In the minds of "conservatives" and Republicans pandering for their votes, everything is a zero sum game. If the legal rights or general wellbeing of previously abused segments of society and minorities, to their minds they have lost something be it respect or more often the right to persecute and subordinate others. Hence the renewed right wing attacks on feminism and, of course, LGBT individuals who are blamed for all of the failures of men, especially white men. Never mind that bad life choices - e.g., not gaining college educations in an ever more technology driven world and voting for Republicans who care only for the wealthy despite disingenuous lip service to the contrary - are often the true reason white males are falling behind economically. Women still do not receive equal pay in far too many workplaces and gays continue to face discrimination in far too many circumstances. Worse yet, we continue to see toxic masculinity on everyday display be t in the form of Donald Trump or other right wing politicians and conservative leaders. No wonder so many women prefer to remain unmarried rather than be subservient to some male dolt. A piece in
New York Magazine looks at the renewed GOP/conservative war on women. Here are excerpts:
The conservative
movement believes men are in trouble, and they know who to blame. “The left
want to define traditional masculinity as toxic. They want to define the
traditional masculine virtues — things like courage and independence and
assertiveness — as a danger to society,” the Republican senator Josh
Hawley said during a recent speech.
Thus besieged, men are retreating into pornography and video games, abandoning
their traditional responsibilities, he added. And who can blame them? “In
America, you ought to be able to raise a family on one single income,” asserted
Senate candidate Blake Masters in an ad. That
feat was once possible, he claimed, but globalization made it all too rare.
This is a “huge problem,” he said, but “the left, they want to attack me, and
say, ‘Blake, that’s sexist.’” The breadwinner, as always, is male.
Elsewhere, Republican
men show masculinity at its worst. Sean
Parnell was Donald Trump’s pick to represent Pennsylvania in the Senate
until he lost a custody battle following his ex-wife’s accusations of violent
domestic abuse, claims that he denies. Trump, who once bragged of grabbing
women by the pussy, might find much to admire in Parnell. “I feel like the
whole ‘happy wife, happy life’ nonsense has done nothing but raise one
generation of women tyrants after the next,” Parnell said
on Fox Nation. “The idea that a woman doesn’t need a man to be
successful, the idea that a woman doesn’t need a man to have a baby, the idea
that a woman can live a happy and fulfilling life without a man, I think it’s
all nonsense.” In Missouri, Eric Greitens is running for the Senate on a MAGA
platform despite sexual-assault allegations that ended his tenure as governor.
They are putting a brash new
spin on an old culture war. Hawley’s anti-feminism isn’t novel, but he is
responding to a new moment in modern American politics. Conservatives have
always argued that by muddying gender roles, feminism harms men and women
alike. Yet in recent years, this rhetoric has acquired an even sharper edge,
pitting men and women against each other as if greater freedom for women comes
directly at the expense of men. For Republican politicians and their
supporters, Trump’s unapologetic misogyny further expanded the borders of the
possible.
The GOP has been an anti-feminist institution for decades,
with conservative women making use of a loose language of empowerment in its
stead.
Society is changing in
ways that directly challenge the norms that are so precious to Hawley and his
ilk. Americans are more
likely than ever to identify as LGBT, a trend at odds with the traditional
rigidity around men’s and women’s roles. Forty-two percent of American adults
say they personally know a trans person, according to a recent Pew poll. Though
the Pew poll also found that 56 percent believe that a person’s sex as assigned
at birth determines their gender, it also found “that younger people tended to
be more likely to know a trans person and comfortable with gender-neutral
pronouns,” the
19th reported. That prospect will disturb conservatives like Hawley, who opposes
basic equality for trans people, most notably in the guise of protecting cis women.
The rising cost of
living further threatens the male breadwinner and renders him impotent
before forces he cannot control. Hawley believes men will turn to pornography —
another old conservative foe — and neglect his responsibilities to his family,
if indeed he marries at all.
None of this amounts to a war on men. Me Too was an attempt
to correct a long-standing social problem: that of violence against women. . .
. .The growing acceptance of trans people may threaten traditional gender
binaries, but it is not a substantive assault on the male sex; trans people
remain a vulnerable minority facing pervasive discrimination.
Hawley “may have couched things slightly differently,” said
Dr. Schreiber, but “without a doubt” the senator was thinking of traditional gender
roles. “It’s not new, right?” she said. “There’s all sorts of literature, all
sorts of activism, particularly from the Christian right, that men’s and
women’s roles are being devalued and men are being emasculated by policies that
promote feminism.”
Hawley isn’t just owning the
libs. He’s owning women: more specifically, the wrong kind of woman, trans
women and women who get abortions and women who reject traditional constraints.
She is the real threat to Hawley’s masculinity. The desire to punish her
explains why candidates like Greitens and Parnell haven’t yet been shamed out
of public life.
Faced with such enemies, women need comrades, true friends
in the struggle. By default, they’re left with the Democratic Party, the
inconsistent counterbalance to the GOP’s increasingly authoritarian turn.
Masculinity,
additionally, is not as threatened as Hawley claims. As long as Brett Kavanaugh
can ascend to the Supreme Court despite a credible allegation of sexual
assault, as long as Donald Trump remains a popular figure with conservative
voters, as long as domestic violence doesn’t automatically end political
careers, masculinity is hardly under attack. Rights for women, however, look
fragile, with abortion at the precipice. American women need a party that won’t
sacrifice them for fear of sounding too woke.
The average voter does
not want to end Roe. Social conservatives often claim they speak
for some silent majority of the American electorate when the subject is
outlawing abortion; that claim is a pernicious lie, and Democrats should stare
it down. The fight for abortion is part of a fight for liberation, and it’s
possible for the liberal left to make that case without sounding like grad
students on the campaign trail. Include the unapologetic right to abortion in a
platform premised on economic justice for all — living wages, Medicare for All,
paid leave — and Democrats have a message that directly undercuts the divisive
language of the right. The conservative vision, as expressed by Hawley and
lived out by candidates like Parnell and Greitens, pits men against women. Yet
freedom for the latter does not have to come at the expense of the former. It’s
on Democrats to say so.
Republicans are playing
an old game — and they’re good at it. Their opponents should try a novel
strategy. Let Hawley posture about the decline of masculinity if he chooses.
The answer lies in a more dignified future for all.
