"It literally forced men off their farms. It also served to disconnect men from their bodies. Their bodies no longer related to livestock, caring for animals, planting, and harvesting what would feed them and their families. They built machines, worked with them, repaired them, and eventually began identifying with them. Even when they worked with the land, there was a shift from a relationship with it to power over it with excavators, bulldozers, and backhoes."
"Put energy in (eating), turn it on (punching the timecard), and a product is the outcome ( I am what I produce). Any mystery identified with the nature of manhood is now demystified. The ambiguity of a man's manhood is replaced by the formula of being machine-like, with the manly motto being, "I provide for my family." Providing meant using the money generated by being a machine to support my family's needs."
The Industrial Revolution tore men away from home and forced them off farms, severing bodily relationships with livestock, planting, and harvesting. Men built, repaired, and worked with machines and began identifying with them. Even work with land shifted from relationship to domination through excavators, bulldozers, and backhoes. Male identity became mechanistic: input energy, perform scheduled labor, and produce measurable output. Emotional, intuitive, and relational capacities diminished as the body became instrument-like. Preventive health declined as attention arose only when breakdown occurred. The motto 'I provide for my family' reduced manhood to economic productivity and detached men from life's ambiguous dynamics.
Read at Psychology Today
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