Open Threads

As he swanned around the stage with a conspicuous bandage on his ear owwie and the unearned confidence of a rich old man who has never once earned an honest dollar nor been held accountable for anything, ever, Donald Trump’s sound track was “It’s a Man’s World.” The musical selection was fitting (even if the artist didn’t deserve the association), as Abby Vesoulis explains in Mother Jones:

It wasn’t just a catchy tune. Throughout four 14-plus hour days reporting at the Republican confab in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the music’s lyrics underscored the prevailing attitude on gender norms among the scores of GOP convention-goers I interviewed, the litany of speeches I tuned into, and the half a dozen issue-focused meetings I attended as a member of the media.

From the UNC fraternity brothers who were honored on Wednesday for preventing, in their words, “a mob” of pro-Palestinian protesters from toppling an American flag on the Chapel Hill campus to famous wrestler [Hulk Hogan Terry Gene Bollea] ripping the shirt from his chest to reveal a TRUMP-VANCE logo in a striking display of machismo, it was men—and ideas on family structure that benefit them—that took center stage.

The Republican National Convention was a unique moment in time. Trump held a steady lead in the polls, and the campaign was mostly waged on his behalf by the media. He looked supremely confident as he smugly basked in the adoration of the assembled sycophants.

Not so much now! Kamala Harris’s ascension to the top of the ticket threw the orange fart cloud (and media) off his/its game. Her pick of Tim Walz also demonstrated another path men can choose — an incarnate rejection of the Trump-Vance brand of toxic masculinity.

I have no idea if Walz will influence broader culture beyond the initial excitement, but man, I hope he does. Because there are legions of confused young men out there. An alarming number are whiny, pallid incels who look like they’ve been raised on snails and sour milk, and they appear to be highly susceptible to hate politics. Maybe they need role models who aren’t adjudicated rapists and casually misogynistic pricks.

My own father is Walz’s (and my, and my sister’s) political opposite — a two-time Dump voter who will almost certainly cast a ballot for the orange shit-stain again in November. He can be a pain in the ass. But as a human being, he’s closer to the Walz model of manhood than the Trump version, thank merciful dog.

Dad has old fashioned ideas about men and women’s roles. But he’s capable of love beyond self-love, and he wants to buy you a new set of tires because the tread on the current ones is unsafe.

My sister and I laughed over Walz’s state fair video with his daughter because Watz’s insistence that a turkey corndog was “vegetarian” reminded us of our dad. So do these online observations about Walz: [Source: WaPo]

“Tim Walz snuck a $20 in your back pocket because he’s worried you don’t have enough gas money to drive home,” read a representative social media post, one of hundreds (thousands?) of examples of the wholesome fan fiction that has sprung up since his Tuesday introduction to the national stage.

“Tim Walz beeps at you at a red light, motions for you to put your window down, and tells you that your right rear tire could use some air,” read another. Or: “Tim Walz has enough 10 mm sockets for everyone in the neighborhood.”

I don’t think Walz’s example of compassionate masculine virtue will sway Repubs like my father who live a similar creed, but just in general, it’s got to be useful to have a high-profile Democrat who comes across as such a regular guy.

The media (not just the hard-right media) relentlessly “feminizes” male Democrats (“Obambi,” Al Gore’s “earth tones,” etc.), but I don’t think that playbook will work on Walz. Good. As a nation, we need a detox.

Open thread.

Tim Walz’s Nontoxic MasculinityPost + Comments (131)