The quiet, assured males of American politics

Jul 24, 2024
That is an version of The Atlantic Day by day, a publication that guides you thru the largest tales of the day, helps you uncover new concepts, and recommends the most effective in tradition. Join it right here.The boys main Kamala Harris’s shortlist proper now illustrate the variations in how the 2 main events outline fashionable masculinity.First, listed here are three new tales from The Atlantic:“Who the Actual Males Are”America after World Struggle II celebrated conventional masculinity. It honored photos of the robust, silent sorts in fashionable tradition, characters who exuded confidence with out being braggarts and who despatched the message that being an honorable man meant doing all your job, being good to your loved ones, and conserving your emotions to your self. Heroes in that postwar tradition have been cowboys, troopers, cops, and different robust guys.Republicans, particularly, admired the actors who performed these function fashions, together with Clint Eastwood, Robert Mitchum, John Wayne, and, after all, Ronald Reagan, who turned artwork into actuality after he was shot: He apologized to his spouse for forgetting to duck and kidded together with his surgeons about whether or not they have been all Republicans earlier than they dug a bullet out of him.After the Sixties, the GOP outlined itself as a guardian of this stoic manliness in opposition to the putative femininity of Democratic males. (Keep in mind, by this level, Democrats reminiscent of Reagan had already defected to the Republicans.) Democrats have been guys who, in Republican eyes, regarded like John Lennon, with ponytails and glasses and wrinkled linen shirts. To them, Democratic males weren’t males; they have been boys who tore up their draft playing cards and cried and shouted and marched and shared their interior emotions—all of that icky stuff that actual males don’t do.These liberal males...

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