A tip of the hat to Campus Reform, a commendable American website, for this interview with an Argentinian fruitcake, Anne Delesio-Parson. Ms DP is described in the headline and article as a Sociology professor, but she’s not. Her website page at PennState College of the Liberal Arts is here, showing her to be a ‘PhD candidate’ – a postgraduate student, then – and her CV is here. An extract from the article:

In the most recent issue of the Journal of Feminist Geography, professor Anne DeLessio-Parson argues that “hegemonic masculinity implies an imperative to eat meat” and that this helps reify other power hierarchies as well.

Vegetarians also contribute to the destabilization of the gender binary, she argued.

“The decision to become vegetarian does not itself destabilize gender, but the subsequent social interactions between vegetarian and meat-eater demand gender enactment—or resistance,” DeLessio-Parson discovered.

“Refusing meat therefore presents opportunities, in each social interaction, for the binary to be called into question,” she said, noting that women, for example, may not consider dating men who eat meat, while male vegetarians might end up spending more time in the kitchen as opposed to outside on the grill, all actions which can destabilize gender norms.