Sting has said that the decline of jobs where men use their hands and physicality may be behind traits associated with toxic masculinity.
The Wallsend-born singer is behind the The Last Ship theatre show, which was inspired by his working class background, and follows the final days of a shipyard as it closes down due to the deindustrialisation of the 1970s and ’80s.
The musical debuted in Chicago in 2014 to mixed reviews, and later moved onto Broadway. It is now headed to London’s West End and set to open later this year.
In a new interview with The Guardian, The Police singer discussed how the decline of manual jobs is having an effect on people – saying that it could be driving some of the toxic traits in modern masculinity.
“I work with my hands every day as a musician, and I’m lucky,” he said. ‘It’s a rare thing for modern men to actually use their hands and use their strengths to do anything. We’ve lost something there.”
He continued: “I don’t have any answers, but maybe the toxicity in society at the moment is [a result of the fact] that we’ve lost that direction for our energy, that male strength. It’s rare we have to use it.”
Sting then went on to discuss the premise of The Last Ship, and said that while “Britain’s wealth was created in the coalfields and the steel towns and the mill towns and the shipyards”, the decline of it was due to “[Margaret] Thatcher’s dream of a service economy”.
“All of those skill sets were thrown on the scrapheap,” he said, adding that he doesn’t want the theatre production to glamorise what was ultimately a dangerous job, but instead capture the sense of “pride” from the time.
“I’m the guy who didn’t want to work there and for good reason. They were working in asbestos, all kinds of toxic chemicals. At the same time, I’m nostalgic for the sense of community that I was brought up in,” he told the outlet.
“That environment was so rich with symbolism. The town, although it was depressed a lot of the time, was extremely proud of the ships that were built there. The work was awful and dangerous and hard, but those guys could look back and say: ‘Well, I built that.’ The civic pride was massive.”
While there may appear to be an increase in toxic masculinity at the minute – with shows like Louis Theroux’s documentary about the “Manosphere” and the Netflix series Adolescence proving to be huge social talking points recently – a new study has shown that the majority of men do not hold those beliefs or traits.
Conducted by APA PsychNet, the data analysed a representative sample of 15,808 heterosexual men in New Zealand aged 18 to 99. The study examined to what extent they identify with their gender, and monitored their attitudes when it came to sexual prejudice, narcissism, sexism, and support for social dominance.
Of those in the study 35.4 per cent were found to display largely non-toxic patterns, while 53.8 per cent exhibited low-to-moderate scores on most traits. Just over seven per cent had a benevolent toxic profile – due to high scores in benevolent sexism alongside elevated sexual prejudice – and 3.2 per cent were of a more concerning persuasion, ranking highly when it came to hostility, toxic profile, sexism, narcissism, and resistance to preventing domestic violence.
Check out the full findings from the study here.
The Last Ship will be heading to London’s Drury Lane between September 22 and October 3, and Sting will be starring in the production, as well as having written all of the music for it.
His comments about the subject matter of the show also come following him revealing that he wants his children to “make their own way” rather than rely on his wealth.
“All of my kids have been blessed with this extraordinary work ethic,” he said earlier this month. “Whether it’s the DNA of it or whether I’ve said to them, ‘Guys, you’ve got to work. I’m spending our money, I’m paying for your education. You’ve got shoes on your feet. Go to work.’”
He added that he didn’t think this was “cruel”, instead demonstrating “trust in them that they will make their own way. They’re tough, my kids.”
Shortly before then, the singer reportedly paid his former Police bandmates over $800,000 (£598,000) in royalties amidst a lawsuit filed last September.
Guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland took the frontman and his publishing company to court in London for “substantial damages” last year, after years of legal disputes between the group.
The pair claimed Sting owed them between $2million (£1.5million) and $10.75million (£8million) in unpaid royalties – with their lawyers claiming the figure could rise higher, as their sum excluded interest.
In response, Sting’s lawyer claimed the pair were “substantially overpaid”, and the singer told The Guardian: “It doesn’t make any sense. That’s all I’m willing to say.”
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