I really love that you chose this topic and ran with it. ALL the men I've ever fallen in love with were blue collar dudes. I think they're sexy!
My ex-husband is a lifer at UPS and he says he loves his job because he gets to be outdoors all day long. Then there is the truck driver, the mechanic, and the guy who runs his own delivery service. These are all respectable careers to me. I've never fallen for a suit.
It's a stupid, mean, and shortsighted error to write off blue-collar guys, people (whatever your gender preference). For one thing, they have highly useful skills. Also, they have (or have done) the jobs that AI will NOT be doing in the near future. Young 'uns, take heed. And don't get me started on my decades-long rant about how trade training needs to include humanities and critical thinking skills because people working in those positions are not just cogs who do a job; they're full human beings who deserve as rich and deep a cultural and intellectual life as anyone else. I has spoken ;-)
This is very personal to me, Jan. My mother was a high-society girl who married a man that she expected to keep her in a life she felt destined to. Worked for a while, then they moved to Florida when my father, a Cornell-educated radio man, turned to chicken farming. She never forgave him. Her feelings about this influenced me for decades before I woke up.
I can imagine. One of the weirdest things about the patriarchy is how it conditions women to think they're owed a certain level of support from men, which is both the basis and the evidence of their (women's) worthiness, and woe betide the man who fails to live up to that. Patriarchy traps everyone. I'm sorry this was your experience.
Yes! When I started dating at age 50, my initial criteria was a guy with lots of education. But that doesn’t necessarily make someone a good partner. After five years I did find a second love who, while not blue collar, worked in sales which let him ski and surf. And he had the values and qualities like compassion that I’d been looking for. :)
In the nearly three decades I was a mortgage lender, I'd take blue collar. The guys would come in and refuse to shake my hand because they rushed from work and theirs were dirty. I took every opportunity to praise that dirt and shook every hand. The nicest, most sincere, down-to-earth guys who are courteous and make great money! The white collar? Over-leveraged, pompous, rude and obnoxious. And don't assume that cute doctor has money. Check divorces for alimony & child support, mal-practice overhead/payouts, back taxes, debt load...looks can be very deceiving.
I really love that you chose this topic and ran with it. ALL the men I've ever fallen in love with were blue collar dudes. I think they're sexy!
My ex-husband is a lifer at UPS and he says he loves his job because he gets to be outdoors all day long. Then there is the truck driver, the mechanic, and the guy who runs his own delivery service. These are all respectable careers to me. I've never fallen for a suit.
It's a stupid, mean, and shortsighted error to write off blue-collar guys, people (whatever your gender preference). For one thing, they have highly useful skills. Also, they have (or have done) the jobs that AI will NOT be doing in the near future. Young 'uns, take heed. And don't get me started on my decades-long rant about how trade training needs to include humanities and critical thinking skills because people working in those positions are not just cogs who do a job; they're full human beings who deserve as rich and deep a cultural and intellectual life as anyone else. I has spoken ;-)
This is very personal to me, Jan. My mother was a high-society girl who married a man that she expected to keep her in a life she felt destined to. Worked for a while, then they moved to Florida when my father, a Cornell-educated radio man, turned to chicken farming. She never forgave him. Her feelings about this influenced me for decades before I woke up.
I can imagine. One of the weirdest things about the patriarchy is how it conditions women to think they're owed a certain level of support from men, which is both the basis and the evidence of their (women's) worthiness, and woe betide the man who fails to live up to that. Patriarchy traps everyone. I'm sorry this was your experience.
Yes! When I started dating at age 50, my initial criteria was a guy with lots of education. But that doesn’t necessarily make someone a good partner. After five years I did find a second love who, while not blue collar, worked in sales which let him ski and surf. And he had the values and qualities like compassion that I’d been looking for. :)
The stuff that lasts. I wish I’d found it.
In the nearly three decades I was a mortgage lender, I'd take blue collar. The guys would come in and refuse to shake my hand because they rushed from work and theirs were dirty. I took every opportunity to praise that dirt and shook every hand. The nicest, most sincere, down-to-earth guys who are courteous and make great money! The white collar? Over-leveraged, pompous, rude and obnoxious. And don't assume that cute doctor has money. Check divorces for alimony & child support, mal-practice overhead/payouts, back taxes, debt load...looks can be very deceiving.
Thanks Michele. So very true.
Your article hit home for me. No wonder there are so many movies about middle aged women and their contractors.
I did date a few guys who weren’t white collar college boys. Some days I rather wish that had worked out.
Yes, just yes.
Wow