On Meat and Meatheads

A disturbing recent trend I've noticed in fast-food commercials has been to target the male demographic by portraying the consumption of processed dead animal flesh as an eminently masculine activity.

In other words, if you're a guy, fast-food companies want you to know that MEAT IS MANLY.

One such commercial, for Quizno's subs I think, features several average-joe types (construction workers, cops, and so on) being polled on a city street. They're each shown two sandwiches - a Quizno's and a Subway's - for which they provide deft and insightful commentary, like "Meat, no meat!" or "Lotta meat. Lotttta meat."

Another commercial features Jared, the most vapid icon in food advertising, extolling the virtues of Subway sandwiches like he usually does. But this time, he's joined by some testosterone-charged pro wrestler, and while Jared is excited about how Subway sandwiches have low fat, the wrestler is all about how they've got "More meat. MORE MEAT!"

The final commercial I've noticed in this emerging genre is a Burger King commercial with some asstard singing about how he likes eating beef because he's a man. (As you can see, this kind of marketing isn't big on subtlety.) The whole time the song's going on, every kind of loser that's ever boasted a Y chromosome is celebrating in the streets by flexing muscles, cheering, punching friends, and eating burgers. The insufferable song, featuring inventive lyrics like "Wave chick food bye-bye, now it's for whopper beef I reach!", ends with the triumphant exclaimation, "I am hungry! I AM MAN!"

As you can see, men love meat. Yes, that's what men do. Eat meat. And drink beer, and catcall at women, and watch football, and scratch their hairy asses.

I gave up eating meat over two years ago, so I'm no longer a man. In the popular view this is an insult, but once one realizes that the popular view of being a man amounts to being a loutish idiot with a gut and high blood pressure, being less manly quickly becomes a positive virtue.

This meathead bullshit is to men what the valley-girl is for women: stupid, annoying, and something to which anyone with a brain would want to take exception. Women aren't the only ones who face demeaning sexual stereotypes.