Basic Trope: A truly manly character has a taste for meat.
- Straight: Bob is a macho badass, and has steak as his Trademark Favorite Food.
- Exaggerated:
- Every time we see Bob eating, it's from a large slab of raw meat.
- Bob is exclusively carnivorous.
- Downplayed: Bob enjoys steak, but he eats fruits and vegetables as well.
- Justified:
- Bob became such a badass in the first place by hunting for his food.
- Bob is an obligate carnivore, meaning he needs meat for his survival.
- Bob does not have the same medical or metabolic issues with fauna that he does with flora.
- Bob is an athlete or bodybuilder of sorts, and predominantly eats meat as they're a good source of protein.
- Inverted:
- Badass Warrior Monk Bob is vegetarian whose diet keeps him in peak condition, and his knowledge of edible plants and mushrooms means he can survive anywhere.
- Bob believes that a meat-based diet is morally wrong and/or unhealthy, so he makes himself a veggie burger with veggie bacon and soy cheese.
- "Real" women don't eat meat, only fruits, flowers and leafy, light salads and other non-threatening food.
- Gender Inverted:
- Alice The Lad-ette loves to eat steak.
- Alice the Valley Girl eats meat, poultry and fish (possibly with seasoning) exclusively.
- Subverted: Bob and his fellow bikers walk into a diner and order salads.
- Double Subverted: Big biker Bob orders a salad, but it's the set-up to a punchline of a "salad" that's little more than bacon piled atop a handful of leafy greens and a sad tomato slice.
- Parodied:
- Bob eats nothing but meat, subscribes to a meat-lover's magazine, is on a first-name basis with the local butcher, worships a T-bone steak, and lives in a house made of meat. Oh, and his wife wears a dress made of such.
- Bob eats a big porterhouse steak, then washes it down with a big glass of liquefied beef.
- Zig-Zagged: Bob eats meat at every meal on some days, none on others, and varying non-zero amounts of meat on the remaining days.
- Averted:
- Bob's diet is "normal" and he has no clear favorite food.
- Bob is a vegetarian.
- Somehow, Bob doesn't even need to eat.
- Enforced: "We need to show that our character is manly. Real men don't eat salad."
- Lampshaded: "Bob sure loves his steak." "Come to think of it, has he ever eaten anything but meat?"
- Invoked: Bob is trying to convince others that he's a "real man", and exaggeratedly orders a steak over his friends' ribbing.
- Exploited: Alice sets up a Box-and-Stick Trap for Bob, and baits it with a raw steak.
- Defied: "Real men don't give themselves scurvy."
- Discussed: "Bob is one manly man. He probably eats nothing but meat."
- Conversed: "He should see a nutritionist. An all-meat diet can't be healthy."
- Implied: Bob is pretty macho, and often shown eating various meats, but never mentions his particular love of them.
- Deconstructed: Because Bob almost never consumes any plant-based foodstuffs, he gets few and little of the beneficial nutrients provided by fruits, vegetables, and grains. His health declines dramatically as a result.
- Reconstructed:
- Upon noting the risk of not having a balanced diet, Bob decides to eat more salad ... but never without bacon bits, of course.
- Bob improves his diet and restores his health.
- Bob learns about a workable meat-only diet (all of the animal instead of just muscle tissue) and never has to look at vegetables again.
- Played for Laughs: Bob orders a twelve-decker bacon-and-grilled-cheese sandwich, battered and fried.
- Played for Drama: Bob's friends and family are concerned for his health, keeps Bob from eating so much meat and he angsts about when he can eat them.
- Played for Horror: Bob's Trademark Favorite Food is human meat, and his means of obtaining it are never mentioned.
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