Beter HBO

Trump, Biden and masculinity in the age of coronavirus

President Trump boasted last week that he beat covid-19 because he is “a perfect physical specimen.” Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) distributed a video of Trump at WrestleMania, tackling and beating up a man with a coronavirus particle superimposed over his head.

“President Trump won’t have to recover from COVID,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) wrote on Twitter. “COVID will have to recover from President Trump.”

The president’s emergence from his bout with the novel coronavirus is being hailed by many allies as a sign of his physical strength — the latest chapter in the effort by Trump and his supporters to cast himself as the manliest of men, conflating masculinity and strength and engaging in a dispute of sorts with Joe Biden over the meaning of machismo.

“Now, what is this macho thing: ‘I’m not going to wear a mask’?” Biden said during a town hall meeting last week, held just after Trump was released from the hospital. “Big deal. Does it hurt you? Be patriotic, for God’s sake. Take care of yourself, but take care of your neighbors.”

In response to Biden encouraging Americans to wear a mask, Fox News commentator Tomi Lahren wrote on Twitter: “Might as well carry a purse with that mask, Joe.”

The back-and-forth between Trump and Biden has long resembled a testosterone-filled, mano-a-mano bluster between the high school jocks they used to be. They evoke different brands of manliness — an old-fashioned machismo for Trump, a manly but caring boy-next-door for Biden.

Trump’s recent experience with the coronavirus has amplified that conflict, which in some ways is a fight over what strength means in a changing society. Physical strength is obviously not synonymous with maleness, but Trump often uses it as part of his broader self-portrait as a dominant masculine figure.

“Trump is a more caricatured version of masculinity — aggressive, physically tough, physically strong, never back down,” said Jackson Katz, creator of a forthcoming documentary called “The Man Card: Presidential Masculinity from Nixon to Trump.” “What Biden is offering is a more complex 21st-century version of masculinity. It’s compassion and empathy and care and a personal narrative of loss.”

Trump has embraced a stereotypically macho persona since long before his presidency. He joined forces with WWE, the professional wrestling organization. He posted images of himself as fictional prizefighter Rocky Balboa. For a time he co-owned the Miss Universe Organization, with its stereotypical notions of men judging women’s appearance.

In a 2016 primary debate, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) became involved in a back-and-forth with Trump about the size of their hands, and by extension the size of their genitalia, something Rubio later said he regretted.

“What we learned in 2016 is it’s all about those moments when Trump comes after you and how do you handle it,” said Alex Conant, who advised Rubio in that campaign. “He was just throwing out insults and mocking people. It turned out to be really effective. It worked for him. I don’t know that would work for another politician.”

Biden has done nothing like such antics, let alone Trump’s bragging about grabbing women by their private parts.

One of Biden's political calling cards is an expression of empathy with voters, and unlike Trump, he is not afraid to show vulnerability in public. He often tears up as he speaks of his son, Beau, who died in 2015. He talks of his childhood stutter and how he worked to overcome it. He has spoken in the past of contemplating suicide after family tragedy. He refers to the grief he felt when his first wife and daughter died in a car crash.

Vind ik leuk

0 leden vinden dit leuk

Opmerking

Je moet lid zijn van Beter HBO om reacties te kunnen toevoegen!

Wordt lid van Beter HBO

Welkom bij
Beter HBO

Aanmelden

Banners | Een probleem rapporteren? | Algemene voorwaarden