Shoulda thought the title through a little more https://t.co/e1nJzDaHp7
— Promo Code: Rudy (@canderaid) July 28, 2022
Who knew that damned ‘Hawlin’ Arse’ clip would be so widely broadcast for the delectation of a cruel world?
Imagine, if you will, the level of misplaced self-confidence it takes for Josh Hawley to think that calling his book "Manhood" will go well for him
— YesterdayIsAHardWordForHat (@Popehat) July 28, 2022
Masc Off: https://t.co/RWjfZsice1 pic.twitter.com/KZALMzMcJA
— Kelsey D. Atherton (@AthertonKD) July 26, 2022
He’s been making plans since at least last year… and even then, snarksters were, shall we say, dubious:
A lot going on here https://t.co/1Ej1EY70Gq
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) November 7, 2021
Hawley’s core demographic will be misogynist gamers and his core campaign tactic will be to neg them. https://t.co/4dnUsSUBJW
— zeddy (@Zeddary) November 8, 2021
“As a conservative, we’ve got to call men back to responsibility.”
Granted, that might be the only stimuli they respond to.
— zeddy (@Zeddary) November 8, 2021
The correct Josh Hawley headline is:
"Banking Family Scion and Yale-educated Lawyer and Jr. Senator From Missouri Hawley Says Most of His Male Constituents Are Effeminate Losers."
The asymmetry problem and the flat-brainedness of the national press though.
— Dan Murphy (@bungdan) November 8, 2021
Actual military guy:
I expect dweebs from a certain corner of twitter will be making unironic reject modernity embrace tradition cracks on Hawley's proposal so a reminder that one of a few things all mil personnel have in common going back in perpetuity is killing time playing stupid games and porn https://t.co/LnMxPzybdG
— Mike Black (@MikeBlack114) November 8, 2021
Interviewer:What “masculine” jobs have you held?
Hawley: Lumberjack
Interviewer: Lumberjack? Really?
Hawley: I picked out our Christmas tree and tied it on top of the minivan.
Interviewer:
Hawley:I got sap on my sweater.
Interviewer:
Hawley: Want to see me make a fist? Scared? pic.twitter.com/GaskjZb21A— TBogg (@tbogg) November 8, 2021
These Repubs are really desperate for a Strong Daddy figure…
“He wears bronzer, loves gold and gossip, is obsessed with his physical appearance, whines constantly, can’t control his emotions, watches daytime television, enjoys parades and interior decorating, and used to sell perfume.” https://t.co/5y7olfBnEc https://t.co/GYUQ7cFJRb
— Windsor Mann (@WindsorMann) July 28, 2022
ian
Broken clock is still right twice a day.
The Golux
I’m a lumberjack
And I’m OK
I sleep all night and I work all day
I cut down trees
I skip and jump
I like to press wild flowers
I put on women’s’ clothing and hang around in bars
Adam L Silverman
I have socks more masculine than Josh Hawley.
Steeplejack
TBogg for the win. I literally LOL’d. 😹
RaflW
I’m just delighted that Josh Hawley had an editor and publisher who were also so totally sleepwalking into such a farce.
The J6 hearing really took him down many pegs.
Good.
RaflW
Can’t really quibble with Dan Murphy’s take on the Beltway bobbleheads, either.
Joe Falco
For Sale: Hawley Manhood, Never Shown.
Mr. Bemused Senior
<snark-attempt>how can it be on sale in May? Didn’t he already sell it? Oh, yeah, grift.
Hoosierspud
Also on Trump’s masculinity: “Memory” from the musical Cats was played to calm him down.
JaySinWA
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
You get fractional shares. Just like bitcoin only manlier
Adam L Silverman
@RaflW: It’s Regnery. They’re publishing it because they know his campaign and his leadership PAC will buy enough copies to guarantee them a profit and then give the books as thank you to wealthy donors. They also expect that groups like cpac and turning point and similar orgs will buy them to give then out when Hawley gives speeches at their events. Conservative political publishing is a major scam.
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
Is he gonna add “no homo” stickers to the books because good Lord.
Also gender is made up and masculinity and femininity are just stupid games we designed and for which the rules are constantly shifting and mean nothing.
NotMax
Like Gandhi writing a book on boxing.
Poe Larity
So all the pr0n and video games are liberals fault?
Hungry Joe
I don’t think Regnery publishes anything BUT right-wing sludge.
DMcK
@Alison Rose 💙🌻💛: Yeah, amusing as they are, even the witty jabs at his magnum opus kinda sorta buy into its flawed premise to make their points.
SpaceUnit
Not sure whether to laugh or puke.
NotMax
@Adam L Silverman
“A runaway favorite.”
//
Splitting Image
Hawley’s book will be a perfect match for the one David Brooks wrote with the woman he dumped his wife for. It was called “Character”, if I remember correctly.
DMcK
@DMcK: Anyway, given the right’s weird obsession over how to be a manly fuckin’ man, I expect we can look forward to a masterpiece of unintentional homoeroticism.
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
I am genuinely curious and would to know: does anyone actually sit down to read these vanity books that come out of Regnery? Are they ever reviewed in any reputable news publication? Does anyone quote stuff from them in any kind of political conversation? Or do they disappear into warehouse storage; into the goodie bags given out at right-wing political events; or do they wind up being re-gifted around and around in RW circles, in keeping with Hobbit tradition?
Redshift
@Alison Rose 💙🌻💛:
Yes, but the entire premise of conservatism all over the world is the promise of a return to an idealized past that never was. It is of no consequence to them that masculinity is entirely made up and that it isn’t something that existed unchanging for all of human history until liberals broke it. They’ll fight reality on that to their last breath.
SpaceUnit
First rule of
EncelPenis Club is never stop talking about being a member ofEncelPenis Club.Redshift
@Amir Khalid: From what I understand, they are displayed on bookshelves to indicate the strength of ones tribal devotion. They’re like the Bible and the Constitution, things conservatives claim to have read, but actually just rely on what authority figures tell them they say.
Dangerman
@DMcK: Which reminds me, what became of the Tucker Carlson “Manly Man Nad Tanner and Scanner” (to facilitate dick pics, which I assume is masculine behavior)
Jager
@Hoosierspud:
Dancing to “YMCA” at his rallies.
piratedan
@Joe Falco: would amend that to “Hawley Manhood, Never Used”
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: everyone does…
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Hawley has no demographic, he’s a bore.
He’s Rick Santorum without the sweater.
Lacuna Synecdoche
Tom Nichols via Anne Laurie @ Top:
If Josh Hawley is the representative of your manhood, then, yes, your masculinity is inherently problematic.
Shalimar
@Hoosierspud: They play YMCA at every rally. You can’t get more masculine than YMCA. Everyone in the Village People is sweating manhood.
Shalimar
@Lacuna Synecdoche: My answer is always “the problem isn’t your masculinity. The problem is you’re an asshole.”
Tony Jay
Isn’t ‘Manhood’ just a polite euphemism for ‘Dick’?
So they got that right.
Also, too, Trump’s image is just fascist Liberace without the charisma or the talent.
Baud
I bet Hawley can’t even grow a beard.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
So Hauley wants to run on p0rn and masculinity and all this time we were told “economic anxiety” was the driving factor.
Baud
Real men overthrow the will of the voters.
ColoradoGuy
@Tony Jay: At least Liberace had style, in the sense of 110% Las Vegas, and his glittery outfits were made just for him. No pretense of masculinity whatsoever. What you saw was what you got, pure essence of Vegas.
T**** was always a cartoon of a mobbed-up businessman, with his 3-foot ties, atrociously tailored suit, and lifted shoes. The closest real-world analog to T**** was Biff Tanner in the Back to the Future movies.
T****’s cartoonishness was actually an effective cover for the depth of his psychosis.
oatler
@The Golux:
“This is my only line.”
Baud
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
Real men don’t ask for minimum wage.
mrmoshpotato
What kind of insecure motherfucker do you have to be to write a book called “Manhood?” Seriously! These fuckers…
mrmoshpotato
And what in Sam hell does this even mean?
mrmoshpotato
Totally!
JWR
@mrmoshpotato:
In a display of raw masculinity, he’s gonna show us his biceps.
Tony Jay
@ColoradoGuy:
That’s what I meant by ‘charisma’.
I was actually just talking to a friend yesterday about a related topic. Back when we were kids in the late 70s and early 80s the world of popular light-entertainment was literally awash with openly gay ‘men of fabulous campness’. Dick Emery. Larry Grayson. Duncan Norvelle. On a Saturday night you couldn’t move for all the arched eyebrows and obvious non sequiturs.
Same with Liberace over there. I mean, how gay is too gay? But he was huge. Probably one of the most famous Americans of all time.
It’s funny how these days the simple fact that the open, obvious gayness is no longer something to be winked at but never mentioned is such a MASSIVE SOCIETAL PROBLEM for certain people. I guess it’s no longer cosy family entertainment when the poofs step out of their “it’s awful, but I like it” lane.
JWR
From Politico:
I guess the only question now is whether or not Sinema’s willing to be the lone holdout. Grijalva says that, politically speaking, she has no choice, but how sure can he be that she’s not gonna flip the bird at a constituency that’s likely to do the same to her in 2024? Sure, she has a choice. A good choice, and a bad choice. Too bad we can’t feel reassured that she’ll support Dem priorities, but I guess that’s just what a Centrist does. She’s Mavericky, doncha know?
Tony Jay
@mrmoshpotato:
It means he’ll show it to you if you promise to vote for him.
HumboldtBlue
I bet Josh loves gladiator movies.
Amir Khalid
@Tony Jay:
I remember reading somewhere that Liberace once sued a British newspaper columnist for merely hinting that he, Liberace, was gay — and was awarded damages.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Alison Rose 💙🌻💛: thank you for saying it much better than I could. While I am enjoying the hell out of watching Harley get dragged, I am really depressed that a lot of the jokes and insults have to do with saying he likes things that are traditionally coded as feminine. Which according to society (still) is weaker, emotional, likes shopping and makeup and reading romance novels.
call him a coward or a hypocrite. But I am tired of the “run away like a scared little girl” comparisons. My niece was a combat medic for eight years. She likes makeup, shopping, video games and romance novels. She is five foot nothing. And she knows about 12 ways to kill a person in hand to hand combat. Can we fucking retire the Pusey, wussy, whiny bitch flavor of insults. I’m fucking done with it.
Baud
@JWR:
Whatever she does, she’ll milk it for the drama. Don’t expect an answer before the vote happens.
lowtechcyclist
I didn’t really ‘grow up,’ so to speak, until I was in my late 20s. Sure, I was long gone from my parents’ house, paying my own rent and bills, but basically drifting until I finally realized I just couldn’t do that anymore. I used to joke that I got my mid-life crisis out of the way when I was 27-28 years old.
I came out of that period, though, with some thoughts about what it meant to be a man. Stuff like making your own way in the world, and doing what you could for those around you – a helping hand, a listening ear, an encouraging word.
Then I realized that none of that was gender-specific in the least, and I decided I was fine with that.
Josh Hawley has been far from the only wingnut to go on about manhood and masculinity in the past few years. But it’s brought back all those thoughts I had about manhood from four decades back, that turned out not to be about masculinity at all, but really about being an adult, a grownup, generally.
So I’m kinda curious what virtues they define as masculine that don’t apply equally well to anyone. Unless they’re basically telling women that they shouldn’t have to run their own lives, they should let a man do that for them, in which case fuck that noise.
I don’t even think that would really fly with conservative evangelical women. From what I see of their world, there are plenty of responsible men, but also a fair number of men who are totally unreliable and undependable. They can see in their own world that a woman has to be able to look after herself. Hell, herself and her children, without the help of the man who sired them. So Hawley and all those others can take their masculinity bullshit and shove it up their nether orifice.
Baud
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone:
I read through the comments here and I’m not sure which one you’re referring to.
Barbara
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Apparently when Hawley introduced this theme at a speech, many women in the audience were unimpressed. Not liberals like us, but religious conservative types. Maybe it appeals as a slogan but the details rankle. Gaming isn’t masculine? What universe is he living in?
Share your disdain for using symbols of the feminine and/or gay as proxies for being weak or bad.
Barbara
@lowtechcyclist: I assume that the subtext here is that Josh Hawley is the guy who will reinforce that there are different genders with different roles in life.
Geminid
. Voters in Hawley’s state will pick their Senate nominees Tuesday, and a SurveyAmerica poll shows Hawley-endorsed Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler in 3rd place. State Attorney General Eric Scmidt leads with 28%, disgraced former Governor Eric Greitens has 20%, Hartzler 14%, and Congressman Buddy Long trails with 8%. 44% of likely primary voters say a trump endorsement would influence them to vote for a candidate.
On the Democratic side, philanthropist and former RN Trudy Busch Valentine leads former Marine lawyer Lucas Kuntz 40%-14%. General election matchups show Schmitt leading Valentine 36%-30%, while Valentine polls a point behind Hartzler and even with Greitens. Former U.S. Attorney and J6 Commitee investigator John Wood is running as an Independent and pulls in 9-10%.
The survey was conducted July 24-27 and polled 1981 registered voters.
MattF
I bet his book has pronouns, which makes it unacceptable. Speaking of which, a RWNJ claimed that the Constitution doesn’t have pronouns… which is true… except for the first word.
Tony G
In a rational world, Hawley would now be attracting so much ridicule that his political career would be over and he’d have to find another way to make money. In this world, however, tens of millions of Americans look up to Donald Trump — a pampered rich boy who has no “masculine” virtues, no “masculine” appearance, and no virtues at all — as a “tough” and “manly” hero. So Hawley will probably be fine, and he’ll probably gain some advantage by whining about those mean libtards who are trying to “cancel” him.
Soprano2
@Geminid: I’m surprised Valentine is that far ahead of Kunce; she’s from St. Louis, so that helps her. I’ve been seeing attack ads by both of them the past week. On the Republican side who knows, if TFG makes a last- minute endorsement that will make a difference. We already know he won’t endorse Hartzler. Schmitt has spent a lot of time attacking public schools by suing them for all kinds of things. CRT, guns, crime, transpeople and immigration are in all their ads obsessively. Their ads continue to be silly.
PST
There is an depressing article in The Atlantic about the use of masculinity in gun advertising to create and radicalize a new breed of customer who will buy and buy and buy. One quotation:
VOR
@ColoradoGuy: The trivia for the film Back to the Future Part II at IMDB says Biff Tannen in that movie WAS based on Trump.
MattF
Recall that one of Putin’s favorite routines was to display his manly manliness. It’s not politically innocent.
PST
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone:
Amen. I’d love to see fewer genital metaphors in serious discussions of issues and public figures. If I never again hear, “She’s got more balls than any of the guys,” it’ll be too soon, likewise making compensatory dick length jokes a feature of gun safety debate. It’s tired tired tired tired tired.
Feathers
@Tony Jay: It’s not just the gays. A similar case can be made for the fact that the Hollywood production code fell at roughly the same time as the civil rights movement, the Vietnam war protests, and also shortly after the introduction of the Pill and just before Roe v Wade. The Code placed severe restrictions on what could be depicted in movies, banning material that offended Catholic sensibilities. It probably wasn’t terribly dangerous at the time, because most people realized the movies didn’t reflect real life. But for the next generation, whose idea of the past was shaped by the stories they saw on screen, this all white, all law abiding, women as devoted homemakers fantasy past where none of the “terrible” things of today happened was the “real” past. It’s undoubtedly a big part of the reason why people seem to think there was no abortion before Roe v Wade, no gays before Stonewall, no sex before the pill, and all wars were righteous, fought by valiant men.
Antonius
OT, but this righteous rage from Jon Stewart over the failure of the PACT act in the Senate is not to be missed. Every second of the 9:34 clip is worth listening to: https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1552683287243546626
lowtechcyclist
@Barbara:
Oh sure, but unless he can get all those ne’er-do-well guys to shape up (fat chance!), the whole thing breaks down real fast in practice.
Geminid
@Soprano2: Trump’s risk-averse so he’ll probably endorse Schmitt and claim a win. Not sure why Kunce isn’t doing better, but I read that Valentine has spent a couple million dollars on advertising. The race has heated up in the Twittersphere, with Krystal Ball and Cenk Uygur throwing their weight behind Kunce and drawing a fierce backlash, but I wouldn’t hold that against either candidate. If Schmitt wins he’ll be tough to beat it sounds.
The MO CD-1 race between Rep. Cori Busch and state Senator Steve Roberts could be close. Roberts has former Congressman Lacy Clay’s endorsement, plus slick TV ads and the money to run them. A very ambitious man.
AM in NC
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: All this. Reifying that everything “feminine” is bad (especially when applied to men) is a problem that is still all too common, even among women.
I also hate the word “pussy” being used as a synonym for weakness. Show me something that is stronger, more flexible and more resilient than this body part that can accommodate birthing a motherfucking baby and then snap back into place just like that. Calling someone a pussy should be a badge of honor.
Now you want to see a weak body part, where accidentally tapping it can put the bearer on his knees? Every dude has ’em. But we use “dick” as a synonym for asshole – someone who is a jerk, but with implied strength and power. And we use “balls” as a direct synonym for guts and strength.
So tired of scared weak men and scared weak women denigrating women and “female” characteristics and exalting violent, stupid, thoughtless, uncaring “manhood” as the ultimate in human character.
Another Scott
@JWR: It worked so well for Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver. Conservatives always recycle “ideas”.
Cheers,
Scott.
JWR
I just google image searched the “Man Card”, and below is the text on one of them:
It includes a description of the manly powers of your Man Card:
What do I need with a stupid gun when the card accomplishes the same thing?
Suzanne
Josh Hawley is just trying to target the Jordan Peterson cohort. Yawn.
Can I say that those slim suits that were trendy for a while — and Hawley still wears, I think — have a European look to them? I don’t know if I like them or not. I feel like they’re very hit or miss. I really don’t like them with a red tie. Terrible.
I don’t know why incels can’t figure it out: what women like it not very complicated.
Baud
@JWR:
Because they’re too busy laughing at you.
Geminid
@PST: I never understood why people use “balls” to denote courage when “guts” is so much better. Maybe its from watching crime shows, talking about toughness the way the tough guys do
Baud
@Geminid:
Guts is too WWII. Old fashioned.
Balls is something you used to not be able to say on TV. Bold!
Antonius
Given the number of mass shootings, I’d say young American White men are not spending anywhere near enough time on video games and porn.
NotMax
@MattF
Except it’s not Selected snippets (emphasis added).
And so on, and so on, and so on.
chrome agnomen
@AM in NC: I don’t disagree with any of this, but I think acknowledgement must be made that pussy usually is shorthand for pussycat, not a reference to female anatomy.
Suzanne
@AM in NC:
I don’t know why we can’t all be just whole people with a range of interests and activities, and stop fucken worrying about the whole thing.
I do yoga and enjoy skincare. I will also kick your ass at Mario Kart.
Antonius
@The Golux: Not that there’s anything wrong with that :)
Dorothy A. Winsor
The need to perform their masculinity suggests doubt. No wonder LGBTQ stuff makes these people break out in a sweat.
MattF
@NotMax: Oop. I need to wake up.
L Boom
@Amir Khalid: Can’t forget Paul Lynde and Charles Nelson Reilly in the States in the 70’s, either. I also remember hearing rumors that the Village People were gay as a kid growing up in the Bible Belt. Huh. Ya think?
Uncle Cosmo
The sum total of what Lord Haw-Hawley knows about “manhood” can be written on the head of a pin with a paint roller.
Robin Goodfellow
@Baud: I agree, it struck me as being a little “concern trollish” whatever happened to “heighten the contradictions”? If you don’t exploit your opponents weaknesses then you are giving up an advantage, something your opponents would never do for you.
The Hawling Man meme is never going away, what the poster is suggesting is unrealistic.
On a unrelated note, most of the medics I knew in the Army, really didn’t obsess on being able to kill people 12 different ways in hand to hand combat. They were more of the “first do no harm” type. I guess 9-11 really did change everything.
Tony Jay
@Amir Khalid:
That both rings a bell and drops my jaw. Really? Really, Your Honour?
@Feathers:
Is that the Hays Code? I once read a tight little short-story that took a turn from the world we know when Fatty Arbuckle’s car breaks down on the way to the party where Virginia Rappé died of complications from a botched abortion, avoiding the straw-breaking scandal that finally convinced Hays to take up the role of independent censor like the studio chiefs – who feared some kind of regulation was coming, and didn’t want it to be imposed by federal law – had been asking him to.
No Hays Code, Hollywood steadily gets raunchier, one thing leads to another and, well, Gone With The Wind is a very different film
JaneE
I wonder if anyone has told Hawley that supporting polluter friendly legislation and policies was the wrong thing to do if you want to get endocrine disrupters out of your gonads.
HinTN
@Adam L Silverman: They stand up on their own?
HinTN
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: He got sap on his sweater. He said so!
(TBogg is the best!)
Salty Sam
My step-father has bookshelves full of this dreck. Yeah, he’s an asshole.
Ken
The mention of negging reminded me of this XKCD. I would not be surprised if Hawley has been in this situation once or twice, or ten times because he strikes me as incapable of learning.
Jinchi
Between Josh Hawley’s “Manhood” and Tucker Carlson’s testical tanning, I’m starting to think there’s an unspoken subtext to the far right wing’s ideology.
Paul in KY
He looks like one of Warren Jeff’s ‘love’ children. Could get movie roles as ‘Creeper #2’.
Paul in KY
@Amir Khalid: Anyone who ‘gifted’ me one of those books would then be on my shit list.
Paul in KY
@Lacuna Synecdoche: That pretty much summs it up!
stinger
For me, scrolling through the OP, the “of course” moment was seeing the Regnery imprint on the Cover To Be Revealed.
ETA: Or what Adam said @ comment 11.
Paul in KY
@ColoradoGuy: At least Biff read that book on all the Sporting results for last 50 years…
Paul in KY
@Tony Jay: Paul Lynde was funny as hell and proudly queer as a $3 bill. I miss him, great comedian.
Paul in KY
@HumboldtBlue: His favourite movie is 300
redoubtagain
Iron Josh, The White Man On A White Horse: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth374/
Benno
@Baud:
This. Except you can now, so maybe we can all just agree to go back to guts/gutsy
stinger
@Paul in KY: You might enjoy this. Start at 40:00, or 2-3 minutes earlier for context. Five minutes of forgetting lines and breaking each other up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnaMepEMi00
Mike in NC
The world didn’t need another ‘book’ by the fascist Regnery Press.
Paul in KY
@stinger: Thanks! Some of the funnier bits are when they ad lib & crack each other up. When I was a kid, The Carol Burnette show was mustsee TV.
tam1MI
This is not true and an example of the many misogynistic smears about Ms. Rappe that cropped up after her death, and that have been accepted far too credulously for far too long. Just because a corrupt DA went on a legal rampage against Fatty Arbuckle doesn’t make Virginia Rappe a whore. I would recommend the book ROOM 1219 by Greg Merritt as an excellent read that debunks many of the myths surrounding the scandal and gets the facts straight.
J R in WV
@Tony Jay:
But also without the “great wardrobe” Liberace wore…
When I was just a kid and saw Liberace on TV I didn’t understand his schtick at all, but now that I’m a man… whoo boy!
Kevin
The Republican candidates on MO ballot are disturbing at best. I am frankly embarrassed any Democrat opposing them is not a shoo-in. Schmitt sued school districts trying to keep kids safe and had more than one trip to go worship Trump in Florida. Greitens should be in jail. Still holding out hope we can pull off a win but it ain’t looking good.
jnfr
@Alison Rose 💙🌻💛:
Yes, and thank you.
emmyelle
In fairness, I don’t think they are actually “doing nothing” when they are watching porn on the internet.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@tam1MI: maybe a dead thread, but…. are you familiar with a novel called I, Fatty ? I just heard an interview with the author. He didn’t talk about the novel, really, but it sounded intriguing to me.
@J R in WV:
ETA: D’OH! That’s what I get for starting a thread form the end up
tam1MI
No, I have never come across it. Thanks for putting this on my radar, I’ll look it up!
Hoosierspud
@Jager: Oh, yeah. Good catch. I later remembered that he also wears a girdle.