Media personality Andrew Tate (R) and his brother Tristan Tate (L) leave the Bucharest Court, Bucharest, Romania. Aug, 2024:(Shutterstock)
Columnist David French knows the Democratic Party has a "man problem" with young males pushing Trump and MAGA over the finish line in the last election. But the party’s $20 million proposal to “study the syntax, language and content that gains attention and virality” in the growing manosphere is a waste, he says, because the roots of the manosphere are about “deep personal need,” not politics.
“You can’t write a history of the manosphere without acknowledging that it was a response to a genuine crisis,” reports French in the New York Times.
Of course men are still unquestionably at the top of the American pyramid, French concedes. American boardrooms are still mostly male, however the “vast majority” of U.S. men are “falling behind women at a startling rate.”
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More girls are enrolled in college than boys, and their G.P.A.s are higher, while more boys are getting suspended. Boys also commit suicide at a much higher rate than girls. A higher percentage of them suffer from mental illness, and they’re roughly twice as likely to be diagnosed with adulthood-derailing A.D.H.D. or autism.
“At the same time, there’s considerable evidence that fatherlessness has a terrible impact on young men. In other words, boys have a desperate need for male role models and mentors,” writes French. “Enter the manosphere.”
They may be seizing power in the White House, but the manosphere’s legion of writers, podcasters and influencers didn’t evolve from a political strategy, French says. They arose in response to a “genuine void in many young men’s hearts.” Andrew Tate, despite facing 21 new charges of rape and human trafficking in the U.K., sells love and affection to his male audience.
“‘I like you,” is the message. ‘I want you to live a good life. Let me show you how.’”
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But the manosphere preaches this while celebrating aggression and defiance as a form of strength and moral courage. They defy the “woke establishment” without realizing anti-left (or anti-feminist) “is not the same thing” as “pro-male.” And they don’t realize misogyny “should be anathema to any truly virtuous definition of masculinity.”
That’s why you have personalities like Kid Rock, Hulk Hogan, Dana White and Trump at the Republican National Convention, celebrating MAGA masculinity, he said.
“But how many fathers want their sons to grow up to be like those men?” French asks. “They’re successful, certainly, but Kid Rock has a sex tape and faced an assault charge for a fight in a Nashville strip club,” while White was caught on camera slapping his wife.
“And Donald Trump is, well, Donald Trump.”
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French admits MAGA excess provides an opportunity, “but it’s an opportunity for civil society far more than it is for a political party.”
“America doesn’t need a left-wing version of Joe Rogan,” French argues. “What it needs is our parents, pastors, teachers and coaches to fill the void in young men’s hearts. Our sons should not have to turn to books or podcasts or social media to hear this simple and powerful message: I like you. I want you to live a good life. Let me show you how.”
Read the full New York Times report here.