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Blue Collar vs White Collar

thinkthrice's picture

World according to Chef: First of all, white collar workers are all lazy, shiftless bums (because they make much more money than Chef and therefore the grapes are getting sourer by the moment).

Second, blue collar men DO NOT put up exterior holiday lighting. This is because blue collars do the "manly" "big" jobs around the house, namely, plumbing, hvac, carpentry, etc. They don't have TIME to do fiddly, girly stuff like put up exterior decor, or lawn care, hot tub care, water softener care, general yard work, gardening, etc. (but DO have time to watch an afternoon of football).

Thirdly, the reason why white collars do the outside decor is because they are writing a check to someone else (a blue collar) to do the big manly jobs FOR them. So therefore they have to justify their presence somehow (other than bring home a huge paycheck).

Does anyone else have a blue collar guy that subscribes to this thinking?

Comments

Ninji's picture

I work in an office and BF is a Plumber. We share all the house work. And I bring home more money, but that's only because of CS.

Tuff Noogies's picture

AMEN.

HungryEyes's picture

DH are almost exactly even in pay. I make a hundred or two more in the winter and he makes a hundred or two more in the summer, but he works 15 more hours than I do.

I'm a white collar manager in a marketing firm - salary and he's a blue collar laborer - commission.

He would not subscribe to this thinking because he tries hard not to prejudge people. And he's not bitter about life. He works hard. He has pride in his work whether he makes 10/hr or 50/hr. We both do housework. Me more in the summer and him more in the winter. We are equals. And we don't care what other people do.

Mercury's picture

Oh, thank goodness, no. My DH and I have each spent time on both sides of that fence. There are no "class" specific or gender specific chores in our little world. We are also trying to break his son of that type of thinking since his mom keeps insisting he handle the "man" jobs at her house. I think we are winning that philosophical battle. Smile

However, I'm a weird kind of white collar right now. I often forget that's how I'm categorized. I do a lot of manual labor, get dirty, wear ppe, etc but I also have to clean up, talk to clients, go on business trips, and attend managerial meetings.

Mercury's picture

Lol. I fixed a broken kitchen appliance for DH last week. It works now and he's the one who uses it. We just sort of gravitate towards the jobs that irritate us the least.

Funny this topic came up though. Yesterday we switched it up. Even though yesterday was more traditionally gender oriented, it felt awkward because we've never done things that way before. We were giving each other helpful hints about the way we always do it as we were working. It would probably look very strange to our grandparents.

PokaDotty's picture

I grew up in a blue collar household. My dad hung the Xmas lights and did the yard work and the HVAC and plumbing and exterior projects for mom after a long day of work.

I married a white collared worker (and one as well) and he does the same things my dad did regardless of profession.

Teas83's picture

My husband is a power line technician and he does all of the jobs around the house like hang Christmas lights, mow the lawn, shovel the driveway, fix anything that is broken, etc. I do most of the inside chores like vacuuming and cleaning the bathrooms (although I do hire someone to come twice a month to help out).

I'm an a white collar profession as the head of the accounting department for my company, and I make about 2/3 of what my blue collar husband makes. We could easily afford to pay someone else to do all of things that he does around the house, but he enjoys doing them himself.

Drac0's picture

Urm...I'm a male white-collar worker who did A LOT of blue-collar jobs before.

In my NSHO, the only difference between male white-collar and male blue-collar is this.

If a woman walks onto the office floor, with male white-collar workers will continue working. Some may look up momentarily, but most will just continue working

If a woman walks onto the factory floor in heels with male blue-collar workers, the machines stop. Foreman has to yell them to get back to work.

Mercury's picture

It can get better.

There was so much misogyny in our plant. We only had male plant workers for years. I had to fight tooth and nail to get a woman into the plant after she was about to be let go from a temp position she had been working. She wasn't afraid of the labor but it was hell to convince my white collar colleagues she was the right person for the job. Then once I got her through the hiring/training part, the blue collar workers were even worse about accepting it. No one wanted her on their shift. There was even some "joking" that bordered on sexual harassment, but she's tough. They are all eating crow now. She's one of the best we have out there.

zerostepdrama's picture

My DH is blue collar and I am white collar. I put up our exterior Xmas lights (around the door and in the bushes) while DH was working a side job- fixing someone's toliet and bathroom sink.

I do all the "woman" chores and still do some of the "man" chores because I like to.

DH does majority of the "man" chores and ZERO of the "woman" chores. He has a few times made an attempt at doing "woman" chores and messes them up (on purpose) so I'm like F it, I will do it myself.

DaizyDuke's picture

I'm definitely white collar, but not sure what DH is? What are cops??

At any rate, wouldn't matter if DH was white collar, blue collar or pink collar, he would NEVER put up Christmas decorations or ANY decorations for that matter. He is the "manly" type man, who likes to hunt and fish and could care less whether every wall in the house was bare or there are some Christmas lights on the outside of the house.... which is why I literally spent NINE hours taking fall decorations down and putting Christmas decorations up and decorating the barn, garage and outside of the house. AND we don't even have our tree yet! DH will go with to get the tree, but once the tree is inside the house, it's all me and I'm the one who takes it down every year and hauls it out to the woods Sad

what I didn't realize was that since I am white collar, I should be PAYING someone to do all this?? ahhhh the world according to Chef! lol Wink

Drac0's picture

>What are cops??<

*cue music*

Bad boyz Bad Boyz...Whatcha gonna do? Watcha gonna do when they come for you....

kathc's picture

See, now, I thought putting up lights WAS a MANLY thing to do! Jeez, I must not be checking people's collars close enough...

I just hope chef falls off a bridge or something.

thinkthrice's picture

"Or is he just justifying this all to hide his envy of successful blue & white collar men all together?"

BINGO!!!

FIRST PRIZE!!

Give the lady a box of chocolates!

He's even said: "I'll bet the BM and her family MISS me and all the handyman stuff I used to do for them; the guy she's with now (notice he doesn't call him "BM's husband") wouldn't know a wrench from his ass." (yeah but he can WRITE THE CHECK to have someone else do a GOOD JOB OF IT)