“The recession has hit hardest the most macho trades, such as building and manufacturing. Two-thirds of jobs destroyed since it began belonged to blue-collar men… Those who can no longer provide for their families feel emasculated. Those who still have jobs fear losing them… ‘I don’t like the way they’re giving away all that money,’ says Steve Roberts, a welder in Arkansas. ‘I think you should work for your money.’”
— from the Lexington article “Angry White Men” in the Economist (3-6). Seems that blue-collar men are both stuck and complicit in their stuckness. It’s telling that the guy with a job says ‘I think you should work for your money,’ despite the obvious fact that similar work is disappearing around the country. In addition to being an opportunity for women to take over a greater share of the workforce and subvert traditionally masculine “provider” roles, the recession is also an opportunity for employed, macho men to boost their own social prestige vis-a-vis their newly unemployed, emasculated counterparts. Men are not uniformly empowered, the recession shows again.
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