When is a man a man? And how male does a president have to be? America is currently arguing about this. The answers to this could decide the election in November.
During the election campaign, Donald Trump allows himself to be revered as the embodiment of masculinity and strength.
Aristide Economopoulos / Bloomberg / Getty
Since Bill Clinton, the following has been true in the USA: “It’s the economy, stupid!” The hard issues decide contested presidential elections, or so the conventional wisdom goes. Voters are therefore listening to their wallets. And its level is determined by bare numbers: figures on inflation, unemployment or stock market prices. But right now America is primarily discussing masculinity. “It’s the gender, stupid!” seems to be the motto.
Even before Kamala Harris became the Democratic candidate and took on a caring father figure in Tim Walz as her deputy, Donald Trump celebrated himself as an invincible warrior. Trump’s advisers quit before the Republican convention focus on one core message: “weak versus strong”. In an interview in December Trump said of Joe Biden: “If I blew, he would fall over.”
Donald Trump, the superhero
For years, Trump has been portrayed as an over-masculine muscleman and superhero on T-shirts and other fan merchandise. Then came the failed assassination attempt on Trump on July 13 in Pennsylvania. After a shot grazed his ear, the former president only fell briefly to the ground. Undaunted, he stood up again. With blood on his face and a raised fist, he chanted: “Fight, fight, fight!” The hero myth created by marketing suddenly seemed very real.
The following week, the testosterone hype continued at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Before Trump’s big speech, a certain type of men made the big show on stage. Dana White, the CEO of a martial arts promoter, appeared and said about Trump: “My business is about strong guys. And this man is the strongest, most resilient person I have ever met in my life.” Aged wrestling star Hulk Hogan ripped his T-shirt and shouted: “Let Trumpmania run wild, bro.” To blaring guitars, singer Kid Rock rapped a version of his song “American Bad Ass” – an anthem for tough guys.
On top of that, Trump made Senator J. D. Vance, a man with a beard, his vice president. He is the first “running mate” with a hairy face since Charles Curtis almost a hundred years ago. In interviews, Vance repeatedly made disparaging comments towards childless women. Among other things, he had the idea that they should have fewer co-determination rights because they did not invest in the future of the country.
Trump’s indictment as a possible criminal in Georgia is being celebrated by his supporters as a sign of respect.
Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
Insecure young men targeted
Trump may not have liked everything Vance said about women. Nevertheless, he and his campaign team seem to be a conscious strategy to pursue: Above all, they want to win over young men. According to Gallup polls Only 25 percent of American men under the age of thirty describe themselves as politically left-wing and 29 percent as conservative. Among women in the same age group, however, 40 percent are left-wing and only 21 percent describe themselves as conservative. Trump and his advisors see particular potential in disappointed men who see themselves as losers from increasing equality between the sexes. “There is confusion among young men about where they belong and what it means to be a man,” said pollster Daniel Cox recently in an intervieww.
The Survey Center on American Life, led by Cox, published a study in 2023. According to this, young men in the USA feel uncomfortable because of their gender increasingly discriminated against. Richard Reeves, the founder of the Institute for Boys and Men, attributes the masculine meaning crisis to a change in the job market, which now demands more “brains instead of brawn”. In this changed competition, women are doing better. A full 61 percent of master’s graduates at American universities are women. One Pew Center survey asked this year for opinion on the following statement: “Women’s progress in society has come at the expense of men.” A total of 40 percent of Trump supporters under the age of fifty shared this opinion.
Trump is trying to reach this group of voters by conducting interviews with influencers who are popular with young men. He recently spoke to Adin Ross. He became famous for filming himself playing video games. Self-proclaimed sexist and misogynist Andrew Tate was also a guest on his previous shows. The internet platform Twitch banned Ross because of anti-gay statements and other problematic content in his streams. Meanwhile, Ross has an audience of 2.5 million followers on the short message service X. For the interview, Ross brought the former president two men’s dreams as a gift: a Rolex and a Tesla Cybertruck in Trump design.
The Nelk Boys Trump granted two interviews, played golf with them and took them in 2020 on Air Force One. The YouTube stars are known for their videos of crude, sometimes infantile pranks and wild parties. During the Democratic National Convention in August, the Boys filmed themselves watching Kamala Harris’ speech. One of them took a large sledgehammer and smashed the large flat screen. They wrote about it on X: “Kamala Harris will never be my president.”
A caring father figure for the Democrats
The Democrats also celebrated masculinity at their party conference. However, a completely different form of it. With Tim Walz, Kamala Harris did not choose a tough superhero as her “running mate” who wants to save the world alone. Walz is also a hunter, a gun owner and a former National Guard officer. But in the former football coach she chose above all a caring team player who spoke openly at the party conference about the difficulties of having children with his wife. The media now calls Walz “everyone’s dad” – a father figure that every child would want. During the election campaign, Walz repeatedly repeats this sentence about Trump: “He doesn’t trust women, and they certainly don’t trust him.” Walz presents himself as a womanizer, not a womanizer like Trump.
Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, emphasized how much his wife had helped him: “Kamala Harris was exactly the right person at an important moment in my life. And at this moment in our country’s history, she is exactly the right president.” But he also assured that Harris could definitely hold her own in the White House: “She is a happy warrior. And even happy warriors are still warriors.” Harris is as “strong” as he can be and never runs away from a fight.
Trump, on the other hand, talks down Harris. Foreign leaders treat her like a “toy,” he said in an interview. “They will ignore them completely.” Trump did not want to explain why he thinks this way. But Wall Street Journal journalist Molly Ball said: “Is he alluding to the fact that she’s a woman? He doesn’t say that. But a lot of people will hear that with comments like that.”
Donald Trump is celebrated by young men at an election rally.
Evan Vucci / AP
The party of women versus the party of men
Partisan polarization in the gender debate is not new in the United States. But it is obviously coming to a head in this election. “The Democrats are trying to win as the party of women, the Republicans are trying to win as the party of men,” Richard told Reeves the news portal “Axios”. The gender gap is correspondingly large. According to a current Suffolk University survey 57 percent of women want to vote for Harris and only 36 percent for Trump. Among men, Trump leads with 51 percent, Harris has 38 percent.
The race for the White House is therefore referred to in the USA as a “boys versus girls election”. With his bet on the boys, Trump seems to be taking a big risk: women are on the American electoral register usually in the majorityfour years ago there were 10 million more. In addition, female voter turnout is higher. In the 2020 elections it was 68.4 percent, while that of men was 65 percent.
The fight for the right to abortion is also an issue that mobilizes women particularly strongly. Kamala Harris also seems to be closing the gap among young voters. Traditionally, Americans under the age of thirty voted overwhelmingly for the Democrats. But when Biden was still the presumptive presidential candidate in the spring, his lead over Trump among young men was just 5 percentage points. According to a new poll from Harvard University, Harris could now expand this lead to 17 percentage points. For young women, however, their advantage is 47 percentage points.
In the end, Joe Biden might be right. In his speech at the Democratic Party Convention, the President said with a view to the upcoming election: “Donald Trump will get to know the power of women.”
