2024 is an election unlike any other. Yes, we come together once again for the four-year ritual of electing a new president, but there are other things on the 2024 ballot besides the candidates and the propositions. Masculinity and how you define it is on the ballot, even though it isn’t codified as a topic and stated in the form of a bill. But make no mistake, how America votes in November will make a statement about how America feels about gender roles, abortion and masculinity. These are the hot button topics this year, even though technically, only the abortion issue is actually being voted on in many states.
Donald Trump is doing a terrible job of reading the room right now. He keeps trying to land a punch on Kamala Harris and failing. “Dumb” “cackling” “Doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing,” simply isn’t having the desired effect. That’s because Trump is depending upon clicking into a built in mechanism, that of misogyny. Misogyny is still in our culture, to be sure, but it’s not as pronounced as Trump needs it to be for his particular brand of toxic masculinity to work properly.
We may have reached a tipping point, finally. We may have enough female judges, female politicians, female doctors, professionals and business owners of all stripes, to where a woman running the show isn’t all that bizarre a concept and it’s acceptable to hand the world’s hardest job to a woman.
Simply put, Trump is depending on his “maleness” to be an edge in this election and it may not be. The times they are a changin’ Donald, and the only thing changing with you is your diaper. Axios:
This week’s Democratic National Convention made clear that not only is 2024 the boys vs. girls election — it’s also a clash between two visions of manhood.
Why it matters: The increasingly stark gender divide in American politics is reflected in how leading men in both parties position themselves in relation to women, and talk about themselves as fathers and male role models.
The big picture: President Trump and his advisers have long viewed their candidate’s masculinity as an edge — particularly after his “fight, fight, fight” cry following the assassination attempt against him.
- But now rather than an aging President Biden, he’s running against the potential first woman president.
- Vice President Kamala Harris rarely mentions her gender, but the men at her side have embraced their second-fiddle roles in supporting a woman’s rise to power.
- At the DNC this week, Gov. Tim Walz and Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff — who paused his legal career when she was elected VP — have projected tenderness more than toughness.
Zoom in: In his speech, Walz spoke about he and his wife Gwen’s struggles with infertility and became visibly emotional as he said his wife and children — sobbing in the audience — were “my entire world.”
- Walz carries the trappings of traditional masculinity — as a former National Guardsman and football coach, but at one DNC event on Monday Walz said a “trick” he’d learned in life was to “surround yourself with smart women and listen to them, and you’ll do just fine.”
- One favorite anecdote from the Harris-Walz barnstorming tour is how “Coach Walz” became the faculty sponsor when a student told him he wanted to found a gay-straight alliance.
- “It is a tonic masculinity, the antidote to toxic masculinity,” gender equity researcher and author Amy Diehl told Axios, describing Walz and Emhoff.
And you know what’s going on on the other side of the political spectrum. Trump entered the Republican National Convention to the tune of “It’s A Man’s Man’s World.” Then you had Hulk Hogan and Dana White speak. White has admitted to domestic violence. Hogan has been accused but denies the accusation. Hogan did, however, offer to body slam Kamala Harris.
@FBI Does this count as a credible threat against the sitting Vice President?
— Beezlebub (@Beezlebub3850) August 20, 2024
This pretty much speaks for itself. Trump and Hulk and J.D. and all of them are Big Strong Men and they’ll just beat the shit out of you if you disagree with them. Now here’s a comical comment that Trump’s campaign spox made, also from the Axios article:
- “Unlike Kamala Harris and Tim Walz who support policies that erode women’s rights and the nature of womanhood,” Leavitt said, “President Trump believes men and women are inherently different but equal.”
Where have I heard that before, separate but equal? Oh yeah, it was Plessy v. Ferguson, an 1896 case which held that racial segregation was not discrimination. And that madness ruled the land until Brown v. Board overturned it in 1954. But I am so relieved to hear that Donald Trump and his childless-catlady-hating VP believe that women are equal to them. Truth? They’re not. The worst woman I can think of is vastly the superior of those two losers.
And that’s what’s on the ballot. Trump/Vance want to subjugate women. You would think that Trump would have learned by now, since 2020 was decided by women and he lost. But evidently the man’s not teachable. And neither is his loser VP.
Here’s the sublime irony of the 2024 election: both sides are being completely authentic. Harris and Walz have an abundance of charm and decency and that comes through loud and clear. Trump and Vance hate women, gays, anybody who is not a white male MAGA. And that comes across loud and clear as well. Harris and Walz appeal to the better angels of our nature, Trump and Vance want you to know that WWIII and the apocalypse is right around the corner. Harris and Walz are public servants of long duration, Trump and Vance are in it for the money. We get it.
They are so out of touch. But America will put them in touch on November 5. I wonder if either one of them will have the class to make a concession call? I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one.
Your words: “… Trump and Vance are in it for the money. We get it.
They are so out of touch. But America will put them in touch on November 5…” Karrching! They’ll get a bucketful of ‘in touch’ hot reality tipped over both their individual and collective heads, and they will no like it one iota.
Toxic masculinity versus tonic masculinity.
Do we want poison or refreshment?
From the time a boy hits the ground running the messages begin. Let’s be brutally honest. They come from BOTH men and women, and are baked into our culture. What are they? You must have a big flaccid penis. You must be desired by attractive women. You must be muscular, athletic, domineering, and never touch another man with affection, much less allow yourself to do so in exploring your sexuality. Once in high school you must play sports, and drive a hot car. You must eventually be successful, meaning rich, admired, and held in high esteem by our materialistic culture. You must be accepted by groups of men, be it sports teams, fraternities, etc. You must not be vulnerable, cry, or admit weakness. You must please women sexually, and will be judged by the beauty of the women you are with and have conquered. You must be confident and never admit you aren’t in control or in charge. If you fail in adapting to these, and many more versions of these toxic prisons, you will be ignored, or ostracized for not following or fitting the model. The feminist movement did much to free women from the chains of male toxicity, but also brought much blame and generalization on the male gender itself. There has been no such fundamental change for boys and men. We have always been alone, and remain so to this day. That is why men die younger, commit more suicides, and remain essentially rootless, which now results in lost boys destroying themselves and others in rebellious violent rage. Just one example I see over and over from our media, even from the folks pursuing alternative lifestyles and gender identities…the ongoing cultural joke about trump’s penis that always implies it doesn’t measure up, and is the reason for his abysmal character. Somehow body shaming women is forbidden, yet body shaming men is widely accepted even by those who supposedly are ‘enlightened’. There are many others that go overlooked. Then we sit in amazement at these horrid men and wonder where did they come from or why are they the way they are. I don’t wonder. Someday, maybe our culture will recognize that it takes strength and courage to be vulnerable, and the strongest men are the ones who are capable of being deeply vulnerable, and who don’t need others approval or admiration, because they accept and love themselves as they are. If you don’t possess that solidity, then intimacy with others will always remain out of reach, no matter who you try to be.
Body shaming men is not dealt with as harshly because it doesn’t really do anything to men. Men still run most of the shit, get paid better, and don’t have to deal with crap like “men are aggressive, go-getters, but women acting the same way are bitches”. Come on man, when has being a fat old geezer made a man ineligible for anything other than the cover of Playgirl? Let a woman broadcaster show a wrinkle or two and a bit of flab and she will not be broadcasting for long. Men? It’s who gives a shit.
And BTW, if body shaming women was so “forbidden”, we would see a lot less of it.
You’re not wrong on one essential point: it takes an incredible amount of strength and daring for a man to be vulnerable (and show it). Those men are likely the ones swept up first by intelligent ladies who know real strength when they see it.
How a boy grows up to be a productive man instead of a psychological time bomb waiting to go off in today’s society I’ll never know. Hell, children of both genders have got to be getting so many crossed signals today it likely makes their heads spin.
Scott, here’s one of my alltime favourite quotes, relevant I think to the very valid points you’ve raised here: “NOTHING IS SO NECESSARY FOR A YOUNG MAN AS THE COMPANY OF INTELLIGENT WOMEN.” That’s from Leo Tolstoy. I suspect intelligent, sensitive, caring women have saved many a young man from becoming a toxic male.
Jarvis…agree.
hogan needs to become the poster child for parents to see before they allow their children to watch wrestling on the television. This is your brain, this is your kid after getting their head smashed a few hundred times with a chair–offer pic of hogan and his asinine statement (s). Any questions?
spike. you are dead wrong. to say it doesn’t do anything to men is blind, foolish, and arrogant. You have no phucking clue what it does to ‘men’. While you’re at it, just tell me what everyone is having for dinner. I haven’t seen the national media address any body part of Kamala’s lately. We do agree a toxic culture damages all. Some rise above it…some don’t. Trump’s issue isn’t his penis, the size of his hands, the color of his eyes, or the length of his eyelashes. It’s his abysmal lack of heart, character, and mind. Things not easily seen but reveal themselves nonetheless.
The answer to the dinner thing: those folks having dinner are consuming their version of food. That’s what they’re having for dinner. Close enough?
Trump’s issue IS the size of his various body parts and the rest because HE makes looks such an issue–not the only issue but enough of it. When that is the way he judges people, and you can’t say he doesn’t judge pretty much everyone that way at one time or another (the only other way he judges people is in how much they do for him/give to him), that is the way people judge him. Tit for tat which isn’t correct behavior but can’t be unexpected behavior.
You’re asking for everyone to be angels, or at least listen to their better ones, and that isn’t how humanity rolls. If we did, society would not operate as it does everywhere on the planet. I will say this however: in countries valuing education and achievement over other things (notoriety, money, looks, etc.), they have less problems all the way around and somewhat less of the toxicity we have in our country.
Is it something to strive for? Well, yeah. Does everyone strive for it? Scott, a lot of people don’t even try including trump.
I think the even the national media know if they denigrate V.P. Harris’ physical appearance in any way they’ll be toast. And quite frankly, given their childish, inaccurate, and lopsided coverage of her, I’m not sure they have to bring that into play: they’re doing enough damage without it–intentionally of course which is another tirade for another time.