MAGA was all about "masculinity" in 2024 -- too bad they have no idea what that word means

[marmar]

MAGA was all about "masculinity" in 2024 — too bad they have no idea what that word means
Republicans can't decide if gender is "natural" or manhood is a status one must earn

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published December 31, 2024 6:00AM (EST)


(Salon) In the press, the intra-MAGA spat pitting wealthy tech bros Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy against the larger MAGA masses has been framed primarily as an immigration fight. That's fair enough, as the tech guys want to keep high-skilled immigrants working in Silicon Valley, whereas the Steve Bannon contingent intends to kick out as many immigrants of color as they can. But one low-key aspect of the dispute is gender, as evidenced by Ramaswamy's colorful insults of the American people.

....(snip)....

Link to tweet

For someone who fancies himself a leader in the MAGA movement, the tweet was deliciously tone-deaf. Anxious hyper-masculinity has always been central to Donald Trump's political cult, but this past year, the trying-too-hard aspects got downright comical. Trump received a major endorsement from podcaster Joe Rogan, whose entire schtick is being the standard-issue meathead who didn't do the reading before running his mouth. Trump's sidekick, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., built his career on shunning scientific knowledge and posting shirtless workout videos. They're the two most prominent examples, but Trumpworld floats on an ocean of masculinity grifters, all hawking useless supplements and assuring followers they, too, can have pecs the size of basketballs.

....(snip)....

The rift reveals the larger paradox beating at the heart of MAGA: They venerate masculinity, but cannot tell you what it is. Look closely at their manhood discourse and the contradictions are immediately apparent. They insist gender is "natural," fixed at birth, and beyond an individual's power to change. They also treat manhood as a fragile status, easily snatched away by the smallest of choices. According to Jesse Watters at Fox News, merely wishing another man "happy birthday" is enough to remove man status from a person. Manfluencer and accused sex trafficker Andrew Tate declares one emasculated for admiring a woman's beauty. As I wrote about last week, MAGA hype man Josiah Moody claims it's "gay" to have sex with your wife for pleasure. Fox News' list of foods that stripe your masculinity away is long, ranging from ice cream cones to soup. MAGA tells trans women they are still "men" despite hormones, surgeries and living as women. Yet to other cis men, they insist "man" is a designation so precious that it can be lost at a moment's notice for the slightest of reasons.

....(snip)....

One of the most telling examples of the emptiness of MAGA manhood this year was, ironically, a story about a woman. Haliey Welch is an extremely normal 22-year-old from Tennessee who found unexpected fame this year as the "Hawk Tuah" girl after she drunkenly described how she likes to "spit on that thang" to one of those irritating man-on-the-street hosts. The joke is mildly funny to liberal America, where no one is surprised that women can have raunchy senses of humor. But more conservative men were apparently shocked like they were cavemen seeing electricity for the first time, because they sent that clip around like it was the most important moment in history captured on film. ..........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/12/31/maga-was-all-about-masculinity-in-2024--too-they-have-no-idea-what-that-word-means/

[Scrivener7]

1. MAGA is all about fear and feelings of inadequacy.

[CrispyQ]

5. When you embrace the worst of human attributes & shun the best, of course you're going to feel inadequate.

Not sure what it is they don't get about that.

They are one-dimensional human beings, shunning anything positive as feminine, & therefore weak & inferior. Kindness, empathy, compassion, admitting when you're wrong. Those are weak, feminine traits. Remember the outrage when Morning Joe & Mika went to MAL & kissed the ring right after the election & the next day one of them went on air to apologize? It wasn't Joe. Wishing your best bud a happy birthday? Admiring a beautiful woman? Having sex with a woman for pleasure? Oh, my bad! That one is regarding her pleasure, not his. What kind of sick, twisted worldview is this? No wonder they're miserable & people hate them, & not just women.

[sop]

2. Vivek's (full) tweet supports increasing permanent immigration as a way of improving American culture.

"I know *multiple* sets of immigrant parents in the 90s who actively limited how much their kids could watch those TV shows precisely because they promoted mediocrity…and their kids went on to become wildly successful STEM graduates."

America has always been a country of permanent immigrants, not H-1B visa holders. The strength and vitality of our country has been the direct result of having welcomed immigrant groups from every corner of the world throughout our history, each group contributing their own particular talents, initiative and creativity as they are permanently integrated into our American culture.

[underpants]

3. Very well said.

[underpants]

4. The boys who cried WOOF!

Anyone who talks that much crap is clearly just talking crap.

Very good read.

[mopinko]

6. old 2nd wave feminist here. we told u all this decades ago.

that the root of male violence was the way we stripped anything ‘feminine’ out of little boys at a young age.
that requires cruelty, and leads straight to self hate, cuz actually, it cant b done. it’s never complete.
and the hole never closes.

[MissMillie]

7. the authoritarian nature of the right is quite apparent

It's never enough to allow each person to define their own "manliness" and far more important for figureheads to force a particular definition on everyone.