Donald Trump’s “Make America Nice Once more (MAGA)” motion is a macho cult. It suggests the US may be “nice once more” provided that fashionable American males be taught to be robust “manly males” like their fathers and grandfathers, assert dominance over “their” girls, and “take again management” – no matter which means. It encourages males to cover their emotions, adhere to archaic intercourse stereotypes, use violence to get forward in life, and take recommendation not from consultants and family members, however so so-called well-known “alpha males”, like podcaster Joe Rogan or billionaire X proprietor (and now main Trump backer) Elon Musk.
This poisonous motion, constructed on a promise to return America to an imagined golden period when girls knew their place and thus life was jolly for everybody, has sadly set the tone for the upcoming presidential elections on this planet’s strongest nation. We are actually dwelling in a actuality the place thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of American males (and a not-at-all-small variety of girls) seem to see Donald Trump because the epitome of male energy, and him being elected president for a second time as the one reply to the nation’s many issues.
The previous president and actuality TV star has a historical past of insulting and belittling girls on social media and on tv. He routinely makes crude and offensive feedback about distinguished girls, and particularly girls who publicly discuss in opposition to him at his televised rallies attended by 1000’s. He criticises their bodily look, insults their households, and even their reproductive selections. No less than 26 girls have accused him of sexual misconduct and assault. These allegations go all the best way again to the Seventies and embody rape, undesirable kissing, groping, and voyeurism. Final 12 months, a jury in a civil trial discovered him answerable for sexual assault and rewarded his accuser $5m. Trump denies all accusations, however however, his disdain for girls is clear to anybody paying an iota of consideration to his phrases and conduct. Even his VP choose, JD Vance, is an open misogynist, who insults their Democratic rivals by calling them “childless cat girls”. As president, Trump appointed the judges who ultimately overturned Roe v Wade and left American girls in lots of states with out significant management over their our bodies and lives.
In a sane world, this observe document of misogyny and violent machismo can be sufficient to make sure Trump has no likelihood of coming wherever close to the White Home ever once more. However we’re not dwelling in a sane world.
The MAGA motion has framed your complete election round stereotypes about masculinity. They claimed every part is all the way down to bodily endurance, willingness to inflict violence on enemies, and being an general “macho man”, and seemingly managed to persuade sufficient folks to have a very good likelihood at profitable this election.
What does this inform us about American society?
Prior to now few months, now we have repeatedly seen Trump’s main rival, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, being attacked not over her coverage positions and conduct in workplace, however her “sexual historical past”. She has been accused of being “promiscuous” in her youth and having had “slept her technique to the highest”. Conservative commentator and filmmaker Matt Walsh posted on X that Harris had “made a profession out of begging for handouts from highly effective males”, and Fox Information host Megyn Kelly described these feedback as being useful to voters, and completely “honest recreation”. After all, these are nothing however unsubstantiated rumours – the time-old story of baseless gossip being weaponised in opposition to a profitable girl. And even when they have been true, her private relationship historical past wouldn’t have any influence on how Harris would do the job, or set her other than Trump – a identified serial adulterer and abuser of girls who obtained the place he’s in life because of household cash and connections.
Past run-of-the-mill misogyny targeted on alleged promiscuity, Trump’s “macho” supporters have additionally accused Harris of being a “residence wrecker” (resulting from a previous relationship with a person who on the time was separated, however not but divorced, from his spouse); of truly being a person who transitioned to dwell as a girl (this one is tough to decipher, however maybe the suggestion is that she wouldn’t have been this profitable in politics if she was a natural-born girl?); and of “not having a stake in the way forward for the nation” resulting from her not having any organic youngsters. Harris, the one little one of a few first-generation Black and South Asian immigrants, has additionally been accused of not being Black sufficient (as a result of she is half South Asian), not being South Asian sufficient (as a result of she is half Black!) and never being American sufficient (as a result of she was born to immigrant dad and mom).
Total, all through the marketing campaign season, the MAGA motion gave the impression to be making the case that Harris shouldn’t be elected president as a result of as a girl, she is morally, bodily and emotionally weak and never geared up to steer the “robust and manly” American nation at this second of disaster and hardship.
Wanting on the present Trump marketing campaign’s obvious success – regardless of all his scandals and 34 legal convictions, Trump stays neck and neck with Harris in all the newest polls – and his surprising 2016 victory in opposition to the political powerhouse that’s Hillary Clinton, some started to recommend that possibly America will not be but prepared – and can by no means be prepared – to elect a girl as chief.
Whereas these pessimists are undoubtedly proper concerning the misogyny and sexism of the US society, and the uphill battle feminine candidates face in American politics, they appear to be ignoring two vital details. One, Clinton, who carried a lot heavier political baggage than Harris, regardless of shedding the Electoral School, gained the favored vote in 2016. And two, this 12 months, regardless of all of the misogyny, the slurs and the insults, Kamala Harris is by no means behind within the polls, and has a really actual likelihood of profitable this election.
Positive, a majority of males (particularly white males) appear to be supporting Trump’s machismo and displaying up for him (an October ballot by Economist/YouGov confirmed that Trump has an enormous 52 % to 43 % lead over Harris amongst male voters). However girls, who’re nicely conscious of how damaging 4 years of Trump has been to their rights, are additionally displaying up for Harris. In keeping with a latest ballot by the Harvard Institute of Politics, Harris leads amongst girls 18-29 by a whopping 30 factors. In battleground states like Arizona and Michigan, tens of 1000’s of girls, and particularly younger girls, are identified to have voted early to make sure a Harris victory.
So, a girl can nonetheless take over the White Home within the close to future. If Harris wins the election and turns into the primary feminine president of the USA, nonetheless, American misogyny that Trump uncovered, took benefit of, and deepened, won’t disappear in a single day.
Simply because the election of President Barack Obama in 2008 didn’t mark the top of racism in American society, the potential election of Harris in 2024 won’t finish misogyny and sexism within the nation.
That is partly as a result of Kamala Harris isn’t any true feminist.
The Democratic vice chairman panders to transgender ideology. She seems keen to permit males who say they’re girls to trample upon the hard-earned sex-based rights of girls within the identify of “inclusivity”. She is supportive of so-called “gender-affirming” medical interventions, which needlessly maim bodily wholesome girls and women, and infrequently flip them into life-long medical sufferers. She is the primary mainstream US presidential candidate to assist the blanket decriminalisation of prostitution (which she refers to as “intercourse work”). In some ways, Harris isn’t any pal to girls, both. And, sadly, she could also be performing this fashion as a result of she believes true feminism can’t win an American election.
However, even when Harris, for no matter cause, can’t appear to outline what a girl is, Trump most definitely can. In his bigoted, misogynistic thoughts, girls are sexual playthings, moms and carers, and never full human beings with rights, opinions and freedoms.
Because of this, if I have been an American, I might not hesitate to vote for Harris over Trump regardless of all my misgivings about her feminist credentials.
We’ll discover out, in a matter of days, whether or not sufficient People of all sexes involved about girls’s rights attain the identical conclusion, present up on the polls to assist Harris and handle to place an finish to the misogyny fest that has been Trump’s political profession.
However no matter political actuality we get up to on November 6, this election season – and the misogyny, hate and violence in opposition to girls it normalised – may have penalties. Going ahead, girls can be extra scared to place themselves ahead for public workplace, realizing the harassment and lies they should face merely for being a girl in search of energy and authority. The abuse Harris endured prior to now few months, not for her politics however her intercourse, has proved America will not be but a feminist nation, and it’s undoubtedly not able to elect a real feminist as chief.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.