October 25, 2020

The age-old shaming of men by likening them to women... and I know the built-in out is that the negativity is only in the reader's mind.

87 comments:

Paul said...

The 13th warrior...

Angus:"You dig like a dog!"
Herger the Joyous:"Did you call me a dog?"
Angus:"I said you dig like one. Flinging earth carelessly like an animal!"
Herger the Joyous:"So now I'm an animal?!"
Angus:"You're not listening."
Herger the Joyous:"I'm deaf?!"
Angus:"You're a fool little man!"
Herger the Joyous:"That is because boy, your words are feeble, and twisted as an old womans!"

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Trump has Rush Limbaugh's sense of humor. some guys that age think that it's funny.

Again -tho - perhaps this isn't your style. It's not mine. Style should take a back seat.

The democrats offer corruption and media treachery.

Spiros said...

Arnold Schwarzenegger had to disown "girlie man," one of his catch phrases, because it was both misogynistic and homophobic at the same time! He was part of the "Resistance" and then sort of disappeared.

mezzrow said...

I hope his Mom doesn't let him slide on this.

You've been a bad boy, Andrew.

You talk this way about your own mother? In public?

daskol said...

I bet his mom is a socialist mom.

Trashcan O Man said...

Obama and Bush killed over a million people and y'all masturbated.

Fernandinande said...

This is how my mom dances.

In front of thousands of people? She must be pretty popular!

Carol said...

well don't look now andrew but there are a ton of affectionate spoofs of trumpdance on tiktok.

Harsh Pencil said...

There is nothing wrong with making fun of men who act like women or making fun of women who act like men. It can be perfectly symmetric and is compatible with men and women having equal dignity and worth but being different from each other.

Maillard Reactionary said...

Men shouldn't act like women, and women don't like men who do. Thus, and properly, such behavior is deprecated.

This is controversial?

bagoh20 said...

Did your mom make three historic peace deals in the middle east in 6 weeks? At this rate Trump will bring total world peace by mid second term, but he would still be Hitler and bad dancer. Do you really want that for four more years?

buwaya said...

Men and women are different, not least in the reason they exist. And it must be understood also that humanity is a social, communal species. So

Men are expendable, and they should understand this, and should prepare for the implications. Their lives (and certainly their comfort and composure) are forfeit from the beginning. They are proper men if they deal with all that with grace and dignity.
A male ideal is to perform the Birkenhead drill, at need. There are no exceptions, no matter individual circumstances.

Women have a very different biological and so social role. They are not expendable. Nature has made it so they can and should demand certain privileges from men, and society. They must get on the lifeboats first, and must be kept away from the slaughter in the trenches.

A man who demands, even by implication, what can be seen as female privileges, is most certainly out of the man-club. He is saying that he will try force his way into the lifeboats. He is saying that he wont go over the top with the lads.

Ice Nine said...

>>Althouse:
"The age-old shaming of men by likening them to women..."<<

He knows someone who dorky dances like that. It happens to be his mom.

But yeah, you're right -- his whole motivation here was surely just to find a way to shit on women.

Kevin said...

His mom dances in front of 20,000 people?

Maillard Reactionary said...

Harsh Pencil: "...men and women having equal dignity and worth but being different from each other."

That is far too straightforward for this blog, my friend. We must leave space for counter-intuitive analysis, etymology digressions, and quirky takeaways. Try again, I'm sure you can manage it.

Jersey Fled said...

Women tend to be pretty good dancers. Maybe its a compliment.

Mattman26 said...

Wonder how his mom will dance when Trump gets re-elected.

Ann Althouse said...

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a man seeming womanly or a woman seeming manly and an utterly stupid amount of anguish and pain has been caused by people who think there is — including idiots who style themselves as progressive.

urpower said...

I wonder why mom doesn’t have a strikingly masculine dance.

alanc709 said...

Ever see the first pitch Obama threw out? You might think Trump dances like a girl, but Obama definitely threw like a girl.

bagoh20 said...

"There is absolutely nothing wrong with a man seeming womanly..."

That's what I said when they stopped me from entering the women's locker room. It's discrimination!

buwaya said...

Women who act like men, historically, aren't treated as less.
Especially if they do the most man-like things possible - run kingdoms or lead assaults by escalade.

Men at least treat them with great respect. And that is so even in the most gender-extreme cultures, where one finds cases of, well, perhaps its indulgence, but often there is a sort of awe.

There just aren't many of them.

There has to be some quirk of psychobiology in this.

Lurker21 said...

That's not necessarily entirely negative. Diet Coke seems to be doing well with the "Drink What Your Momma Gave You" campaign. That's probably directed at women, but "mom dancing" and "mom jeans" comments may be more generation-based than gender-based, and not wholly hostile -- maybe even a bit affectionate.

But we did have enough of this sort of attack with the "Obama gay" nonsense of the last decade to last us for the rest of the century. These are difficult times for the concept of masculinity. On the one hand, current generations aren't like those that conquered the West, landed on Guadalcanal or went to the moon. On the other hand, actual effeminacy seems to be on decline, even among gay men. So you have a chaotic situation where it's easy for some people to attack men for being womanish without much reason.

Mannish women? That's a whole 'nother question, that I'm not going to begin to answer.

mockturtle said...

In the old movie, Tea and Sympathy, Deborah Kerr's character was sympathetic to the plight of the young man mocked for unmanliness. So she seduced him.

Mary Beth said...

There's already a name for it - dad dancing.

buwaya said...

A womanly man is not in the "club". He can't be trusted to suffer or die as he should and when he should. That is my medieval brain speaking. Or its an older one.

Or, rather, we are too prone, on a superficial level, to disparage our inner primate.
There are good reasons to say that we cannot, ever, help hearing from our Australopithecine, because he (or she) is built-in, in hardware and firmware, and will never go away. We can call him names, pound him with rationality and logic, and, worst of all, make him unfashionable. But he still wont go.

Ho much modern unhappiness comes from this unwinnable conflict with essential nature?

Joe Smith said...

I think Trump was doing a kind of 'fun' dance....not at all serious.

But at least he wasn't wearing Obama mom jeans when he did it.

I wouldn't be surprised, given his background, that he could probably do a pretty mean waltz.

And he has been known to hand out at Studio 54 back in the day...not that he would give Travolta a run for his money.

Travolta should have won as Oscar for the role, btw.

Jupiter said...

To say that a man fights like a girl is to say that he can't fight. But obviously, dancing is not a peculiarly male activity. If anything, the opposite is true. I would say, that there is a masculine way to dance, and a feminine way, and I'm afraid I don't see anything feminine about Trump's rather restrained display. I guess Kaczynsky wants more stag leaps and jetes. C'mon, Man! Get some air!

Are you sure he's woman-shaming? Maybe he's old-shaming.

jim said...

Trump is just a great big girl.

Ice Nine said...

>>Ann Althouse said...
There is absolutely nothing wrong with a man seeming womanly or a woman seeming manly<<

"Absolutely wrong" - like murder, etc - well, of course not. "Odd" and worthy of humor or caricature now and then, as with any other peculiar thing - absolutely not wrong.

Professional lady said...

Maybe his Mom is a good dancer.

rcocean said...

Trump is out dancing to large crowds. 78 y/o senile Biden sits in his house with a mask on. Its incredible that the USA might elect Biden. Just incredible.

rcocean said...

Dancing has always been considered foppish and unmanly. Being a bad dancer is the mark of a real man. You know who really dances well? Gays and Gigolos.

Jupiter said...

"On the other hand, actual effeminacy seems to be on decline, even among gay men."

Really? I guess I need to get out more. Actually, the only recent data point I have agrees with your hypothesis. It had never crossed my mind that my last boss was homosexual until he "casually" mentioned his husband. Rather deft, that.

rcocean said...

You know who really loved to Dance? Stalin. He loved to get together with his cronies, have some vodka, and cut a rug. And then they'd go sign some death warrants. Good times.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

This is how my mom dances.

...and you live in her basement!

Trump- the first female president

Michael P said...

The proper complaint about that lackluster dance is not that Trump dances like a woman, but that he dances like a white person.

(I believe I am now obligated to write "fight me" to indicate that I recognize this is a contentious claim, which may be taken as trolling, but that I am trying to make an actual point.)

mockturtle said...

That is far too straightforward for this blog, my friend. We must leave space for counter-intuitive analysis, etymology digressions, and quirky takeaways. Try again, I'm sure you can manage it.

LOL! Thanks, Maillard! We needed that.

LA_Bob said...

I thought it interesting that Michelle could dance but Barack couldn't. Too much white in him or not enough beer.

holdfast said...

Do you all realize that the author of this tweet is quite literally a professional doxxer?

In any sensible world he would have been abandoned on an ice flow as polar bear chow years ago.

buwaya said...

There is that very famous incident -

Aixa Al-Hurra, mother-in-law of Mohammed XI of Granada (AKA Boabdil), was far more warlike than her son-in-law, and wanted to fight on, to the last woman and child if need be. It doesn't seem that many agreed.

She said what is perhaps the most mother-in-law thing ever said by a mother-in-law, as the king took his last look at his lost city -

"You weep like a woman for what you could not defend as a man."

Freder Frederson said...

Lighten up Ann! He is being shamed by being compared to a mom, gender has almost nothing to do with it.

The only problem though, is that older parents often can dance better than their children.

MayBee said...

Andrew Kacisnzky is going through a terrible thing with his baby daughter right now, so I'm surprised this is how he wants to spend his time.

gilbar said...

now let's see Jo Biden dance!
after all, according to our Professor Althouse...
There is absolutely nothing wrong with a man seeming womanly or a woman seeming manly

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a man seeming womanly or a woman seeming manly and an utterly stupid amount of anguish and pain has been caused by people who think there is — including idiots who style themselves as progressive.

Word. Just let people be who they want to be and act how they want to act. But you also can't control how others respond to that. Some people find men acting like [our traditional middle of the bell curve idea of how] women [behave] distasteful, and it is their right to avoid the company of those people, and no one needs to lecture or punish them for their preferences.

My eldest daughter is masculine in some ways - she has traditionally male interests, a deep voice, is mystified by abstraction and feelings, would rather wear jeans and band t-shirts than heels and makeup - and gets really pissed at those who think that because of those things she is somehow less of a female or is an non-out trans. She is female, heterosexual, beautiful, has a very feminine figure, and wants to date, marry and have children someday. But I've told her that while she needs to be herself and God has a husband in mind for her who will love her just the way she is -- she also has to respect that some guys like girls who are more traditionally feminine, and that is their right. And if she wants to broaden her appeal she can perhaps sand off a few of the rougher edges, but that ultimately it has to be her choice.

I do think she will someday be an amazing catch for some fellow engineer - a busty blond with a lovely dimpled smile who would rather talk about airplane engines or polymers than feelings. But most guys are more comfortable around girls who aren't like that.

buwaya said...

Ah, sorry, that was Muhammed XII that was Boabdil, and Aixa was his mother.
That does seem worse, anyway.

Aixa was also a sayyidah, a descendant of the Prophet (PBUH), as I am.

Fernandinande said...

Herger the Joyous:"That is because boy, your words are feeble, and twisted as an old womans!"

And yet, the twisted words of a crazy old woman started that whole story.

Come to think of it, "this is how my mom dances" is able-ist because my mom was mildly crippled and couldn't dance worth a shit.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a man seeming womanly or a woman seeming manly

That sounds like a statement of principle rather than of reality, similar to "all men are created equal" when they're obviously not.

tommyesq said...

Are you not entertained?

boatbuilder said...

Oh fer chrissake. That's how I dance. Its how people who don't dance, dance.

stevew said...

You make the call: who is the better dancer, Trump or Elaine?

What a stupid insult to Trump, moms, and women. With a week or so to go this is a topic they choose to highlight? Pathetic. And don't forget, Joe loves his mess of a son, unconditionally. Sounds kinda womanly to me. In the debate the other night Trump referred to Hunter and his well documented troubles by calling it all "sad". Might just be me but i heard sympathy and empathy in his comment. Too womanly?

Narr said...

So when did Camp expire?

One of the tings I like about Trump is that--and this is so obvious it continues to puzzle me that some intelligent people are 180* off about it--is that he doesn't mind looking silly.

Hidin' Joe Biden is too full of himself and uptight to be so goofy.

Narr
Sorry, to LOOK so goofy

Narr said...

Real men don't dance, got it.

George Washington--reputed the finest dancer in British North America--would like a word.

Narr
Tap dancing is hard work!

Phil 314 said...

“Don’t you love your Mom?”

Yancey Ward said...

It is one of those insults that the Left seems to think works to diminish Trump with his supporters. It does the exact opposite.

Interesting- I clicked the tag for Kaczynski- the second blog post was him threatening to doxx a guy for using the CNN logo on a guy a fake Trump was beating up in a wrestling match.

Yancey Ward said...

A good retort to Kaczynski's tweet would be "But where is the stripper pole?"

n.n said...

Transphobic, clearly.

That said, male and female sex, masculine and feminine gender, equal and complementary in Nature. The social constructs common to all duck societies are designed to normalize a functional juxtaposition of the sexes.

Real men don't dance, got it.

George Washington--reputed the finest dancer


Solo or with the fairer sex? Real men don't kneel, except when proposing marriage to their better half.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

who will do the "end of the rope" dance?

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

I went to an outdoor wedding this summer. This is how old white people of both sexes dance.

Scott Gustafson said...

Trump shuffled his feet at the inaugural balls. Pence actually knows how to dance.

effinayright said...

rcocean said...
"Dancing has always been considered foppish and unmanly. Being a bad dancer is the mark of a real man. You know who really dances well? Gays and Gigolos."
**********

Foppish and unmanly: sure.

Najinsky. Barishnikov, Greg Hines, Cab Calloway, Nureyev, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly

Christopher Walken, for crissake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78joTZaQu9I

Maillard Reactionary said...

By the way, I dance like I have a back brace on. So does my brother. It could be said that we danced like our Mother (RIP) but she had had a spinal fusion, and we have not.

It is best not to continue to attempt to do things that one has no chance of doing well.

However, with enough beer on board, I will do karaoke.

J. Farmer said...

My mother dances much better than that. The biggest challenge is getting out of your head. But clearly Trump is not doing mom dancing. That would involve busting out a running man, a sprinkler, or maybe a cabbage patch. Trump is doing the white man's overbite.

Nothing is more awkward than a politician trying to sound normal. And on the subject of politicians, I loved this tweet from Peter Hitchens earlier today: "Politicians are competent at nothing except ambition and outwitting their rivals, and they are driven largely by vanity. Few know anything, feel curiosity or have any experience of the world."

Narr said...

Napoleon famously quipped that Louise (1776-1810), Queen to milquetoast Friedrich Wilhelm III, was "the only man in Prussia." That's the earliest version of the Thatcher joke that comes readily to mind.

Ancient Gallic warriors were sometimes described as "more than men at the beginning of battle but less than women by its end."

Louise is a very interesting figure, I think, and the Wikipee article is pretty good.

Lately, Prof. M. van Creveld has offered informed comment on sex and gender topics at "As I Please."

Narr
He's a prolific writer of many books (if you like that sort of thing)

Deevs said...

The guy does claim he means no insult in a subsequent tweet as his mother is an angel.

holdfast said...

I think I saw Andrew Kacisnzky’s mom dancing at Scores last year, and she was way more flexible then.

Static Ping said...

Dancing is supposed to be fun. Technically poor but fun dancing beats technically excellent but soulless dancing. That's the point.

Known Unknown said...

"Gays and Gigolos."

Like Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Christopher Walken, and Sam Rockwell?

Sebastian said...

"The age-old shaming of men by likening them to women... and I know the built-in out is that the negativity is only in the reader's mind."

I get that you think it's a shame men try to shame men by likening them to women, but real men don't get shamed that way.

The shame is on the shamer. How dare he insult women that way! It's terrible!

J. Farmer said...

@rcocean:

Dancing has always been considered foppish and unmanly. Being a bad dancer is the mark of a real man. You know who really dances well? Gays and Gigolos.

If by "dancing" you mean "ballet" and by "always" you mean since the second half of the 19th century, then sure. Otherwise, that's a load of bull. From dance halls to sock hops to discotheques to nightclubs, social dancing was not considered "foppish and unmanly." Social dancing is a completely different endeavor than dancing as a performing art.

Marc in Eugene said...

Yesterday in the Times there was an article to the effect that 'on TikTok all the males are gay' or something like that. I didn't read it but there was bound to be dancing involved; was a bit surprised it didn't show up here. Here; no, everyone is gay although it begins with the line, 'straight young men on the app are posting suggestive videos with their buddies'.

doctrev said...

Trump dances like Kaz's mom because that's the kind of dancing Kaz's mom likes. In other words, a man who can dance to a woman's rhythm stands a better chance of boinking her. Now, clearly the President has no interest in Mrs. Kaz, but he knows how to humanize himself with women more than 30 years old. Age-appropriate women, in other words.

By contrast, the notion of Hunter Biden molesting underage girls is such a severe turnoff to such women that they'll be researching QAnon, never mind rejecting Joe Biden!

Professional lady said...

My husband and I took ballroom dancing classes for several years. Lots of fun, good exercise, improved my balance and coordination a lot. That being said, we're still not great dancers (I would say we're not bad). But we are comfortable and not self conscious anymore and have a lot of fun. That's the point. I think women would like it if more men were willing to dance.

Howard said...

Blogger I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Word. Just let people be who they want to be and act how they want to act. But you also can't control how others respond to that.


Exactly what the LGBTQWERTY have been saying like since forever.

The Vault Dweller said...

Society has never been kind to men who appear feminine, nor to women who appear masculine. I doubt it is entirely or even majority an arbitrary social construct. I think couples and by extension families do best when Mom and Dad have somewhat complementary roles. I suspect most women would prefer a traditionally masculine man over a feminine one, and I suspect most men would prefer a traditionally feminine woman over a masculine one. Society is probably overall helping people by guiding them into more masculine or feminine behaviors.

Blair said...

"You have a woman's hands!"

https://youtu.be/_EfW9znJYjw

Earnest Prole said...

I’m supposed to be ashamed by how my mom dances?

readering said...

Means his dad is a great dancer?

Narr said...

IIRC the Father of His Country was so good on the floor that he was much in demand as a partner.

If you were a male member of the elite in any Western country at the time YOU DANCED. It was as much a part of social life as laughing and flirting. I'm less sure about the lower orders but since they were a main source of dance forms and rhythms from before Bach to now it's a fair bet they danced a lot.

Narr
Formless, and only intermittently rhythmic

Iman said...

Democrats dance the Funky Chicken 🐔 (Coming Home... to Roost)

stevew said...

Are you suggesting that Tony (John Travolta) from Saturday Night Fever is gay?

walter said...

gilbar said...now let's see Jo Biden dance!
--
Despacito!

Richard Aubrey said...

buwaya

"once in a while, they can finish in style
which I 'ope it won't happen to me"

"but grass or glacier, cold or hot,
the men went out who would rather not
And fought with the tiger, the pig and the ape
to hammer the world into decent shape"

The Master--Kipling, for the uneducated.

Richard Aubrey said...

buwaya

"once in a while, they can finish in style
which I 'ope it won't happen to me"

"but grass or glacier, cold or hot,
the men went out who would rather not
And fought with the tiger, the pig and the ape
to hammer the world into decent shape"

The Master--Kipling, for the uneducated.

DEEBEE said...

What? Has the unabomber been released?

Anonymous said...

"There is absolutely nothing wrong with a man seeming womanly..."

In a crisis- not enough food, house blew down in a storm, rough crowd trying to do you dirty- if you had to pick a random human to help, it would be a man. A man has the strength, experience, and aggression to make survival more likely in 99% of crises of this type.
Women are essential for making babies. Not what is called for in a crisis.
A man who is/seems womanly is no use in a crisis, and no use making a baby either.
Men should be manly, and women should be womanly.
Manly women and womanly men exist, and should be tolerated, but should not be celebrated.

MacMacConnell said...

Wonder how a Mister Blue Check would get his groove on wearing a bullet proof vest? If Trump was a world renown choreographer the Media would find something to go DARKWINTER about.