By Colin Kohlhaas
December 10, 2024
I published this piece in October, 2023 for The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news platform, which was republished by Yahoo News in June, 2024. At the time, I was working on my doctoral dissertation which examined violence among working-class Irish American men in Chicago from 1880 to 1920.
In it, I gave examples of the many parallels between racial violence of the past and mass shootings of today, suggesting that understanding anxieties about class and masculinity can perhaps go a long way to addressing such concerns in a new generation of young white men.
The combination of socioeconomic concerns and insecurity about one’s masculinity has historically been a driving force in the lives of working-class men. In my dissertation, I studied how these issues played out among Irish Americans around the turn of the 20th century, but I am equally as interested in how they remain a force in contemporary American society.
Since the recent presidential election, I have become even more interested in what I call “aggrieved masculinity”—this current of anger among young men who feel that society is not addressing their needs and concerns. Although my article specifically highlights the most extreme cases of white supremacist violence that stem from these issues, I am republishing it here because it also speaks to the ways that those struggling with masculine insecurity often direct their anger toward minority groups rather than elites or social structures which favor the rich and powerful.
As we saw, young men in this election cycle turned to figures like Trump, Joe Rogan, and others in the so-called “manosphere,” men who project a strong, masculine image and vaguely promise to meet their concerns. Often at the heart of these promises is the targeting of “others,” whether it be undocumented immigrants, LGBTQ people, feminists, etc. who are perceived as obstacles in achieving the revitalization of American masculinity.
Understanding the ways that masculine insecurity can lead to misplaced anger against minority groups has never been more important than it is now, and I hope this article can shed light on the historical underpinnings of this problem. As I say at the end of the article, I hope addressing these concerns from a place of empathy and understanding can help alleviate these issues among our angry young men and even prevent it in the next generation.
Comments