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- This page is about the phrase; for other uses of the phrase, see The Man (disambiguation). For the human male, see Man.
"The Man" does not usually refer to a specific individual as such, but instead to the government, leaders of large corporations, and other authority figures in general, such as the police. The Man is colloquially defined as the figurative person who controls our world. The Man is also often used as a symbol of racial oppression, as well as the boss of a blue-collar worker, and the enemy of any counterculture. The phrase "the Man is keeping me down" is commonly used to describe perceived oppression, but in modern times it is most often used facetiously in an ironically resigned fashion. The phrase "stick it to the Man" encourages resistance to authority, and essentially means "fight back" or "resist"; however, this is also used facetiously sometimes. Calling someone "the man" can also be a form of praise. This may refer to the recipient's status as the leader or authority within a particular context, or it might be assumed to be a shortened form of a phrase like "He is the man (who is in charge)." In more modern usage, it can be a superlative compliment indicating that the subject is currently standing out amongst his peers even though they have no special designation or rank, such as a basketball player who is performing better than the other players on the court. It can also be used as a genuine compliment with an implied, slightly exaggerated or sarcastic tone, usually indicating that the person has indeed impressed the speaker but by doing something relatively trivial. A third and minor meaning of "the Man" is that of a drug dealer. The slang was used in the 1950s and 1960s and can be seen in such places as Curtis Mayfield's "No Thing On Me"; Jonathan Larson's Rent, William Burroughs's novel Naked Lunch, and in the Velvet Underground song "I'm Waiting for the Man", in which Lou Reed sings about going to Uptown Manhattan, specifically Lexington Avenue and 125th Street, to buy heroin.
History
The term "the Man" in the American sense dates back to about 1918, when it was commonly used as a code word for the warden of a prison. According to conservative African-American writer and professor Thomas Sowell, the term "being hassled by the man" was used by poor farmers in the post American Civil War South to refer to the "Bank Man" who would hassle them about the late payment of debts. In the Southern U.S. states, and particularly in African-American slang, the phrase came to be applied to any man or any group in a position of authority, or to authority in the abstract. The phrase was also an underworld code word for police or other law enforcement or penal authorities. On the flip side, it was also a term for a drug dealer. It came eventually to be applied by blacks to whites, especially in the role of oppressors; see for example, Newsweek, August 3, 1964: "It is time to let The Man know that if he does something to us, we are going to do something back." The use of this term was expanded to other counterculture groups and their battles against authority, such as the Yippies, which, according to a May 19, 1969 article in U.S. News and World Report, had the "avowed aim ... to destroy 'The Man', their term for the present system of government". The term eventually found its way into ironic usage, such as in a December 1979 motorcycle ad from the magazine Easyriders which featured the tagline, "California residents: Add 6% sales tax for The Man." The use of the term 'the man' as a form of praise has an older provenance. One example of this usage dates to 1879 when Otto von Bismarck commented, referring to Benjamin Disraeli's actions at the Congress of Berlin, "The old Jew, he is the man."
See also
References
- Lighter, J.E. (Ed.). (1997). Random House Dictionary of American Slang. New York: Random House.
- Sowell, Thomas. (2005). Black Rednecks and White Liberals. Encounter Books.
