As Theresa Vescio, a psychology professor at Penn State who studies Donald Trump says, “Everything he says and does is about masculinity.”
Her research found that after political affiliation, how strongly someone embraces hegemonic masculinity was THE strongest predictor for supporting Trump, even stronger than someone’s gender, race or level of education.🔥🔥🔥
Having studied misogynistic men to stay safe my whole life (since my dad was one of them), I am certain this is so so so much more important a connection than we've been conditioned to see. When we shame people with extremely fragile egos and antisocial temperaments, their knee jerk reaction is almost always to offload their shame onto the next most vulnerable person/group. This doesn't just fuel domestic abuse, to your excellent points, on a macro level, weaponizing patriarchal shame fuels war, genocide, and mass collective and intergenerational suffering.
Zooming out to see these critical historical patterns more clearly, it seems obvious that compassionate accountability for our enemies and abusers (you know, all the stuff Jesus taught thousands of years ago) is indeed the wisest way to protect children, women, and all marginalized/vulnerable people.
Brava Celeste! The angle you've taken here is so important. As a historian I appreciate the historical examples which illustrate so well what the problem is. The seriously unhealthy norms of patriarchal masculinity are something societies must reckon with.
As you point out so well, there's a strong link between men who are entrapped by the restrictive norms of patriarchal masculinity and devastating, toxic, unnecessary wars. Patriarchal masculinity devalues anything perceived as "feminine," including empathy, collaboration, and emotional intelligence, and with men running the world, this means that peaceful solutions often appear unmanly to them.
Your angle on this huge problem is getting at something that could help a lot of people understand the problem in a way they haven't before. If only this angle could be presented by teachers in schools!
You make such a good point that our society will accept "public bullying, systemic corruption, outright lying, funding a genocide, ruining the environment, casual cruelty, 36+ felonies, grabbing women by the pussy" from men in power because in doing these things men are not violating the codes of patriarchal masculinity.
It explains so much about the belligerence and cruelty we're seeing in the US government today. It explains so much about male leaders throughout Western history resorting to war unnecessarily. It explains so much about why one in three women experience physical or sexual violence at the hands of a man. It explains so much about why restrictive masculine norms contribute to world wars, hinder the safety of women and LBGTQ people...I could talk to you about this for three days straight! Come to Florence and we'll do it over a glass of excellent Italian wine.
We were reflecting this week how easy homophobic jokes come to mind. Throughout growing up in patriarchal home and society we have consistently heard them. Look back, they are everywhere. We have heard with nice voices and mean voices.
I sometimes wonder if the entire point of masculinity is how vulnerable it makes men feel. When no other concept could get someone to do something as stupid as, say, running toward cannon fire masculinity to the rescue!! Want to convince someone to hurt their family, here comes masculinity! How about destruction of the planet? Masculinity to the forefront! It’s seriously the worst idea ever.
I appreciate you naming all of this. It's so telling that our culture has a huge reaction to a potential consensual interaction between two men, but not a non-consensual interaction between an adult man and a young girl, and I hadn't thought about it in these terms before you shared this.
It's wild to think about how many things we struggle to make progress on because of patriarchal masculinity. As a queer woman, I think about how one of the blocks to more widespread acceptance (and legislative protections) for queer relationships is patriarchal masculinity. For men who love other men it's because doing so is considered a peak violation of masculinity. And for women who love other women it's because doing so feels like a threat to patriarchy because those women who are partnered with other women are not partnered with men, and therefore exist, in certain ways, outside of the control of men.
Women in relationships with other women threaten [some] individual men, the whole patriarchal system of male dominance (including the "traditional family"), and worst of all, I bet you're a woke radical leftist hippie communist domestic terrorist!
This was such an eye-opener. Growing up in Mormonism, my whole world was built around men who could do almost anything and still be seen as righteous. As long as they performed masculinity correctly. We were taught to fear immorality, but we were trained to fear “unmanliness.” I didn’t have words for any of that before now.
Reading this, I kept thinking how familiar the pattern feels: cruelty, corruption, exploitation… all tolerated, even expected, as long as the man at the center never looks “weak.” But the minute his masculinity is questioned, the whole system goes into meltdown. I had no idea how deep and old that pattern runs, or how much devastation it has caused on a global scale.
I learned more from this piece than from any history class I ever took. The way you connect the dots makes the whole thing impossible to unsee. It’s unsettling in exactly the way it needs to be. Thank you for putting language around something that has shaped so much of our world and still somehow goes unnamed.
Fantastic article as always, love the connections you draw. Didn't know that historical context but totally makes sense - insecurity based on the performance of masculinity within patriarchy is the cause of much death and destruction.
I have been more fascinated by WW1 after a trip to Sarajevo this year - thanks for another jumping off point! On the flight back I watched the movie The Eyes Tammy Faye about her and her televangelist husband - some themes align here (threat of not seeming masculine enough, and a man wielding power over his wife to demonstrate it and maintain the patriarchal structure) - I think you'd have some great takes if you watch it.
And then there was that correspondents dinner… thanks Obama.
Not to mention all the wasted airtime given to Trump’s combover and spray tan. But if he didn’t have that then we would probably mock his pasty baldness. But we only mock his professional and physical ineptness because it’s easier, like they’re obvious symptoms of his bad morals. But this isn’t Hollywood. Just because he looks like a cartoon villain, doesn’t mean he is. But if he is, please let’s not focus on the cartoon villain exterior at the expense of calling out the cartoon villain heart.
This is SUCH a fantastic and insightful post. The whole thing hasn’t sat right with me, and you perfectly pinpointed the “why” that I couldn’t put my finger on. Thanks for laying this out so clearly, and sharing it with us 🤍
I felt the same way- last weeks post was too- was just so obvious AFTER she pointed it out. Men think they are better than women and that is why they get to treat us less than.
100% agree with you. That hierarchy is so deeply conditioned into all of us that we don’t even question it, but it seems SO obvious once it’s illuminated.
Wow, very insightful! The Bud Light controversy in April 2023 following a social media post by transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney is proof nothing has changed. Regards from Baltimore.
As Theresa Vescio, a psychology professor at Penn State who studies Donald Trump says, “Everything he says and does is about masculinity.”
Her research found that after political affiliation, how strongly someone embraces hegemonic masculinity was THE strongest predictor for supporting Trump, even stronger than someone’s gender, race or level of education.🔥🔥🔥
Having studied misogynistic men to stay safe my whole life (since my dad was one of them), I am certain this is so so so much more important a connection than we've been conditioned to see. When we shame people with extremely fragile egos and antisocial temperaments, their knee jerk reaction is almost always to offload their shame onto the next most vulnerable person/group. This doesn't just fuel domestic abuse, to your excellent points, on a macro level, weaponizing patriarchal shame fuels war, genocide, and mass collective and intergenerational suffering.
Zooming out to see these critical historical patterns more clearly, it seems obvious that compassionate accountability for our enemies and abusers (you know, all the stuff Jesus taught thousands of years ago) is indeed the wisest way to protect children, women, and all marginalized/vulnerable people.
God. Help. Us.
Yes you are always so wise - thank you 🙏🏼
Celeste needs to be writing on bigger stages. The WORLD needs her messages.
Brava Celeste! The angle you've taken here is so important. As a historian I appreciate the historical examples which illustrate so well what the problem is. The seriously unhealthy norms of patriarchal masculinity are something societies must reckon with.
As you point out so well, there's a strong link between men who are entrapped by the restrictive norms of patriarchal masculinity and devastating, toxic, unnecessary wars. Patriarchal masculinity devalues anything perceived as "feminine," including empathy, collaboration, and emotional intelligence, and with men running the world, this means that peaceful solutions often appear unmanly to them.
Your angle on this huge problem is getting at something that could help a lot of people understand the problem in a way they haven't before. If only this angle could be presented by teachers in schools!
You make such a good point that our society will accept "public bullying, systemic corruption, outright lying, funding a genocide, ruining the environment, casual cruelty, 36+ felonies, grabbing women by the pussy" from men in power because in doing these things men are not violating the codes of patriarchal masculinity.
It explains so much about the belligerence and cruelty we're seeing in the US government today. It explains so much about male leaders throughout Western history resorting to war unnecessarily. It explains so much about why one in three women experience physical or sexual violence at the hands of a man. It explains so much about why restrictive masculine norms contribute to world wars, hinder the safety of women and LBGTQ people...I could talk to you about this for three days straight! Come to Florence and we'll do it over a glass of excellent Italian wine.
We were reflecting this week how easy homophobic jokes come to mind. Throughout growing up in patriarchal home and society we have consistently heard them. Look back, they are everywhere. We have heard with nice voices and mean voices.
I sometimes wonder if the entire point of masculinity is how vulnerable it makes men feel. When no other concept could get someone to do something as stupid as, say, running toward cannon fire masculinity to the rescue!! Want to convince someone to hurt their family, here comes masculinity! How about destruction of the planet? Masculinity to the forefront! It’s seriously the worst idea ever.
Amazing article. As someone who has studied WW1 extensively in college, I’m surprised I’ve never heard of this connection.
I appreciate you naming all of this. It's so telling that our culture has a huge reaction to a potential consensual interaction between two men, but not a non-consensual interaction between an adult man and a young girl, and I hadn't thought about it in these terms before you shared this.
It's wild to think about how many things we struggle to make progress on because of patriarchal masculinity. As a queer woman, I think about how one of the blocks to more widespread acceptance (and legislative protections) for queer relationships is patriarchal masculinity. For men who love other men it's because doing so is considered a peak violation of masculinity. And for women who love other women it's because doing so feels like a threat to patriarchy because those women who are partnered with other women are not partnered with men, and therefore exist, in certain ways, outside of the control of men.
Women in relationships with other women threaten [some] individual men, the whole patriarchal system of male dominance (including the "traditional family"), and worst of all, I bet you're a woke radical leftist hippie communist domestic terrorist!
Congratulations! You're a triple threat!
(me too. we should start a club.)
THANK you. It’s driving me nuts.
This is ON POINT!! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
This was such an eye-opener. Growing up in Mormonism, my whole world was built around men who could do almost anything and still be seen as righteous. As long as they performed masculinity correctly. We were taught to fear immorality, but we were trained to fear “unmanliness.” I didn’t have words for any of that before now.
Reading this, I kept thinking how familiar the pattern feels: cruelty, corruption, exploitation… all tolerated, even expected, as long as the man at the center never looks “weak.” But the minute his masculinity is questioned, the whole system goes into meltdown. I had no idea how deep and old that pattern runs, or how much devastation it has caused on a global scale.
I learned more from this piece than from any history class I ever took. The way you connect the dots makes the whole thing impossible to unsee. It’s unsettling in exactly the way it needs to be. Thank you for putting language around something that has shaped so much of our world and still somehow goes unnamed.
Fantastic article as always, love the connections you draw. Didn't know that historical context but totally makes sense - insecurity based on the performance of masculinity within patriarchy is the cause of much death and destruction.
I have been more fascinated by WW1 after a trip to Sarajevo this year - thanks for another jumping off point! On the flight back I watched the movie The Eyes Tammy Faye about her and her televangelist husband - some themes align here (threat of not seeming masculine enough, and a man wielding power over his wife to demonstrate it and maintain the patriarchal structure) - I think you'd have some great takes if you watch it.
And then there was that correspondents dinner… thanks Obama.
Not to mention all the wasted airtime given to Trump’s combover and spray tan. But if he didn’t have that then we would probably mock his pasty baldness. But we only mock his professional and physical ineptness because it’s easier, like they’re obvious symptoms of his bad morals. But this isn’t Hollywood. Just because he looks like a cartoon villain, doesn’t mean he is. But if he is, please let’s not focus on the cartoon villain exterior at the expense of calling out the cartoon villain heart.
This is SUCH a fantastic and insightful post. The whole thing hasn’t sat right with me, and you perfectly pinpointed the “why” that I couldn’t put my finger on. Thanks for laying this out so clearly, and sharing it with us 🤍
I felt the same way- last weeks post was too- was just so obvious AFTER she pointed it out. Men think they are better than women and that is why they get to treat us less than.
100% agree with you. That hierarchy is so deeply conditioned into all of us that we don’t even question it, but it seems SO obvious once it’s illuminated.
Wow, very insightful! The Bud Light controversy in April 2023 following a social media post by transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney is proof nothing has changed. Regards from Baltimore.
Again, insanely good.
STOP POKING THE BEAR!! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and findings through your very talented writing, Celeste Davis!