engleski

Industry forging masculinity. "Tough men", hard labor and identity

In a wide range of virilities, male identities and their modern historical representations that start with a “chivalrous” attitude, as George L. Mosse puts it, one of them is unique - not only because it excludes “classical” physical esthetics, so important in forming many male identity stereotypes, but also because it exists alongside and “in opposition to” other expressions of masculinity. Hard working men in a heavy industry milieu – e.g. shipyards, mines, construction or metallurgy, have developed a somewhat different attitude towards unhealthy, difficult and often very poorly paid jobs which created the very core of their masculine identity. As Lewis W. Hine wrote - “Their noisy pneumatic drills break up the bed rock where a new building is to stand. They work in a haze of rock dust which they know will shorten their lives”. A high tolerance of danger and a propensity to take a wide range of risks was part-and-parcel of that specific macho working culture which was often developed in defiance and resistance to a managerial one. That is why it must be seen as part of Gramsci’s propulsive concept of popular culture opposing the hegemonic culture which, according to the author, is “born inside the factories” ; i.e. these “tough” men (and often women e.g. Stakhanovism, Shock work) were the industrial “version” of “progressive folklore”.

industry; manliness; hypervirility; work

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