A closer look
Toxic masculinity in the 1800s dictated that you had to eat your rock-hard salted beef with your bare hands or a knife, like a real, scurvy-ridden man. Up until the late nineteenth century, forks were considered an overly effeminate, aristocratic Italian invention by the rugged, sea-hardened men of the British Royal Navy. Sailors were expected to exclusively use a knife and their dirty fingers. Using a fork at sea was seen as a sign of pathetic weakness and a breach of naval discipline, proving that fragile egos have always existed.
