Nonilex
#TimWalz & #JDVance’s Battle Of The Dads
[or, at least for #Vance, #DaddyIssues]
Duelling visions of #fatherhood at the #VPdebate.
Despite the possibility of a #female #POTUS, #masculinity …[is at]…the center of the #2024election—a development both parties seem to have embraced.
#VPdebate #debate #USpol #sexism #ToxicMasculinity v. #TonicMasculinity
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/tim-walz-and-j-d-vances-battle-of-the-dads
Nonilex
He’s [dad is] a little goofy, while maintaining his authority. He’s not cool, but you wouldn’t want him to be. “Dad,” in such contexts, implies reliability with no pretense of novelty or vanity beyond a dash of self-awareness—“Dad” brings a sense of humor to the fundamentally conservative appeal of familiarity.
Perhaps no previous politician has taken up the mantle of Dad in quite the way #TimWalz has.
#VPdebate #debate #USpol #sexism #GenderRoles #ToxicMasculinity #TonicMasculinity
#masculinity
Nonilex
From late summer’s VP pageant of Democratic middle-aged American white men, #TimWalz emerged as an avatar of football-coaching, social-studies-teaching, father-figure affability, & this appeal helped carry him past arguably more strategic choices to a spot on the #Harris ticket. His affect, along w/his record as #Minnesota governor, made progressive policies look like a matter of folksy #CommonSense.
#VPdebate #debate #USpol #sexism #GenderRoles #ToxicMasculinity #TonicMasculinity #masculinity
Nonilex
One photo that circulated during his rise to national attention was taken after he’d signed a bill to provide free school breakfasts & lunches; around the governor’s shoulders, smiling children were piled like puppies. #TimWalz embodies a model of #nontoxic #masculinity the #Harris campaign has hoped to represent w/…[groups like]“#WhiteDudesForHarris”…. “
Nonilex
Richard Reeves, a fellow at the Brookings Institution & the president of the American Institute for Boys & Men, told [Molly Fischer] that he thought in recent decades the general understanding of a #mother’s role has grown more capacious, whereas the view of the #father’s role seems to have diminished. “You’re not the breadwinner, you’re not the provider, you’re probably not the protector in any kind of traditional sense,” Reeves explained.
#VPdebate #debate #USpol #GenderRoles
#TimWalz #JDVance
Nonilex
“So what are you? In some ways, I think the conversation about #fatherhood has become a bit more cramped & narrow & uncertain.” [Reeves cont]
That may be true in a sociological context, but in the realm of pop culture & style, the increasing ambiguity of “dad” has made it a handy floating signifier.Dad jokes, dad hats, dad shoes, dad bods, dad thrillers, dad rock, sad dads: to the extent that “dad” is a brand, dad is never bad.
#VPdebate #debate #USpol #GenderRoles #masculinity #TimWalz #JDVance
Nonilex
“The paradigm for this snug arrangement is familiar,” he wrote. “It’s the *traditional* American family. ‘Daddy’ locks the doors at night & brings home the bacon.” [again 🖕]
By the time Matthews was writing, it was an arrangement already in decline [TYVM]. From 1972 to 1992, the share of marriages in which a man was the sole provider had fallen from 49 to 23%, a shift that left open the question of how #fatherhood might evolve & be redefined.
Nonilex
This stylistic contrast promises to be especially sharp on Tues night, when #JDVance & #TimWalz meet in NY for the #VPdebate. And, even more than competing visions of #manhood, on view will be 2 very different ideas of what it means to be a #father: a battle of the dads, if you will.
In a country given to worshipful talk of #FoundingFathers, it’s not a new subject on the #political stage. Still, it has tended to be more conceptual than personal.
Nonilex
In 1991,…Chris Matthews, in a TNR column, proposed a dichotomy that has since become a cliché: the #Democrats were the “Mommy” party [🖕], responsible for the nurturing work of #healthcare, #education, & #SocialSecurity [those exclusively female concerns?], & #Republicans—the “Daddy” party—protected the country from criminals & foreign adversaries & kept a stern eye on the finances [soooo #sexist].
#VPdebate #debate #USpol #sexism #ToxicMasculinity
#TimWalz #JDVance #DaddyIssues #masculinity
Nonilex
The #Trump campaign has reveled in *camp masculinity* [#ToxicMasculinity] (as Ezra Klein called the RNC’s lineup of high-#testosterone speakers…); the #KamalaHarris campaign, meanwhile, has showcased “the nice men of the left” [or #TonicMasculinity] (as Rebecca Traister characterized a contingent of surrogates led by #DougEmhoff).
#VPdebate #debate #USpol #sexism
#TimWalz #JDVance #DaddyIssues #masculinity
GNU social JP is a social network, courtesy of GNU social JP管理人. It runs on GNU social, version 2.0.2-dev, available under the GNU Affero General Public License.
All GNU social JP content and data are available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.