It's a Working Man's Town: Male Working-Class Culture in Northwestern Ontario

Derek Wilkinson is an associate professor of Sociology at Laurentian
University.

This is an ethnographic study of a group of working-class men in Thunder
Bay nicknamed “the Boys.” Their culture, which celebrates the local
and the ordinary, is a means of resistance to subordination. Dunk
himself grew up with the Boys; however, his actual field work took place
between 1984 and 1986.

Dunk accepts the classical Marxist emphasis on production while
maintaining nevertheless that other elements have some independent
influence on ideology. One of these elements is location. Thunder Bay
has always been a hinterland community, greatly affected by decisions
made in Toronto or Ottawa. There are proportionally fewer managerial and
white-collar jobs than in the south. The imbalance in income is more
extreme.

A central theme in the book is a local variant of softball called
lob-ball. The game takes on ritual ceremonial import for the Boys, and
informs much of their social interaction. A trip to a tournament
resulted in many stories, told and retold, full of slapstick events.
Dunk contrasts these to the mundanity of the work world, arguing that
sport is similar to religion. Values relate to populism, consumption,
and hedonism. Masculinity is expressed through homophobic jokes, and
women are excluded and demeaned.

The Boys’ distinction between whites and Natives reinforces their
sense of self-worth, which has been made precarious by their own
subordinate position. A series of stereotypes is presented—Native
women are easy sexual targets, all Natives get subsidies from the
government, Natives are lawless.

Opposed to education and books, the Boys celebrate manual work and
values. They value practical skills, as manifested in their stories
about the impracticality and stupidity of professionals and other
authorities. Their cultural bricolage must be seen as a rebellion
creating a universe where they are seen as morally dominant. Dunk’s
final metaphor shows the working class in a hall of mirrors, rushing
toward what looks like an exit, only to become more and more entangled
in the web of commoditization.