I read LGM when I have time; haven’t been there in a couple of weeks. But here is this. I thank another friend of the blog for the link to this. It’s concise.
Graham Platner, Donald Trump, and Gender
By Cheryl Rofer
Graham Platner, son of wealthy parents, is cosplaying as a salt-of-the earth oyster farmer who sells his product to his mother and is running to become the Democratic candidate for Senate in Maine, against Susan Collins. He was outed as having a Nazi tattoo, which he had tattooed over with a slightly less Nazi tattoo. His earlier writings and activities include slurs against women and wearing a Blackwater hat to own the libs.
He is now running ahead of Governor Janet Mills, who is an older woman but who actually has experience in government, something Platner lacks.
Why is Platner doing so well? We can look to Donald Trump for that.
All of our politics today are gender politics. It’s very difficult to talk about that, because it permeates everything we do, leaving us fish unaware of the water. The response is frequently that no, it’s something else, maybe power. But power is gender infused too. So let’s focus on gender if only for the amusement of seeing something through a new lens.
We have multiple models in our heads of what women and men are. Mute eye candy, intellectual, blue collar are some general descriptors, but more specifically, we associate particular groups of characteristics with particular manifestations of gender. Graham Platner and Donald Trump are avatars of a particular way to be a man. I will enumerate some of them.
Men tell it like it is. This means that they can say things that are associated with this type of masculinity, like referring to women by their genitals and using slurs against other groups that are not able-bodied white men.
Men are muscular and do hard work. This means that blue-collar men are Real Men™.
Men are strong. This is different from being muscular, but the two bleed into each other. A man can take on emotionally difficult tasks and bull his way through.
Men never apologize. From what I have read, Platner has acknowledged the tattoo and his earlier actions but has not apologized. Trump, well.
Men are by nature fit to lead. Platner has no experience in government, as was the case with Trump in 2016. But they were/are questioned very little on this issue.
Men may become violent. Platner was in the military and Blackwater, with a violent tattoo. Trump shouts, rages, and talks about violence all the time.
To my mind, this type of masculinity is disqualifying for elected office. But obviously others disagree.
He’s a plain-talking guy you could have a beer with. Or at least a man could have a beer with. The comfort factor is enormous, and Platner and Trump give people permission to be comfortable in a particular way. Ezra Klein interviewed (gift link) one of conservatism’s intellectuals, Christopher Caldwell. Caldwell writes at the Claremont Review of Books and is one of the New York Times’s resident conservatives.
One of the things he settles on as an aspect of Trumpism is what he calls free speech. He has felt throttled by woke and was delighted to be able to be comfortable in what he says. That banker interviewed by the Financial Times said it out loud: He can say the “r” word and refer to women’s bodies in conversation. It’s what all conservatives mean by “free speech,” sometimes with Nazi phrases or concepts thrown in. When they say “free speech,” they mean whatever speech white men in charge want to use.
Those “free speech” advocates are given permission to speak freely by Platner and Trump.
There are other reasons people vote for men displaying this cluster of traits considered masculine. It’s a comfortable stereotype – much in the media and what people who don’t have close contact with blue-collar men may believe of them.
Even Rahm Emanuel feels he has to put on a muscular performance of eating his salad.
Scottie's Playtime 
Makes me wish that I could move North one state just so I could NOT vote for this charming fella. I wonder how many women will. This ain’t 1950, and women have actually discovered they have brains that don’t involve baking cookies or reading fairy tales to the kids.
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Well, here’s hoping. A lot of his support comes from anti-Schumer people, and I understand that, but votes are supposed to mean something. If he goes to the Senate, that’s six years of him doing, we’d hope, his constituents’s work. But people tend to “latch on” to candidates based on something like age or who endorses them, then we get, well, where we are now. There are 2 sides to stories, but it’s past time to begin believing people who’ve been abused.
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Hi. This is a biased attack on Graham Platner and men in general, and the author did not check their facts. Platner is not cosplaying at oyster farmering, Yes, Graham Platner is an oyster farmer. He took over the Waukeag Neck Oyster Company in 2020 and operates it with his wife.
Then the author said he was outed as having a Nazi tattoo, which he had tattooed over with a slightly less Nazi tattoo. Again that is incorrect. Graham Platner covered his tattoo with a new design featuring a Celtic knot and dogs, which he stated represents who he is now. This change was made after he learned that his original tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol. How is that slightly less Nazi?
About Platner’s comments on women he has repeatedly apologized and explained that he is a far different person today than when he wrote those comments. Platner released a nearly five-minute video to his X page Friday night, addressing the posts that were under a now-defunct Reddit handle and explaining his mindset at the time: “As you’ve probably seen there’s a story that’s broken about comments I made on Reddit in an earlier part of my life. As i read through them, I read things that I absolutely do not agree with, I read through and I see things, words and statements that I abhor. I also see the trajectory of my life.” Platner went on to say that some of the worst comments he made were after he got back from Afghanistan after having spent the bulk of his 20s deployed overseas.
“I still had the crude humor, the dark feelings, the offensive language that really was a hallmark of the infantry,’ he said. “I made comments that I’m not happy about, that i do not agree with and they came from a time and place in my life, but when I read through the comments that were released I can see myself changing, my language gets less crude, my thoughts and feelings get a lot less kind of rough around the edges. I do almost get more disillusioned though and its important to know this was a time in my life where I was struggling deeply.” There is more at the following link where he explains in detail. In conclusion, Platner apologized repeatedly, and asked people to judge him not on his past — but on who he is today. https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/maine-senate-race-graham-platner-apologizes-social-media-comments/3829723/
As for the authors equating tRump’s being rude, crude, and socially unacceptable with masculinity. I don’t find tRump masculine or someone you want to have a beer with. That was more of what was said about George Bush Jr. What the author is talking about is toxic masculinity which is something being pushed by Christian nationalists like Pete Kegseth and sexual abusers like the Tate brothers. Yes tRump talks that way but his is more from him being a moron. It is a stunted view that some young boys had who watched too many Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Rambo type movies. Most boys grow out of the phase of thinking TV wrestling is real fighting done by super tough guys. Most people see how stupid and silly people who act that way are. Most people don’t want to be around them much less have a beer with them. As for the saying words that civilized people reject because of how they make others feel if a person feels the need to be thankful that they can say them with out consquences that says far more about that person than it does about masculinity. Hugs
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