![]() ![]() Shortly thereafter, the President Tweeted: ![]() They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!” “The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. But the photos tweeted in recent weeks – of men hugging others with compassion, crying openly and acknowledging women and the LGBTQ community with respect and gratitude – remind us of one thing: This, too, is American masculinity.On January 8, 2021, President Donald J. So, even though the 2020 presidential campaign pitted two white, heterosexual men against each other, the election of Biden and Harris poses a challenge to how we envision the president and vice president.Īmerican masculinity has been subjected to well-deserved critique, and the negative effects of toxic masculinity are manifold and substantial. ![]() The serious point to be made is that the small ways that Jill Biden and Doug Emhoff will broaden our expectations of presidential and vice presidential spouses also expand the possibilities for who can run for the top jobs. And Doug Emhoff will be the first male spouse of a woman vice president, causing sometimes humorous confusion over what he should be called: second gentleman? second husband? vice dude? Jill Biden, however, might be the first presidential spouse to continue to work in her chosen profession – teaching at a community college – while serving as first lady. The ceremonial duties required of the president and first lady typically have required even career-focused political spouses to put their work on hold during their time in the White House. presidency historically has been a “ two-person career” in which the president’s family is supposed to represent an idealized version of the traditional American family, with the president/father as the head, the wife/first lady in a supporting role, and obedient children rounding out the picture. 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School:īiden’s and Harris’ approaches to gender roles in their personal lives also will expand what the president and vice president symbolize.Ĭommunication scholars have documented the ways in which the U.S. In the campaign’s final days, former White House videographer Arun Chaudhary tweeted a 2018 clip of Biden hugging and comforting the disabled son of Chris Hixon, the heroic teacher who died trying to save students during the mass shooting on Feb. To appreciate how far-reaching the implications are, however, consider a few more snapshots from the 2020 campaign. In the context of a global pandemic, these distinct leadership styles have life-and-death consequences. Biden derides Trump’s unwillingness to wear a mask as a silly “macho thing” and urges supporters to “take care of your neighbors” by masking up. Trump mocks Biden’s mask-wearing and flaunts his recovery from the virus as a sign of strength and manliness. Writing for The Washington Post, Matt Viser observed that Biden’s and Trump’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic reflect very different approaches to masculinity. The onset of COVID-19 offered a particularly sharp distinction between Trump’s and Biden’s leadership styles. Trump’s propensity to resist empathy, insult women and project dominance is well documented. It means that a particular version of masculinity – one that discourages empathy, expresses strength through dominance, normalizes violence against women and associates leadership with white patriarchy – is bad for people of all genders and for society more generally. “Toxic masculinity” does not mean that men are bad or that every version of masculinity is “toxic.” ![]() The phrase “ toxic masculinity” is often misunderstood. Different approaches to masculine leadership These differences not only reveal important insights about each campaign they also shape the roles of “president” and “vice president,” making it more or less likely that, in the future, those offices can be held by someone other than a heterosexual white man. The 2020 campaign gave voters an opportunity to compare and contrast how the two campaigns modeled gender roles differently. president, often promoting a “toxic” version of masculinity that Trump took to an extreme. These stereotypes also constrain the men who have served as U.S. ![]()
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