The ‘Empty Suit’ of Trump’s Masculinity

Elderly MAGA guy: "Trump! Trump! Trump!" Wife: "You DO realize, he wants to cut our Social Security and Medicare?" Silence.

No faker a man than trump.

As an independent voter, I don't support Trump for POTUS in the slightest (I mean, I did donate $5 to his campaign once, just to get off his list of potential undesirables - so I get his campaign emails - know your opposition for a low-low price), but I remember after the 2016 election, I ran across an article titled "Hillary Clinton's Lonesome White Male Supporters" that truly resonated ... After that election, several good friendships I had going back 30 years were permanently damaged. Coming from Eastern Europe, I saw right through a lot of the Russian sourced pro-Trump propaganda that either led to cynicism, or outright h8. It continues to this day. It often leverages the Junior High crocodile brain fears that most men of my Generation X have been programmed to pay attention to (you don't want to be THAT guy, riiiiight?). I never unfriended any of these friends on social media - but I did mute a few of them for a 'minute'. What I've concluded in the years since - the Progressive media really lacks good male role models and male oriented content. Inclusivity, body positivity, equity, and diversity was taken to a level that became nauseating to many former former centrist males - NPR is a great example. While I find occasional human interest stories about the struggles of some intersex author or playwright enlightening - I also want to hear about the struggles of a farm family on the Eastern Plains of Colorado, or the real challenges of finding work for men over the age of 50 (regardless of race), the topics of divorce and how it impacts men, or the impacts of Bitcoin on society, the economy and wealth from a left leaning perspective. There has been a concerted focus on pushing down the struggles men face today (particularly young men) - usually thrown into a pile of "white male privilege - the chickens are coming home to roost". Individually, most "straight white men" have never been in a position to take advantage of said privilege (like when you turned 18, did your drunk father come into your bedroom and urinate on your bed while you slept to indicate it was time for you to move out?) And while I recognize women, people of other races, ethnicities and sexual orientations have had it harder, that doesn't fully eliminate the human condition, or socio-economic forces that affect all of us.

Trump’s effeminate hand gestures reveal something creepily camp

One of the really big issues is that communication styles have split to the point that many conservative men literally cannot understand what most liberals think of that hypothetical article from Oberlin or Vassar or Brown, because we use our own careful language to critique the critique, or we choose not to even talk about it.

This aged like a good bottle of milk :)

MAGA guy: "I'm a REAL man!" Wife: "Well, . . ."

Let's say you're at a party, and need to be walked to your car because some guy is being overly aggressive. Who do you pick, Biden or Trump? In my opinion, Biden all day long. Trump is one of those guys who would cower behind a tree or run away if anything really went down. Biden would stand up.

Well… This didn’t age well, did it?

You mentioned any conversation comes back to immigration... I would argue it's trans people I'm in the Army, I'm a lefty. When politics comes up, it never goes more than 3 sentences before trans comes up. The record is the first reply. I say something about the environment. Other guy says "libs think men can be women" k...that has nothing to do with what's going on or what we were talking about... Followed by 15 minutes of anti trans rant

Trump has always been into wrestling.

This guy being agog that the Chris Kyle movie didn't actually work in turning a "generation of men" into anti-bullying "sheepdogs" is like a liberal being amazed that the Captain America movie didn't turn geeky kids into a generation of patriotic super soldiers.

🎯 Key points for quick navigation: 00:00 😂 Trump attends UFC event in New Jersey to masculine cheering crowd, contrasting with Biden's perceived lack of manliness. 01:17 🥊 Trump's appearance at hyper-masculine UFC event appeals to men through projection of tough guy persona. 02:54 🎭 Trump's masculine persona is performative, appealing to insecurities of men who feel they don't measure up to ideals of dominance and aggression. 04:32 👺 Professional wrestling and UFC tap into campy, aggressive masculinity that Trump capitalizes on. 06:09 💪 Trump's rhetoric evolved from joking about protester violence to endorsing force to "take back the country." 08:24 🐑 The belief that the left doesn't like masculinity fuels Trump's appeal among men struggling with purpose. 10:14 💰 Trump's pre-political celebrity persona as wealthy patriarch is aspirational for many men. 13:27 🐺 Trump contradicts the right-wing cultural ideal of protecting the weak from bullies. 16:12 👑 Southern cultural heritage of domination over others aligns with Trump's persona. 19:44 ⬅️➡️ Gender gap widening as women become more liberal while men's ideology remains constant. 24:17 👩‍💼 Democrats have intentionally leaned into women's issues as women are a larger proportion of their constituency. 24:59 🧠 Republicans conflate Democrats with the broader left's stances that alienate men, like the APA's criticism of "traditional masculinity." 25:53 💆‍♀️ People often generalize a random person's controversial views to represent an entire political ideology. 26:34 🤯 Constant exposure to annoying people on the internet is an underrated driver of polarization. 27:28 🕴️ Trump's pre-political celebrity persona gives him masculinity credibility that other Republicans trying to emulate lack. 28:26 🪞 Trump may have both changed and revealed the country's underlying fault lines that won't disappear when he exits the scene. 29:37 🔭 After Trump, debates may move beyond just pro/anti-Trump discourse to address deeper societal divides more directly. 30:47 🏀 The drama around hyped rookie Caitlin Clark in the WNBA has generated unprecedented attention and discussion.

I will continue to reject both the Andrew Tate model of the right and the soyboy model of the left. The difference between right and left remains, though, that the right doesn’t automatically hate you simply for being masculine. That matters.

I find the title of this panel fantastically biased not to mention deeply disagreeable EDIT: I am happy to see that you changed it

Every time one hears Trump speak, the mind wanders back to the Springfield Monorail promoter on the Simpsons, and Homer's raptured admiration.

Lmfao 😂😂😂😂

11:23 who is reading Obamas unpublished manuscripts from law school?

Sheepdogs rise.

Lol the hot or cold for masculinity is about the wncaa tournament out drawing the men