Copyrighted Material
" 19 Working-Class Virility T hierry Pillon
Wo r k i n g - c l a s s v i r i l i t y cannot be separated from the way it is depicted. The image of a strong, masculine workforce, ready for labor and fighting, becomes an integral element of the early twentieth-century imaginary. Tied in part to revolutionary struggles, the image disappears with the weakening of communist parties by the end of the century. But beyond the social and political construction of a myth, it is in the experience of working, in the bonds woven together through working-class communities, that the values of courage and virility are felt. While during the first part of the century male culture found the means of affirming and consolidating itself in daily work, the last part of the twentieth century had a profound effect on its underpinnings. Largely devalued by the transformations of labor and social changes, the brutal affirmation of masculinity in deed as well as word has lost its function as a marker for identity. While the demonstration of virility does not disappear in working-class milieus, it does have less and less support in the domain of labor.
Representations Depicting the Industrial Worker While the depiction of labor and of workers is ancient, a “new aesthetic program�1 at the end of the nineteenth century foregrounds the industrial worker and highlights such masculine attributes as strength and brawn. When they focused on scenes of working during the nineteenth century, artists had frequently depicted peasants or craftsmen. Indicative of this