«WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THAT TALK A FEW YEARS AGO ABOUT REPAIRING THE AMERICAN «INFRASTRUCTURE?»

This institutional snobbery towards manual labour is not only economically short-sighted (the industry could make a comeback) but also results in a demeaning attitude toward masculinity. One of my favourite moments from the recent Munk Debate titled “The End of Men” was when Camille Paglia pointed out the disregard feminists show for working-class men:

“(They) seem blind to the infrastructure that makes their own work lives possible. It is overwhelmingly men who do the dirty, dangerous work of building roads, pouring concrete, laying bricks, tarring roofs, hanging electrical wires, excavating natural gas and sewage lines, cutting and clearing trees, and bulldozing the landscape for housing developments. It is men who heft and weld the giant steel beams that frame our office buildings … Surely modern women are strong enough now to give credit where credit is due.”

The Ottawa Citizen

 Nov 32 2013