I am neither a social scientist nor an economist. I am merely an American college student writing about what he has seen in his short twenty years. The title of this piece says it all; I have come to the conclusion that working-class men in the United States are in a precarious position. New books like The War on Boys and other research data indicate that men are falling behind in education, a trend magnified by the "skill bias" of the new global economy. Men are more likely to have substance abuse problems, kill themselves, and spend time in prison. Many of these trends and statistics have been brought to our national consciousness, so I am telling you nothing new. What I hope to add here is an interpretation and speculation as to what these trends and others mean for the future of America in general, and its progressive movement in particular.


Spreading Misogyny, a recent book, chronicled the growing volume of negative pop culture stereotypes of men. From The Simpsons to Malcolm in the Middle to Family Guy, it seems that the average American male is chubby, spacey, and useless. Some would argue that these stereotypes apply only to white men, but such shows as Bernie Mac and George Lopez seem to belie that statement. And while many would dismiss such caricatures of men as little more than humorous generalizations, I argue that this cultural antagonism towards men (particularly middle or working-class men) is only the most visible aspect of a general decline in the social capital of American men.
I consider myself a pro-feminist man. The feminist movement and its efforts towards wage parity, educational opportunity, and political participation is a proud and permanent fixture of American progressivism. However, like any social movement, feminism had unintended consequences. However, unlike most, I don't blame feminism or the feminist revolution for the current "crisis" in American masculinity. Rather, I blame the capitalist system for its endless ability to usurp any social movement for its own interests.
If it were not for the declining real wages of men in the early 1970s, there would have been no backlash against feminism. What working men failed to realize was that it was not feminism that had made their lives more difficult, but the outsourcing and deindustrialization of America. And those decisions were not made by vanguard feminists, but by rich men on Wall Street and in Washington. Yet mass media and conservative punditry managed to convince millions of struggling electricians, carpenters, and autoworkers that it was the fault of the women's movement, rather than union decline or the continued withering of the social safety net, that was the cause of their problems.
As such, the working-class man, rather than swinging his politics to the left, swung them to the right. These "Reagan Democrats," in a cultural backlash against liberal social policies, elected a president in 1980 that in just two terms managed to destroy the gains that had taken organized labor a century to consolidate. Look at racial and income demographics for Bush's elections and we see a similar pathology, one chronicled in What's the Matter with Ohio?
The unfortunate truth is that American men have failed to align themselves with the international worker's movements that were responsible for their formerly generous standard of living. If it were not for the radicals, anarchists, and syndicalists of the late 1800s, there would have been no American Dream for these men to lose to these "anti-family" feminists. But, it seems that 50 years of economic and political privilege has permanently conservatized the working-class American male, and as such he will continue to vote for free trade, laissez-faire reactionaries while their position- economic, social, and political- continues to erode.
But there is more at stake than job security, real wages, and male ego. I am afraid that the proliferation of this"angry white man" may turn into a full-fledged fascist subculture. This dark and sad corner of American society has already been examined in American History X and The Believer, and these films reveal the tragic flaw of the working-class American male: rather than realizing his plight- job insecurity, low wages, and poor education, are the same struggles shared by low-income women, African-American men, and Mexican families, they blame "welfare queens" affirmative action, and bilingual education while ignoring the real culprit: big business.
I want to help these men, these downsized factory workers, plumbers, and electricians. But first they have to learn to help themselves and drop the homophobic and xenophobic tendencies in their rhetoric. Now, more than ever, working-class people must work together across sexual, national, and racial boundaries, and make this global economy work for the benefit of all. But, unfortunately, these men would rather rail against abortion and gay marriage and send donations to the Minutemen than actually join their fellow proletarians in an effort to take their country- and their world- back from a financial oligarchy that has hijacked democracy.