I have complete sympathy for the man or woman who works in construction and drives a huge Ford f-150 to haul gravel and dirt. That is understandable. But we don't live in a society that focuses mainly on hard physical labor. The USA is a tetiary society, based on services and educated jobs. So why is it that there are so many big trucks out there? I promise, every guy who bought the ability to does not need to haul however-many-thousand pounds in the back of his pickup.
I found an interesting piece of literature by the lovely Susan Faludi. In her piece Stiffed: the Betrayal of the American Man, she points out the strange place a man living in the USA is put in socially. There is no act that defines a man as being a man; it is instead an idea. It is not a do, it is a be. And what that is that a man's man should be is never clearly defined. It has to do with control, and power, and dominance. But, since there is no single act that can lead to a man's masculinity becoming sealed as such, he must forever search for new ways to renew this controlling behavior and prove to the world that he is masculine.
The Big Truck craze is a reflection of this crisis of manhood. As Faludi puts it, "The ninties man, stripped of his connections to a wider world and invited to fill the void with consumption and a gymbred display of his ultra-masculinity...[they are] the empty compensations of a masculine mystique; with a gentleman's cigar club no more satisfying than a ladies' bake-off..." Men are expressing their manliness through, in this situation, big fat gas-guzzlers.
Now, it's good that these fellahs aren't proving their masculinity through violence, as many men in this society do. But the big truck craze is certainly hurting people economically. The rise in gas prices is due, in part, to the Big Truck; which is the reaction of manufacturers to the demand for the Big Truck. And the Big Truck makes the Little (but fuel-efficient!) Car very afraid, for a reckless Big Truck could squish the Little Car if there were an accident, killing those inside the Little Car and allowing the Big Truck owners to retreat unscathed.
So, what's the Piper trying to Play?
If you don't need a big vehicle, and you buy it anyway, you're overcomensating. Not for anything physical, but for something spiritual. Something that lacks definition, and we must define in the only way our consumer society teaches us: by buying.
I am a girl from the south and I really like trucks. My dad has an F-150 and he really uses it for hauling eqipment or whatever. I think they are just as cool as muscle cars. My problem wit them is that they pollute to much, give my a hybrid pick up and I will be happy.