Paris — Called ‘La Lentré’ in France, it’s the month of returning to school after vacation and returning to normal, often marked by renewed social conflicts. But no one expected France to rage over barbecue.
Since Green Party MP Sandrine Rousseau declared on 27 August that “we must change”, barbecue has become a front-page word, a hotly debated topic on television and a national idea. It is the cause of the crisis of the entity. It changed our mindset so that eating a barbecue entrecote was no longer a symbol of masculinity. ”
Lorule!
Various politicians have erupted, from the far right to the Communist Party. They deny that Mr. Rousseau has a deep Gallic attachment to marbled meats cooked in delicate cuts by French butchers, demean and “deconstruct” men, project gender wars into joyful summer gatherings, accused of spreading gloom in general.
“Stop this madness!” Eric Ciotti, Rep. of the Gaulist Republican Party wrote on twitterAnother party member, Nadine Morano, said, “That’s enough to blame all our boys!”
The General Secretary of the Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, took a different view.
In an interview, Rousseau, a senior member of the European Ecology Les Vert Party, said he was surprised by the sizzling uproar. Her takeaway is, “If we want to solve the climate crisis, we need to consume less meat. That won’t happen as long as masculinity is built around meat.”
She is the defining man of masculinity, which involves or symbolizes heating charcoal, placing slabs of sausages and lean meats on racks and cooking them standing bare-chested in billowing smoke. did not provide any evidence.
but, study French men eat 59% more meat than women, according to a survey known as INCA, conducted every seven years by the French Ministry of Agriculture and Health.
As Rousseau suggested, French society is overwhelmingly male-headed when it comes to combating climate change, despite a summer of severe drought and wildfires.
“These men react as if I was ripping their hearts and lungs out!” she said. “But after a summer like this, it’s clear that we need to think about how we can enjoy raw meat on the barbecue. We can grill peppers. We can have a picnic.” It allows us to rethink what is worthwhile.”
In France, where there is a strong attachment to the ‘terroir’ (the land, the characteristics of that particular parcel, the nature of the soil and the characteristics of the livestock grazing there), it will be a difficult adjustment. The annual Paris Agricultural Exposition is a major national event for farmers to showcase their high-priced prize cows, and many politicians have seen their rise to high status by not looking comfortable stroking the cow’s buttocks. I am losing hope.
And will this country, the country of steak frites, be satisfied with grilled peppers?
It seems unreasonable, but times are changing. The earth is getting hot. France had her second hottest summer in over 100 years. The United Nations estimates that livestock emissions account for about 14% of all anthropogenic greenhouse gases, including methane.
This year’s French presidential election has already made it clear that food has become a major political issue. The country was centered on the Greens, divided between a predominantly right-wing red meat crowd and a quinoa and tofu brigade preaching the virtues of nuts and vegetables.
The land of gastronomy has become a hot topic of debate over the cultural and political symbolism of food. In an attempt to keep steak and lamb off limits to save the planet, traditionalists are detecting signs of a “cultural cancellation” imported from America. There is even a new word coined by the French daily Le Monde for the discussion of ham sandwiches and apple semiotics: “mangeosphère”, or loosely “eating territory”.
Roussel, then the Communist Party’s presidential candidate, was heavily criticized in January for saying all French people should have the right to eat traditional cuisine. “Good wine, good meat, good cheese, that’s French gastronomy,” he said.
The comments were quickly attacked as xenophobic, and Rousseau spearheaded his critics. What about couscous and sushi? And the millions of French Muslims who don’t drink wine? And vegans who aren’t too interested in “good meat”?
Nevertheless, Mr. Roussel’s popularity briefly soared, and loud applause met his cries at the rally. Tofu and soybeans? come! “
The French left is split. Mr. Roussel represents a faction that rejects a major remake of the French diet – he promised plenty of red meat later this month at the annual music festival hosted by the communist newspaper Lumanité. – On the other hand, the Green Party and the French Indomitable Party argue that change is necessary.
“There is a gender gap in the way we consume meat, and most of the people who decide to become vegetarian are women,” Unbowed MP Clémentine Autain told BFMTV, calling Rousseau. “So if you want to go on par, you have to attack masculinism.”
She didn’t say what to do with it.
Julien Odule, a member of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Assembly, was less than impressed. He declared that men always ate more meat than women, and that “it’s not masculinity, it’s nature”. , vowed to pursue the “Cro-Magnon Diet.”
Morano, who heads the center-right Republican Party, called for an immediate end to the “deconstruction” of French men. French philosopher Jacques Derrida, who died in 2004, coined the term, but generally applied it to texts rather than to French men.
Rousseau said: I am against the patriarchy that is walling the planet. ”