Well You Did It, (You’re a) Man In the 2005 hit country song, Something to Be Proud Of, Montgomery Gentry provides three values that make up a rural American family man. By emphasizing the ultimate form of nationalism, family rather than bachelorism, and hard work to achieve financial stability, the artists portray a successfully sculpted masculine model that, by their definition, is “something to be proud of”. I argue that the importance of these three values is passed down from father to son in order to maintain a masculine identity as the stoic, breadwinning head of the family. American country music is known for its vivid story-telling style. The country duo Montgomery Gentry uses the traditional American country song framework in order
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The character’s preexisting understanding is that his income is directly correlated to his masculinity. Therefore, since he is not making an exorbitant amount, he believes that has failed masculinity once again. He calls upon his father asking if his was “ever ashamed of how [he] turned out”, to which his father replies with a positive perspective. His father says “you don’t need to make a million, just be thankful to be working”. This demonstrates that the father prioritizes hard work over monetary gain. The father then qualifies his previous statement by adding “as long as you’re putting food there on the table and providing for the family you love, that’s something to be proud of”. This addition shows that being able to provide for the family should be of upmost importance to any man. This situation can be directly compared to the Dominican male sex workers in Mark Padilla’s ethnography, Love and Globalization. The males observed in the ethnography often excused their stigmatized occupation by arguing that participating in male sex work was a way to provide for their family. They subject themselves to social scrutiny in order to guarantee the family’s financial stability thereby demonstrating that being the breadwinner is the most important masculine role. The idea that men “should be adequate household providers” is a very significant aspect in the lives of these sex workers as well as our character’s father. The father instructs his son to prove his masculine by stating that working hard to provide for the family is the only way to remain content in his current position as the head of the
The character’s preexisting understanding is that his income is directly correlated to his masculinity. Therefore, since he is not making an exorbitant amount, he believes that has failed masculinity once again. He calls upon his father asking if his was “ever ashamed of how [he] turned out”, to which his father replies with a positive perspective. His father says “you don’t need to make a million, just be thankful to be working”. This demonstrates that the father prioritizes hard work over monetary gain. The father then qualifies his previous statement by adding “as long as you’re putting food there on the table and providing for the family you love, that’s something to be proud of”. This addition shows that being able to provide for the family should be of upmost importance to any man. This situation can be directly compared to the Dominican male sex workers in Mark Padilla’s ethnography, Love and Globalization. The males observed in the ethnography often excused their stigmatized occupation by arguing that participating in male sex work was a way to provide for their family. They subject themselves to social scrutiny in order to guarantee the family’s financial stability thereby demonstrating that being the breadwinner is the most important masculine role. The idea that men “should be adequate household providers” is a very significant aspect in the lives of these sex workers as well as our character’s father. The father instructs his son to prove his masculine by stating that working hard to provide for the family is the only way to remain content in his current position as the head of the