The Youtube channel Epic Meal Time
is a prime example of meat consumption being culturally related to
masculinity. Their video entitled “All Bacon Burger – Epic Meal Time” features
many overt allusions to masculinity and its association with meat products. The
video series is run by several large, white, bearded men often glaring at the
camera with stern faces and this video is no exception. The host, Harley
Morenstein, is the most physically intimidating, sports the largest beard and
yells at the camera for the duration of the video, echoing masculine themes of
strength, aggression, hair growth and dominance.
Most videos center around
meat-based foods and this one in particular is composed primarily of close-up
shots of hands-on meat preparation, shots of bacon and beef and gratuitous imagery
of men eating the enormous bacon burger after its completion. The series’ logo
of a skull and two knives, another masculine symbol of violence and aggression,
is worn by three of the four men in this episode. This video, and the series at
large, is a blatant example of Western culture’s association of white
masculinity with meat consumption. A web series centered on preparing and
consuming comically unhealthy and enormous meat-based “meals” relies upon the
most direct symbols of masculinity.
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