Is Masculinity On The Ballot?

When Hulk Hogan spoke at the Republican National Convention, it never occurred to me that he might be anything more than one of a handful of has-been celebrities who would show up for Trump. After all, it was Trump backer Peter Thiel who financed his suit against Gawker, and if nothing else, he owed Thiel a huge debt. Did anyone even know if Hulk Hogan, who no doubt deeply regrets turning down a chance at Dancing with the Stars as his tiny star faded to black, was still alive?

But David French suggests that he was on the dais as an exemplar of the Trumpian exemplar of masculinity.

If you ever wondered whether the Republican Party sees itself as the party of men, I’d invite you to rewatch the last night of the Republican National Convention. Prime time featured a rousing speech by the wrestling legend Hulk Hogan, a song by Kid Rock and a speech by Dana White, the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship — all as warm-up acts before Trump delivered his acceptance speech. Republican manliness was the capstone of the convention.

But what kind of men were featured? They’re all rich and powerful, and as a longtime fan of professional wrestling, I loved watching Hogan as a kid, but none of them are the kind of man I’d want my son to be.

I have my doubts as to how rich and powerful Hulk Hogan is, but if you asked me to choose whether I would prefer my kid be “rich and powerful” or “poor and weak,” I’m going to have to with the former. The good news is that isn’t the choice and never was. While it may well be that the Trumpian image of a manly man veers closer to Hogan than a morbidly obese old man with orange crepey skin and comb-over hair, there are lots of relatively normal guys who just like the entertainment of professional wrestling and see Hulk Hogan as a legend well past his prime. There’s nothing wrong with that.

But David uses the Hulk to make a point.

For a brief period last week, I thought Harris might answer the Trumpists with a man who puts to shame every person who took the stage that Thursday night. She was reportedly considering Adm. William McRaven — a Navy SEAL, a former commander of U.S. Special Operations Command and one of the key architects of Operation Neptune Spear, the mission to kill Osama bin Laden — as a potential running mate.

Perhaps the real purpose of the column wasn’t about Hulk Hogan at all, even though it enabled David to take a convenient swipe at Trump and his catless Robin, J.D. Vance. Rather, it was an opportunity to pitch a different version of masculinity, one that was reflected in a person whom David French clearly admired.

But I highlight McRaven for a reason; he has perfectly articulated how to attack MAGA masculinity. Ten years ago, he gave one of the most powerful commencement speeches in recent American history. He addressed the graduates of the University of Texas, Austin, and three YouTube versions have racked up more than 70 million views combined.

It’s known — oddly enough — as the “Make Your Bed” speech. While it wasn’t aimed only at men, every person who forwarded it to me was a man. It appealed to universal values, but it connected with men I know at a deep and profound level.

Ironically, “make your bed” was core advice from someone who never wore a uniform, Jordan Peterson. But I digest.

McRaven draws on his SEAL training to teach students how to change the world. It begins with the small things, like accomplishing that tiny first task of making your bed, because “if you can’t do the little things right, you’ll never be able to do the big things right.”

Each new principle is rooted in his experience, including “If you want to change the world, measure a person by the size of their heart, not by the size of their flippers.” Here’s one that’s particularly salient in the face of Trumpist bullying: “If you want to change the world, don’t back down from the sharks.”

This is certainly a far better example of masculinity than was pushed during the “toxic masculinity” years, when the only good man was a woman.

Many conservatives rightly decry the way in which parts of the far left tend to use the words “straight white male” as a virtual epithet, as if there were something inherently suspect in the identities of tens of millions of men and boys. And if men feel that Democrats are hostile to them, they’ll go where they feel wanted, the gender gap will become a gender canyon, and more men will embrace Trumpism because that’s just what men do.

So it’s not really about Hulk Hogan at all, but rather about the left wings demonization of “straight white males” as a racist, sexist, stereotype pushed by the empathetic and tolerant to either cow them to serve their new masters or force them out of the Democrat tent and into the Republican. By actively striving to alienate “straight white men,” or “white dudes” as the zoom call is framed, there is a gap on the left in desperate need of filling.

But let’s return for the moment to the Navy SEAL who served his country for decades, who helped kill one of America’s deadliest foes and who declared to American college graduates, “You must have compassion. You must ache for the poor and disenfranchised. You must fear for the vulnerable. You must weep for the ill and infirm. You must pray for those who are without hope. You must be kind to the less fortunate.”

When I heard those words, I thought: That’s the message American men need to hear. That’s a message the American people need to hear.

It’s a good message, and Adm. William McRaven is certainly a person with the right stuff to send it. But maybe neither political party should be telling any racial or sexual cohort what they should say, do or think to be the “right” kind of person. Maybe voting is about the candidate, and not about our being manly men at all.

6 thoughts on “Is Masculinity On The Ballot?

  1. Rojas

    I may be weird, but the title of Appellate Squawk’s essay “Are you a cissy?” popped into my head about three times as I read this.

  2. B. McLeod

    Wait. This thing’s not about masculinity, or religious affiliation, or who has children or cats?? I might have to stop relying on social media for my news.

  3. orthodoc

    David French has forgotten the “take seriously/take literally” distinction. Hulk Hogan (not Terry Bolea) spoke; Kid Rock (not Robert James Ritchie) sang. Hulk and Kid are characters! In fact, Mr Bolea in his Gawker suit famously gave graphic testimony about how he is [anatomically] distinct from Hulk Hogan.
    By contrast, the guys who get the French kiss, Messrs McRaven, Kelly, Hertling and Mattis are in real life trained killers with a non-zero body count.
    In some ways, the Hogan performance –classic promo bluster– articulates a foreign policy of deterrence through intimidation, a policy that kept us out of shooting wars in the first Trump administration. One might say it expresses a variation of the aphorism of Teddy Roosevelt, “speak loudly and carry a big stick”, but for that aforementioned testimony.

    1. Hal

      FWIW, Trump’s a caricature, err I mean character, too.

      A really sketchy character who bathes in Tang, lies incessantly, has small hands and carries a small stick.

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