By Mona Charen
Tuesday, May 03, 2016
The greatest failures of the past generation concern men,
women, and sex — and there could not be two more awful representatives of what
has gone wrong than Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Hillary Clinton delights in presenting herself as a
feminist icon — but she is weighed down by the weaknesses of feminism and can
boast few of the strengths. The weakness is her itchy trigger finger on
accusations of sexism. She’s playing in the biggest of big leagues yet reaches
for the sexism charge with dull predictability. If you criticize her
cattle-futures deal, the Clinton Foundation, her e-mail server — anything — she
or her minions will protest the double standard. One of her followers, Lena
Dunham, published a list of words that ought to be forbidden when discussing
Mrs. Clinton. They included “shrill,” “inaccessible,” and “difficult.”
Clinton uses feminism the way she has used people, ideas,
and institutions throughout her long career — merely as instruments of her own
advancement. When it’s convenient, she is the feminist role model. When her
husband is being accused (accurately) of sexually harassing a cavalcade of
women, she becomes the Wife Enforcer. The women who accused Bill Clinton were
“trash,” she assured the world. Monica Lewinsky was a “narcissistic loony
tune.”
Among successful women worldwide, Hillary Clinton might
be one of the least self-made. Her own rise was due entirely to her alliance
with her husband. Had there been no “Mrs.” in her title, there would never have
been a “Senator” or “Secretary of State.” If she were capable of embarrassment,
she’d pipe down about the “I am woman! Hear me roar” bit. Her shameless use of
feminism is one of the things that drives people crazy about feminism — the
feeling that too many use it as a cudgel to demand, rather than reject, double
standards.
Donald Trump is a lout — even a chauvinist pig. If ever
there were a fitting object for that nasty piece of feminist agitprop from the
1970s, he is the living embodiment. But it would be a mistake to see him only
as a throwback. In some ways, he is — the focus on women’s looks, for example.
On the other hand, Trump demonstrates none of the virtues the traditional
gentleman demonstrated toward women. There is no trace of respect, no
protectiveness, no chivalry, no honor. He is a post-feminist, emasculated male
searching for masculinity in all the wrong ways — as are his most perfervid
followers.
There are fewer and fewer ways for men in our society to
gain ratification for their masculinity. Football may be the last socially
acceptable expression of manliness. The busy natural energy of boys is labeled
pathological. The role of father and husband is disparaged, while single motherhood
is everywhere praised as noble and heroic. To be a white male is to be scolded
at every turn for your “privilege” — even if you come from a broken home of
high-school dropouts. Colleges presume young men guilty of rape even when both
parties are drunk and irresponsible. Our schools and workplaces continue to
provide material and psychological support to girls and women — even as women
outpace men in education and income growth. The Democrats’ persistent recycling
of the fraudulent “79” cents myth about women’s earnings angers everyone: Those
who are deceived by it and those who know it’s a lie.
Trump brings his own peculiar baggage to this cultural
confusion and appeals to men in the worst ways. He is not manly — he is a
caricature of a manly man. He makes physical threats to protesters at his
rallies — “I wish someone would punch him in the face” — from behind the cordon
of Secret Service officers. He avoided the draft and disparages the heroism of
those who served and suffered. Despite his many wives and concubines, he finds
femininity itself confusing and threatening. He is made uncomfortable by the
idea of menstruation — something most boys get over about the age of 14. He
found Hillary Clinton’s bathroom break during a Democratic debate “disgusting.”
He isn’t able to say accurately what Supreme Court justices do (he thinks they
“sign bills”), but he is ready and eager to pass judgment on the appearance of
women — especially accomplished women such as Carly Fiorina and Heidi Cruz —
who come within his orbit. Like misogynists everywhere, Trump is ready to
defame the women he’s mistreated. Hillary Clinton called Monica Lewinsky a
liar. Trump did the same to Michelle Fields.
Trump is no more a manly man than Clinton is a feminist
model. Both use the gender wars to advance their own bottomless personal vanity
and ambition. Plague. Houses.
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