Slate has an article called “The Herbivore’s Dilemma” but it’s not about actual herbivores. Rather, it’s simply a demonstration of meat metaphors. It says that some Japanese men are being called “grass-eaters” because they prefer a life of less consumption, less greed, less dominance. The article says, “Named for their lack of interest in sex and their preference for quieter, less competitive lives, Japan’s ‘herbivores’ are provoking a national debate about how the country’s economic stagnation since the early 1990s has altered men’s behavior.”

Here are some more snippets from the article:

• “Unlike earlier generations of Japanese men, they prefer not to make the first move, they like to split the bill, and they’re not particularly motivated by sex.”
• They’re “close to their mothers and have female friends”.
• “It may be that Japan’s efforts to make the workplace more egalitarian planted the seeds for the grass-eating boys”
• “it was the bursting of Japan’s bubble in the early 1990s, coupled with this shift in the social landscape, that made the old model of Japanese manhood unsustainable.”
• “In response to the herbivorous boys’ tepidity, ‘carnivorous girls’ are taking matters into their own hands, pursuing men more aggressively. Also known as ‘hunters,’ these women could be seen as Japan’s version of America’s cougars.”

Talk about the sexual politics of meat!

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Sections: Vegan News
Topics: japan, metaphor, news, sexual politics of meat, veg, Vegan