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Trump represents a specific type of masculinity – and it’s dangerous for women

18 Nov 2024 5 minute read
Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania. Photo PA media

Ashley Morgan, Masculinities Scholar, Cardiff Metropolitan University

The US election was not just about Donald Trump v Kamala Harris, Republicans v Democrats. In a simple sense it was also about men v women.

The results show that more men voted for Trump, and more women for Harris.

The discrepancies are particularly notable among young voters. In the 18-29 age group, 58% of women voted for Harris, while 56% of men voted for Trump. This reflects the growing partisan divide in gen Z, where studies suggest young men are becoming more conservative, while young women are becoming more liberal.

Gender played a significant role in the campaign itself, with Harris and the Democrats focusing their message on women’s rights and reproductive health. Trump, on the other hand, courted young men who feel disenfranchised and disillusioned in a changing society.

Domineering

The president-elect represents a particular type of masculinity: he is seen as brash and straight-talking, and can appear domineering or patronising around women – for example when he famously lurked behind Hillary Clinton during a debate in 2016.

For some women who voted for him, this might be a familiar personality that they’ve seen in their fathers and husbands.

For men, Trump represents “hegemonic masculinity”, the exalted position of men at the top. In this view, aggression, control and dominance are all admirable traits and highly socially valued.

As my research has highlighted, oppressing and subordinating others is not the only way of proving masculinity. But it is certainly one of the more obvious ways, and it is particularly dangerous for women’s rights.

Trump has surrounded himself with men who promote the stereotype of the alpha male, demean childless women and promote a version of family values that takes away from women’s autonomy.

During the campaign, Trump vowed to protect women “whether they like it or not”. This implies that women are not considered to be men’s equals and that men are in control of everything, including women themselves.

This kind of “protective masculinity”, and the idea that women need to be protected by men has had a resurgence in US society over the past few decades. This was identified by political scientist Iris Marion Young in the early noughties.

“The stance of the male protector … is one of loving self-sacrifice, with those in the feminine position as the objects of love and guardianship,” she wrote in a paper on the subject. “Chivalrous forms of masculinism express and enact concern for the wellbeing of women, but they do so within a structure of superiority and subordination.”

Subordination

This structure of superiority and subordination is evident in popular culture and social media movements. Ideas of protection are espoused by “manosphere” influencers who promote this very traditional form of masculinity, such as Andrew Tate (who has been charged with rape and human trafficking, which he denies).

Popular ideas around dating, holding doors for women, paying for meals and general submission to men hark back to a time when women were less able to work or earn as much money, and had fewer rights.

This view of masculinity is also harmful for men, whose emotional and mental health and relationships with women are constrained by its stringent views of gender.

What women are concerned about now

The American feminist Susan Faludi argued in her 1992 book Backlash that throughout history, women’s gains in public and private life have later been used against them.

It could be argued that this phenomenon is evident in the rise of Trump. Women, particularly young women, have made notable gains in education, employment, politics and other rights in recent years.

After the 2022 overturning of Roe v Wade – the court ruling that established the right to an abortion in the US and which represented freedom and rights for many women – and the election of Trump, it is very difficult to see how there will be any strengthening of women’s rights in the US in the coming years.

Women at an anti-Trump Demo

In the week since the election, blatant misogyny against women has spread on social media in response to Trump’s victory. One of the most viral posts has been from far-right influencer Nick Fuentes, who wrote “Your body, my choice. Forever”, on X (formerly Twitter).

And Trump ally John McEntee joked in a video that the 19th amendment, which granted women the right to vote, “might have to go”.

Women around the world have expressed feeling scared, angry and saddened by his victory. One reason behind this is, of course, Trump’s own behaviour.

Sexual harassment

Throughout his career, Trump has made countless derogatory comments about women. Last year, he was found liable in a civil trial for sexually abusing the writer E. Jean Carroll in 1996, and of defaming her ahead of the trial. He also faces accusations of two dozen incidences of sexual harassment and assault including rape, which he has denied.

But some of the responses to Trump’s victory also speak to the wider concerns and fears about personal safety and bodily autonomy that women have tried to express for years, only to not be taken seriously by men.

Women around the world are sexually harassed, raped and killed every day. Women are afraid to go out in the dark, and always have been.

There is evidence that even when men do think about women’s fears, that they think those fears are exaggerated or unfounded. Arguably, some men only seem to express concern about women when they have daughters.

What women need from men now is not their protection – they need men to listen to their concerns.

This article was first published on The Conversation
The Conversation


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Jeff
Jeff
19 days ago

Fuentes comments are absolutely chilling (musk let him back on twitter pf course) and a few of Mr T picks have abuse claims and one includes someone paid off and an NDA? I was hoping Gaetz report would be out but the gop are defending him something rotten. Not that it would make much difference. US is scary at the moment.

Mr T also fantasised about pointing a load of rifles at Liz Chaney. He doesn’t like women who hold him to account or stand up to him.

Jeff
Jeff
17 days ago
Reply to  Jeff

Now seems the GOP (owned now by Trump) may have voted to not release the report into Gaetz, they are fighting to keep it secret, bet they would release it if it found him innocent. The Dems want it released. That is the report that is into claims of sexual abuse and drug taking and ethical stuff.

On another page of this awful party, MTG has said that she will release sexual abuse claims about gop members if they release the report about Gaetz.

Last edited 17 days ago by Jeff
Mawkernewek
19 days ago

Does Trump mean “protective masculinity” or a protection racket? Because that’s what I think they mean when they offer protection, from what exactly? From themselves of course.

Adrian
Adrian
18 days ago
Reply to  Mawkernewek

You may have noticed that it wasn’t women that were mandated to stay in Ukraine and fight the Russians. Twas ever thus.

Che Guevara's Fist
Che Guevara's Fist
17 days ago
Reply to  Adrian

You may also have noticed that women also weren’t the ones who started that needless war either, genius.

Adrian
Adrian
17 days ago

Statistically, more wars have been started by female leaders than male ones…honeybunch!

Karl
Karl
16 days ago
Reply to  Adrian

Bent stats. Nowlest look at total deaths and the numbers of murderers. you awful sexism shines like a big red warning to avoid.

Adrian
Adrian
16 days ago
Reply to  Karl

Haha! Quick! Move on!
There’s a fact that doesn’t fit the narrative!

hdavies15
hdavies15
19 days ago

Masculinities Scholar had me checking my calendar. It’s not April 1st.

Adrian
Adrian
18 days ago
Reply to  hdavies15

Yes. Ask these feminist ‘scholars’ who dug the footings for the building they’re studying in; who plastered the office, wired the building…you never hear them calling for more female ground workers or roofers do you?

Last edited 18 days ago by Adrian
Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
17 days ago
Reply to  hdavies15

Woman at work during wartime with one hand and shopping for what ain’t there, sorting out a blitz home of an evening with the other. While putting Long Mountain and a thousand others under spuds, tree’ felling up the hillsides, tens of thousands of munition workers, aircraft builders, Rita the Riveter’. Grieving, a lot of that and when the church bells start ringing its get back in that kitchen…fair play…

Last edited 17 days ago by Mab Meirion
Adrian
Adrian
17 days ago
Reply to  Mab Meirion

..,and where were the men?
Oh yeah, laying down their lives on the front line.

CapM
CapM
18 days ago

Any women feel like commenting?
I’m bored with the opinions of middle aged men.

Last edited 18 days ago by CapM
Karl
Karl
17 days ago
Reply to  CapM

Cheeky. I think these angry little boys need to grow up. But I a middle aged and male. They create anger and violence that will result in a worse life for women and kids beaten and more violence against other men.

Che Guevara's Fist
Che Guevara's Fist
17 days ago

Apparently, women need protecting. From WHAT, exactly?

It’s ALMOST like these mysoginistic, right wing men get it. ALMOST.

They’re nearly there with the answer when the question is posed to them.

If men disappeared from the face of the Earth, who would they need protecting from? Bears? Given the choice, they would rather choose to live with the bears.

It’s only the wolves who claim that sheep need protecting from a certain problem caused by… ?

Adrian
Adrian
17 days ago

If all men disappeared tomorrow women would need to quickly learn how to dig footings, tile roofs, plaster, wire buildings, fight wars…and also fight off those wolves.

Jeff
Jeff
16 days ago
Reply to  Adrian

All the things they are doing now.

Whats your Tate fan club membership No? 1?

Adrian
Adrian
16 days ago
Reply to  Jeff

No Jeff, they aren’t, at least not in any statistically significant numbers, which you’d know If you actually bothered to inform yourself. Don’t get me wrong: I quite enjoy your twee little jibes, but I often develop a mild saviour complex for the hard of thinking. Just my feminine traits showing through I imagine.

Jones
Jones
15 days ago
Reply to  Jeff

Not raally only a tiny minority in the 1st world, far more in the 3rd. And less and less first world men as well do this kind of work. Outsourcing these jobs to the third worlders

Karl
Karl
16 days ago
Reply to  Adrian

Quick nose around my work, maintenance staff often female. Silly sexism is pathetic in the last 5o yrs.

Adrian
Adrian
16 days ago
Reply to  Karl

What percentage of physically-demanding maintenance jobs are done by women in your workplace Karl? I’d be interested in a rough head count. Sorry, but it’s not sexism: there’s an entire research literature on the different job choices of men and women. I can recommend some reading material if it’ll help.

Jones
Jones
15 days ago
Reply to  Karl

In certain sectors yesbut not in cleaning the street or filling in potholes or tree surgery. You are being simplistic about the divide. The divide varies dependent on wealth, class, continent and sector

CapM
CapM
15 days ago
Reply to  Jones

Quite a few of you know next to nothing when it comes to the physical work done by women. Ignorance and a severe lack of inquiry producing embarrassing garbage [to put it politely].

Women are undertaking gruelling physical work across the world from fetching water and firewood to working on construction sites with hand tools, quarrying etc and of course agriculture with hand tools. Often or usually while raising families.

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