Abstract
As further background to our empirical chapters, this chapter looks at masculinity, whiteness, class, and dirt. In sympathy with Bourdieu, we position understandings of masculinity as relational, as embodied, and as configured in practice—given meaning in specific institutional contexts. The chapter considers some of the broader pressures on employment prospects and the effect of neo-liberal discourses and practices on the experiences of working class men. It then charts early work on masculinity and class which highlighted the ‘injurious’ nature of class relations (Sennett and Cobb 1972) and the value placed on physical work (e.g. Willis 1977; Tolson 1977). It considers more recent accounts that focus on discursive practices (e.g. Collinson 1992) and on struggles for positive identity. The latter is set in the context of widespread moral devaluation of the working class and the primacy placed on middle class attributes of personal fulfilment, mobility, and merit. Further, we discuss how ‘whiteness’ marks the working class body as lacking in ‘moral integrity’ (Skeggs 1997) and as deficient in the context of multicultural modernity (McDowell 2003). As the chapter demonstrates, struggles and challenges associated with negative positioning are particularly pertinent for those individuals undertaking ‘dirty work’ (e.g. work involving the handling and disposal of others’ waste) where stigma attached to dirt adheres to the body, reinforcing class-based devaluation.
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Simpson, R., Hughes, J., Slutskaya, N. (2016). White Working Class Masculinities and Dirty Work. In: Gender, Class and Occupation. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-43969-7_5
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