Writes Michelle Cottle in The Daily Beast (erasing Cruz's Hispanicity and Christie's stomach surgery).
Despite the centrality of this image to the GOP, however, precious few of its high-profile players now are apt salesmen for the manly brand....
As for the current team ... Mitt Romney: too much of a doofus. Paul Ryan: ditto, despite the washboard abs. Eric Cantor: too twitchy (manly men do not visibly vibrate with nervous energy). Marco Rubio: too boyish. Jeb Bush: too soft and measured. With his retro Mad Men groove, John Boehner has the potential to be a Don Draper kind of manly man, but he’s too darn weepy.ADDED: I looked up "shit-kicking" in the (unlinkable) Oxford English Dictionary. It means, "In early use: worthless, contemptible. Later: designating or characteristic of an unsophisticated person from a rural area; (also) tough, belligerent; cf."
1953 J. Harvey Salt in our Wounds vi. 87 You low-life..shit-kicking..useless bastard.How does that relate in any way to Cruz?
1972 J. Thomson in J. Malley & H. Tokay Contemporaries 189 A beer drinkin finger poppin shit kickin red neck.
1978 Jrnl. Folklore Inst. 15 264 Shit-kicking villagers wearing whatever it is that villagers actually wear these days.
1987 W. Styron Tidewater Morning in Esquire Aug. 88/2, I, a shit-kicking Carolina yokel who, when I first met you, suspected you of being a neo-abolitionist.
1992 Playboy Nov. 111/1 He told me not to worry, in that shit-kicking drawl of his.
1998 Esquire May 42/1 This woman is one hot, shit-kicking feminist babe.
2002 L. Coady Strange Heaven i. 6 A pack of g.d. shit-kicking yahoos.
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43 comments:
I hate to admit it but Rand Paul is hitting all of the right notes these days, and he seems normal compared to the older Cult leader named Ron Paul who trained him in the close in fighting skills that the other GOP prima donnas have none of showing.
Manliness is not agreeing to lose to the Dems.
Rand Paul? Where's he on the GOP Manly Man Metric?
Whatever. The GOP is a Manly Man meme is rolled out to drive women and non-Manly men away so let's repeat it as often as possible!
Sure, one is a twangy Texan with that shit-kicking, boot-wearing thing going on (despite being a double-ivied, cosmopolitan kind of guy).
I don't know why people think this kind of thing is odd or fake. If you grow up somewhere, and then get a degree or hang out in a big city for a while, you are still the same person you always were, just with more experiences. You can have a twang, wear boots and being cosmopolitan and smart all at the same time.
I hear they've got factories of new young men-children, suckled on indie music, public school educations, and 'right' thinking.
You don't get California culture without California politics.
Time to conflate manliness and Republicanism, and start beating it mercilessly in public view.
". . . shit-kicking, boot-wearing thing going on (despite being a double-ivied, cosmopolitan kind of guy)."
DESPITE? Are media types such simpletons that their worldview is framed only in stereotypes?
What is old school manliness? This needs to be defined.
Mass media types are purchased.
They have well-paid phoney-baloney jobs and they know they can easily be replaced. Their influence has little to do with their abilities, its mainly a function of their positions.
And since the mass media has turned into a poor business, they don't expect to make money giving the public what it wants. They are taking money (being subsidized) by selling influence, indirectly. Thats where the money is. Thats why Carlos Slim saved the New York Times, thats why GE sells the services of NBC for political favors.
I hope Michelle Cottle understands the men in her life better than she understands Mad Men or Don Draper.
Rand Paul is not a physical stud, but he can slip in the verbal shiv better than most.
Are media types such simpletons that their worldview is framed only in stereotypes?
Yes. They have never been anywhere near the south or texas or any of those 'flyover' places. They are far more sheltered and more provincial than most of the people they criticize.
Next up on The Daily Beast: our panel of random Republicans opines on qualities Democratic candidates should strive for in 2016.
Old school manliness? Christie? What's the measurement? Volume displacement?
Oh, fucking spare me!
Christie is a sell-out!
Romney wasn't and I suspect much less a doofus than Ms Cottle.
In Texas, hicks are someimtes called "shit-kickers," or more briefly, "kickers."
It's amazing how Republicans are always under such scrutiny - over every little personality tick.
Yet, the pro-democrat hack media assert endlessly that Hillary! is faultless and flawless.
I equate shit-kicking with traditional country music.
"Rand Paul? Where's he on the GOP Manly Man Metric?"
If you believe as some people do that a man having a good looking girlfriend/wife shows a self confident man as in being a real man then Rand Paul qualifies. He has a very pretty wife.
Actually, Christie's physique is more reminiscent of Vito's than tony's.
How does "shit-kicking" apply to Cruz?
It is a backhand way of describing the people Cruz is kicking.
Shit-kickers.
Ted Cruz has got 'em worried.
So I guess Scott Walker doesn't even register on Cottle's man-radar? And is that because he's not manly at all, or because he's stealthy-manly?
Darrell Issa is the future Don Draper of politics.
Yes, let's allow the Daily Beast to define what's a good Republican.
I read a book yesterday that referred to cowboy boots as shit kickers. In this case they were actually steel toed shit kickers worn by someone who worked with horses.
I figured that the genuine barn yard/ranch aspect was part of it, as well as the implication of toughness. (On account of dealing with large and often belligerent animals.)
I've heard steel-toed boots called "shit-kickers."
As in "Oh, nice shit-kickers you're wearing."
I presumed this was because you could kick the shit out of someone while wearing them.
The opposite of a shit kicker is a metrosexual who throws like a girl.
Yeah, I'm thinking that it's something like red neck: A white guy who has a perpetual sun burn on account of working outdoors one way or another. It signifies lower-class labor and implies a lower level of education.
And I think a shit kicker is pretty much the same. Wearing work boots (of a cowboy variety) with steel toes because an animal weighing a ton or two is likely to step on your feet (on purpose.) So there's a practical barn yard aspect where one is, in fact, walking around in shit, can do the work and get things done, and (no matter how uncouth) is no one to mess with.
As opposed to being a poseur who is all hat and no cattle. (Or wears the boots but never steps in manure.)
These lefties wouldn't know a manly man if one bit them on the ass, or kicked it.
Speaking of this, my daughter (23) was out on her birthday with some friends. There were two guys, one of whom was at our house for her graduation party Saturday. Both guys are attending the Fire Academy in Tucson and hoping to get fire fighter jobs.
One of the guys started to beat up his girlfriend. He had been drinking and it was 2 AM. Annie yelled at him to stop and he began to threaten her. She locked herself in her car and dialed 911. The other guy took off. Maybe manly fire fighter was second choice at that point.
I was asleep and vaguely knew some commotion was going on as her mother's phone rang and she got up and (unknown to me) drove to pick up Annie. The cops came and arrested the guy. I guess his fire fighter career is on the ropes.
What wannabe fire fighter runs when another guy is beating up a girl friend, leaving another girl to call the cops?
I'm hearing/seeing 'shit kicker' used interchangabley with 'ass kicker' and I thnink that may be waht Ms. Cottle had in mind.
I'm hearing/seeing 'shit kicker' used interchangabley with 'ass kicker' and I thnink that may be waht Ms. Cottle had in mind.
She got her terms confused.
She meant ass-kicking, not shit-kicking. (Unless you equate Harry Reid with a pile of shit, in which case that would apply, too.)
AprilApple said...
It's amazing how Republicans are always under such scrutiny - over every little personality tick.
Yet, the pro-democrat hack media assert endlessly that Hillary! is faultless and flawless.
And that's not even mentioning President Mom Jeans and his manliness, or severe lack thereof.
I think the stud with the biggest pair is Sarah (play 'Boy Named Sue' in background).
I have seen Ted Cruz in person at a fund-raiser. I would not have used manly-man to describe him. I am a big fan, but physically, he came across as a bit of a slope-shouldered geek. The Marlboro Man he is not. However, as far as I am concerned, manly is as manly does.
Old school manliness? Christie? What's the measurement? Volume displacement?
Taft was totally old school.
Cruz is in no way a shit-kicker. It's a pejorative for the sort of Southerner that liberal Democrats abhor, and for the music said Southerners listen to.
There are a lot of strange definitions of Manliness out there. If you can't identify it immediately you haven't found it.
The last thing a real man would be concerned about is if he looks or acts manly.
Wow, did she ever pull that piece of crap out of her ass. She has no idea what's she's talking about, yet people pay her to write about it? How stupid is that?
In Texas, a shit kicker is a cowboy. It's a term of endearment. It is a guy who steps in cow shit on a ranch. Ted Cruz, though I like him, is not a shit kicker. He is much more comfortable cradling his red wine glass in the palm of his hand and regaling whoever will listen with stories about his arguments to the Supreme Court, or his days back at Harvard. On the other hand, despite his blue blood upbringing, George W is a true shit kicker.
I bought a pair of olive-green ankle boots with THE pointiest toes ever crafted, that go by the name: Cuban Shit-kickers.
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