I think it's entirely possible for Jeeves to be both "working man" and "polished valet," considering how much stuff he has to do for Bertie, and how Bertie describes him as hauling shrimp nets and dancing and so forth. I like to play with it, but I wouldn't really say I fetishize it, given how "working class" or even "lower class" is kind of my background. Being poor and having to do manual labor for a living pretty much sucks.
My grandfather was a dirt farmer who ran a trapline in the winter, my dad drove a truck (after being Navy enlisted, which is a dirt-poor occupation anyway), my next-door neighbors were dairy farmers (and I helped out with milking cows and slinging 60 pound hay bales as a kid so their kids could have some time after their chores to play), and my brother has spent a lot of the last 20+ years doing heavy construction (crane operation and such) in the Air Force. He's not buff by any means, but he's also finally at the middle-management level where he can spend some of his time behind a desk, when they're actually employing him.
I suspect Bertie would probably fetishize it somewhat, given that he's never had to work a day in his life and, if he was lucky, probably never did. It's very easy to fetishize something you've never been forced to do to put food on the table. That said, I think that even if Bertie ever did have to do manual labor, he'd be one of those guys who was still rail-thin and never really bulked up much. He'd be more greyhound or whippet to Jeeves's german shepherd or something similar.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-04-18 09:53 pm (UTC)My grandfather was a dirt farmer who ran a trapline in the winter, my dad drove a truck (after being Navy enlisted, which is a dirt-poor occupation anyway), my next-door neighbors were dairy farmers (and I helped out with milking cows and slinging 60 pound hay bales as a kid so their kids could have some time after their chores to play), and my brother has spent a lot of the last 20+ years doing heavy construction (crane operation and such) in the Air Force. He's not buff by any means, but he's also finally at the middle-management level where he can spend some of his time behind a desk, when they're actually employing him.
I suspect Bertie would probably fetishize it somewhat, given that he's never had to work a day in his life and, if he was lucky, probably never did. It's very easy to fetishize something you've never been forced to do to put food on the table. That said, I think that even if Bertie ever did have to do manual labor, he'd be one of those guys who was still rail-thin and never really bulked up much. He'd be more greyhound or whippet to Jeeves's german shepherd or something similar.