The rise of petro-masculinity

Aggrieved men are compensating with fossil fuels

I was very confused. 

I’m not sure when I first saw rolling coal. Likely on Instagram, the algorithm inserting something contrarian, absurd yet arresting. Since I stopped my scroll, I was fed more and more of this noxious sport over the following weeks. 

Don’t get me wrong: I know some men love their cars. As in, love more than humans. Brosphere podcasters citing studies about revving engines increasing testosterone have long been common fare, even if I try to avoid such “science.”

Yet seeing black plumes ejaculated from modified trucks was another level of…stupidity? What joy could emitting toxic exhaust possibly offer?

Apparently, a lot.

I’m accustomed to aggro drivers as a cyclist. While (thankfully) rare, cars (though usually trucks) blare on the horn at 7 am with no one else on the road. Disdain for cyclists is real, which is ironic: such truck drivers often declare themselves sovereign and powerful, yet their contribution to mobility requires little more than tapping pedals and turning a wheel. Cycling demands full body engagement, actual strength, awareness, discipline—all the qualities the autonomous truck driver claims. The dissonance is unsettling.

The story doesn’t end with horns. People in (again) trucks shoot BB guns at cyclists. A friend was riding with a group near Austin when one member was shot in the (fortunately padded) butt. (Unfortunately for the shooter, said cyclist caught up and left him in much more pain than the offending pellet.)

At least one coal roller, also in Texas, was charged with six felony counts for blowing smoke at cyclists, then running into them. The videos I’ve seen aren’t that vicious, yet they’re also not logical. But this isn’t a story about logic. 

This is a story about men.

And so we have to travel further down the brainstem to understand the pleasure they receive from farting toxins into the atmosphere. Turns out there’s even a name for it: petro-masculinity. 

That’s how Virginia Tech associate professor Cara Daggett frames it in her excellent 2018 paper. You might not be surprised to learn that not only do the petro-masculines flip off climate change, but plenty of misogyny is wrapped into truck modification—and much more.