Why Men Think Plant-Based Meat Will Turn Them into Women

First, let me state that I love me some Griller's Prime (tofu based ground beeph), particularly on "TexMex" and I have not grown boobs or lost a penis... yet.

That said and contrary to the article, I am highly skeptical of the claim that there are people who literally believe that soy can result in a gender change.

"some men believe that the primary ingredient in the Impossible Whopper and countless other vegan products will literally turn them into women'"

I note there is no source for this claim and this is exactly the type of mis-information the article inherently suggests is bad.

Soy has estrogenic properties, this is just a fact. The article admits as much and Harvard Med will confirm it. Will an "incrediburger" give you boobs and make you penis fall off? Absolutely not, but the hormones in soy are actively used in hormone replacement therapy for postmenopausal women.

I think men who choose low reality/information news sources, sources that are often ripe for manipulation might be excused for fearing they will grow bigger boobs given the reality of the situation. Particularly men who are already experiencing bigger boobs as a result of age, testosterone loss, and fat.

As with so much of The Atlantic's content, this article seems to go out of the way to present an otherwise interesting topic with a culture war lens. No one who could actually benefit from unbiased information about the health benefits of soy is reading The Atlantic because they are "vegan-curious".

"vegan-curious" really? the author thought that that might help someone who listens to Joe Rogan have some sort of soy epiphany? Burger King had it right in my opinion and by the way, soy is not the exclusive product of vegans.

This kind of framing is why the right is able to paint the left as condescending elitists.

>The myth of physical feminization has its basis in existential concerns about power and status. Adams has studied this idea at length. She and other scholars have argued that the idea of veganism is rolled up with qualities like compassion, conscientiousness, and empathy—for animals or the environment. By modern American cultural standards, these are feminine traits. Violence, physical domination, and self-interest are masculine. Add in the global history of colonization, Adams says, and meat has become equated with white, heterosexual men. “Now it’s kind of like plant-based meats are here to take away their identity,” she says. “So eating meat is a sort of reactionary attempt to reclaim something that’s already been lost.”

Simply blaming anxieties on manliness and colonialist attitudes is too reductive. Another aspect to consider is that meat-replacements introduce the anxiety of a future disconnected from nature and its bounty and more importantly a certain type of lifestyle that went from expected to luxurious. If you look at online far-right rhetoric, you'll immediately notice that they frame soy (and modern day consumption in general) also in reference to classic science-fiction tropes of compliant populations in dystopian societies that are force-fed terrible meals and toil away with little hope of independence or freedom. Essentially conditions where human beings are reduced to bug-like behavior.

I'd say that this avenue of investigation is a lot more relevant to most people than simply chalking up meatless anxiety to subgroups of white men being unreasonable and calling it a day. It's certainly not an issue that is limited to white men with far-right beliefs. The more left-wing version would be the complaint that the wealthy can live in the equivalent of paradise while the rest are told to enjoy their metaphorical processed soy paste and not be so greedy as to ask for a decent life with a minimal presence of meaning.

We are seeing home ownership become an impossible dream. Semi-pastoral lifestyles centered around strong communities are already a relic of the past. By contrast a future where people can't own anything really important and live mechanistic, consumption-oriented lives with screen based parasocial relationships is already the reality for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. The soylent is just a focus point for some of that anger and dismay.