This post is the fifth in “MAGA and Masculinity in 2024,” a series examining the social consequences of right-wing hypermasculinity — and the people who are combating its toxic message by positively redefining what it means to be a man are. You can read the first message here, the second here, the third here and the fourth here.
“I need someone with arms strong enough to endure the deep state yet gentle enough to give birth to his own grandchild.”
That creepy line comes from a video called “God Made Trump,” which Donald Trump has shared in the past and did so again on Wednesday. It’s essentially an ad that portrays the Republican presidential candidate as God’s gift to the earth.
As Phoebe Jones wrote earlier this year for California’s Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, the video — which plays to Paul Harvey’s “So God Made a Farmer” speech — shows how Trump and the Christian nationalist movement he is steeped in toxic ideas about masculinity:
While Harvey portrays the farmer as a humble steward of vital land, and as a quintessential neighbor and family figure, “God Made Trump” portrays Trump as a dominating messianic figure chosen by God to “fight the Marxists” and “ strong enough to fight the deep battle’. state.” The narrator compares Trump to a shepherd and the American people to a “flock” that Trump has come to earth to defend through divine ordination. Comparisons of Trump to a messiah who exemplifies hegemonic masculinity are not new, but this video is a recent high-profile and stark example of how this comparison is being used to get him re-elected.
At one point the ad literally says that God needed this a man who cares for the flock, as if to repeat God’s supposed preference. Trump has based some of his recent rhetoric on this kind of messianic masculinity.
And there are indications that all this is likely to appeal to Trump’s base, given the conservative movement’s evangelical beliefs and arcane ideas about masculinity and masculinity. A September Public Religion Research Institute survey examining the link between authoritarianism and Christian nationalism in the US found that nearly seven in 10 Republicans believe society has become too soft or too feminine.
The poll also found that Christian nationalist “supporters” or “sympathizers” were more likely than others to agree with these statements:
-
“In a truly Christian home, the husband is the head of the household and his wife submits to his leadership.”
-
“Society is better off when men and women stick to the jobs and tasks for which they are naturally suited.”
-
“The truest calling any woman can achieve in this life is to be a wife and mother.”
The current fiercely Christian conservative movement in the US has become a hyper-masculine personality cult with Trump at the helm. He has allowed Christian men to cloak their desires for domination and power in religiosity – and even sells Trump-branded Bibles.
And men in this movement have overcome their shamelessness, openly advocating misogynistic policies such as banning abortion and trying to end no-fault divorces (along with discouraging battered women from divorcing their partners). .
This hypermasculinization of the American church coincided with a perhaps predictable trend. As The New York Times reported last week:
For the first time in modern American history, young men are now more religious than their female peers. They attend services more often and identify as religious.
My suspicion is that this is a byproduct of MAGA masculinity pervading American Christianity – and displacing young women who, given the choice, don’t want to suffer.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
