OPINION EXCHANGE | Are the Taliban really that different from us?
The rise (and respectability) of fragile masculinity in the U.S.
startribune.com
Recent news reports have been full of stories about the vicious, male-oriented Taliban on the verge of taking power in Afghanistan. The Taliban exert their masculinity-on-steroids by having full beards, carrying heavy weapons and relegating women to a subservient role. Historical facts, science, democracy, shaving and public education are a no-go. We bask in the thought that we Americans are nothing like that.
But are we really that different with the fragile masculinity that seems to dictate what goes on in America's cultural debate these days? It is defined at ScienceDirect as "anxiety felt by men who believe they are falling short of the cultural standard of manhood. It can motivate compensatory attitudes/behaviors to restore the threatened standards of manhood." Violent road rage is but one example; gun buying and the public display of weapons is another.
For many years, fragile masculinity confined itself to theatrical displays. Owning a mud-spattered SUV with fat tires and dressing in tactical clothes was acceptable; these actions are what a Texas cattleman would call "all hat but no cattle."
It was uncool to be a bigot publicly until Donald Trump became president; now Mexicans, gays, Asians, immigrants, Muslims and Blacks are insulted and demonized often. Wearing a mask and getting vaccinated was not macho. America was changing; the Trump base's fragile masculinity could not keep up and handle it. Veteran and insightful TV hands, like Trump and Fox News, knew how to play up to this: Act tough and talk tough. No room for President Teddy Roosevelt's policy "to speak softly but carry a big stick."
Trump's best attack line, which really stirred up fragile masculinity, was that Hillary Clinton, an educated and reviled woman, was going to take all the guns away overnight (all 800 million of them and counting) if elected. Nowadays women like Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris and AOC are their foils. Who cares about Bernie Sanders? Chuck Schumer?
Finally, all the bigotry that Trump spouted resulted in a march in Charlottesville, Va., by a variety of conservative groups in 2017, including the KKK, Proud Boys and Nazis, where one person was killed. Yet Trump proclaimed many of them to be "fine people." Then we had the riots on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 this year in an attempt to overturn Trump's defeat; five people died and 500-plus people have been arrested. Most of the men at the riot were clad in tactical gear, armed with chemical irritant sprays and waving Trump flags. They used U.S.-flag-adorned poles as weapons, caused $30 million in damage and yelled that Vice President Mike Pence should be strung up. Trump decreed that they were patriots.
But now the domestic threat is growing. Christopher Wray, the FBI director, said in a Newsweek interview in March that "white supremacy is the biggest terrorist threat in the country." In other words, let's worry about our own version of the Taliban instead of someone else's.
With Trump fading, other politicians — like Ted Cruz — have picked up the cause of fragile masculinity. As reported in the Washington Post on May 21, Cruz contrasted two recruitment ads: one of the Soviet military showing skin-headed soldiers doing pushups while an American ad told the story of a highly educated woman raised by two mothers. This, according to Cruz (who never served in the military), made U.S. soldiers appear as "pansies." So, did he not know today's wars are fought by F-18s, gunships, malwares and drones, not by soldiers in trenches?
OK, so name one real man. Let's try: former President Harry S. Truman. First, the frail Truman, who no one thought could be president, had a wonderful motto: "The buck stops here." If you make a mistake, fess up, not like today's politicians are wont to do. Then we have Truman's other actions: promoting the Marshall Plan after World War II to rebuild Europe, creating the Berlin airlift to stop the Russian blockade of that city, destroying the Japanese military with atomic bombs, promoting civil rights before it was fashionable, integrating the armed forces and firing the most popular figure of his time, Gen. Douglas MacArthur. As Truman said, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."
