Using conceptual tools - The Obituary of Alvin Basse

What might an obituary about a third-generation farmer in suburban Milwaukee tell us about masculinity? An entire web of lives, shaped both by common events are particular experiences, is captured in one man's story. Without the need for either hagiography or brutal expose, the newspaper obituary treads a moderate course outlining a very particular, "acceptable" portrait of a well-lived life.

That being the case, it bears attention to notice the attitudes toward gender that are (and are not) expressed in the obituary of Alvin Basse. Is he esteemed as a traditional patriarch or something else? 

We're told that, 

Alvin Basse was prom king and president of his class at Waukesha High School, but he was also the guy who picked up and carried his friend, Tom Uthovien, between classes."And when I say he carried him around, that's exactly what he did," his son said. "He would race to Tom's class, pick him up off his chair, dash up the stairs with him in his arms and still make it to his own class later," his son said. They remained lifelong friends.

We get a sense that yes, this was a man among men. Gentle, compassionate, but dashing and very "manly."

Yet, to finish the obituary, his widow says,

"We could always work side by side, do field work, milk cows, make hay. Whatever needed to be done." 

Rather than being superlative, he is now an equal partner with his wife, Carolyn, who, along with so many others, helped keeping their big production rolling along. There is something about agricultural life in terms of production relations that seems inherently equalizing. This isn't to say that hegemonic masculinity is necessarily less dominant in rural / agricultural areas. Far from it. It is just to say that perhaps the ideology of masculinity has to do different work in those areas, to cover up the fact that women are co-equals. We can actually see some evidence of this ideology in a picture of the couple:

Notice that here name is absent on the barn in back. It is the "Alvin Basse Family" farm. Merely following convention on Mr. Basse's part meant erasing the name of his adult life and business partner. 

This was, is, a long-standing practice in our culture. Whether in research, art, or business - heterosocial (and sometimes sexual, but it need not be) pairs (or larger groups) are often credited through the sole name of a singular male patriarch. My great aunt is an example. She was not able to keep her maiden name as part of her full formal name when the business she co-owned with her husband was about to grow exponentially.  

Anyways, seems like Mr. Basse was quite an accomplished person, whose masculinity may best be measured by the calm and centered widow he leaves at his wake.

May he rest in peace.