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Animal slaughter has lately become increasingly visible in popular food media. This article examines the gendered assumptions and assertions underpinning the killing of animals in popular gastronomy. In television cooking shows such as The F Word (2005—present), Kiwi Kitchen (2007—8) and Jamie's Great Italian Escape (2005), both emotional concern for farmed animals and farmed animals themselves are feminized and denigrated, whilst slaughter and meat-eating are masculinized and celebrated. Conversely, in the recent cookbook-cum-memoir by Julie Powell, Cleaving: A Story of Meat, Marriage and Obsession, butchery and meat-eating are depicted as pathways to, and displays of, female empowerment. Both groups of gastronomy texts hold the domination of animals, demonstrated through the slaughter, butchery and consumption of non-human bodies, to be an integral component in the performance of gender.

The terms 'vegansexuality' and 'vegansexuals' entered popular discourse following substantial media interest in a New Zealand-based academic study on ethical consumption that noted that some vegans engaged in sexual relationships and intimate partnerships only with other vegans. At this time it was suggested that a spectrum existed in relation to cruelty-free consumption and sexual relationships: at one end of this spectrum, a form of sexual preference influenced by veganism entailed an increased likelihood of sexual attraction towards those who shared similar beliefs regarding the exploitation of non-human animals; at the other end of the spectrum such a propensity might manifest as a strong sexual aversion to the bodies of those who consume meat and other animal products. The extensive media hype about (and public response to) vegansexuality was predominantly negative and derogatory towards 'vegansexuals' and vegans/vegetarians. A particular aggression was evident in online comments by those positioned as heterosexual meat-eating men. In this article we examine the hostile responses to vegansexuality and veganism posted by such men on internet news and journalism sites, personal blogs and chatrooms. We argue that the rhetoric associated with this backlash constructs vegansexuals — and vegans more generally — as (sexual) losers, cowards, deviants, failures and bigots. Furthermore, we suggest that the vigorous reactions of self-identified omnivorous men demonstrate how the notion of alternative sexual practices predicated on the refusal of meat culture radically challenges the powerful links between meat-eating, masculinity and virility in western societies.