To get to the bottom of this, VICE undertook a bit of rigorous scientific research of our own. Basically, we asked loads of women if veganism was a turn off.Yes, one woman responded immediately and decisively to an Instagram call-out. Yeah, hate to say it but I love a man that eats meat, another shot over. Yes, is that bad? another asked, before admitting she was speaking as an ex-vegan herself. I do get the ick a little, but that probably says more about me than them, a fourth woman confessed. I worry that their farts will smell all Quorn-y and I love cooking steak so, it's a defo ick for me, a fifth reported, definitely revealing more about herself than anything else in the process.

So far, its not looking good for the vegan guys. But surely Zoomers care less about all this than Boomers? Veganism is meant to have been normalised now, isnt it? Beyonc and Jay Z are vegan goddamn it! There must be a bunch of ladies out there who dont always associate vegan guys with weakness and flatulence.Next I turn to that infamous source of infinite wisdom: the Girls Group Chats. I dont see a vegan man as less masculine and it definitely wouldn't give me the ick, Phoebe, 29, says in Quorn Guys defence. To be honest, Id quite like it because I'd probably end up eating healthier. A similar line of thinking is advanced by 31-year-old Amy: Being vegan might mean theyre a better, more creative cook, which is a pretty hot trait in my book. Hannah, 30, agrees on the turn on. And now Im left wondering if this says more about early millennials who were raised on cooking shows and now fancy Jeremy Allen White in The Bear, than it does #AllWomen.Theyre more likely to be cooks who are used to adapting, which is also pretty hot stuff, Hannah says. I have lots of friends with intolerances and allergies, and I have other friends who struggle to cook for them because theyre not used to adapting ingredients.So vegan guys are adaptable and good in the kitchen? That might not win over the Andrew Tate bros as signs of alpha masculinity, but it might help them actually get girlfriends IRL.

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We Asked Women If Vegan Men Give Them the Ick - VICE