Each day America wakes up with a little less sense of safety and security, a little less easement as we go about our daily activities, and a certain sentiment of loss for those that fall victim to acts of anger, acts of defiance, and acts of terror.
The identity of America, just days removed from confronting the horrific events of the Orlando Pulse massacre, faces the uneasy task of digesting the conflicting responses voiced by our current candidates for president.
Republican hopeful, Donald Trump, known for his extremely conservative, non-apologetic statements on the campaign trail and via social media, made sure not to miss an opportunity to push his hate filled anti-Muslim agenda, stating on Facebook:
“While I greatly appreciate everybody congratulating me for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don’t want congratulations, I want toughness and vigilance. We must finally be smart!”
Though almost anyone can look at this statement from “The Donald” and identify the obvious barrage of inherent fallacies within, an appraisal of the mindset required to elucidate such a proclamation reveals the sinister nature of Trump’s adherence to a masculine personality that is no longer productive in modern society.
This issue was brought to attention after writer and photographer, Michael H. D. Kline responded to Trump’s statement, writing:
“Toughness is reactionary and vigilance is a delusion; neither are preventative and both facilitate further aggression. Being smart is not building a wall of finger-pointing but preventing the gun from being loaded in the first place. Being intelligent would be attacking the mentality that feels the need to posses inappropriate firearms altogether. Trump continually trying to propagate a persona of traditional masculinity – regardless of its inherent ignorance and irrelevance to providing appropriate leadership – is like a tom strutting at a decoy hen over and over. Unfortunately any man congratulating him is doing the same thing.”
Over decades, women have fought hard to close the gap between the sexes. Feminism has become an ideal that is both personal and empowering for our society and the functionality of daily life. Our ability to make life choices in careers, economics, our own bodies, and many other aspects has changed the view of gender placement and responsibility in the daily lives of families and individuals in America.
Though this ever diminishing gap in gender roles has helped bring this country into a more equal and balanced mindset, something was neglected, potentially impeding and possibly reversing all that has been accomplished. While securing pertinent rights for women in this country, the nature of masculinity in society has largely gone unchecked, unrefined, and, regrettably, ignored.
In the article A Crisis of American Masculinity, Eric Garland explains the progression of masculinity through the centuries. He describes the transition of male role-models over time from one powerful figure to another, illuminating young men’s envy and mimicry of males who portray personas of strength, control, and, above all, power. In effect, while women blossom into the empowerment of gender equality, those of the male sex are left with the same gender identity and roles from centuries before. The result is a crisis of the masculine persona; Garland states:
“Consider that today’s America is a place of cradle to grave institutions. Our images draw a picture of man against the elements, man in his natural state using his wits, man as a strong-willed individual in a world of uncivilized chaos. The reality of living in America is being funneled into one sclerotic, outdated institution after another.”
We focused so much on closing the gender gap, we forgot to create an understanding of the ideals of masculinity with our young men that would both improve our functionality in America and raise a society of men that compliment and strengthen the diminishing gender gap, ultimately allowing the way we function to move in a more fluid and mature manner.
Young men in our country are growing up without a clear understanding that a man is more than just your 1950’s ideal bread winner; he must embody more than intelligence, dominance, and a sense of absolute control. This brings us back to Donald Trump, a man born and bred in a time of pater familias, a mindset based solely on the male perspective and gender inequality.
To lead this country takes more than a sense of war games and financial prowess, it is a position in which you are in control of influencing young minds throughout the world. Do we, as a nation, find it smart to put a man who sits in an outdated and dangerous bubble of masculinity in charge of growing our men into the future?
Regardless of the electoral outcome in November, gender equality will continue to close the gap between males and females; however, our young population of men is looking and searching for role models with an understanding of what it truly means to be a man in our evolving society.
Failing to find a sense of power in the hierarchies of education and employment, the minds of young men seek confirmation of their supposed power, a requirement of their sexuality, through the ability to inflict dominance, via violence, on innocent victims.
Ninety- eight percent of mass shootings and massacres in the United States are perpetrated by male culprits. When young men look to the President, should they see sexism, racism, and a man who could undo decades of progress? Electing a man who advocates the militancy of toughness and the fear driven monitoring of Muslim citizens embodies the same antiquated ideals of masculinity driving the 98 percent.
The next President of the United States needs to continue the progress we have worked so hard to obtain, not openly prompt its erosion. Although we have made great strides in the elimination of segregation and the evolution of equality for women, it remains to be seen whether our attention to the American man’s identity can mature in kind. How can we believe Donald Trump is that leader?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3exzMPT4nGI&feature=youtu.be
Featured Image via Michael Vadon on Flickr available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license.
