Soy Boy Beta Cuck

Primal Rhetoric and the Rise of Right-Wing Carnivorism

David Rooney author S Marek Muller author Cecilia Cerja author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University Press of Mississippi

Publishing:15th Feb '27

£18.99

This title is due to be published on 15th February, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

Soy Boy Beta Cuck cover

Recently, certain questions about meat and its direct correlation to "manhood" have proliferated internet spaces in America. Is eating meat inherently "manly"? Is avoiding it a sign of being "beta"? Are soy protein and cell-cultured meat harbingers of civilizational decay? And, somehow, does the fate of the West hinge on white men rediscovering—and performing—their inner carnivores?

Soy Boy Beta Cuck: Primal Rhetoric and the Rise of Right-Wing Carnivorism explores how meat became a cultural battlefield on the American political right, especially in the years surrounding Donald Trump’s presidencies. Blending rhetorical analysis with cultural critique, the authors trace how animal-sourced meat has been elevated into a symbol of white Christian nationalist identity, while "alt" proteins have been cast as markers of weakness, "wokeness," and Otherness.

The volume maps how digital platforms from Facebook to Substack serve as accelerants for these narratives, crystallizing scattered grievances into full-fledged carnivorous ideologies. Through vivid case studies, readers encounter Cracker Barrel’s failed rollout of Impossible Sausage and the storm of outrage that ensued; the ascendance of such "carnivore" influencers as the Liver King and Raw Egg Nationalist, whose performances intertwine masculinity, race, and reactionary nostalgia; and the wave of legislative bans on cell-cultured meat in states like Florida, fueled by conspiratorial fears of "eating bugs."

Approachable but also extraordinarily well-researched. The authors illustrate how primal paleo-fantasies underwrite the rhetoric of the contemporary far right, noting its central preoccupation with carnivorism and its illiberal entailments. - Casey Ryan Kelly, coauthor of Manifesting Violence: White Terrorism, Digital Culture, and the Rhetoric of Replacement

"Soy Boy Beta Cuck is a well-written, theoretically grounded, and engaging exploration of ‘primal rhetoric’ in the 2020s. The volume offers useful insights for scholars interested in understanding the intersection of meat culture, right-wing politics, and the contemporary digital media environment." - Garrett M. Broad, author of More Than Just Food: Food Justice and Community Change

ISBN: 9781496866318

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

192 pages