Men are aggressive.
They fight. They protect. They grab pussies.
Women nurture.
They can be kind and gentle because men are tough.
There is a role for each gender. Jesus was a man's man, and so is Trump.
I mean you can look at the testosterone levels of young men today and they are lower than throughout all of history. . .. They are trying to de-masculate the young men in this country because they don't want people who are going to stand up. So I am telling you, all of the moms here, the people who I said were the most vicious and are in our movement, if you were raising a young man, please raise them to be a monster. [audience cheers.]
Texas Senator Ted Cruz beat Hawley to the masculinity issue, having cooked bacon with the hot barrel of a machine gun, having trolled Bernie Sanders by saying he "identifies with every gender, simultaneously," having been a leader in insisting on binary gendered bathrooms, and by tweeting that "liberal males never grow balls." Cruz grew a manly beard.
This kind of talk is consistent with the Trump-ified GOP. Trump ran against George W. Bush's post-9/11 declarations that Islam is a religion of peace and Jeb Bush's "low energy" message of respect for Mexico and Mexicans. Trump was kick-ass opponent of Muslims, Mexicans, the Chinese, liberals, Black activists, "woke" people, progressives, the news media, and cultural elites. Trump defined himself by his open contempt for his opponents and by willingness to take them on. He has big hands, wink-wink. GOP voters seem to like it. Potential Trump successors are adopting that tone.
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| Penis: "I guarantee you there's no problem |
Evangelicals are Trump's most reliable supporters. Trump is an expression of a significant theme within that community, one based on an idea of a muscular Christ, a fighter in the battle of good and evil. This Jesus isn't a wimp. He doesn't turn the other cheek. He doesn't wash feet. He kicks ass because times are desperate and the faith needs defending.
One of the themes within Evangelical Christian thought is that the world is sharply gendered, with men given the responsibility of family leadership in decisions, as provider and as the protector against threats from outside. Women are the nurturer and keeper of the home. This isn't just cultural tradition. They consider it sacred revelation and God's plan.
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| Ripped Jesus |
This traditional division of roles is changing in American culture. Women are in the workforce and are increasingly a family's primary or sole source of income. Women outnumber men in colleges. The #MeToo movement called out and shamed male behaviors that were once common in workplaces. Fewer and fewer jobs--especially well-paying high-status ones--require a young man's upper body strength. Evangelical Christians observe the displacement of traditional gender roles and are pushing back. Trump rides that wave; potential GOP successors are climbing aboard it.
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| Dead serious. Not Irony. |
Social conservatism allied with Evangelical Christianity, in a kind of chicken-and-egg symbiosis. This era's re-positioning of Jesus from a spiritual "love-thy-enemy" figure into a fighter happened coincidently with the 1960s changes to the roles of women and racial minorities. Polls show social conservatives to be uncomfortable with the "browning" of America. There is also an overlapping reason, which helps explain the increased votes the GOP is getting among Blacks and Hispanics. Gender roles. Formerly men were by default the "head of household," a term that seems old fashioned and discriminatory now in the world of census questionnaires. For Evangelicals, it isn't old fashioned. It is sacred.
God's only begotten child is a son, and like Trump, a male. Many Evangelical Christians believe Trump to be anointed by God. A muscular, fighting Messiah is exactly what we need when sacred truths are under attack. God answered their prayers.
9 comments:
Well written and insightful post that can be distilled into one word...misogyny.
Can humankind advance beyond the biological imperative that brought us into the modern era? Eventually, yes, but not all at once and not all together. Just in the same way the Platypus is a throwback to prehistoric animals...anyway, you get my point.
I think what's more insidious is the cynical exploitation of them for political and financial gain, by those who know better.
There is a way forward from this and we will be led forward by women, the LGBTQ community, and men who aren't preoccupied with their anatomy.
Throughout the ages, various teachers have come along and promoted the same basic human values: truth, peace, love, right action, etc. Few ever followed their teachings. If they did, this nation wouldn’t be so obsessed with guns, war and conspicuous consumption. The biggest denomination we have in this country is gun-worship.
The monster Pilsbury Dough Boy RITTENHOUSE appears to be their ideal male role model du jour.
The anti-male prejudice in our current culture is amazing. How many commercials have you seen where the stupid husband is one-upped by the smart and sometimes contemptuous wife? Is that a good thing?
How many commercials have you seen where those roles are reversed?
Men are criticized for “refusing to ask for directions,” instead of being praised for working hard to develop their ability to find their way around. How much talk to you hear about “toxic masculinity?“ How much do you hear about “toxic femininity?“
Men and boys are not doing particularly well in our current climate of hostility towards masculinity. It’s no wonder that there is a backlash towards all of this. Calling it “misogyny“ totally misses the point that it’s a reaction to misandry.
At this point I wonder if we should stop belaboring the silverbacks, bonobos, etc. To be as our good progressives require or at least expect, must mean either we’ve evolved (mutated?) a quantum leap or so beyond other so-called higher primates, or we must aspire to that higher, dare I say heretofore “unnatural” evolution as a transformative moral imperative.
Perhaps we should also take up instructive outreach among higher primates, as present conditions and limitations allow. We can steadily encourage and reinforce more evolved relations among females, beta males, and alpha males. LGBTQ+ silverbacks and bonobos too, of course, even in their pre-closet evolutionary phase. Then other mammalia.
On Mr. Sage’s latest thought-provoking post, it’s been my experience anyway that most evangelical Christians, especially the women, thank God for Trump primarily for one reason and one reason only—SCOTUS and abortion.
If Jesus really was a man’s man akin to Trump or any other, that love-thy-neighbor and rich man/eye of the needle stuff was sorely lacking in God’s alpha son. Was the 33 year-old virgin a little light in the loafers? Evolution, if so?
Good comment, Low Dudgeon, thanks.
I think current acceptable behavior standards Set a tough bar for young men, but working in a flirty sexualized office setting was no picnic for young women, so something needed to change. TV shows like Grays Anatomy make clear that sex in the workplace is not extinguished. Young women still look pretty darned sexy to young men. I am so ignorant about the Tinder/Match marketplace I shouldn’t comment on it, but it does appear from my outsider view that humans do still want to get together and screw, snd that women are eager-enough participants in the game.
De-sexualized office; tinder hookups. There is plenty of hypocrisy about sex.
Peter Sage
Low Dudgeon-
"To be as our good progressives require or at least expect...we must aspire to that...transformational moral imperative."
No. We must simply get a clue and quit harassing others, including LGBTQs. We've already evolved beyond that. Bullies are an atavism.
Oh, trigo, i just LOOOOVE it that you are so MAAAANly!
I debated whether to comment but wanted to offer at least one serious Christian perspective on the theology of 'Jesus as Rambo'.
Those who have never had an authentic (spiritual) encounter with the biblical Jesus, or who mistakenly interpret the ancient biblical texts through a modern/post-modern secular western lens, often have nothing but distorted caricatures of him. This includes many self-identified “Evangelicals”.
Those who have had their lives significantly transformed by Jesus and are even moderately serious students of Scripture find these kinds of representations of Jesus disconcerting but not surprising. History is full of them. There’s a difference between those who truly seek him (and his kingdom), and those who use his name as cudgel to gain temporal political power or social agenda.
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