Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> Wojtek's framing of the 'real question' comes very close to saying that
> sexism, homophobia, etc. might be 'functional' to 'working-class
> solidarity.' His framing casts the working-class in implicitely straight
> male terms as well.
>
I don't know if sexism, homophobia, etc., are functional to working class solidarity, because we never see any of the latter in England any more. Collective action here is so feeble as to almost be an embarrassment. We gaze enviously across the Channel where the French know how to have a good blockade/work-to-rule/demonstration etc. I think that the days of anyone in England identifying themselves as belonging to the working classes are long gone.
Some of the vilest and most vehement anti-conformity rhetoric is fuelled within large work organizations. What, for example, is the function of pin-ups of women in canteens and offices? Not to be an aid to masturbation, so no "functional" use. I think that most men are aware of the trangression aspect of putting these posters up, of eroding the boundaries between public and private use of space. So one concludes that the pin-up (etc.) is used as a narrowing down of what's acceptable within that space. Issues of sexuality and power obviously matter enough to them to make them act like that. Optimistically, I see this unease as a sign that some sort of change is on the horizon.