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If you’d rather watch me read this:
My friend MK (check out their substack, Florida Person) had some thoughts about my latest interview, featuring Sam Hammond.
Here they are, in full:
So many thoughts on this!
Still haven't seen convincing data that society is becoming "feminized" rather than automation and reasonable, data-based higher workplace standards for behavior being driving influences for why men can't compete as well in the current marketplace. It's bad business to have a shitty attitude, plain and simple. You still see men making higher wages than their non-male counterparts even in feminine-coded labor like nursing which follows the longer historical barriers to entry for women in the medical field. Male teachers also make more than their female counterparts, so even in these supposedly feminine-coded careers, you still see the same patriarchal practices of valuing some people's labor over others.
Always thought it was odd that nursing is considered "feminine-coded" when women dominating the field is a relatively new occurrence in the larger historical picture, and it requires as much ability to lift heavy bodies and do emergency wound care as Sam's example about men in the military. Depressed wages among nurses as more women dominate the field (same as other industries) is a real problem, so it would be great to see a broader labor movement and policy focused on valuing caretaking and educational work more highly. But the broader reason such work is so undervalued still leads back to outdated, irrational patriarchal standards, and the growing propaganda around this (IMO) mythical feminization of society short circuits the ability of men to think more critically about what labor can be status-improving. Maybe Andrew Tate will argue going to a technical school to be a nurse instead of shilling supplements on a podcast is "low status" or "feminine" or whatever, but making $5k a week doing travel work can literally buy more status. You don't hear male travel nurses complaining about these supposed problems because they are making bank in a profession that requires you to care about someone other than yourself -- which isn't a gendered concept and doesn't threaten their masculinity.
There are dignified solutions for these men's woes, but many of their woes are self-imposed or encouraged by other low-status men who can't provide competitive value in modern workplaces. Social media definitely plays a huge role in this with the whole comparison being the theft of joy stuff and the tendency to inflate the success we're having. We get to be our own propagandists about how great our lives are going and all genders fall for these constructed realities that make us feel shittier. Take away the bravado and curated posting and Andrew Tate is just some failed reality star/affiliate marketer in Romania because he can't afford rents in other countries and is too unstable to be in a relationship not based on coercion.
Kind regards,
MK Sloan (they/them)
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