A prominent French green MP has sparked a national debate by suggesting that red meat is macho and grilled ribs are a gender issue, reports The Guardian.
Sandrine Rousseau, a leading figure in the EELV party and self-declared “eco-feminist”, has raised one of the most talked about topics of the end-of-holidays period.
In seeking to draw attention to the impact of meat-eating on climate change, she told an event at the weekend that the country needed “to change mentality so that eating steak cooked on a barbecue is not a symbol of virility”.
Citing figures from researchers, the 50-year-old former academic said men ate twice as much red meat as women in the country of steak frites and boeuf bourguignon.
As French people return to work after the long August break, radio and TV stations as well as social media are sizzling with hot-headed views on Rousseau’s barbecue-bashing.
“That’s enough of accusing our boys of everything. Stop ‘deconstructing’ our men. Stop Rousseau’s fantasies,” the rightwing MP Nadine Morano wrote on Twitter.
The far-right lawmaker Julien Odoul asserted that “since the dawn of time, the muscular mass of men means they eat more meat [protein] than women. It’s not ‘virilism’, it’s nature.”
He vowed to continue his “Cro-Magnon diet based on French meat,” referring to carnivorous cave-dwelling early humans found in south-west France.
The EELV is seeking to capitalise on a summer of weather-related catastrophes, ranging from a severe drought to huge wildfires in France, to draw attention to climate change.
In recent weeks, the party has floated the idea of a ban on building new private swimming pools as well as restrictions on private jets.
Rousseau defended herself in an interview on LCI television on Monday, saying she was taking part in a discussion about how to convince people to change their eating habits.
“In fact, reducing your quantity of meat is the most effective action against climate change from a personal perspective, even more so than the car,” she said.