Article: Masculinity, the Embodied Male Worker, and the Historian's Gaze

Find it in Baron, Ava International Labor and Working-Class History, No. 69, Working-Class Subjectivities and Sexualities (Spring, 2006), pp. 143-160

Much has been written about women's work culture, but this article takes a look at masculinity in the white man's work place. The masculinity crisis, brought on by "virtually everything" (146) provokes a hyper-masculine response in the working-class white male that creates a sexist culture that involves acts of bravery, hazing, and other homosocial behaviors. Technology, for example, could be considered a threat to masculinity, so males engage in acts of bravery to prove themselves superior to technology. (Ibid.)

The article doesn't get much into race; for example, humor is a large part of the masculine group, so sexist jokes are common. Any discussion of how racist jokes enter that same field is very light. She mentions Daniel Bender's work on Jewish garment workers; how they did not exhibit these masculine traits, so there is a question as to how ubiquitous these masculine performativity was, and if it the term "white" is separate from Jewish or other groups (Chinese mentioned on p.149) that might not fit the Baron's model. Class, however, gets plenty of attention. The white-collar worker hides his body behind a suit; almost a denial of the qualities that the blue-collar worker possesses. (148)

The discussion of who has the power of masculinity is interesting; Baron says it is variable, depending "upon the angle of the gaze and upon who was 'being' and who was 'being looked at.'" I am curious to see more examples of this.