Researching masculinities and food protein practices: A trio of more-than-human participatory workshops

Abstract

Whilst there is research around men and masculinities as they relate to practices of caring in the ecological crisis, less is written about methodologies that can address intersectional challenges, and ways of engagement that can support behaviour change. A process-based workshop methodology is discussed for researching the male-gendered and material performances of environmental caring related to personal food protein consumption practices. It works creatively to address relational inequalities in status both between different masculine positionalities and different food proteins. It contributes to more-than-human participatory methodologies by exploring male-gender – food protein relations, via positioning and inviting practical-engagement with foodstuff as a process for destabilising social and cultural hierarchies attached to thinking about, as well as preparing, cooking and eating, different food proteins. We argue that novel research findings can emerge around individual, collective and community responses to the ecological crisis through the careful methodological attention to masculine inequalities.

Towards plantification: contesting, negotiating and re-placing meaty routines

“…In this context, alternative meat practices can be dubbed emotional, irrational, weaker, inconsistent, and so on. Reactions to meat replacements as weird, artificial or unnatural (for example, Varela et al, 2022), may be interpreted as reactions also to carno-normativist scriptings of 'real' or 'good' food (cf Willey, 2021;Efstathiou, 2022;Hurley and Roe, 2022). Still, even vegan and vegetarian practices that oppose carnism seem to retain, and perhaps even strengthen, phallogocentric attitudes (see for instance Brady and Ventresca, 2014;Greenebaum and Dexter, 2018;Mycek, 2018).…”