Cutting, Driving, Digging, and Harvesting: Re-masculinizing the Working-Class Heroic

Fleras, Augie; Dixon, Shane M.

doi:10.22230/cjc.2011v36n4a2419

Cited by 21 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…It seems that within his quest to become an adoptive parent, Chandler lives up to certain norms of masculinity. That is, by arranging and securing the essence of their desired family lifea childin an honest way, he seems to live up to the masculine norm of not only the providing fatherquite literally by providing a child but also to the ideal of the hero with civic virtues (Fleras and Dixon 2012;Gardiner 2002;Holt and Thompson 2004).…”

Section: The Virile In/fertile Manmentioning

confidence: 99%

Virile Infertile Men, and Other Representations of In/Fertile Hegemonic Masculinity in Fiction Television Series

Boer

2020

J Med Humanit

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Fiction television series are one of the few cultural expressions in which men’s infertility experiences are represented. Through a content analysis of twenty fiction series, this article describes and analyzes such representations. By drawing on Connell’s concept of hegemonic masculinity and Ricoeur’s understanding of paradoxical power structuring, four character types of infertile men are identified: (1) the virile in/fertile man, (2) the secretly non-/vasectomized man, (3) the intellectual eunuch, (4) the enslaving post-apocalyptic man. While these various dramatis persona outline different ways of how infertile men relate to normative hegemonic masculinity, they all represent infertile men as diverging from shared masculine norms. This non-normativity initially excludes many represented men from hegemonic positions. Eventually, however, these men generally aspire to and succeed in reaffirming their hegemonic masculinity through coercive force towards women and other men, through instigating the precondition for any power structure – the shared will to live together as a community –, and/or by seeking and finding explicit recognition for their normativity and dominance. At the end of this paper, I will reflect on the potential harmful effect of these outlined representations of infertile men and make a plea for diversifying representations of infertile men in our culture.

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Section: The Virile In/fertile Manmentioning

confidence: 99%

Virile Infertile Men, and Other Representations of In/Fertile Hegemonic Masculinity in Fiction Television Series

Boer

2020

J Med Humanit

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“…To reinforce this point, it is worth briefly turning to a sub-genre of reality television focused on celebrating “the heroism of the blue-collar worker” (Fleres and Dixon 2011, 580). Shows such as Deadliest Catch (Discovery Channel, 2005–present) and Gold Rush (Discovery Channel, 2010–present) depict groups of men, fishermen and miners respectively, battling with nature.…”

Section: Survival Television Beyond “Primitive” Masculinitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Shows such as Deadliest Catch (Discovery Channel, 2005–present) and Gold Rush (Discovery Channel, 2010–present) depict groups of men, fishermen and miners respectively, battling with nature. The virility and toughness of the men is constantly stressed, suggesting that only “real men” could cope with the extreme physical stresses of the work depicted (Fleres and Dixon 2011). In terms of the “primitive” masculinity thesis, these shows are very similar to survival television.…”

Section: Survival Television Beyond “Primitive” Masculinitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“Life Can Be a Little Bit Fluffy”: Survival Television, Neoliberalism, and the Ambiguous Utopia of Self-preservation

Davidson

2019

Television & New Media

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This article examines the utopian imaginary of two survival television shows: Born Survivor and Extreme Survival. These programs focus on the attempts by survival experts Bear Grylls and Ray Mears to remain alive in the wilderness. After considering the place of survival television in the history of nature documentaries and its articulation of a “primitive” form of masculinity, it is argued that the genre elaborates a neoliberal form of utopia. Survival television dovetails with the shadowy side of neoliberalism, ennobling a precarious, self-punishing mode of existence in which one struggles to maintain one’s present position rather than improve it. Yet, drawing on a widely shared meme featuring Grylls, I conclude by suggesting that the conservative effect of survival television is tempered by the exaggerated nature of Grylls’s performance, which offers a glimpse into how survival might be perceived from a genuinely utopian future.

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“…Worker cohesiveness is illustrated throughout the film through humor, haranguing, and banter, which is similar to what is seen in work-based reality television programs. 12 There is attention to the fact that workers, at least those featured prominently, were highly skilled, had intimate knowledge of the rig and its systems, did their jobs proficiently, and were safety conscious. Workers knew the drilling process as well as how the industry worked.…”

Section: Humanizing Through Family Friendship and Competencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The acts highlight the self-sacrifice and valor of the workers' efforts that day, representing their transformations from ''everymen'' to courageous, masculine working class heroes. 12 At the same time, the focus on heroism depoliticizes and decontextualizes: as the audience is provided a close up of the disaster and of the individual and collective acts of courage, we are pulled away from the context and the conditions leading up to the disaster.…”

Section: Heroismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crude Exploration

Dixon

Gawley

2017

New Solut

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The 2016 film Deepwater Horizon offers a rare portrayal of industrial disaster. It is novel as there are few film-based treatments of this issue. The film enables the public to learn about the disaster, the lives lost, and the stories of survival, but it also provides the opportunity to examine how industrial disaster and, by extension, occupational health and safety may be publicly framed and understood. This article presents an analysis of Deepwater Horizon. Four primary industrial disaster frames are identified in the film: profit maximization, technology and technology failure, managerial conflict, and worker portrayals. Each frame offers advantages and limitations for enhancing public understandings of industrial disaster. Missing from the film is the regulatory environment of the oil drilling industry, whose omission serves to potentially reproduce messages that privilege individualistic, isolated, views of industrial disasters and prioritize immediate over distal causes.

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Cutting, Driving, Digging, and Harvesting: Re-masculinizing the Working-Class Heroic

Abstract: ABSTRACT

Cited by 21 publications

References 47 publications

Virile Infertile Men, and Other Representations of In/Fertile Hegemonic Masculinity in Fiction Television Series

Virile Infertile Men, and Other Representations of In/Fertile Hegemonic Masculinity in Fiction Television Series

“Life Can Be a Little Bit Fluffy”: Survival Television, Neoliberalism, and the Ambiguous Utopia of Self-preservation

Crude Exploration

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