Contesting Anthropocentric Masculinities Through Veganism: Lived Experiences of Vegan Men

261 Pages·2023·5.153 MB·English

by  Kadri Aavik

Contesting Anthropocentric
Masculinities
Through Veganism
Lived Experiences of Vegan Men
Kadri Aavik
Contesting Anthropocentric Masculinities
Through Veganism
“Challenging the carnivorous stereotype inherent in conceptions of Western mas-
culinity, Kadri Aavik’s work deconstructs the real and often complex reasons why
men become vegan and how their veganism constitutes an intersectional and anti-
speciesist resistance to gender norms that are confining and obsolete. Aavik’s study
examines how men challenge narratives that marginalize and feminize male veg-
ans, and, more significantly, examines how vegan men reconstitute their veganism
as intersectional validation of the lives of both human women and non-human
animals.”
—Laura Wright, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies,
Western Carolina University, USA
“While there are quite a few self-help and advocacy books on men and veganism,
Contesting Anthropocentric Masculinities Through Veganism is, to my knowledge,
the first full-length social science analysis that is devoted to making sense of the
diverse lived experiences of vegan men. Bringing together a wide range of theoreti-
cal tools – including ecofeminism, new materialism and posthumanism – and
detailed interview material, the book examines these questions clearly, expertly and
critically, yet also positively, in moving towards the possibilities for post-anthropo-
centric masculinities and food practices. The book is necessary reading for all con-
cerned with gender, food, and the politics of the planet, as well as students of
contemporary social change.”
—Jeff Hearn, Professor, Hanken School of Economics, Finland,
and author of Men of the World
“In documenting the narratives of men becoming and living as vegan, this book
encourages men to consider the impact of dominant forms of masculinity on ethi-
cal and sustainable food consumption. Drawing upon ecofeminist and critical mas-
culinities’ perspectives, this important book makes a unique contribution to the
necessary transformation of anthropocentrism and carnism towards an ethic of
care for non-human others and the Earth.”
—Bob Pease, Honorary Professor, School of Humanities and Social Sciences,
Deakin University, Australia and author of Facing Patriarchy
Kadri Aavik
Contesting
Anthropocentric
Masculinities Through
Veganism
Lived Experiences of Vegan Men
Kadri Aavik
School of Governance, Law and Society
Tallinn University
Tallinn, Estonia
Kone Foundation
Conducting research for and writing this book was supported by the Kone
Foundation, as part of the project “Climate Sustainability in the Kitchen: Everyday
Food Cultures in Transition”, carried out at the University of Helsinki, 2018-2022.
ISBN 978-3-031-19506-8 ISBN 978-3-031-19507-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19507-5
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2023
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For Silven
A
cknowledgements
I would not have been able to write this book without the personal and
academic support, inspiration, and encouragement from several people.
When I became vegan in 2005, I could never have imagined that research-
ing and writing about veganism would one day become a legitimate and
prolific line of academic inquiry, let alone one that I would be able to
undertake. Conducting research in critical animal and vegan studies has
been a lonely experience in Estonia, where I am based, due to the margin-
alisation of these fields in academic settings. I am very appreciative of the
various fruitful and supportive collaborations with colleagues in different
parts of the world which inspired me to write this book.
This book is an outcome of my work as a postdoctoral researcher in the
project “Climate Sustainability in the Kitchen: Everyday Food Cultures in
Transition”, carried out at the University of Helsinki from 2018 to 2022.
I am immensely grateful to Kuura Irni, who included me in this project. I
would like to thank the Kone Foundation for funding the project and my
participation in it. Being involved in the “Climate Sustainability in the
Kitchen” project has been an enormously enriching experience, both aca-
demically and personally. It was a pleasure and a privilege to work in our
small, but a very supportive and inspiring research team. In particular, I
am grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with and learn from Kuura
Irni and Milla-Maria Joki who continue to impress me with their academic
rigour, creativity, and choice of fascinating research topics. I want to thank
our research assistant Riitta Komulainen for her work of proofreading my
interview transcripts.
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am forever grateful to my research participants—the 61 vegan men
from Estonia and Finland who agreed to be interviewed for this study and
whose rich and detailed narratives about their experiences of becoming
and living as vegans enabled me to gain valuable insight into links between
men’s veganism and masculinities. Talking to you was a privilege and a joy.
In the process, I learned a lot about veganism and gender, includ-
ing my own.
I am immensely grateful to Jeff Hearn, Kuura Irni, and Luke Stange for
reading parts of the book manuscript and giving valuable feedback. I am
also very thankful to the reviewer for their kind and constructive com-
ments which helped me to develop my arguments. I also thank the review-
ers who provided helpful feedback to my initial book proposal.
I am indebted to the Estonian animal rights and vegan activist com-
munities, in particular, the key activists in Loomus and Estonian Vegan
Society, organisations that I have been affiliated with for years. Being part
of this community of brilliant and dedicated activists has been a source of
immense inspiration and support to me over the years. It has sustained my
academic work and has nourished me as an activist and as a person.
Writing this book has been incredibly challenging while taking care of
a toddler and working at the university—both full-time commitments and
beyond. I am deeply indebted to and dedicate this book to my family
whose love, care, and support (in various forms) over the years has made
it possible for me to write this book—especially my sister, Tiina; my mom,
Ingrid; my dad, Urmas; my partner, Luke; and my son, Silven. Finally, a
special thanks to my cousin Karin, the first one to become vegan in our
family and a great inspiration to me on my path to veganism.
c
ontents
1 Introduction: Men, Masculinities, and the Consumption of
Nonhuman Animals in the Anthropocene 1
2 Going Vegan: Understanding Men’s Vegan Transition
Narratives 33
3 Vegan Men Making Sense of Veganism: Multiple Meanings 69
4 Beyond the Discursive: Emotions, Affects, and
Embodiment in Men’s Veganism 87
5 Doing Veganism and Masculinity in Everyday
Interactions: Men’s Strategies and Dilemmas
in Communicating Veganism 117
6 Navigating Close Relationships: Vegan Men Relating to
Friends, Family, and Intimate Partners 147
7 Veganism and Social Justice: Vegan Men’s Gender and
Intersectional Politics and Practices 183
ix
x CONTENTS
8 Conclusions: Towards Post-anthropocentric Masculinities
Through Men’s Veganism 207
Appendix: Overview of the Research Participants 241
Index 247
CHAPTER 1
Introduction: Men, Masculinities,
and the Consumption of Nonhuman Animals
in the Anthropocene
In the past few decades in particular, veganism has increasingly entered
into the popular imagination in many Western societies and become the
subject of academic discussions. This growing cultural significance has
expanded and diversified debates around veganism. This book is an explo-
ration into one of the thus far less studied aspects of veganism: its links to
men and masculinities. In Western societies, such as in the U.S. and UK,
men make up a clear numerical minority among vegans (Oliver, 2021). In
Western cultural narratives, veganism and masculinity are still largely con-
sidered incompatible. Yet, an increasing number of men are taking up
veganism and aligning it with their ways of doing masculinity.
This book engages with questions of what it means to practise veganism
as a man, how veganism relates to masculinities, and the potential of men’s
veganism to disrupt anthropocentric and inegalitarian masculinities. While
not offering definitive answers, I aim to open up a conversation about how
to approach veganism, men, and masculinities empirically and theoreti-
cally. Based on 61 in-depth interviews with vegan men in Northern
Europe, the central argument of this book is that vegan men offer an
alternative to anthropocentric ideals of masculinity and that some of their
key values and everyday practices support more egalitarian gender rela-
tions. An important means through which to introduce veganism and its
radical promise to reshape human-animal relations is to create and expand
vegan imaginaries (White, 2022, p.  21) about vegan practices and
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1
Switzerland AG 2023
K. Aavik, Contesting Anthropocentric Masculinities Through
Veganism, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19507-5_1