The Family Man

What struck me most about Carroll’s article entitled “Men’s Soaps” was the idea that blue-collar work is tied more closely than white-collar work is to the concept of masculinity in American culture. Today white-collar work is tied directly to money and success and therefore can be linked directly to the concept of the successful male. The article talks about mental labor as being more feminine than physical labor yet white collared work is considered powerful and dominant today.

This country has grown due to man’s physical labor so I can understand how blue collar work has come to emanate a sense of success based on the fact that many men worked long and hard to earn a living and provide for their families during times when women and children depended on men as bread winners. Blue-collar work is embedded in the American culture as admirable and encompasses the concept of success as it relates to fulfilling the American dream.  Shows like American Chopper as well as Cake Boss illustrate this concept of what it means to work hard through physical labor and create a successful business and at the same time show what it means to be a family man. I think this contradicts the stereotype of women playing the active roles in rearing children. Both Buddy, in Cake Boss, and Senior, in American Chopper, are shown both at work and in their family lives which goes to show the various roles men can play that deviate from tradition. This concept of a reality show enlightening the dynamic of a father and son relates a new sense of emotion that men are allowed to possess as well as showing the role and importance of a hands on father.      

Are American Chopper and Cake Boss kind of similar?

In Carroll’s paper on “Men’s Soaps,” there were a few point that really stuck out to me and a few point that got me trying to think of other possible examples. Carroll states that American Chopper creates a world of blue-collar workers who perform skilled labor. This labor is always understood to be male. When I read this section about the masculinity of skilled, blue-collar labor, I could not help but think of a particular episode of The Office. Michael Scott goes to have a “man meeting” in the warehouse because there is a “women in the workplace” meeting being held in the office. Throughout the series, the warehouse workers are portrayed as strong, blue-collar, and masculine. Michael gathers all of his male employees, goes to the warehouse, and begins his meeting. However, there is a woman, Madge, who works in the blue-collar warehouse who Michael overlooks. Having watched this episode just yesterday, it was a very clear parallel to me that blue-collar workers are generally assumed to be male and their work, masculine.

Another aspect that Carroll touched upon was the success of American Chopper and what it can be attributed to. She says that, while part of the show’s success is partly based in the current hype surrounding reality television, another aspect of the show’s popularity comes from “its presentation of men at work and its production of a masculine family melodrama” (Carroll, Men’s Soaps, pp 266). I am wondering how the popularity of American Chopper compares to the popularity of Cake Boss – a show that also presents men at work in a family atmosphere; however, one could argue that the type of work in Cake Boss is more stereotypically feminine. While both shows portray men at work alongside family drama, the two shows will probably never be categorized together because of the portrayal of more “masculine” work in one versus the more “feminine” work in the other.  If ratings for both shows are similar, I would be interested in who the audiences are for these shows? My guess is that more men watch American Chopper and more women watch Cake Boss.

And speaking of audiences, the article quotes Clark Bunting saying, “We have some of the most affluent audience in the history of the network…” (pp 266). Maybe it is because the material for the last section of class is fresh in my mind, but I immediately thought, “I’d like to see that audience analysis!” I wonder who exactly is watching this show? How are they taking it in? Does it affect them in any way? Are there particular reasons – some which Carroll shed some light on (patriotism, crisis of masculinity) – that people watch the show?