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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   28223 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 23, 2023

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Reminds me of the ‘higher education is for women’ trope- the only acceptable future that can be pushed for women coming out of high school is going to university and seeking a professional class job. Young men, of course, you can tell them to think seriously of joining the military or learning a trade, but don’t you dare advocate anything for women other than university to PMC. Now to some extent this is because parents don’t like to think about their daughters doing dangerous things(getting shot at, working on an Alaskan crab boat) and the trades are not a very friendly workplace for women, other than the butchest lesbians, but see below.

Heck, even the ‘Emily’ ad recruiting for the US army- lots of people missed this for the woke crap about lesbian parents and fighting for equality, but what I noticed was she went to college and then joined the army. Motteizeans who were in the military, sound off- how many enlisted showed up with education beyond high school, let alone a degree? I am not under the impression it was many at all, although I meet plenty of veterans who enlisted and then got a degree.

There is simply a cultural value in the USA where all women must go to college, otherwise they’re going to become either trailer-trash loser single mother fast food workers whose kids don’t share a dad, or horribly oppressed homemakers beaten by their hypocrite alcoholic husbands. I don’t think this is the IRL norm for working class women, although yes they’re more likely to be beaten or be single mothers than degree holding women, but the cultural prejudice is real.

Yeah. My parents figured that both me and my sister would go to college. They cautioned me against joining the military because of leftist disagreements with US foreign policy; they cautioned my sister extra hard. They were fine with her trying to become an ironworker or something if she wanted, though. IDK how an athletic average size woman pulls off working on an Alaskan crab boat, but if she did, more power to her, she's a badass.

Young men, of course, you can tell them to think seriously of joining the military or learning a trade

I am about as far from the target audience of the messaging as possible, but my impression is that (apart from the specific appeal to the Violent Class discussed by JTarrou, which only the USMC really features in its messaging) the "join the military" message is a combination of:

  • Enlist in the military as a career with prospects, and chase NCO promotions which (although they don't tell you this) will de facto require you to pick up a degree via distance learning to get the promotion points you need.
  • Enlist in the military in order to get GI Bill money to pursue a degree after you get out.

So I don't think the military (apart from USMC grunt) is sold as an alternative pathway to getting a degree, more as a better route to a degree for less-bookish more-masculine men compared to going to a 4-year college straight out of HS.

There certainly was a message of enlist in the military to figure your shit out, get benefits for life, and learn a trade that you don’t necessarily need college for, at least when I was in middle and high school. There was also a travel the world for cheap angle and an appeal to patriotism angle.

VA loans featured in recruitment ads as much as the GI bill did when I was young.

I think it’s this. Culture is saying the quiet parts out loud and the blue collar lifestyle is now seen as undesirable. Either the people themselves are unacceptable (racist, stupid, poor, and so on), or the life itself is seen by the cultural elites as much less than modern exurbs have to offer (mostly fake-authentic foods, night clubs, wine stores, and the option of more culturally acceptable jobs). I don’t think it’s a jobs thing entirely as the vast majority of women I know with college degrees end up in education or other casually full time jobs that allow regular time off and don’t interfere too much with domestic duties.

Although I will say that another part of this is that country singers lost their mojo because they now accept their cultural inferiority— even country artists see the country as old-fashioned places that used to be good where you used to be able to get the good life. Compare that to hip hop and even people rapping about the inner city are talking about fast cars, drugs and alcohol, good times and loose women. They still see their culture as good, something worth embracing.

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