working-class hero
Blue-collar folk icon
A working-class hero is someone celebrated for rising from humble origins or championing ordinary people against elite interests.
The term carries genuine admiration but also irony—John Lennon's 1970 song used it to critique how society keeps working people in their place while dangling the myth of meritocracy: A working-class hero is something to be.
- minerOne who excavates ore
- laborerPhysical task performer
- honest livingIncome from ethical labor
- proletariatLaborers lacking capital ownership
- union manOrganized labor supporter
folk hero · factory worker · salt-of-the-earth · resilience · dockworker · punch clock · hard day's work · labor movement · picket line · blue-collar worker · solidarity · humility · perseverance · wage earner · social reformer · dignity · class struggle · tradesperson
working-class heroaristocrat
Person of noble birth
trust fund baby · blue blood · landed gentry · patrician · robber baron
working-class herosellout
Compromiser of integrity
union buster · exploiter · oppressor · strikebreaker · enemy of the people