“Officially A Vegan Now”: On Meat and Renaissance Masculinity in Pro Football

Abstract

In 2012 Arian Foster, a running back for the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL), announced via Twitter that he is “officially a vegan now” (Foster, July 6, 2012). Foster's announcement precipitated a torrent of attention by many who worriedly debated the impact that his new diet may have on his on-field performance. In this article, we unravel the threads that have woven together a picture of who Foster is and what his decision to go vegan means. We argue that a close look at the media response reveals deeply held beliefs about masculinity, race, class, and place and the ways in which food serves in the constitution of subjectivity in the context of pro-football in Texas. We conduct a contextual discourse analysis of the popular and sports media coverage of Foster's diet using an intersectional framework to elaborate how normative masculinity is further nuanced by the meanings attributed to race, place, sexuality, sport, aggression, violence, health, and productivity.