Phil, like me, is a northerner. I grew up very near to where he did, and I almost went to his high school. I'm sure were I a couple of years older and a couple of towns over, we would have been great friends. I too am a massive emo loser whaddup philly hmu let's go hang down't urbis together.
I went over this on the website that shall not be named, but it was years ago and I did a shoddy (drunken) job, so I'm going to do it again. Basically, Phil is super northern; I don't just mean his accent (because lbr, he's pretty much lost it and I'll never forgive him), but I mean in who he is, you know? His personality, his mannerisms, his humour, it all shines with a faint glow that helps us northerners spot one another out in the big, scary world.
Here is some (probably boring) historical context:
Gender roles are prevalent everywhere, but they're especially ingrained into northern working class culture. I'm not necessarily saying that Phil is/was brought up working class (that's a whole other discussion), but many people in the north are brought up with working class values, despite their income, because their parents (and/or grandparents) were working class factory workers.
The north used to be the UK's centre of industry. We thrived for a long time, and each area had a speciality; whether that was mining, textiles, farming, or whatever else. Our (mine and Phil's) towns and the close city of Manchester were huge for cotton manufacturing (fun fact: Manchester was once nicknamed Cottonopolis (bants), and was deliberately built to be one of the most rainy cities in the UK because the moist air was good for cotton production).
Alas, it couldn't last forever, and in the second half of the 20th century the golden age of manufacturing started to die. Northern towns died along with it, and the northern landscape is now depressingly bleak. You might recall the minor's riots (shown in Billy Elliot), or have heard people slating Margaret Thatcher (second fun fact: when you leave 10 Downing Street after a term as Prime Minister, you're allowed to take the front door with you. Only two Prime Minister's ever did, and Maggie, of course, is one of them lol).
You may have seen that votes for Brexit were a majority in the north. A non racist reason for that is that many northerners blame globalisation for the death of northern industry, and feel completely abandoned/left behind as the world progresses. I was a Bremainer, but there is definitely a deep sense of aching loss at the death of northern industry that still chimes through the souls of many in the north today.
ANYWAY, sick tangent dezza, I swear I have a point lol. Basically, this industrialisation encouraged a culture that relied pretty heavily on gender roles. If I'd have been alive in the 1940's, I would have left school at 14, worked in the mills until I found a nice fella, got married after a lengthy courtship, had his kids, and been the stay at home mum that I am definitely not cut out to be; all while he would continue to work in the mills, and bring home the bacon. If I was feeling particularly adventurous, I might have trained to be a typist or a secretary, but at some point I would have probably have had kids and become a northern mam. That is likely how Phil's grandparents lived, and his parents were probably raised with that mindset, resulting in Phil being raised with a strong sense of what gender is and how it is "appropriate" for "men and women" to act.
In the same way that a depression lingers from the industrial decline, so do the values and expectations of that time. I love the north, and am very proud to be northern (and working class), but there is sometimes an eagerness to hold onto "working class family values" that is heavily ingrained, even in people that are more progressive, because that way of life is not very distant in our past.
Now I'm not saying that northerners are less progressive that anybody else, far from it; I feel that some northern characteristics are more progressive: we have an almost socialist model of looking out for one another, and forming very tight communities, for example. At the end of the day, it all depends on the person; I'm working class, but I'm as left leaning as they come, and a self identified queer. I don't mean to excuse anyone's actions with this analysis, but someone mentioned Phil's upbringing and it got me thinking.
My personal opinion is that I love them for trying, and I think that we're all on a journey when it comes to identity politics. Some stuff is so deeply ingrained into the public psyche that even when you as a person exist in a way that directly opposes what we're taught, it can be incredibly hard to get it right all the time.
Maybe I should just open my Twitter... Yeah, I should.[/offtopic]
