The former president ... declared, “I am your protector. I want to be your protector. As president, I have to be your protector....”We expect Trump to tell us that he'll magically make all the crime in America disappear if he's elected. That's nothing new. But now he's saying that if he's elected, women will no longer be lonely?
He continued:I will make you safe at the border, on the sidewalks of your now violent cities, in the suburbs where you are under migrant criminal siege, and with our military protecting you from foreign enemies, of which we have many today because of the incompetent leadership that we have. You will no longer be abandoned, lonely, or scared. You will no longer be in danger. You’re not going to be in danger any longer. You will no longer have anxiety from all of the problems our country has today. You will be protected, and I will be your protector. Women will be happy, healthy, confident, and free. You will no longer be thinking about abortion!
Just prior to this, he said:
Sadly, women are poorer than they were four years ago, much poorer; are less healthy than they were four years ago; are less safe on the streets than they were four years ago; are paying much higher prices for groceries and everything else than they were four years ago; are more stressed and depressed and unhappy than they were four years ago; and are less optimistic and confident in the future than they were four years ago. I believe that. I will fix all of that and fast.Again, we expect him to say he'll make inflation and crime go away with a wave of his hand. But he's arguing that he can end female depression. Why is he saying this, while promising to be a "protector"?
Trump's speechwriters appear to be tapping into ideas from the highly patriarchal world of conservative Christianity, as well as ideas common among manosphere misogynists. If you're familiar with the manosphere, you know that incels and right-wing fitness bros believe that feminism is making women miserable by pulling them away from their rightful place as tradwives who marry as virgins and then live under the protection of their men:
It's about choosing the myth of your life/narrative; you've chosen the life of the lonely, depressed, hedonic, and nihilistic single childless lady. I've chosen the path of hard work aiming at making the world around me better, being a protector and provider, husband, and father.
— Shane (@Love_Being_Fit) August 26, 2024
That is a woman's purpose.
— xxNIL8xx (@XNil8xx) April 1, 2023
Because when she's old and alone with no children or grandchildren and no man will give her attention anymore, she inevitably will become very depressed.
Buy lots of cats and wine.
More American women are on meds than ever before in history.
Notice the reference to cats in the second tweet. J.D. Vance's "childless cat ladies" insult comes from the manopshere. The manosphere believes that every woman who delays marriage and childbirth while concentrating on a career ends up a lonely, miserable anti-depressant addict who owns many cats and guzzles wine every night.
The notion that men are meant to be providers and protectors is very popular on the Christian right. When I Googled the phrase "men are protectors," the first hit I got was this -- which is from a Catholic dating site:
... As a man, it is in our nature, and is our duty, to protect. As we prepare ourselves for marriage, it is important that we have learned how to protect ourselves spiritually, and are able to provide security and safety for our future spouse and family.A couple of hits later, there's this, from a minister:
... We live in a world where people have been dragged from their cars and beaten, simply for a bumper sticker. Others have been attacked for wearing a hat. Kids have been victimized by evil or sick classmates. Riots have turned downtowns into apocalyptic movie scenes. I don’t mean to be an alarmist, but we are our own safety measure. Once we realize this, and we take our duty as protectors seriously, it leads us to the conclusion we should be able to stop these events, right?
... Despite the stigma of force, the talk of toxic masculinity, and the push for more “civilized” men, I’ve been hard put to find a woman who doesn’t say she wants to feel protected and safe with their husband. Now, providing not just a feeling of safety, but actually providing it, is something we single men can do both in preparation for marriage, and in our duty as men in the single life.
God’s Word (not me!) says that women are weaker than men, and that men should value them and care for them.Did you read the New York Times story about the surprising uptick in church attendance by Gen Z men? Young men are now more religious than young women, and young guys' view of themselves as stronger and thus more protective is clearly the reason for their increased interest in church attendance -- while misogyny is the reason women are fleeing.
Weaker in what way, you might ask? Are women weaker mentally than men? Certainly not! The valedictorian of the college I serve at is often a woman! Are women weaker spiritually? Definitely not. Are women weaker emotionally Well,...sometimes....maybe alot?....maybe sometimes not at all.
But those areas are not the main thrust of this passage.
Are women weaker physically than men? Absolutely they are. It is God’s design, it is God’s plan, it is God’s template that men are stronger, bigger, faster, and generally taller than women.
And men are to be aware of that fact, and to put a value (honor) on their wives. When something is very valuable, what do you do with it? You protect it!
Men are made to be protectors. It is in our nature. It is in our physical design.
... within Gen Z, almost 40 percent of women now describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated, compared with 34 percent of men, according to a survey last year of more than 5,000 Americans by the Survey Center on American Life at the American Enterprise Institute....Yes, but I'm sure they expect their wives to change all the diapers.
The men and women of Gen Z are also on divergent trajectories in almost every facet of their lives, including education, sexuality and spirituality.
Young women are still spiritual and seeking, according to surveys of religious life. But they came of age as the #MeToo movement opened a national conversation about sexual harassment and gender-based abuse, which inspired widespread exposures of abuse in church settings under the hashtag #ChurchToo. And the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 compelled many of them to begin paying closer attention to reproductive rights.
Young men have different concerns.
... they place a higher value on traditional family life. Childless young men are likelier than childless young women to say they want to become parents someday, by a margin of 12 percentage points, according to a survey last year by Pew.
These guys mythologize themselves:
Kitron Ferrier is a senior at Baylor University in Waco....It's because critiques of masculinity make them feel persecuted:
Following Jesus is difficult, Mr. Ferrier said. “It’s about denying yourself, and denying the lust of the flesh,” he said. He appreciates a church like Hope, where leaders are frank about the intensity of the self-sacrifice he sees as a requirement for the Christian faith.
“Young men are attracted to harder truths,” Mr. Ferrier said.
“Religion is coded right, and coded more traditionalist” for young people, said Derek Rishmawy, who leads a ministry at the University of California, Irvine.The rapist Republican candidate is tapping into all this. We'll see whether Gen X men actually get themselves to the polls as a result.
For some young men he counsels, Christianity is perceived as “one institution that isn’t initially and formally skeptical of them as a class,” especially in the campus setting, Mr. Rishmawy said.
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