How right wing masculinity ruins the lives of everyone
The political extreme right’s fixation on masculinity is driven by fear of losing status rather than economic hardship.
Even if the video from Elvie (embedded below) does not address transgender issues directly, it provides some very useful social and political context for understanding anti-trans activism. I will explain why.
Evie points out that as social, economic, and gender norms shift, some men see changes as humiliation and loss of status, making masculinity a defensive political identity. Online ecosystems reframe feminism, equality, and diversity as threats, turning insecurity and angst into ideology.
The worldview elevates strength, hierarchy, and control. Flexibility is seen a weakness. Masculinity is used as a tool to organize frustration, define enemies, justify authority, and and influence elections. True citizenship is only for those who live up to these ideals. Inclusion is replaced by protection.
I would add that in this context it actually becomes easier to understand right wing anti-trans activism. Since being assigned male should naturally lead to specific privileges, like power and respect, trans women become an existential threat. They neither seek hypermasculinity nor the status of being a “real man”.
From this transphobic point of view trans women become the extreme version of “the feminine man”, the kind of man that gives in to feminism, gender ideology and DEI policies. In other words: a traitor.
This toxic way of thinking is a threat to anyone who do not fit into the ideals of white right wing masculinity, which - of course - represents a majority of the population. It also brutalizes men, effectively ruining any hope they could have for real human growth, true love and safety.
As the brutalization of Russian and American politics has shown, this way of thinking has now become a threat to the whole globe. They have to be stopped.
Jack Molay
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Illustration: Getty
This is the part people miss: it’s not “traditional values,” it’s a status-defense ideology that needs an enemy to stay coherent. Once masculinity becomes a political identity, cruelty gets rebranded as “protection,” and everyone’s life gets smaller under it.