But first, let’s clear up a few things…
“He’s not strong and self-controlled, not cool and tough, not low-key and determined; he’s whiny, weepy and self-pitying. He throws himself, sobbing, on the body politic. He’s a drama queen.”
“Half the president’s tweets show utter weakness. They are plaintive, shrill little cries, usually just after dawn.”
“It is that he undermines himself almost daily by ignoring traditional norms and forms of American masculinity.”
“His public brutalizing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions isn’t strong, cool and deadly; it’s limp, lame and blubbery.”
“The way American men used to like seeing themselves, the template they most admired, was the strong silent type celebrated in classic mid-20th century films—Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Henry Fonda.”
“His (Woody Allen’s) characters couldn’t stop talking about their emotions, their resentments and needs. They were self-justifying as they acted out their cowardice and anger.”
“We close with the observation that it’s all nonstop drama and queen-for-a-day inside this hothouse of a White House.”
- RussiaGate
- ScaramucciGate
- PriebusGate
- The military trans* ban
- Jeff Sessions
- Jarivanka
- Inciting police violence
- Delivering a lewd speech to the Boy Scouts
And that’s just this week.
So why roll out dated sexist tropes to make Trump look weak, by characterizing him with “feminine” traits (whiny, weepy, shrill), calling him a “drama queen“, and describing him with gender-loaded terms like limp, weak, sobbing, and plaintive so as to question his manhood?
Haven’t we moved beyond the lazy sexist thinking that uses “feminine” qualities to connote weakness, and associates “masculine” characteristics with strength?
Especially after the events of the past 48 hours–during which we’ve seen the leadership and courage of women like Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Maine Senator Susan Collins blunt Trump’s attempts to destroy our country’s health care system–it’s way past time to recognize that one’s strength is best demonstrated by what’s between your ears, not by what’s between your legs.
We expect this kind of behavior from Trump. Let’s not sink to his level as we work to resist his agenda.
